Gil Hodges could not make Jorge Polanco healthy. Davey Johnson could not make Marcus Semien young. Bobby Valentine could not make Mark Vientos athletic.
Carlos Mendoza did not assemble this Mets’ jigsaw puzzle of the mismatched and injury-prone and not-as-good-as-hoped.
This is David Stearns’ use of money, philosophy and, thus, roster building.
But this is the way it generally works in the baseball world when large disappointment follows great expectations. First, coaches are fired, as they were after last season. Then the manager is, as Carlos Mendoza was early Friday morning. Now there is no further buffer between Stearns and two outcomes:
