2018 Offseason: Who’s Done Better, Mets vs Yankees

Normally when the Major League Baseball schedule drops for the new season, one of the first games that fans look to find is the rivalry games, and one of the top rivalry games every year is the New York Mets vs New York Yankees, better known as the Subway Series.

Over the years, the Subway Series has either been really good or very one sided, never really in between. However, the focus for the rivalry is always on the regular season and never on who won the off-season, more often then not it is because a lot of fans aren’t really thinking about the rivalry for two reasons. First of all, the Mets and Yankees rivalry isn’t really the biggest one anymore (Red Sox anyone) and the other reason is that it’s the off-season and most aren’t really thinking about how their team compares to a team in the other league.

The off-season is more often focused on divisional comparisons rather than league wide comparisons and though this might be a surprise, I have an opinion that might shock people.

For me, looking at the off-season so far I think it’s been pretty equal as both the Mets and Yankees have addressed a variety of needs they had after the season ended. As it stands right now, both teams are better now then they were last year.

However, if I had to give the edge to one team it would be the Yankees. This is not to say the Mets haven’t had a fantastic off-season, it’s just that with the Yankees acquiring both Troy Tulowitski and James Paxton it would be hard to say they haven’t had a better off-season then the Mets.

Though some critics might want to point out that Tulo has had problems staying healthy recently and Paxton is only helpful if he can adapt to his new ballpark, I think both these moves are very underrated. In my opinion, if Tulo can stay healthy and Paxton can adapt to his new home like JA Happ did, then they will be looked at as two of the best moves the team has made in the last few years.

Now, I don’t mean to discount the steps forward the Mets have taken with the acquisitions of Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, and Wilson Ramos as they were among the best moves the teams could’ve possibly made this off-season. However, the difference for me is when the Yankees look on the scrap heap they find a diamond in the rough and when the Mets look on the discount rake they find people who belong on the discount rake.

I don’t think either New York team needs Manny Machado, and even though I would love for the Mets to find a way to bring in Bryce Harper, I know that won’t happen. Either way, though, for me both New York teams have had very successful off-seasons this year and will be setting themselves up for very interesting 2019 seasons when the time comes around.