Long Island Mets fans on team's flurry of moves: 'Better late than never'
Jordan Simpson, who writes songs about the Mets for his Instagram account, said he is excited about the Mets' moves in the past week. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
The Mets have had an action-packed week, which means Jordan Simpson and Greg Princivil have, too.
Simpson and Princivil — better known as “The Jingle Man” in the Mets social media community — are diehard Mets fans who collaborate to create songs using known records, but with their own Mets-related lyrics.
When the Mets landed Bo Bichette last Friday, the duo turned Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” into “Mets Got Bo Bichette.” After the Mets acquired Luis Robert Jr. on Tuesday night, the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes” was featured in “you got to believe in Luis.” And when the Mets traded for Freddy Peralta on Wednesday night, the famous lyrics of “bring me a higher love” in Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love” changed to “bring me a Peralta.”
Their positive energy represents how Mets fans feel: rejuvenated. President of baseball operations David Stearns has turned a questionable offseason into potentially a very good one.
“It’s definitely been busy on the content side of things,” said Simpson, 26, of Wheatley Heights. “But as a fan, it’s definitely exciting because I think the pace of the offseason for a while was very slow, especially considering that you lost Pete [Alonso] and Edwin Diaz early and not much happened really in between that time.”
Princivil, 42, of Middle Island, said: “Well, obviously there was a lull in December. The past few years, December was huge for us with Soto, and there was the re-signing of Pete [last February]. But unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Pete and [Brandon] Nimmo in the earlier months of the offseason.
“But we’re definitely making up for lost time here in January, and it’s better late than never. It’s truly welcome, and we’re addressing a lot of key needs.”
Mets fan Danny Kubryk, 37, is a Syosset native who lives in Los Angeles. He has received a ton of trash talk from his wife and in-laws, big Dodgers fans who he said have been “shoving it in my face,” especially after the Dodgers beat out the Mets for Kyle Tucker last week. He even had to leave the family group chat after constantly receiving memes of Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.
“It’s been tough for me, but I am an extremely optimistic Mets fan,” Kubryk said. “I go, ‘Just wait, just wait, just wait.’ We have the best owner in baseball [Steve Cohen], and this last week, he’s proved that. It’s been a little rough for me, but I don’t look backwards, I look forwards.
“They always like to tout their championships, and I always tell them they’re living in the past. This is our year.”
The Mets’ move for the two-time All-Star Peralta (and righthander Tobias Myers) required trading two of their top five prospects — righthander Brandon Sproat and middle infielder/centerfielder Jett Williams — to Milwaukee.
Eddie Schantz, 37, of Commack was thrilled to see them add a front-line pitcher. However, Schantz was disappointed to see Williams, Sproat and Luisangel Acuna (traded to the White Sox in the Robert deal) depart.
“I was a little surprised to see they gave up the two prospects,” Schantz said. “I think they’re both going to do very well in the future. A little disappointed to see them go, but they’ve built the farm system up very well over the past several years. So that’s part of the game. We have all these tons of prospects and assets. Sometimes you got to part ways with them to make the team better now, and not all prospects pan out.”
Simpson also said Myers, with a career 3.15 ERA in 188 2⁄3 innings, was an “overshadowed” addition.
Schantz and Princivil lauded Bichette’s ability to hit with runners in scoring position; the two-time All-Star had a .381/.427/.626 slash line in those situations with Toronto last season. No one was concerned with Bichette’s move to third base — a position he has not played in MLB or the minors — and Kubryk praised him as someone “who would do anything for the team.”
Simpson had coveted Robert for a long time, and Princivil noted that he is an elite athlete who has the ceiling of a “top-three centerfielder in the game.”
Many Mets fans have moved on from the losses of the franchise cornerstones and are thrilled about their new pieces, which also include Jorge Polanco, Marcus Semien, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams.
For the optimistic bunch, the goal ahead is lofty.
“Obviously, the Dodgers are enemy No. 1,” Schantz said. “They’re signing everyone. But that’s the goal: We got to be able to compete with the Dodgers and win the National League and get back to the World Series.”
Notes & quotes: The Mets announced Thursday they acquired infielder Vidal Brujan from Minnesota for cash considerations. To make room for him on the 40-man roster, they designated lefthander Richard Lovelady for assignment. Brujan, 27, owns a .199/.267/.276 slash line with five homers and 48 RBIs over five MLB seasons (261 games). Last season, he batted .253/.305/.310 in 60 games with the Cubs, Baltimore and Atlanta.
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
