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Darryl Strawberry planned to take his evangelical ministry — speaking about his life and the ills of drug and alcohol addiction — to Israel in November.
That plan was discarded by the former Mets slugger after the recent outbreak of conflict in the region between Hamas and Israel. Strawberry first visited Israel in 2018 and said he was overwhelmed by the experience.
In a sense he felt at home.
“My wife was shocked that people know me over there,” Strawberry told Post Sports+ this week. “But the majority of my friends that live in New York are Jewish, and I’ve been around with them for a very long time. A lot of people who live in the States go over there [to Israel], too, so I was recognized by a lot of Jewish people when I was over there who knew me from the Yankees side and knew me from the Mets side.”
Strawberry’s last visit to Israel lasted 14 days. It was a spiritual experience, he said, allowing him to absorb Jerusalem while gaining an understanding of the holy city’s place in history and scriptures. Through his faith, Strawberry said, he’s developed a rich appreciation for Israeli people.
“I see what’s happening and I stand strong with Israel because of my understanding of my evangelical history as a Christian and knowing who the people are,” Strawberry said. “Nobody is going to ever take that away from them, who they are, they are God’s chosen people. If you read the Bible, we know that. We support the innocent people on the other side, too, the Palestinians — those that are not in the middle of a conflict. We stand with people that are innocent and shouldn’t have to suffer like they have, each side like they have suffered.”
Away from his ministry — which puts him on the road roughly 300 days a year — Strawberry will be honored (on a date to be determined) next season with the retirement of his No. 18 at Citi Field. Strawberry’s former teammate Dwight Gooden will have his No. 16 retired on a separate date.
Strawberry said he’s received a steady flow of congratulatory messages since the Mets announced in August that his number would be retired.
“It’s such a great honor to say that I played here and did it with a big heart and did it to win,” Strawberry said.
Another Mets slugger, Pete Alonso, will be entering the walk year of his contract.
Strawberry, who departed the Mets through free agency for the Dodgers after the 1990 season, certainly can understand Alonso’s potential predicament.
“I ended up playing out my free-agent year — something I wish I wouldn’t have done,” Strawberry said. “I wish I would have been able to come to some type of terms, but I didn’t and it let me get to the point of free agency. … That’s a big decision the organization is going to have to make.”
Strawberry is the Mets’ all-time leader in homers with 252. It’s a mark that Alonso (192 homers) could challenge as soon as next season.
“It’s about time,” Strawberry said. “Time passes by, it’s a new generation of players and they should be able to break records if they stay long enough and stay healthy and be productive. That’s what baseball is all about. … I want Pete to do well. I want him to be a Met. I want him to break the records.”
Billy Eppler’s experience scouting and signing Japanese players was an asset to the Mets in his role as general manager.
Masahiro Tanaka, Shohei Ohtani and Kodai Senga all are players connected in one form or another to Eppler, who resigned from the Mets last week amid an MLB investigation into improper usage of the injured list.
It leaves the Mets without a key voice headed into a winter that will include Ohtani and likely Yoshinobu Yamamoto as available players.
Ohtani, who signed with the Angels during Eppler’s tenure as the team’s GM, is a free agent. Yamamoto, a right-handed pitcher, is expected to be posted by the Orix Buffaloes and become free to negotiate with MLB teams.
Senga told The Post in August that he believed Eppler’s “amazing” presentation skills and knowledge of Japanese culture would work in the Mets’ favor in trying to sign Yamamoto, a 25-year-old who twice has been named the Pacific League MVP in Japan.
For now, though, the recruiter tag is another that new president of baseball operations David Stearns will have to wear, with perhaps Senga lending an assist.
The Mets haven’t had a Gold Glove winner since Juan Lagares in 2014. A Mets infielder hasn’t been recognized with the award since David Wright won in 2008.
Francisco Lindor has a chance to end both droughts — he was named this week as a NL finalist at shortstop — but he faces tough competition from Dansby Swanson and Ezequiel Tovar.
The metrics point strongly toward Swanson, who led MLB with 20 outs above average this season, according to Statcast. It was actually a drop-off for the Cubs shortstop, who finished last season with 22 outs above average in winning the Gold Glove with the Braves.
Tovar finished this season at 16 outs above average with the Rockies. Lindor, who won two Gold Glove awards with Cleveland, finished at six outs above average.
The Mets’ Gold Glove drought only underscores the lack of emphasis the organization has placed on defense in recent seasons.
This season’s rookie crop was another example. Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio are all question marks within the organization, with defense a significant worry.
Baty and Vientos struggled at third base, and Mauricio — moved from shortstop — wasn’t as quick a study at other positions as organizational officials had hoped. Most notably, the organization seems to have abandoned the idea that Mauricio can play the outfield.
The Mets haven’t exactly served as a springboard for managerial careers.
Last week, we mentioned that Buck Showalter is interested in the Angels’ managerial opening — subsequent reports have indicated he could be a candidate for the job.
There hasn’t been a former Mets manager who resurfaced as a MLB skipper since Bobby Valentine, who departed Queens following the 2002 season.
Art Howe, Willie Randolph, Jerry Manuel, Terry Collins, Mickey Callaway, Carlos Beltran, Luis Rojas and Showalter have been Mets managers since then.
Even Valentine, who had a successful run in Japan that included a championship, waited a decade before returning to a major league dugout. That opportunity came with the Red Sox, who fired him after a disastrous first season in 2012.
Beltran and Rojas are still young enough and well-regarded that other managerial chances could arise for them. It’s still perplexing that Randolph, who took the Mets to the cusp of the World Series in 2006, never got another managerial job.