Did Monkeys Make Mets Schedule?

So there are five teams here in sunny California, and oddly the Mets will visit each of them in their home parks this season. So the Mets can knock those off in two trips, maybe three tops, right? Nope. The Mets will make four trips to the Golden State over six months, leading to the question in the headline.

The Mets just visited Anaheim, and you’d think they would have played the Dodgers or the Padres on the trip. But no, they were in and out of Southern California. At least it was combined with a trip to Arizona, just an hour flight away.

In June the Mets visit San Francisco. Since they also have to play the A’s, you’d think they would be allowed to just cross the bay into Oakland. Nope.

The Mets open the second half of the season in San Diego. Maybe they play the Dodgers then, just a two-hour bus ride away? Nope. They will head to Seattle afterwards instead, which does make some sense.

In August the Mets finally play two series in a row in California, against the A’s and the Dodgers.

None of these series was even combined with the Mets yearly trip to Denver. No, that trip is sandwiched on a road trip between visits to Philadelphia and Miami.

Monkeys are looking pretty good, aren’t they?

Now, I know it is extremely difficult to make schedules for 30 major league teams. Some pieces just will not fit and a team will be forced to have a couple of strange travel itineraries. But four trips to the Pacific time zone, plus a separate one to Denver, in one season? That is just ridiculous.

UPDATE

I meant to put this in the original post but I forgot. The rest of the NL East teams have similar opponents to the Mets, and they all have better travel schedules to the West coast. The Phillies, Braves and Marlins each make three West coast trips (including Denver) while the Nationals make four.