That was the week that was. It stunk. The Mets headed into Memorial Day weekend feeling pretty good about themselves. They had just taken two-of-three from Washington, climbing back to within a half-game of the division leaders. They knew they’d face a daunting task over the weekend, welcoming the Dodgers to Citi Field and knowing they’d get the all-conquering Clayton Kershaw in the final game. An added bonus was that each game of the series was being carried on national television on three different networks. That usually doesn’t happen for the Mets unless the Yankees are involved. So it was a big weekend. Then the stumbling Chicago White Sox were coming to town, so it looked like the Mets could make some hay at home. It really would have been nice if the offense had shown up after Friday.
That night, the Mets put up a five-spot against the Dodgers, starting their latest wunderkind, Julio Urias. You could get it: the kid is 19 years old, making his MLB debut before a roaring mob in New York. That he was able to slog through two and two-thirds innings giving up only three of those tallies was kind of impressive on it’s own, but you could tell he was out of his element. There was a bullpen mini-implosion and the Dodgers tied the game at five-all in the ninth, before Curtis Granderson hit a tracer in the bottom of the ninth to win it. The next night, all “regular” baseball was obscured by the Noah Syndergaard–Chase Utley circus. When Syndergaard finally tried to exact revenge for Utley’s shenanigans in last year’s playoffs by throwing a pitch behind him in the third inning, he was tossed from the game by a yarn-headed rookie ump, accompanied by snarling in the stadium and bleating on social media. Yes, the dopey kid ump had a hair-trigger and yes, without Syndergaard on the mound any more, Utley had one of his biggest games ever against the Mets – or is that redundant? – but the Mets’ offense was totally shut down by Kenta Maeda. Perhaps the sobering news that David Wright had a herniated disk in his neck brought down their spirits. It definitely hamstrung their production. With Lucas Duda and Travis d’Arnaud already shelved, they now had to depend on guys like Eric Campbell, a struggling Wilmer Flores and unknown Ty Kelly to man the corners and limp-batted tandem of Kevin Plawecki and Rene Rivera to handle the catching. They were able to bring in veteran James Loney to take over first, allowing them to ship Campbell back to Las Vegas, but there’s still a lot of trust placed in sub-par talent. To their credit, they showed a lot of grit against Kershaw the next night, battling back from a two-run deficit to tie it up in the eighth, only to have Jeurys Familia surrender two in the top of the ninth for the loss. Well, OK, you can live with losing two to the Dodgers, no shame in being shut down by Kershaw, certainly.
When the White Sox came to town, however…
Matt Harvey looked like his old self in the opener and the Mets rode a Neil Walker home run to a 1-0 victory. Terry Collins did Harvey no favors, though, putting Kelly, Flores and forgotten man Alejandro De Aza into the starting lineup. That trio went two-for-eight. On Tuesday night, they Mets roared out to a 4-0 lead and had many opportunities to tack on runs, but just couldn’t do it. Another bullpen collapse, which featured a home run by the odious Tyler Saladino resulted in a 6-4 loss. Loney, Flores and Plawecki? One-for-eleven. On getaway day, the Mets’ feeble offense was the recipient of a tidal wave of lead-off walks, but they could only cash one of them in. Jacob deGrom was masterful, taking that 1-0 lead into the seventh before surrendering a solo homer to Todd Frazier, now leading the Majors in round-trippers. It became a ridiculous game of attrition, then, dragging into the thirteenth with neither club able to do anything. In that thirteenth, Matt Albers — a relief pitcher who hadn’t swung a bat in anger since 2009 — led off with a double into the gap after the Mets’ broadcasters were opining that he wouldn’t even swing the bat on a 1-2 pitch. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly. That was enough for the Sox. Loney, Kelly and Rivera went three-for-fifteen.
When you combine the fact that you now have four guaranteed outs in your lineup with the fact that two of your biggest hitters – Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes – are slumping simultaneously, these are the results you can expect. Someone on Twitter asked what GM Sandy Alderson would do to fix this. The answer is, probably nothing. They’ll blame all the injuries and pray for speedy recoveries and slump-busting. There isn’t much else they can do. But to your intrepid columnist, these 2016 Mets are starting to take on a 2001 or 2007 kind of vibe.
If that’s how it pans out, then that really stinks.
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Given the time of the year, I honestly think the team has to gut through this, carried by the starting pitching.
Ty Kelly is worse than Eric Campbell.
Mets began the season counting heavily on Wilmer Flores, making him the centerpiece to the bench. Terry needs to play him now, regularly, and the team needs to find out — as decisively as possible — if this guy has any use. Ty Kelly should never have gotten that start yesterday, unless if hamstring is still tender and he possibly needed the rest (which is entirely possible).
TC also needs to rest Cabrera. He’s not young. TC has a tendency to run these guys into the ground; he only reacts after they are obviously exhausted — Cespedes had to finally ask for a day off — instead of using rest to keep players fresh and productive.
Sandy put together a bad bench.
I want to comment on Walker, but will do that separately.
Here and there, I see people talk about moving Walker to 1B or 3B in order to bring up Herrera.
Pushing aside for a moment the merits of bringing up Dilson (who has not been as good as Cecchini in 2016), I want to focus on Mr. Walker.
He is a veteran, and a free agent after this season. He doesn’t want to change positions. This is a huge moment in his career, in his life, and he wants to play second base. That’s how the world generally works. It’s hard to take one for the team when you are a one-year rental. I think if the Mets really wanted him to move, the key would be to offer him an extension.
In addition, I’ve never believed he’d be willing to bounce around. I do suspect that, under the right circumstances, he’d make one move for the rest of the season. That is, nope on two weeks at 3B. If DW is still in the picture, Walker is not going to take his job. At least, that’s my take on it. No one knows how long DW will be out, though my guess is . . . a long time.
I just don’t see moving Walker as a possible solution. Not unless the Mets show him the money, and I’m not advocating for that.
This scenario — entirely predictable, easily foreseen — shows exactly why Murphy was so valuable to the Mets. His positional flexibility (which, come to think about, they used to talk about not so long ago). Cabrera can play 3B, etc.
The Mets need another player in that infield. It could even be a SS. I don’t blame Walker for any of this.
Thank God this team spent $5.7 on De Aza.
During the off-season, some of us kept calling for the clear need to add a RH bat on the bench. Somebody who could play the infield corners and, in a pinch, the outfield corners. The two names that came up most frequently were Steve Pearce and Ryan Raburn.
Raburn signed a one-year deal for $1.5 with the Rockies. He’s hitting .276/.356/.526. He has recent experience in LF, RF, 1B, and 2B. Last played 3B in 2011.
Pearce signed a one-year deal for $4.75 with Tampa Bay. He’s hitting .298/.389/.532. He’s recently played 3B, 2B, 1B, RF, and LF.
Both of those guys are veterans with playoff experience.
I generally don’t like told-you-so’s, but a RH answer for the corners of the field was a clear need left unfilled, unless you count Wilmer Flores, who is also the backup SS and 2B. Young, unproven, with a huge role. And even so, Curtis is not young and has a decided weakness against LHP. The team manager is unwilling to allow Conforto to work through any struggle against LHP. Wasn’t it obvious they needed a RH guy who could play a corner outfield position? I thought so then, I think so now.
Oh well.
I think you are just about spot on Jimmy WRT Walker. And moving him off 2B isn’t smart. The team overstuffed on so-so middle IF and has ignored the corners despite the obvious matter, esp DWright. I though Freese would have been an excellent pick up, and as everyone here knows, I believe it was a mistake not to deal for Frazier.
Freese, yes.
I don’t think Frazier was a realistic option, considering David’s status that he has rightfully earned with the team. In fairness to David, I think the club needed to see how this would play out; they couldn’t make a huge trade for the third baseman in waiting. Where would he play?
BTW, Frazier strikes me as exactly the kind of player you’ve been railing against. Hitting around .215 with HR power.
Hi Jimmy, you have raised some good questions. I thought both walker and Cabrera would be more gap hitters, and I favored both, not that I dislike Walkers HR totals. So I though there would be more balance there, and the truth is walker is on track for the most HR in his career, but a shocking number of Ks. He’s now swinging for the fences (and a huge contract). His doubles rate has collapsed. My question is he really a middle of the order bat? I liked Grandy leading off with a >35% OBP, but now we are getting the Ks of a power hitter, HRs like a power guy but he’s no longer on base nor providing doubles. So I envisioned Duda, Ces, Conforto, and a bit of DWright as the power with Grandy, Cabrera, and Walker to be more like the “Murph” guys on the squad. TdA is a mystery and our other catching options are what they are. Our bench being led by Flores is not getting it done.
So my main reason for wanting Frasier was he would be a righty power guy we need at 3B to replace DW, who clearly is done. I love the guy as much as any fan. I had the wild great fortune to meet him, shake his hand and get an autograph right after he signed his contract extension in the Nashville winter meetings. I believe he will get #5 retired without going to the hall, and I hope he represents this team for the next 30 years. But he’s done at 3B. This was evident last year once we had the stenosis diagnosis. Add shoulder issues leading to the unsustainable throwing problems and the only folks that couldn’t see DWright wasn’t going to man 3B was Alderson. He’s the past at 3B, much like Chipper and Zimmerman before him; there is no shame. When the Reds had a fire sale, he was easy pickings. Over the winter I thought DW would make a great platoon with Duda, getting leftys, selected rightys, and PH ABs given his condition. At the black jack table we gambled and flew right past 21 with his health.
I also would like to add it is so sad the teams pitchers unable to move a guy over…of course we couldn’t drive him in anyway, but nevertheless. The skills are so poor, and wildly bad relative to pitchers we see daily, that one questions why they ever do it at all other than because they should.
Didn’t Davey Johnson have his pitchers practice bunting all the time? I think it was before batting practice on the road…
I think you’re overreacting just a bit. Plawecki needs to return to LV once d’Arnaud returns. I think once Loney settles in he’ll be fine. My biggest concern with the offense is 3B. If David can’t go they have to find a replacement sooner or later. They can certainly try Wilmer short term but I just don’t think he has developed like they thought he would. Funny though how this season is looking like last year in some ways. Let’s hope Sandy can make the kind of moves like he did last year to bolster the squad.
What do you think of either Escobar or Aaron Hill at 3B?
After games on June 1, 2015: 29-23
After games on June 1, 2016: 29-23
So yeah, it does look a lot like last year!
Walker: I believe playing 3b might actually demonstrate value for him. …and I don’t believe in extending Him….he will get a QO
Two issues with that:
1) It’s just my feeling, but I don’t see why Walker would want to do that. He’s a lifetime 2B, that’s where he’s comfortable. He’s not auditioning for utility guy. He is probably not relaxed at 3B and it’s reasonable to think that it could take a toll on his offense.
2) Is it really clear that bringing up Herrera, and his .320 Vegas OBP, would quickly translate into an immediate shot in the arm? In two brief call-ups, he’s basically been a failure. Yes, there’s reason to hope that maybe he’ll be ready by next season. That’s a huge decision ahead. I wish Herrera was showing us more down in AAA. Cecchini has been better, arguably (at least the OBP is around .370, and the BA is better, too, and probably the glove). I’m still hopeful about Dilson, but I don’t think he gives the Mets enough short-term to justify moving Walker. If Wright is out for three months, then it’s a different conversation.