Another day, another horrid game at home against the Washington Nationals, another major injury. Two more players relegated to the disabled list.
It’s New York Mets baseball!
An hour before game time it was announced that Neil Walker would be shelved for “several weeks” with a partially torn hamstring and Matt Harvey would join him for “several weeks” with a stress injury to his right shoulder — scapula bone, to be precise. It felt like just another day at the office.
Robert Gsellman stepped to the mound with two outs and nobody on in the top of the first and Bryce Harper did what Bryce Harper does, roping a shot over the right field wall. Gsellman is fast developing a reputation for getting in and out of jams and he burnished that reputation in the early innings. In the second, after giving up a generously scored leadoff single by Daniel Murphy off Jose Reyes’s glove, Anthony Rendon continued his Mets torture by punching a grounder just out of the reach of a diving Wilmer Flores at third, good for a double, Gsellman coaxed a shallow fly ball and a couple of popups. In the third, with two outs, Harper and Ryan Zimmerman both walked. Murphy hit a grounder up the middle that Juan Lagares charged, and threw an absolute seed to catcher Rene Rivera, nailing Harper at the plate and keeping it 1-0. Gsellman wasn’t so lucky in the fourth, when Matt Wieters doubled with one out and scored on a looping single just in between T.J. Rivera — playing second base in place of Walker — and Lagares by Washington pitcher Gio Gonzalez.
For his part, Gonzalez continued his career-long Citi Field dominance. The Mets could only manage a T.J. Rivera base hit in the second before getting a run back in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Yoenis Cespedes continued his welcome back with a loud double into the left field gap. Jay Bruce followed with a double of his own, roped down the right field line and the Mets trailed 2-1. That’s where the fun stopped.
In the fifth, Brian Goodwin started the Washington offense with double up the left center field alley. Harper lined out, but Zimmerman sent Goodwin to third with a hard base hit to right. Daniel Murphy brought them both home with bullet under the glove of Lucas Duda and down the right field line, where it was cuffed around by Bruce. Murphy ended up at third. Rendon then hit a bloop to center that Lagares dove for. The ball ticked off the end of his glove as Murphy scored, but the real bad news came after the play was over. Manager Terry Collins and trainer Ray Ramirez sauntered out to center, to check on Lagares and discovered that he’d jammed his thumb into the ground on the dive — a similar injury to the one he sustained last year in Miami. He stayed in the game long enough to track a homer by Michael Taylor over the centerfield wall, making the score 7-1 Washington.
Rene Rivera hit a liner into the Washington bullpen to scratch one back, and Curtis Granderson pinch-hit for Lagares in the bottom half. Worst fears were confirmed when word later came down that Lagares had sustained a fracture of the IP joint of his left thumb, so he will join Walker and Harvey as out of action for “several weeks.” Josh Edgin replaced Gsellman and was victimized by Trea Turner’s speed. Turner reached on a bad throw by Flores and scored on another Goodwin double. The Mets finally got to face the famously faltering Washington bullpen in the eighth, but they could only manage a superfluous homer by Flores off the veteran Joe Blanton.
Some actual good news? Rafael Montero relieved Edgin and turned in three solid relief innings, striking out Taylor, Turner and Goodwin along the way. Now, if that were only sustainable…
Max Scherzer vs. Steven Matz tomorrow. It never gets any easier.
The injuries that have happened to this team have become spectacularly unbelievable!
Of the three injuries, only Walker’s has an effect on the day to day happenings of the team. Harvey was ineffective because of his injury and Lagares doesn’t play unless a lefty is on the mound or it’s late in the game. Desmond Jennings is ready to fill his role in Las Vegas. Alderson said before the game that Rosario is not ready and I have already posted my opinion on this.
As for the game, it seems like tonight wasn’t the Mets’ night. Hopefully it wasn’t a self-pity moment because in the injury front, but we also learned that Syndergaard is not even throwing a ball for at least four more weeks. Time to put on your big-boy pants and kick Scherzer’s butt.
The Bergen Record is leaning more for Brandon Nimmo. Yet they show he’s hitting rather poorly just line Jennings. I suppose the latter must be a righty?
Have you noticed the SNY announcers pushing for Rosario by magnifying the infield errors and poor play in general? The announcers are saying it without saying it.
Yes, the announcers, particularly Ron, don’t appear to be thrilled with the infield defense.
While Jennings does bat righty, I would expect Nimmo simply because he’s on the 40-man roster.
Lucas Duda is by far the best defender in the infield.
No swipe at Duda, he’s solid, but the defense makes everything worse. It’s so rare to see a play that makes you think, wow, they turned that into an out. It’s more often the reverse.
Flores, Reyes, Rivera.
My eyes!
The Murphy grounder (hard-hit for sure, but not the “bullet” Charlie describes) which went completely untouched by Duda should have been an inning-ending, rally killing double play. He didn’t even get a glove on it. Would have kept the game at 2-1.
And, I agree, that’s our best infield defender. Which says a lot.
My ideal scenario: Reyes backs up the OF and Rosario gets the call. Then Rivera can play 3b, Flores can play 2b, Rosario to SS. Ceccini backs up 2b and SS.
Rivera at 3B is far from “ideal” as far as I can see. He can’t field.
Rosario at SS is a start. But then 3B and 2B need work.
I’m ready to sign Omar Quintanilla again.
I’d say, while not ideal, TJ is a much better choice than Flores at 3B. Wilmer was extremely shaky once again last night over there.
Always a phone call away, and you know Sandy has that number in his contacts list!
The Mets must take the next two of three in order not to lose ground.
Lagares has been having a good year in his limited role. His defense is still stellar with a 11.4 UZR/150 for the year. His offense is a respectable .725 OPS and in his last 50 at bats he has a .867 OPS. Right now, the 2018 OF is Cespedes-Lagares-Conforto would be a good defensive outfield. Losing Lagares to injury, even in his limited role, makes it more difficult to evaluate the direction the Met outfield could take in the future. (2018)
Three games in a row that the starting pitching has failed. Hopefully Matz and Lugo will continue to add consistency to the rotation.
Mets are stuck paying Lagares $9.5 million next season, so it can be argued that, screw it, might as well stick with him and Nimmo (or whomever) in some kind of CF platoon. Spend the money elsewhere.
But because of a variety of issues — his own failures, injury, and management — he has failed to progress over the past 2-3 years. Like d’Arnaud, this is a player who needs time on the field in order to build something positive.
The other option is the try to land Cain and go with him in CF — make that the big addition — and try to trade Lagares + $6 million for a bag of balls. He’s so wildly overpaid that it’s insane. Actually, I think we just keep him as baseball’s best paid 4th or 5th OF.
$4.5 M in 2017, $6.5 M in 2018 ,$9 M in 2019. The 2019 salary is high but if he were to remain the defensive player he is and continued with his almost average offensive production like his current 91+ OPS then he should easily be a 2.0 WAR player. He was signed to a five year contract in 2015 coming off a 3.7 (2013) and 5.5 (2014) bWAR. He was expected to be their starting center fielder but injuries have side tracked him. This injury once again stymies us from evaluating him once again but when we do get to evaluate him it won’t be based on a $9.5 M annual salary.
Lagares just had me thinking he was worth that salary again the way he’s been hitting.
With Walker and Cabrera both on the DL and Reyes not hitting, and with the super 2 deadline having passed, there’s no logical reason to not bring up Rosario now. I don’t get it.
I’m fine with Flores at second and Rivera at third short term, but Reyes should not be playing every day.
Matt, yes, yes, and yes.
The not every day at a fixed infield position crowd:
Reyes
Flores
TJ
Cecchini
Reynolds
The walking wounded:
Droobs
Walker
Wright (honorable mention)
Im sure glad SA likes the composition of the team, such that Rosario is not a helpful commodity.
If I call for Omar…it wont be Quintanilla…it will be Omar Little (for all you fans of The Wire)!!!!! Now he wont take no shite at SS!!
Ruben Tejada…where are you???????????????????????????
Baltimore.
Listen to players and ex GMs on TV and the radio and they pretty much all say the Mets are out and need desperately to be selling off moveable parts, yet the Met faithful think there is a real fight to be had. I find the separation of these two cohorts fascinating.
If Jay Bruce brings you a 5-15 rank prospect, do you do it? What about Reed? What about Duda?
GMs don’t decide these things; teams, over time, reveal themselves.
The answers become clear.
Mets have 4-5 weeks to show us who they are and where they stand.
For now, play hard, fight like hell, and try to win every game.
The media and the fans are premature. We are still just taking in the information, gathering the data. It’s not decision time yet.
And like I said before, there are no bonus points for being the first one to give up.
The “media” had the Mets as sellers when they had a five-game losing streak in April…
…and since then, the Mets have validated that opinion. But this is players and GMs, not ESPN air heads.
The team hasn’t given up…neither should management—that kind of behavior has very long effects
Give up is a fascinating way of phrasing it. Did the Cubs give up? Did the Astros? Finishing in the middle 10 teams is the absolute worst place to be…completely unmemorable and lousy draft. Weve seen plenty of it. Draft high, and real good things can happen.