The Mets dump the youth movement
A few weeks ago, the fans were clamoring for Juan Lagares and Wilmer Flores to get regular playing time and for the Mets to call up some of their top pitching prospects. Sure enough, Lagares and Flores got into more games and Rafael Montero and Jacob deGrom made back-to-back debut starts against the Yankees. A month later, Lagares is on the DL, Ruben Tejada has seen a resurgence, Montero was sent down to AAA where he hit the DL, and deGrom is still chasing his first big league win despite some outstanding starts. On top of that, a slumping Travis d’Arnaud was sent to AAA, where he is actually doing quite well. So much for the youth movement… While the kids are away, Bobby Abreu has been seeing regular playing time, Daisuke Martsuzaka is back in the starting rotation, journeymen relievers Buddy Carlyle and Dana Eveland were called up from Las Vegas to aid an exhausted bullpen, and Taylor Teagarden took over for d’Arnaud and started his Mets career off with a grand slam, the kiss of death for Mets newcomers. Through all of this, the team, well, has not been good. With no impact prospects looming on the horizon and no money available to bolster the Mets’ meager payroll, there’s not much to be optimistic about. How about them Cyclones?
 |
 |
 |
|
| Curtis Granderson | Jose Valverde | John Lannan | Bartolo Colon |
| 31 March 2014 | 31 March 2014 | 31 March 2014 | 2 April 2014 |
 |
 |
||
| Chris B. Young | Kyle Farnsworth | Bobby Abreu | Eric Campbell* |
| 2 April 2014 | 2 April 2014 | 22 April 2014 | 10 May 2014 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Rafael Montero* | Jacob deGrom* | Buddy Carlyle | Dana Eveland |
| 14 May 2014 | 15 May 2014 | 31 May 2014 | 2 June 2014 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Taylor Teagarden | Dilson Herrera* | Erik Goeddel* | Dario Alvarez* |
| 10 June 2014 | 29 August 2014 | 1 September 2014 | 3 September 2014 |
*MLB Debut
Previous Editions
Age before prospects
The Mets spent freely (relatively speaking) in the offseason and it looked like it paid off with 15 wins in April. Despite Curtis Granderson not hitting, Bartolo Colon occasionally getting shelled, and Chris Young missing more than half of the month due to injury. A week into May, the Mets were 16-17 coming off being swept by the Marlins, so maybe things weren’t working out quite so well after all. Cast-off veterans Jose Valverde, John Lannan, and Kyle Farnsworth were called on to shore up a bullpen left in shambles when Bobby Parnell joined the TJ club, but Lannan has already been sent away and Valverde and Farnsworth won’t be far behind. This team needs some fresh faces, so of course they called up Bobby Abreu, shown here when his face was fresh in 1997. That makes two of this year’s new additions with autograph cards from 1997. Time to give some of the kids in Vegas a shot at the big leagues.
Comments are closed.