Collect the Mets

Hope for Fall Springs Eternal

As the Mets’ roller coaster season entered the final stretch, there was a glimmer of hope mixed in with the most brutal of losses. Once rosters expanded, the Mets got a surge of reinforcements from the Injured List. Brandon Nimmo finally made it back after missing most of the season with a neck injury and Robinson Cano was back way sooner than expected. On top of that, some guy named Jed Lowrie finally showed up and made his Mets debut. Sam Haggerty, acquired in the Kevin Plawecki trade, was the lone prospect September call-up. It would be all hands on deck for one final push for the second wild card spot. Well, except for Yoenis Cespedes, who has been forgotten since he stepped in a hole earlier in the year. Chances are slim, but it’s looking like this one will go down to the wire.

Pete Alonso*	Robinson Cano	Wilson Ramos	Keon Broxton
28 March 2019	28 March 2019	28 March 2019	28 March 2019
Edwin Diaz	J.D. Davis	Justin Wilson	Luis Avilan
28 March 2019	30 March 2019	30 March 2019	31 March 2019
Ryan O’Rourke	Adeiny Hechavarria	Wilmer Font	Rajai Davis
1 May 2019	4 May 2019	8 May 2019	22 May 2019
Aaron Altherr	Hector Santiago	Brooks Pounders	Stephen Nogosek*
24 May 2019	24 May 2019	16 June 2019	19 June 2019
Walker Lockett	Chris Mazza*	Marcus Stroman	Donnie Hart
29 June 2019	29 June 2019	3 August 2019	4 August 2019
Joe Panik	Brad Brach	Sam Haggerty*	Jed Lowrie
9 August 2019	11 August 2019	4 September 2019	7 September 2019

*MLB Debut

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Starting off on a different foot

Things have certainly changed for the Mets in 2019. Joining the trend of bucking the trend of manipulating service time by way of a gigantic loophole in the CBA, the Mets, under new general management, put Pete Alonso in the Opening Day lineup instead of a holding pattern in Syracuse. Headline acquisitions Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz were front and center in the 2-0 Jacob deGrom win, with Cano driving in both runs and making a key defensive play to keep the Nationals off the board while Diaz closed out the game. It’s a promising start after a tense offseason, but we’re just 1/162 of the way through the season.

Scrapheap Challenge

By the end of May, the Mets sat in third place with an unremarkable record and a sweep by the Marlins fresh in their memory. That should have meant that their season was over, but the Nationals bullpen and a favorable schedule managed to keep them hovering around .500. With the usual flurry of injuries, no depth in the minors, and no motivation to acquire players for a winning team, we’re back to the familiar old scrapheap to fill out the roster. Adeiny Hechavarria was called up to be the backup shortstop, temporarily resulting in the demotion of Dominic Smith, who has done well in a backup role this year and was sorely missed on the bench. Wilmer Font took over for the injured Jason Vargas because, um, he’s cheap and easy to discard? Also cheap and easy to discard (or at least demote) was Rajai Davis, who homered in his first plate appearance as a Met and was DFA’d by the end of the week. Aaron Altherr? I hardly know ‘er. Seriously, who is he and why was he on this team for a week? Hector Santiago sat around for a few days before finally getting into a game and sat around a bit more before being cut loose. At least they’re not rushing Anthony Kay? We’ll see how long that one holds…

Look away…

The first rule of the Mets in June is you don’t talk about the Mets in June. Or fight club. Or the Mets fight club in June. Four more arms, a whole lot of losses, and plenty of bad press. Is it the All-Star break yet?

Deal or No Deal

A funny thing happened after the All-Star break – the Mets started winning. Left for dead at the end of June, the resurgent Mets beat up on bad teams the way a good team should. Meanwhile, word on the street was that Noah Syndergaard would almost certainly be traded while Zack Wheeler and Edwin Diaz were being aggressively shopped. Taken together, the rumors made it sound like the Mets were ready to deal anyone they could in exchange for prospects and lesser starting pitchers. What was the plan supposed to be?

In the end, they dealt two pitching prospects (including Kay) for Marcus Stroman and shipped Jason Vargas to the Phillies for a non-prospect who knows Jeff Wilpon’s son, checking off the “upgrade Jason Vargas” box leftover from the offseason. As for the problems that have emerged since then… They picked up Donnie Hart, Brad Brach, and Joe Panik after the deadline. As usual, when presented with a chance to make a serious run, ownership did the bare minimum to be able to claim that they were doing something, counting on luck and chance to get them into the playoffs. The way the Nationals and Phillies have been playing, that might just be enough.
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