It’s getting late early
Three quarters of the way through the abbreviated season, the Mets’ pitching situation has gone about as well as you would expect. Injuries and ineffectiveness chipped away at the makeshift rotation, which saw Steven Matz and David Peterson demoted to the bullpen and Seth “Absoluetly Not a Starter” Lugo and Robert Gsellman promoted. Lugo quickly cemented his role as the #2 starter while Gsellman was just #2 until injuries took him down as well. As for Marcus Stroman, his return never materialized and he opted out for the season. Anyone with a pulse and a 40-man spot is getting a shot at the rotation now, including new arrival Ariel Jurado, with less than stellar results. At least Jacob deGrom started getting run support?
Despite everything that went wrong (by chance or design), the Mets still found themselves within reach of a playoff spot. 8 spots for 15 teams will do that… So it was anyone’s guess what they would do at the trade deadline. Buy for a big run? Sell and regroup for next year? Stand pat and let the chips fall where they may? They did none of these things and dealt prospect Kevin Smith (who would have his first Mets autographs released less than a month later) and three PTBNLs for reliever Miguel Castro, catcher Robinson Chirinos, and old friend Todd Frazier, aka literally the least you could do without doing nothing. Predictably, their record was 21-24 at the 3/4 mark, 2 games (and 3 teams) back in the playoff race. It’s not over, but they’re going to need to do something soon if they plan on playing past September, whatever that ends up looking like.
*MLB Debut
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