Forcing Ces to board train too
THE METS are not listening to offers for Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t. Despite GM Sandy Alderson’s recent comments that he is not thinking about a rebuild, a team source confirmed reports that if the season doesn’t turn around, they would listen to trade offers involving their ace pitchers.
“You’d have to at least listen,” the source said, “but nothing is happening now.”
DeGrom has been the only highlight to a miserable Mets season. Pitching to a 1.49 ERA over 12 games this season, he has been the victim of the team’s bullpen and offensive troubles. In 12 games, deGrom is only 4-0 this year.
Syndergaard is expected to come off the disabled list on Sunday from a strained right index finger. He is 4-1 with a 3.06 ERA as he learns to adapt to hitters adjusting to his high-velocity fastball.
With teams like the Yankees contending for playoff spots in need of pitching, either of the Met arms could bring back a big return. The Mets desperately need to add prospects to a farm system that was ranked among the worst in baseball this past offseason. Baseball America ranked the Mets player development program 27th out of 30.
But the team source stressed that the Mets would have to be out of contention to even listen to offers on one of their aces.
Right now, things aren’t looking hopeful.
The Mets sit 7.5 games back in the National League East and in the wild-card race after being swept by the worst team in baseball, the Orioles, earlier this week. They have lost six straight and 11 of their last 13 games, but are hopeful of a turnaround when they get back slugger Yoenis Cespedes off the disabled list.
Any turnaround this season or in future seasons will likely be built around pitching, which
Ehas finally rounded into the expected form. DeGrom is under team control until 2020 and Syndergaard does not become a free agent until 2022. Talks this past offseason between the Mets and deGrom to extend his contract went nowhere.
DELLIN’S TAKE
Dellin Betances grew up with the Subway Series, living in the Lower East Side and going to school in Brooklyn. The 2000 World Series certainly stood out when Betances was 12.
“I remember talking crap to the guys I went to school with, the guys that were Mets fans and obviously me being a Yankee fan,” said Betances, who remembers watching the Fall Classic in his apartment.
Betances says a lot of people he grew up with rooted for the Mets, “but secretly they know I play for verybody wanted to be there. Wednesday morning, long before the gates were opened to the busloads of school kids, Mets manager Mickey Callaway and most of the coaches wandered out on the field to watch. The team’s training and physical therapy staff was out there keeping a close eye on every move. Even the team’s Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon made the trek from his office to the field to see Yoenis Cespedes test his right leg Wednesday morning.
That alone tells you how big a deal it is for the Mets to get their slugger healthy and back in their lineup. GM Sandy Alderson’s comments about being “overly cautious” with injured players last week and Callaway refusing to rule out Cespedes made it clear the Mets desperately would like Cespedes back this weekend when the entire city is focused on the Subway Series at Citi Field.
There is no question the Mets need Cespedes’ right-handed power bat in their the Yankees so they can’t tell me they’re rooting for the Mets, but I know who they are.”
Betances, who didn’t hate the Mets growing up, described the difference between Yankees-Red Sox and Yankees-Mets.
“I feel like in New York it’s one of those things where you get to talk crap to your friends that you go to work with on a daily basis,” Betances said.
“There’s not many Boston fans in New York, so it’s a little different. For me, I see it as an exciting atmosphere. Boston is different. There’s more rivalry involved. But I don’t know if I would say the Mets are our rivals. I think for the fans maybe, but for me as a player I don’t see it that way.”
SEEING A FAMILIAR FACE
Neil Walker, the former Met, will make his return to Citi Field over the weekend. And he’s already been exchanging text messages with ex-teammate deGrom.
“He’s a good buddy of mine,” Walker said. “I’ve been ribbing him a little bit, telling him he’d better bring his A game. But no, I mean it’s going to be a good weekend series.” lineup.
Since he last played on May 13, the Mets have been in freefall, winning just seven of 21 games. They are 7.5 games back in the division and wild-card standings after being swept by the Orioles on Wednesday.
The inter-borough rivalry brings out another level of competitiveness at the highest levels of the organization. They always want to showcase their best against the team that is perceived as the “varsity” in New York, but in this case they are planning to remain cautious. Team sources said Thursday that despite Callaway’s implication, Cespedes is unlikely to return this weekend. One team source said they are targeting his return for Tuesday in Atlanta. It’s the right move. The Mets were scheduled to meet Thursday and make that decision for Cespedes, who has been able to talk his way into the lineup with this manager and in the past. Callaway said Cespedes, who has not spoken to reporters since he went on the DL,
Syndergaard will also start for the Mets, facing Luis Severino in a matchup of flamethrowers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.
“It’ll be a challenge and I know we’re going to have our best out there too, so it’s going to be fun,” Walker said.
Said Walker: “You know they’re going to be a little more exciting than most games. Obviously not a Red Sox-Yankees series but you know the ballpark’s going to be filled. You don’t put any (extra) emphasis, but you do understand that it’s going to be more excitement for you in the ballpark.”
As for facing his former team, Walker said: “It’ll be fun. It’s a place I enjoyed playing. I met a lot of great people and a lot of teammates still there. Nothing really changes except try to beat them after playing with them.”
TANAKA AT THE BAT
Hitting is not Masahiro Tanaka’s forte.
Tanaka, of course, knows this. He has one hit in 22 career at-bats.
So when asked how he’s feeling with his swing, had a say.
“It’s much more complicated than that,” Callaway said of the decision to play Cespedes this weekend. “We have to talk to a lot of people, get a lot of peoples’ opinions, one of which will be Ces’, and then make a good decision that’s gonna be best for him and our team moving forward.”
So the Mets need to ensure they can keep him managing his health going forward and not risk it in the short term.
Alderson rebuilt the Mets medical team this winter in part because of how they handled Cespedes last season, when he missed 81 games. Now, he has played in just 37 of 59 this year. In the second year of his four-year, $110 million deal with the Mets, Alderson now says that Cespedes has a “chronic” issue that he will likely have to play through.
They began making changes to his daily and offseason workouts during last year’s lost season.
“I think that they’ve already done some things in his routines to make sure we can do everything we can from a preventative standpoint,’’ Callaway said. “I don’t think you’re always going to be able to prevent