Tim Peterson allows game-winning, two-run homer in eighth, as Mets cough up five-run lead and fall 8-6 to Blue Jays on Tuesday.
Your effort’s wasted, but your trade stock’s up
TORONTO — In the nine years he has played professional baseball, Zack Wheeler has been through pretty much everything. The righthander has been traded, had a taste of success and sat out two years after Tommy John surgery.
He was home recovering when he heard he had been traded, and then he wasn’t. He has watched from afar as his teammates went to the World Series, and this season he has watched as a team talking about a return to the World Series has disintegrated into a mess.
Tuesday night, Wheeler made another quality start for the Mets. His growth as a pitcher showed as he battled through 6.1 innings, held the Blue Jays to just two runs and left with a four-run lead.
And then Wheeler watched another bullpen disaster unfold before his eyes.
Anthony Swarzak gave up three runs, and he put Robert Gsellman in a precarious position in the seventh with two outs, runners on the corners and the tying run at the plate. Yangervis Solarte proceeded to homer off Gsellman. In the eighth, Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. hit the two-run, go-ahead homer off Tim Peterson to complete the comeback.
Despite having put up quality starts in nine of his last 12 starts, Wheeler has not earned a win since April 29.
“He really got off on a really good roll with his first-pitch strikes. His fastball was electric again, he was executing pitches with his offspeed. He did a great job tonight,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. “Obviously, he deserved a better fate than he got.
“He did everything he could to get a win tonight.”
With the 2018 season already sinking into the reality of needing a franchise rebuild, Wheeler did all he could to keep the Mets afloat Tuesday night. And maybe he added a little value to his and the club’s future.
The Mets are looking at the trade deadline at the end of this month with an eye towards selling off their assets and restocking the farm system for a future run at the playoffs.
They have the blue chip of the trade deadline in Jacob deGrom, whom industry sources said would get the Mets at least two major-league ready prospects and two or three additional younger prospects, but they are reluctant to move him at this point. They have more interest in trading Noah Syndergaard, who also would bring back a boatload, according to those sources, but he is on the disabled list and hasn’t pitched since May 25 because of a strained ligament in his right index finger.
So the Mets would be willing to listen to offers on Wheeler and Steven Matz. With Wheeler’s velocity up this season and the results improving as the season wears on, teams are taking notice. “The injury and last season makes you a little nervous,” an AL executive said, “but he’s effective right now. The velocity jump is interesting. You’d like to see it maintained over a season. But as the deadline approaches, teams will be willing to take a chance.”
Wheeler has been the cornerstone of trades before. While he said he would prefer to remain with the Mets, he knows that his name is being mentioned out there.
“You know your name is going to get brought up,” Wheeler said. “You kind of put that in the back seat and keep riding. If it happens, it happens. Obviously I wouldn’t be here, but it’s something you just can’t help out of your control. It’s whatever.”
The Mets traded Carlos Beltran to the Giants to get him. In 2015, Wheeler was all but sent to the Brewers with Wilmer Flores for Carlos Gomez, before the deal fell through.
“Honestly yeah, it does get a little easier,” Wheeler said. “I’ve been through it. Actually been traded, been false traded, so it’s getting a little easier to sort of hear your name in that sort of situation. At the same time, gotta keep your head down and keep going.”