Great job, kid, now get back to the minors
PHILADELPHIA – The harsh realities of a restricted 25-man roster sent the Mets’ best call-up back to the minor leagues on Wednesday afternoon.
Right-handed reliever Drew Gagnon was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse prior to the game against the Phillies on Wednesday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. In a corresponding move, the team called up Jacob Rhame for a fresh arm in a taxed bullpen.
Gagnon got the call on Monday and traveled from Syracuse to Philadelphia in hopes of anchoring the backend of the Mets’ shaky pen.
In his first big-league outing of the season, Gagnon entered in the first inning of the Mets’ 14-3 blowout loss to the Phillies on Tuesday night after starter Steven Matz had been torched for eight runs without recording an out.
He pitched 5.1 innings and struck out five, giving up five earned runs on seven hits with a walk. But more importantly, he finally did what the seventh man in a bullpen should do: be a long man and eat up innings.
“That’s the job,” Gagnon said. “Come in, be a long guy. I knew that was my role coming up. You have to be ready from the get-go. You don’t know what could happen. Everyone’s had outings like (Matz) before. And if anyone’s saying otherwise, they’re lying.”
As solid as Gagnon was, he was spent. The 28-year-old hurled 97 pitches on Tuesday, after throwing 87 just four days prior for the Syracuse Mets. If the Mets ran into another extra-inning marathon on Wednesday, Gagnon’s arm would be unavailable. Thus, he was expendable.
In the span of just 17 games, the Mets have blown through backup arms on their 40-man roster. Tim Peterson was included on the
Opening Day squad, but after issuing five walks and two earned runs over just 1.1 innings to the Nationals, he was traded in for Corey Oswalt.
Oswalt made just one poor appearance (five earned runs, six hits, one home run, four walks, 3.2 innings) against the Braves before he was optioned back to Syracuse in exchange for Paul Sewald.
Sewald, so far, has been able to hold his own – including two scoreless innings on two hits with a walk against the Phillies on Tuesday.
“We had to option Drew. Which is a tough call,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “He did a great job last night. He probably saved us for the next week, but we just had to.”
The Mets have just four healthy arms remaining on their 40-man roster that the team has not yet called up, including Daniel Zamora, Tyler Bashlor, Chris Flexen and Eric Hanhold.
TENSE TIMES
Brandon Nimmo exited Tuesday night’s game in the first inning with a stiff neck and was left out of the lineup Wednesday. It remains a possibility for Nimmo to be plugged back in the lineup against the Cardinals in St. Louis on Friday.
The team is not overly concerned about their starting center fielder, who had just begun to crawl out of his early-season slump.
BACK TO PORT ST. LUCIE
The Mets have been hushhush regarding concrete updates on their oft-forgotten third baseman Jed Lowrie, but on Wednesday morning they provided some encouraging news.
Lowrie, recovering from a sprained left knee capsule sustained in the first week of spring training, left for Port St. Lucie on Wednesday to begin taking live batting practice at the Mets’ minor-league facility.