METS ON ROAD TO NOWHERE
PHOENIX — First things first. The Mets must stop being baseball’s junkyard. Sandy Alderson and the Mets can at least make it look like they have a clue if they stop taking other teams’ aging rejects and putting them on the field.
Mets fans had to endure a spring training and a good chunk of the season watching Adrian Gonzalez have non-competitive at-bats. Now it’s Jose Bautista’s turn to search for baseball’s fountain of youth as he is being given games and at-bats by Alderson & Co. Bautista was 0-for-2 with a walk in the Mets’ 7-3 loss to the Diamondbacks on Friday night at Chase Field, dropping his average to .182 as the Mets lost for the 12th time in 13 games. The Dodgers and Braves both gave up on Gonzalez, 36, but the dumpster-diving Mets had to give him his shot. It’s not only Mets players who pull hamstrings. Decision makers find a way to hamstring the organization by taking at-bats and giving them to players who are well past their prime and already have been tossed aside by other teams. After all those years with the Blue Jays, the Braves gave Bautista, 37, a shot and soon cut ties with him. Gonzalez had no bat speed, might have been the slowest runner in baseball. So even if he managed to get on base, he clogged up the base paths but the Mets gave away 169 at-bats to AGone plus wasted valuable time in spring training trying to resurrect a career that was as dead as Jacob Marley. Here was Gonzalez’s final slash line: .237/.299/ .373. Dominic Smith is finally here and he homered and doubled Friday night on his 23rd birthday. Gonzalez has had fine career, but the Mets were finally right to let him go. They have to stop thinking that signing washed up veterans is the way to set the tone for a franchise. But instead, it’s out with one, in with another. Now the Mets are following up that mistake with another mistake. That’s what they do best and as a result we have Bautista getting valuable at-bats like in the 6-3 loss to the Diamondbacks on Thursday with the game still close. Bautista was ahead in the count 3-0, but he wound up striking out.
Bautista, like Gonzalez, was once a major league force. Those days are long gone. The Mets are allowing him to hang on even though the Blue Jays and the Braves gave up on him.
Let it go, Mets. Let veterans well past their prime go.
This is a terrible indictment on the Mets organization that they have no outfielders they can pull up from the minors. Give the atbats to Tim Tebow just to satisfy Tebow Mania or make a deal for an outfielder.
Bautista is trying to cover for missing left fielder Yoenis Cespedes, who may never stay healthy again and still is not doing baseball activities in Port St. Lucie. What a mess.
The Mets’ greatest strength is now their greatest weakness.
Perhaps players such as Gonzalez and Bautista could work as pinch-hitters because of their experience, but that is all. Another struggling veteran is Jose Reyes who happens to be hitting .091 at Citi Field. Reyes is buried on Mickey Callaway’s bench, but did pinch-hit Friday night. He doubled in the ninth and scored.
Get a read on the young players in your organization. Scout your team first, that is what the Yankees do so well.
Giving players well past their prime valuable at-bats sucks the life out of a ballclub.
The Yankees keep developing young stars. The Mets keep signing washed up players who were once stars. It’s a terrible cycle. And you wonder why the Mets are 11-29 since May 1. During that time the Mets have scored all of 15 runs in their last 104 innings.
But that is not the worst part. Here is the worst part.
With the loss, making the Mets 0-4 on this trip, they have only one more win than the Marlins this year. Derek Jeter’s team is not even trying to win and sold off nearly all its players.
The truly bargain-basement Mets have gotten here by continuing to recycle players who have nothing left.