Injuries to Mets’ leaders weigh heavily
ON a night like this, on which Zack Wheeler followed Jacob deGrom’s predictably dominant eight innings against Atlanta by extending his own shutout innings streak to 17 by blanking the Braves through seven, you could almost see through the madness of the Mets tripling down for 2019.
Could almost understand why Todd Frazier not only would endorse the hy-rda-headed management’s decision to go forth with the foundation of starting pitching that, alas, has betrayed the organization the past two seasons and but talk as if the mirror, and not the Mets’ 45-63 record, was cracked.
“I think the decision to go forward with our starters is the right one. I’m excited about it,” Frazier told The Post before the Mets’ 3-0 victory Saturday at Citi Field. “DeGrom and [Noah] Syndergaard are No. 1s for 90-percent of teams. [Steven] Matz is a 2, Wheeler is a dominant 2. “I know people can be skeptical, but if we’re healthy, with that pitching, we’ve got a good team. The veterans here, we’ve all been on losing teams. There have been times in the past when I couldn’t wait for football season, but that’s not the way it is here. “We look around in [the clubhouse] and know we have a good team here. We put in the work. We do our homework. Just like in school, but we can’t pass the test. Except it’s not multiplechoice. It’s a lot harder. But that’s no excuse for failing. “Even now, everyone has the responsibility to perform,” Frazier said. “There’s always something to play for, whether it’s for your teammates, your family, your city. It’s our job.”
There is no ambiguity to the 45-63 record that follows last year’s 70-92 pratfall. Good teams don’t go 40 games under .500 over a span of 10 baseball months. But Frazier and manager Mickey Callaway believe a run of injuries to presumptive veteran leaders have been a significant mitigating factor.
“Not only me, but if we’d all been healthy, I believe it would have been different,” said Frazier, who went 1-for-3 and scored two runs in his third game back from his second lengthy stay on the disabled list. “I’m not sure exactly at what point things went off the rails, but it’s been crazy with this run of fluky injuries, one after the other.”
The Mets not only lost Frazier’s bat and glove through his combined 43game absence to hamstring and hip issues, but lost the veteran third baseman’s voice, as well. That might have been the most noteworthy missing ingredient, which is really saying something.
“I like to be a rah-rah guy but, honestly, it’s not totally the same because you’re not in the heat of the battle,” the 32-year-old Frazier said. “You want to have the same influence and be a leader, but you’re not in the game.
“You want to say things, but you kind of back off a little bit. I mean, you’re not playing.”
Frazier was in the cleanup spot in his third game back after missing 19. No such luck for Jay Bruce, sidelined since June 19 with a sore right hip; or Yoenis Cespedes, done for the season after undergoing the first of two scheduled heel surgeries; or David Wright, still fighting the good fight in Port St. Lucie despite having been out since May 27, 2016.
“It’s been tough without these guys being here and able to lend their leadership,” Callaway said, citing the aforementioned quartet of vets. “When a guy is on the DL or not being able to perform, it’s hard for him to go out there and get in somebody’s face or give a pep talk. That’s necessary sometimes.
“We miss that type of stuff. It’s tough when your leaders aren’t able to lead like you expect them to.”
The Mets signed Frazier to a two-year free agent deal worth $17 million in early February. Scouting report after seven years in the big leagues: Decent power bat, good glove, great in the clubhouse. This year: the first two trips of his career to the DL, a .211/.294/.371 slash line with 10 HR and 32 RBIs.
“It’s been a completely different year for me. I’ve put in all the work, but it’s been tough for me to find my timing after being out for a couple of long stretches,” Frazier said. “It’s certainly not what I or expected when I signed.
“But I’m glad to be here. I’m happy that I was able to sign here. I know it hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to, but I’m not giving up on it here. I still like what we have. I do.”