Mets depleted, not yet defeated
The New York Mets never saw the crash coming, but even after all the dents, scrapes, broken tailpipe and wheezing engine, they somehow are still running.
They look ugly and are painful to watch at times, but they’re still in the race.
“We had no idea we’d break down like this,” manager Terry Collins said. “None. It’s hard to believe.”
They are pitching these days without their opening-day starter, their No. 4 starter and their No. 5 starter.
They have been fielding a starting lineup with five players who weren’t in the organization at the start of the season, and they were missing four of their top five hitters Tuesday night.
But the Mets (63-63) are hanging around in the wild-card race, trailing the San Francisco Giants by 51⁄ games for the top wild2 card spot and the St. Louis Cardinals by 4½ for the No. 2 berth after losing 8-1 to the Cardinals on Wednesday with the Giants playing later into the night.
“They may fire me at the end of the year, but they have supported (me) the entire time I’ve been here. That’s why I’ve got no (complaints). None,” Collins told USA TODAY Sports.
“Whatever happens at the end of the year, I’ll walk out of here with a smile on my face and get ready for spring training or get ready to play golf, either one.”
The Mets, even with 12 of their last 25 games against the lastplace trinity of the Cincinnati
Reds, Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins, should fall short of the postseason. You simply can’t rely on two starters, Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom, to carry the staff the rest of the way.
Matt Harvey is gone for the year after looking like a shell of himself when he was around, going 4-10 with a 4.86 ERA.
Zack Wheeler, who was supposed to rejoin the team in July after recovering from his Tommy John elbow surgery of March 2015, never made a single start.
Steven Matz has a bone spur in his elbow and is on the disabled list with a strained shoulder, but the left-hander is hoping to return Tuesday.
And Jon Niese, re-acquired at the trade deadline from the Pittsburgh Pirates, has a 19.50 ERA in his last three appearances, lasting just four batters Tuesday before going on the DL. He’s expected to have knee surgery, Collins said, and will be replaced in the rotation by rookie Robert Gsellman, who made his major-league debut Tuesday.
“We had all of this great young pitching, with six starters who were on the cover of Sports Illus
trated, and who knew that by midseason three of them would be gone?” Collins said. “We were even talking about Zack Wheeler back in July, and thinking, ‘Boy, this will be a dynamic rotation at the end of the season. ... Now we’re just trying to find some guys to go run out there.”
There are five weeks left in the season, but Collins knows changes in how the Mets handle their staff await in 2017. They were cautious early in the season, monitoring innings and pitch counts, hoping they’d have plenty of live arms in the pennant stretch, only to see that 43-yearold Bartolo Colon, 11-7 with a 3.36 ERA, would be their most consistent starter.
“I don’t know if we have an answer to it,” Collins says, “but we certainly have to research something that might, even if it’s something like seven days off instead of five, or 10 days off instead of five, keep their body a little bit rested.
“We showed last year it works, but it may have to be something you have to look at early in the year, to back off those early in- nings and let it happen later in the summer.”
Perhaps a playoff-free October would benefit the Mets next year, with fresher arms, Harvey’s return and Wheeler’s re-emergence. There would be no need to tinker with this brilliant rotation, allowing the Mets to spend the rest of their offseason trying to fix a broken offense and persuade Yoenis Cespedes not to opt out of his three-year, $75 million contract. Cespedes recently told The
Record of Bergen County, N.J. that he plans to honor his contract without opting out, saying he’s concerned only with reaching the postseason, but we’ll see. It’s a woefully weak free agent class, and though the Mets acquired Jay Bruce at the trade deadline, he’s no Cespedes, hit- ting .168 with two homers and six RBI since his arrival.
“My intentions, of course, are to be here for three years,” Cespedes said before Wednesday’s game, “and if I could spend the rest of my career with the Mets, I would.”
Yet Cespedes said the final decision on whether to opt out rests with his agents, saying, “My focus is on playing baseball and helping the team win and hopefully make the playoffs. I let my agents worry about all of that.”
Cespedes, despite missing 27 games this year, is the only Met who has driven in more than 54 runs, with 25 homers and 64 RBI. Outfielder Curtis Granderson, who’s hitting .160 in his last 21 games, somehow has 20 home runs but only 34 RBI. Wilmer Flores, who was supposed to be a utility player this season, was seen batting cleanup Tuesday. Jose Reyes, unwanted by every team in baseball two months ago, has been their most consistent leadoff hitter since his July 5 arrival, hitting .274 with a .758 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
The Mets have five players in their opening-day lineup who still don’t even have 200 at-bats this season. Third baseman David Wright, first baseman Lucas Duda, catcher Travis d’Arnaud, left fielder Michael Conforto and Juan Lagares have combined for 32 homers and 77 RBI. Wright is out for the year, Duda has been out since May 21 and Conforto is in the minor leagues.
“We’re missing a lot of pieces, obviously,” Granderson said. “Injuries happen during the course of the season with every team, but you compound how many guys are being injured, who’s being injured, how long they’re missing, and put it in the grand scheme of things, wow. “And we’re still alive.” Barely, but at least they’re breathing, knowing they’re one losing streak away from elimination.
“I’m so freaking proud of them, because they’ve hung in there through all of the bull, everything,” Collins said. “No one wants to listen to that (stuff ), and believe me, I get it. I get expectations. We had a great year last year. We have all of this great young pitching. So they should be here.
“It is what it is. It’s New York. There’s no feeling sorry for anybody. There are always going to be expectations.”
Still, when you look at the Mets and their tattered rotation, with an offense that’s scored the thirdfewest runs in baseball, they’ve actually overachieved just to be in the playoff conversation.
Next year promises to be altogether different, and better, giving the Mets a shot to return to the World Series.
And, yes, with Collins back in the manager’s chair.