Too often during the current regime the team has downplayed
the severity of injuries. Right now the
Mets are facing a number of them and no one has a clear idea of what to expect
in each case.
Wilmer Flores is currently on the DL with a hamstring
injury. Most medical experts rank them
from a Grade 1 through Grade 3 which is a measurement which helps dictate range
of motion, discomfort, activity level and recovery time. It may be too soon to tell how well Flores
responds to treatment, but three weeks may be a minimum level to expect him to
be missing from action.
In the short term the decision to promote Sean Gilmartin to
allow Logan Verrett to start makes sense though personally I would have gone
the other way since Gilmartin has been stretched out and working regularly as a
starter rather than miscasting both pitchers in unaccustomed roles. This change is necessitated by the elbow injury
news on Steve Matz which no one knows how serious or minor it really is.
What we do know is the Mets have made the
conscious decision not to DL Matz while they evaluate his condition and play
shorthanded on the bench with the extra pitcher arriving from Las Vegas. Remember when he had the lat problem last
year which was supposed to be a minor thing and cost him about two months of
starts? Sometimes it makes sense to err
on the side of caution, give him his 15 days since you do have pitching to spare,
rather than pushing him to come back prematurely.
Then there’s the curious case of Travis d’Arnaud. Yes, throwing is an integral part of a
catcher’s game (and frankly not one of his stronger suits when his arm was
completely healthy). If he was a pitcher
with a rotator cuff problem they would already be talking about shutting him
down for the long term. For now he
remains on the 15 day DL in the hopes that the Mets’ crack medical staff can
find the right combination of snake oil to help him make a miraculous
recovery. 6 months is not an uncommon recovery
period for non-athletes for a tear. For
an “impingement” it’s anyone’s guess.
Why d’Arnaud’s case is interesting is it demonstrates roster
flexibility and how the Mets will wind up addressing the Wilmer Flores injury
in both the short and long term. There
are a lot of “ifs” at play here, but right now the 40-man roster is full. Granted, there are a few spots you could open
up such as jettisoning 28 year old Jeff Walters or the strikeout king with the
7.00+ ERA, Dario Alvarez. One of these
moves would open up a spot to promote a player not currently on the 40 man
roster onto the major league squad.
Placing d’Arnaud on the 60-day DL would open up the spot, too.
Creating a 40-man roster spot would allow someone like T.J.
Rivera (currently hitting .330 and a career minor league .319 hitter) to come
to Queens as the backup shortstop. He
would essentially fill the role Flores had been filling as the supersub. Rivera has hever hit double digits in home
runs or stolen bases, but he hits consistently and never fanned more than 73
times in a minor league season.
Gavin Cecchini, after a dismal start, is back up to nearly .300 but has only played SS in the minor leagues. He’s probably better off playing every day at that position in the minors than sitting on the bench in the majors. In addition, they would be concerned about burning his options as they tie into future salary considerations – not something they would worry about in the case of the 27 year old Rivera.
However, it’s much easier to do nothing than it is to take a
risk by exposing 40 man roster players to waiver claims or prematurely pushing
an injured player into DL purgatory.
Consequently you have to look at who’s currently on the rosters and see
if a solution exists there.
Matt Reynolds famously made the team but never appeared in a
game after the Ruben Tejada/Chase Utley incident. He’s on the 40-man roster, hitting an
unimpressive .246 but has spent time at SS, 2B and 3B. He would do the same as Rivera with a
somewhat better glove while delivering a lesser bat. However, to promote him is as simple as
filing the paperwork and buying him a plane ticket.
Dilson Herrera is also on the 40-man roster but, like the
case with Cecchini, they probably want him to play every day in the
anticipation of a long big league career.
Furthermore, he’s pretty much exclusively a 2nd baseman. He’s only logged 25 games and 223 innings in
the minors playing shortstop. Neil
Walker on the big club has not played it at all. David Wright has played a whopping 8 innings
at short, but his health is pretty fragile AND he’s facing his own concerns
about his throwing shoulder. Eric Campbell is healthy but only logged 6
innings at SS in his entire career.
For now the Mets are playing a waiting game. They don’t know how severely injured Steve
Matz really is. They don’t know how bad
Flores’ hamstring is. They don’t know how bad d’Arnaud’s shoulder is. Until they get word on one of them, I expect
they’ll muddle along with a short bench.
If Matz heads to the DL, then personally I think the best move is to
promote Rivera as a direct replacement for Flores. He can deliver some offense (which is Flores’
strong suit despite his slow start).
However, I think the Mets would opt to go with Matt Reynolds due to
roster constraints.
7 comments:
Cecchini on DL too. Call up Dilson
Cecchini on DL too. Call up Dilson
considering theres no back up shortstop on the roster, id have to say reynolds.
Trade for Tejada. 😛
Reynolds is the obvious if sub-optimal choice. A lot depends on the prognosis for Travis d'Arnaud and whether or not they will move him to the 60-man roster. That course of action doesn't involve exposing any current players to the risk of being claimed by another team.
Theoretically Reynolds himself could be on that list of 40-man roster casualties, but again for a short term solution they could live with him in a bench role. Who knows? Maybe this time he'd even get an AB.
Promoting Dilson Herrera only makes sense if they thought he could play SS as he did for 200+ innings in the minors. However, if this bench player indeed sits while starters Walker and Cabrera log the vast majority of innings, it's probably better to keep him in Las Vegas. The TJ Riveras and Matt Reynolds types are better suited for that role.
Bad time to be looking as vulnerable as we've looked this trip. Also has anyone noticed that our bench is about as bad as it was last year which was really bad and coupled with the Grandy and Wright's struggle's and our upcoming schedule I guess we're gonna find out what were made of very soon.
After what Uribe and Johnson gave us last year, what we need is someone like them but who can play SS. I'd rather not see a prospect called up to get splinters.
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