Reese Kaplan -- Status Quo? Oh, No!!!

We reached the fish or cut bait portion of the season.  This week the Miiami Marlins have added two starting pitchers as they attempt to catapult themselves from the second division the past few years into the post season for the first time in thirteen years.  They took the bold step of actually trying to improve their roster.  As Saturday begins the Marlins stand 5.5 games back of the Nationals.  The Mets are trailing them by a game and a half.  The Marlins add Andrew Cashner and Colin Rea.  The Mets trot out an injured Yoenis Cespedes, play shorthanded with an injured Jose Reyes, just lost Juan Lagares for the season for the surgery he should have had when he tore his thumb ligaments.  The Marlins seek to improve the roster.

What have the Mets done?  Well, they keep Alejandro De Aza around for no explicable reason.  He’s rallied recently and has his batting average up to a robust .195.  He’s hit 2 HRs  and driven in 6 runs while stealing 3 bases.  That’s a pace for a full time gig of 10 Hrs, 30 RBIs and 15 Sbs for the entire season.  Wouldn’t nearly ANYONE in organized baseball at the major league or AAA level be able to deliver at least that much?   It’s another case of salary dictating roster space.

Then there’s Antonio Bastardo.  He’s rapidly becoming the pitching equivalent of Jason Bay.  It looked like a good signing when it happened (though not as good as they could have done – Bay instead of Matt Holliday, Bastardo instead of Aroldis Chapman), but it should have unfolded better than it has.  Bastardo doesn’t even have the concussion excuse.  He’s been just brutal.  After Friday’s debacle, he’s now offering up a 4.85 ERA as a pitcher who’s being paid to hold the opposition scoreless.  He’s signed for next year as well, so it’s obvious why he’s still here.

I’m going to take heat for this one, but can someone explain to me the love affair with Jose Reyes?  He’s been fairly brutal at 3B defensively.  He’s hitting .239 with a .278 OBP.  Wasn’t he signed to get on base?  On the rare times when he has, he’s stolen bases – 3 with just one caught stealing – but isn’t that what Eric Young, Jr. did and was run out of town?  In his final full season with the Mets he hit .229 with a .299 OBP.  He wasn’t considered even good enough to hold a bench spot on the roster yet Jose Reyes has started nearly every game since arriving.  It’s about time for someone to point out that the emperor has no clothes.

More importantly, what is general manager Sandy Alderson doing to address the run scoring problem, the starting pitching problem and, to a lesser extent, the bullpen problem?  He’s after a middle reliever.  Doesn’t he have his priorities upside down?  Isn’t Hansel Robles capable of holding down the 7th inning before handing it over to Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia?

On the other hand, you have right now one batter other than Yoenis Cespedes in the starting lineup every day – James Loney – hitting over .260.  It’s an embarrassment.

So are the Mets actually trying to win the games, or are they writing off the 2016 season due to injuries and bad decisions.  If the former, DO SOMETHING to fix the problems.  If not, DO SOMETHING to fix the problems.  Doing nothing results in games like the ones we’ve seen lately.