Reese Kaplan -- You Never Can Predict What Will Happen With the Mets

Whether in a school, on the job or engendering personal behaviors with people close to you, one common characteristic is always sought by others in your sphere of influence.  They are not seeking one extreme way of acting on one given day or night, then seeking out the exact opposite the next time the same situation arises.  They want to see consistency which leads to set expectations and predictability.  Shouldn’t the same situation and desirability apply to the Mets ballclub? 

  

 
Saturday night was one of the harshest and most painful losses in team history with a one run lead turned into a two-run cushion and the closer about to take the hill for one final frame.  Putting on the leadoff base runner and setting up a tying run at the plate situation was enough to have most Mets fans reaching for their antacid bottle.

Still, as disturbing as it was and as aggravating as it was to see Edwin Diaz load the bases, he still had gotten two outs and was going to face a .206 hitter with a closer’s arsenal of effective pitches at his disposal.  I don’t need to rehash what instead happened.

Then came Sunday when All Star starter Taijuan Walker came into the game and promptly gave up 6 runs in his one third of an inning start.  That was highly unexpected and after the crushing blow on Saturday night fans were surely expecting the worse.

The exact opposite occurred when manager Luis Rojas was forced to use an assortment of five relief pitchers to cover the remaining 8 and two thirds of pitching to keep further damage from happening.  That group included Drew Smith, Miguel Castro, Aaron Loup, Jeurys Familia and Trevor May.  Not only didn’t any of them allow a single run, but the Mets managed to rally back and emerge with a very surprising 7-6 victory from this horrendous start. 

 
Now we come back to the question of consistency.  Not a single person in the ballpark expected the motley crew of relievers to perform at such a stellar level.  Similarly, the run-starved offense has not been clutch and with a 6-0 deficit just one out into the game, no one was expecting a come-from-behind victory.  

So what can fans and Mets management expect from this team for the remainder of 2021?  Obviously top notch starting pitching has been available most of the season, but now Jacob deGrom is on the IL with forearm tightness.  That very development is more disturbing than the soon-to-be reinforcement provided by healing Carlos Carrasco.

Then there is the question of the infield with shortstop Francisco Lindor also on the IL with an oblique injury.  Hitters and pitchers can both tell woeful tales of trying to hurry back from what seems to be temporary discomfort only to reaggravate and extend the necessary recovery time from what needs to be treated seriously and conservatively.  

Throw in the approaching trade deadline and the front office has more on its plate to address than prior to the weekend arriving.  Then it seemed as if finding a reputable and productive bat was the primary focus for season’s end. 

Now it is appears starting pitching, a stop-gap shortstop with a credible glove and bat, and that heretofore unidentified productive hitter are all necessary elements if the Mets are going to convert a September run into an October run.  Consequently, if there is any hope at all of consistency, then some new faces need to arrive pronto.