Reese Kaplan -- 2021 Got Ugly and Replacements Made it Uglier

During sporting events injuries are a normal course of events.  After all, you have athletes performing at their top level against others doing the same, giving their maximum effort and receiving maximum effort from others in return.  

In some sports the injuries are the result of the game itself -- running too hard, throwing too many balls that strain the arm, elbow or shoulder, colliding with a railing or fence, cramps, muscle strains and the like.  

In other sports like football, the injuries are usually the result of direct player-to-player contact.  The cause may be different but the result is the same.  

This past weekend there was a football game in which the Cowboys were pitted against the Giants.  Now, to be fair, the nature of the injuries and severity were different, but the difference in team output varied wildly.  The Giants had rallied to tie the game and it looked like it could be a terrific afternoon of football, but then they lost a key running back, the starting quarterback and others.  The Cowboys temporarily lost their key running back and some others.

Quickly it became clear that one team was unable to rebound from injuries while the other one did.  Again, the injuries weren't exactly the same but the manner of dealing with them were quite different.  What looked to be a seesaw game going back and forth turned into a laugher with the Giants being the recipients of the ridicule.  

Coming back to baseball, think about how the Mets handled their many injuries this year.  Yes, it's hard to lose a Jacob deGrom and expect a DFA'd castoff from another club to come in and replace the best pitcher in the game.  The same pattern repeated with infielders, outfielders, catchers, relief pitchers and other starting pitchers.  

The only solid acquisition the team made all year long was Javy Baez to play a position that wasn't purely needed given Jeff McNeil's ability to play second base, but he too was on the shelf for long stretches of the 2021 season.  

No, the issue to me is more about planning and execution.  Think about some of the players who got innings for the Mets in 2021.  They included the likes of Anthony Banda, Akeem Bostick, Jerad Eickoff, Geoff Hartlieb, Heath Hembree, Trevor Hildenberger, Tommy Hunter, Stephen Nogosek, Jake Reed, Robert Stock, Stephen Tarpley, Nick Tropeano, Travis Blankenhorn, Jake Hager, Wilfredo Tovar, Johneshwy Fargas, Cameron Maybin, Billy McKinney, Chance Sisco and Mason Williams.  

Do you see a single starting caliber player in that entire sad list?  It's almost as if the Mets simply said, "Hey you, thrown on a uniform and we'll see you get some playing time to extend your already ended career."  

To be fair, the Mets did acquire Rich Hill after the trading deadline passed.  He's certainly a quality back of the rotation starter, though over 40 years of age he's not exactly a long term solution.  They did get a few good games out of Brandon Drury.  When Jose Peraza was healthy he wasn't an embarrassment either.  However, none of them made up for the quality of the players they were asked to replace.

In all of the analysis and anxiety over the Mets' organizational inability to land top talent in the front office and leading the team as the manager, to me the single issue that creeps up again and again is the lack of planning.  In some cases the Mets overestimated what mid range players could produce if given the shot.  Jonathan Villar is a good example.  In other cases they expected top level numbers and instead got Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco performances.  

To me, the new regime in management needs to plan from the lowest level of the minors up to Citifield.  They need to have resources internally who can help, they need not bank on AAAA players who were perhaps a bit too good for the minors but not quite good enough for the majors.  

They need not discard the DFA lists entirely, but instead not grab hold of them as their only solution to their roster problems.  They need to execute trades, even unpopular ones, to address needs.  We haven't seen much of that in many, many years.