Reese Kaplan -- August Issues Going Into September

One of the things you realize as a baseball season progresses is that it's indeed a very long 162 game schedule during which a lot can happen.  Some of it is planned, some of it is luck, some of it involves injuries and some of it concerns self-inflicted suspensions from the game.  

As Mets fans we're well aware of the latter as PED abuser extraordinaire Robinson Cano cannot keep a job (and apparently cannot hit a baseball without some chemical assistance as he approaches age 40).  Now the Padres know this pain when homegrown superstar Fernando Tatis, Jr. is going to have to sit out 80 games for being caught with an illegal performance drug in his system.

Injuries are something Mets fans know far too well.  Whether it was the 2/3 of a season without Jacob deGrom, the long absence by Max Scherzer, the longer absence by Tylor Megill, the injury stint by Trevor May, multiple departures by James McCann and various other players dealing with the physical realities of stressing your body day after day.  

Now supersub Luis Guillorme appears to be heading to the sidelines for a month to recuperate from his groin strain and the Mets will have to weather through this development as they did the others.

Now players hitting the IL is nothing exclusively belonging to the Mets.  The Dodgers' All Star starting pitcher Walker Buehler is now down for the season and postseason due to upcoming elbow surgery.  The young man has been a real find for the fans in Chavez Ravine as he sports a career record of 46-16 with a 3.02 ERA (artificially inflated by this year's injury-affected 4.02).  Somehow they will also manage to continue atop their division because that's what good teams do.  

With the recent news about Guillorme it meant the Mets made what some regard as a curious decision to bypass hot rookie prospects Brett Baty and Mark Vientos to fill the void.  Instead they went with veteran scrub Deven Marrero who is a career .194 hitter in the majors spread over parts of six previous seasons.  He's not exactly going to contribute offensively to help if needed at a crucial point late in a game.

Even stranger was that the Mets needed to add another catcher due to an illness experienced by backup Tomas Nido.  Instead of the usual Patrick Mazeika shuttle ride to Queens, this time they went after veteran receiver Michael Perez obtained off waivers from the Pirates earlier in the year.  

Like Marrero, he's failed to cross the Mendoza line during his five partial seasons in the majors.  He has shown some power with 16 HRs and 58 RBIs in an aggregate of over 500 ABs, but a .175 career hitter isn't going to amount to very much when he's covering for James McCann.  

What we can see from the previous injury stints by various players, the Mets are not solely dependent on any single hitter or pitcher to keep them playing competitively.  They adjust as they are forced to do and somehow the wins keep happening.  Let's hope that these necessary substitutions are as un-newsworthy as the previous ones have been and that the Mets will just keep rolling along.