Paul Articulates - Take your pick

It has been a very rough three weeks for the New York Mets.  They have lost 14 of their last 20 games, and almost all of the games have come against teams that they should have beaten.  This team that was touted in the spring as having great depth in the field and on the pitching staff just cannot seem to put good innings together.  

Yes, the pitching was devastated by injury but that should have been cured by depth.  Then the bats went limp, and even on days when the pitching held down an opponent there were no runs to be found to secure a victory.  As a result, the Mets have not only fallen six games behind their rival Atlanta Braves, but they have done so during a stretch of the season where they were supposed to open up a lead.  

In my post on April 27th, I had called the following 20 games a “key stretch” for the team as they were to play 16 against inferior talent and 4 against the Braves.  A successful run through that stretch would position them well in the race.  Instead, they did the unthinkable, losing 70% of those games.  Later this season, when the Braves play these beatable teams (and feast upon them), the Mets will be matched up against much stiffer competition.  It is only May, but this is a nail in their coffin that will be tough to extract.  They have seriously damaged their chances of winning a very competitive division like the NL East.

So where do you go from here?  Try to play .750 ball to catch up against a tougher schedule?  Concede a wildcard spot and push for a youth movement?  Make a blockbuster trade leveraging the farm system for a big name player or two?

I’m not Billy Eppler, but I’m sure that he has thought through many options regarding player personnel.  He was trying to play a conservative hand this year by beginning the season with both Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez in the minors but his hand was forced by both injury (Narvaez) and underperformance (Nido, Escobar).  He called up the young prospects and although they struggled a little to adjust, they have now hit a comfort level with the MLB game that is beginning to show in their results.  This was exactly what the Mets needed at third base and catcher, where they are now staffed with two healthy young players that are beginning to show what they can do – and it will only get better.

There are two other underperforming positions that must be addressed – DH and left field.  Both have veterans playing there but the results are not matching expectations.  One could continue the experiment by calling upon other young prospects to take their shot.  Both Tom and Reese opined in recents post that Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio have earned their shot.  They may be right.

If the Mets decide to follow the youth movement and mature young players for a wild card drive later in the season, that will leave several veteran players on the bench.  Remember that the Mets were built for depth with several options to fill in anywhere needed.  This would include Eduardo Escobar, Luis Guillorme, Tommy Pham, Daniel Vogelbach, Tomas Nido, Omar Narvaez, and possibly even Mark Canha.  That is too much veteran talent to atrophy on the bench.  

Even though this crew has underperformed in the first month and a half of the season they are all good major league players and would be attractive offerings for potential trades.  Which gets to the subject of this post – why wait until the trade deadline to try to reinforce this roster?  Let’s jump on it now while we can “take our pick” of the talent out there before all the other teams get into the bidding.  The Mets are not the only .500-ish team trying to become buyers rather than sellers at the July deadline.  Find a ready-and-willing partner to exchange spare parts.

What is needed:  More pitching is needed to get through this season.  Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer have now come back from their unhealthy starts to man the top of the rotation, but I have no hope that they will continue to maintain health and effectiveness for the duration of the season.  Carlos Carrasco has made it through his two rehab starts and proved that he can get AA hitters out.  There are no further guarantees.  Kodai Senga seems healthy but is still adjusting to the American baseball.  David Peterson is down in AAA trying to figure out what happened.  We clearly need pitching help. 

Paul’s wish list for the pen: The Oakland A’s Sam Moll is a crafty left-hander that has a 2.63 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP in 18 games as a reliever.  Moll has an outstanding 27.6% hard hit percentage, which is near the top of the American League.  David Bednar of the Pirates is having an outstanding year, but he is probably untouchable.

For starting pitchers, I like Houston’s Cristian Javier, whose team has won 6 of the 8 games he has started this year.  He is 26 years old.  Minnesota’s Joe Ryan is also 26.  He has a 2.16 ERA and a 0.84 WHIP.  Miami has a couple 20-somethings not named Alcantra that may be in play.  

I’m sure that our readers have wish lists as well.  Since none of us are MLB scouts or player development professionals, we will leave the hard analysis to them.  My point here is that this is the time to actively shop.  Those veterans on our team are not going to get more valuable sitting on the bench for two months – take advantage of their reputation now to score some young arms since the gamble on an aged staff did not work.  Take your pick.