Reese Kaplan -- Sometimes It's the Lesser Heralded Improvements...

If you ask anyone what the Mets need most right now you will not get a unanimous answer.  According to Mack, it's pitching, pitching and more pitching.  According to others, it's not the starting rotation in general but the bullpen that's the core reason for the team faring so poorly.  Still others will maintain it's the hitting on the club that's the problem.  Then there are folks who declare it is specific hitters either in a slump or in a decidedly second rate level in their careers who are to blame.  

I'm not here today to advocate any of these specific choices any more than I am to endorse the aggregate of the whole lot of 'em.  

No, today we're going to take a look back at one unheralded add-on to the 2015 campaign out of nowhere who kind of gets lost in the shuffle a bit when compared to the bench reinforcements.  The beginning of the transition for the Mets back in that championship year was a pair of fringe players obtained in a deal sending long term pitcher John Gant to the Braves along with never-was pitcher Rob Whalen to obtain salary paid-down Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe.  

All of the sudden the Mets were not relying upon inexperienced and unproven rookies to help right the ship.  Neither player was a superstar during his career but you can't deny the huge sigh of relief when one of them came into the game when necessary replacing a variety of AAAA options.

Neither are we going to talk about giving up a future rookie of the year in Michael Fulmer and another capable of arm in mostly reliever Luis Cessa to obtain second choice hitter Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers when at the eleventh hour the first effort to obtain Carlos Gomez  from the Milwaukee Brewers fell apart.  

It was considered a bit of an overpay to get someone only guaranteed to be there for the final two months of the season but there's not a Mets fan anywhere who would try to convince you it was a bad or unneeded deal.  Many folks also forget that Gomez eventually did come play for the Mets a few years later to finish out his career in sub-Mendoza fashion in 2019.

The real key deal that can't even fathom getting a single naysayer occurred when the Mets gave up prospect Casey Meisner to Oakland to get relief pitcher Tyler Clippard who became the 8th inning guy to closer Jeurys Familia.  His introduction to the New York Mets bullpen was the secret sauce that helped propel the Mets from also rans into a championship caliber team while the 6'7" Meisner floated around the minors from team to team and level to level but never made it to The Show.  

How good was the bespectacled Clippard for the Mets that season?  As a rental obtained for a fringe minor leaguer you really couldn't have asked for much more. Clippard appeared in 32 Mets games down the final stretch, going 4-1 with a 3.06 ERA while pitching to a 1.052 WHIP.  He was keeping men off base with his less-than-blow-them-away stuff and helped the club turn games over to a solid bullpen arm before handing things over to their stellar closer, Familia who finished the year with 43 saves and a 1.85 ERA.  

Right now many folks are harboring lightning-in-a-bottle fantasies that the way the Mets have played post All Star Break is indicative of the true power of this ballclub and that while the divisional pennant is out of reach it is not beyond the wildest hopes and dreams that some minor and incremental improvements are all it will take to help Steve Cohen's club make  a late season push to close the single digit in games gap to the last wildcard slot for the playoffs.  Then anything could happen.

Of course, to make these types of trades will take the sacrifice of minor league fodder and the club has been quite vocal about not dismantling the future for some ultra slim chance to compete in 2023.  Imagine the reaction to news that not only are opposing teams' scouts present when one of the major league trade possibilities are playing, but that they are also present in the Mets minor league ballparks doing the very same thing.  Now is that a question of solid preparation by those other teams or have the Mets backed off from the stance that the minor leaguers are off limits?  

No one wishes for anything more for the Mets than success, but like finding a Rembrandt at someone's garage sale, the odds of it happening right now are not what anyone would call a solid bet.  Still, movement in the roster of any kind would be most welcome as it indicates a realization that what's currently here on the major league roster is not the formula for October baseball now nor for 2024 and beyond.