It wouldn’t be a Mets season without news of injuries affecting both the roster construction and the likely outcome of games. We saw it last season in a big way when the club swan dived from a 100 win team to one struggling to stay out of the basement. It was painful to watch.
So this week we found out about two more major and unexpected injuries that have the potential to derail the club’s already thin aspirations to play October baseball. Sometimes these things simply happen and other times the bad news reflects opportunities to see what some other ballplayers are capable of doing when you hadn’t factored them into the roster planning when the season began.
On the pitching front, we’re all aware of the Tylor Megill recurrence of shoulder problems that pushed him to the IL for several weeks last year. This year it is said to be not nearly as serious, but we’re all aware of the danger of rushing players back from injury recovery which can cause them to alter the way they move their bodies when they play and causing more time to be spent on the IL in the future.
The bigger news, of course, is the move of Kodai Senga from a supposed short stay working back into playing shape to the 60-day IL indicating a longer recovery time is needed. So first the club lost Senga, then they lost his replacement in Megill. Of course, Megill became the number one option when David Peterson hit the shelf. What they do now is going to be an interesting test for David Stearns.
Obviously the very short term trial of Julio Teheran is not the answer. The immediate probable change is to have Jose Butto return after the mandatory time spent in AAA after his Teheran demotion. He has pitched well the end of last year and in his single start this season. While awaiting his arrival the Mets might make do with a bullpen game or they could bring up another player since a roster spot is now open with the shift of Senga to the 60-day IL.
Joey Lucchesi is also available and on the 40-man roster but he apparently left a bad taste in the club’s collective mouth after his Spring Training inabiliity to deliver after his offseason weight loss. He’s a veteran southpaw who should be in the mix, but it would seem he’s not really on the front office’s radar.
Stearns could go out to find another available free agent or could engineer a trade with another club, though unless you were giving up someone not critical to the Mets it’s seemingly a difficult choice to make for what could be a month or so of need (and secondary need at that with Butto soon available).
Unfortunately, now Stearns must also consider what to do about his 11th hour acquisition of All Star slugger J.D. Martinez. He has been shut down with back stiffness and at age 36 it may take a bit longer to heal than it would for an athlete who is younger. The question becomes how bad is the injury and how much time is he expected to need in recover and then a second preseason preparation at the minor league level?
Already some are suggesting is time for David Stearns to reverse his March decision to farm out Mark Vientos and allow him to be the primary DH for the next month or so, but others say he should continue playing in Syracuse working on cutting down on his strikeouts and working on his defense.
Assuming that Vientos is not coming to New York anytime soon, does that mean the DH solution for the foreseeable future is some combination of D.J. Stewart, Joey Wendle, Tyrone Taylor and Zack Short? It’s not Martinez level of production and could cause the Mets to squander the DH position for a large chunk of another season.
Right now the bats in some cases are starting to wake up which might shift attention away from the 9th hitter in the lineup being whomever is DH-for-a-day, but it’s bad enough missing out on the 30 HR and 100 RBI expectation from Martinez without handing duties over to someone with a career .217 batting average. (That would be Demetrius Jerome Stewart.)
It would seem an offensive spark couldn’t hurt. Unless the plan is to keep Vientos in Syracuse for all of 2024 to preserve an option, he would seem to make the most sense internally if the wait for Martinez is of the 30 day or more variety.
2 comments:
It just seems the core hitters (other than Francisco Lindor in the ninth thing yesterday, grounded out against Lewis Guillorme) are back hitting. 29 runs on something like 39 hits and three games is very impressive. It also shows perhaps at the Braves I’m not quite the juggernaut we thought they might be because they’re pitching which seems to be mediocre at best without strider. Martinez, and I think it was Gus who brought the name up, hopefully won’t become the next Jed Lowry and it’s just a few days until Martinez shows up. I feel like it’s more like a week or two.
DJ Stewart has only two hits, but both are homers and he walked several times so he hasn’t been as quite as bad as he looks.
And God bless Tyron Taylor for taking Guillorme pitching the night thing as a mercy mission of sorts for the Braves rotation. That grand slam makes Tyrone’s batting average RBIs, etc. looks so much better. I think if there was an outfield replacement for DJ Stewart, it might be Ben Gemel who is tearing it up in AAA so far.
Too bad, Vientos can't play the OF.
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