There’s having a short bench due to injuries, and then there is what the Mets did last night.

With the Mets needing to skips Jacob deGrom start, the Mets needed to call up a starter to take his place in the rotation. The corollary to that is the Mets needed to send someone down to make room for Rafael Montero on the roster.

The obvious choice was Robert Gsellman. Gsellman had just started on Sunday meaning he was not slated to pitch until Friday. However, he wasn’t going to start on Friday. That start is going to go to Steven Matz, who by all accounts, will be ready to come off the disabled list. With Matz reclaiming his rotation spot, Gsellman was not needed.

Instead, the Mets sent down T.J. Rivera.  They sent down T.J. Rivera even though Neil Walker has had to miss a few games with a lingering back injury.  Rivera was sent down despite Asdrubal Cabrera having to leave Sunday’s game due to a re-aggravation of his knee injury.  Rivera was sent down even though he was the only thing resembling healthy versatile infield depth on the Mets roster.  Rivera being sent down meant the Mets had no margin of error on the infield.  It was something that was almost a huge issue last night as A.J. Ramos fell on Jose Reyes‘ shoulder as Reyes scored on a wild pitch.

It also meant the Mets had a short bench last night.  With Rafael Montero only being able to go five innings, Terry Collins had to use Jacob deGrom to pinch hit.  In an effort to win the game with one swing, Collins burned Rene Rivera and then turned to Jay Bruce.  When Bruce didn’t deliver, the Mets best pinch hitting option remaining was Noah Syndergaard.  Fortunately, like he has done so many times in the past, Yoenis Cespedes bailed out the Mets with a tenth inning walk off home run.

Like it has most of the season, the Mets handling of the roster has been left a lot to be desired.  It might not have cost them last night’s game, but it has cost them games this season.  With only two more days before rosters expand, hopefully, the days of the Mets purposefully playing with a short roster are behind us.