Addison Reed
In assessing how the Mets fared in the Addison Reed trade, let’s start with the obvious. The fact Sandy Alderson was able to turn Miller Diaz and Matt Koch into a great run with Reed plus Red Sox prospects Stephen Nogosek, Jamie Callahan, and Gerson Bautista was absolutely phenomenal. No, it doesn’t rank up there with Noah Syndergaard, Travis d’Arnaud, and Wuilmer Becerra for R.A. Dickey, but nevertheless, it was a coup.
Still, the question remains whether Sandy got a good return for the 2017 version of Reed.
Let’s start with this. Since joining the Mets, Reed has been one of the best and more versatile relievers in baseball. He has deftly handed the seventh, eighth, and ninth inning. His 142.0 innings pitched since joining the Mets is fifth in baseball, and his 2.09 ERA over that stretch is great. Intuitively, you may not believe Reed is a top reliever in baseball, but he was. From 2016 to the present, Reed posted the sixth best fWAR in the majors (3.5). Aside from Kenley Jansen and Andrew Miller, who we all know are otherworldly right now, Reed is as good, if not better than any reliever in baseball.
Looking over the list of potential free agents, Reed could have arguably been considered one of if not the best reliever on the free agent market. With that being the case, it was likely worth gambling and giving him the qualifying offer putting his value at a second round pick or the equivalent.
Looking at the Mets haul, they most likely received that. The trio of arms all throw in the upper 90s. With respect to Nogosek and Bautista, they both have a good but inconsistent slider, and there are some control issues. If they figure it out, and realistically speaking, they are in the right organization to do so, the Mets have two potential late inning relievers. With Callahan, they have a near MLB ready reliever who can generate a high number of strikeouts and could be ready to help the Mets as soon as next year. To that end, the Mets certainly did receive a second round equivalent.
Where the debate becomes dicey is when you ask the question whether the Mets could have done better.
For starters, there is no real way of knowing that. We are not privy to the general back-and-forth between general mangers. We also don’t know if there was a theoretical better offer the Mets rejected because they liked the players the Red Sox offered more.
We should also consider, last year, the Yankees seemingly built an entire farm system (hyperbole) by trading Miller and Aroldis Chapman. Each trade fetched the Yankees two of their trade partners’ top five prospects. In terms of Gleyber Torres, it got them one of the best prospects in baseball.
With Reed arguably being the top reliever on the market with at least eight teams interested, it makes you question how the Mets walk out of a deal without an organization’s top five prospect. The counter-argument is the prices this year are not the same as they were last year. In the end, we have no idea if this was the proverbial best trade, and the reviews on the trade have been all over the place.
Ultimately, I find the trade underwhelming, and I do question the Mets motives a bit. If you look at their recent moves, they have all been bullpen driven. Lucas Duda was moved for Drew Smith. The team went out and obtained AJ Ramos. Now, the Mets got an arguably low return for a trio of fireball throwing relievers. I’m not so sure the Mets approached this trade deadline with the intent on rebuilding the minor league system as much as they were intent on rebuilding their bullpen.
In the end, if the Mets goal was really to build the bullpen in the trade market, they have to back that up by spending real money in the free agent market to back up their decisions. If they don’t do this, they may not have only lost out on the possibility on maximizing their returns for the pieces they did move, they may also miss out on the 2018 postseason.
Entering the trade deadline, the Mets had eight players who were impending free agents and another two who could be free agents if the Mets declined their 2018 options. Despite the Mets looking to get something in return for each of these prospects, they walked away from the trade deadline having made just two deals:
Lucas Duda for Rays minor league reliever Drew Smith
Addison Reed for Red Sox minor league relievers Stephen Nogosek, Jamie Callahan, and Gerson Bautista
If you are going to question why the Mets didn’t do more look no further than their 48-55 record. Simply put, the teams in contention didn’t have much interest in the players who have led the Mets from potential World Series contenders to also-rans.
Sure, there will be people who point out it was not a robust market for position players. That’s true, but it did not prevent the White Sox from moving Melky Cabrera, the Athletics from moving Adam Rosales, or for that matter, the Mets from moving Duda. This brings about the question over why teams weren’t interested in the Mets pieces. For each player, there is a different answer:
RF/1B Jay Bruce
2017 Stats: .263/.326/.523, 19 2B, 27 HR, 72 RBI, 2.3 WAR
When assessing why teams aren’t interested in Bruce, one thing to keep in mind is team’s don’t covet home runs much in the same fashion they once did. Remember, Chris Carter went from winning the National League home run title last year to being a non-tendered free agent with little interest on the free agent market. So, yes, the 27 homers are good, but they do not completely define a player’s value.
Keep in mind, Bruce is no longer considered a good defensive player. While, it should be noted his 8 DRS and 2.6 UZR are good defensive numbers, it is coming off a season where he posted a -11 DRS and a -8.9 UZR. To the eyes, Bruce does look a step slower in right.
As for the rest of the value, Bruce has shown himself to be a first half player who tapers off in the second half. To that end, he hit .250/.281/.500 in July. Potentially, this could be the beginning of a prolonged slump like we saw Bruce have with the Mets last year. Certainly, other teams noticed that as well, and they might be scared off by how poorly he performed when asked to change teams mid-season.
INF Asdrubal Cabrera
2017 Stats: .260/.339/.404, 15 2B, 9 HR, 30 RBI, SB, -0.4 WAR
In 2017, Cabrera got hurt, and when he was asked to move off shortstop, a position where he has posted a -9 DRS and -4.7 UZR, he balked. First, he demanded his option be picked-up, then he demanded a trade. Things like that don’t go over well when you have shown yourself to have a lack of range at three infield positions, and you are not hitting well at the plate.
OF Curtis Granderson
2017 Stats: .224/.330/.446, 20 2B, 3 3B, 13 HR, 38 RBI, 3 SB
To a certain extent, the relative lack of interest in Granderson is surprising. After a slow and painful start, he has been a much better player since June 1st hitting .258/.404/.558. He’s also accepted a role on the bench without being an issue in the clubhouse. As a pinch hitter this year, he is hitting .267/.421/.533. If your team has an injury, you know he can capably fill in at three outfield positions. He’s also a tremendous clubhouse presence. Ultimately, this tells us teams were scared off by his age and his $15 million contract.
INF Jose Reyes
2017 Stats: .226/.289/.387, 17 2B, 6 3B, 9 HR, 38 RBI, 13 SB, -1.0 WAR
Let’s start with the obvious. Adding Reyes to your team is a potential PR nightmare. The Cubs thought it worthwhile for Aroldis Chapman, but it is likely no one is going down that road with a below replacement level player. As noted, the main issue is Reyes has been bad this year. Even with the recent surge, he still hasn’t been great this year, and there was zero interest even before he was hit on the hand.
C Rene Rivera
2017 Stats: .232/.277/.374, 4 2B, 6 HR, 20 RBI
Rivera’s reputation as a defensive catcher and pitching whisperer has taken a bit of a hit this year. Whatever the reason, he did not have the same touch with pitchers like Robert Gsellman like he did last year. Also, while he is throwing out more base runners, he has taken a significant step back as a pitch framer. Overall, he still has a good defensive reputation and is a good backup catcher, but he hasn’t excelled in the areas where he excelled in year’s past.
2B Neil Walker
2017 Stats: .266/.347/.455, 13 2B, 2 3B, 9 HR, 34 RBI, 0.9 WAR
If Walker stayed healthy, there may have been some semblance of a trade market for him. When he has played he has hit, but he has only played in 63 games as a result of a partially torn left hamstring. This was a year after he had season ending back surgery. Between the injury history and his $17.2 million salary, the lack of trade interest in him is certainly understandable.
Looking at the above, it is understandable why there was at best tepid interest in the Mets trade pieces. That is why they are still on the Mets roster. However, this does not preclude an August trade. To that end, Mets fans were all disappointed the Mets weren’t able to moved Marlon Byrd at the 2013 non-waiver deadline. Twenty-seven days later, Byrd was traded with John Buck for Dilson Herrera and Vic Black.
Hopefully, not moving these players is just a temporary set-back. Hopefully, the failure to move these players does not prevent the Mets from calling up Dominic Smith and Amed Rosario to the majors.
By the end of August 2015, it was clear the Mets were going to the postseason. With that in mind, the Mets needed to do something to address their bullpen – something that has been a theme of the Sandy Alderson Era. The Mets did just that in August picking up both Eric O’Flaherty and Addison Reed. Given the Mets lack of a LOOGY, it was believed O’Flaherty was the bigger pickup. Boy was that wrong.
At the time Reed joined the Mets, he was having his worst season as a professional pitching to a 4.20 ERA with the Diamondbacks and having made a trip down to Triple-A. Due to his relatively high salary, he was likely ticketed to be non-tendered in the offseason. When the Mets obtained him, it was little more than a gamble for a pitcher with prior closing experience. Certainly, Miller Diaz and Matt Koch were worth paying for the gamble. As we know, that gamble paid off.
From the minute Reed put on a Mets uniform, it was like he was a completely different pitcher. Seemingly, he found one of the remaining telephone booths in Queens, stripped out of his Diamondbacks uniform, and emerged as an elite MLB reliever.
To close out the year, he’d make 17 appearances going 1-1 with a 1.17 ERA, 1.043 WHIP, and a 10.0 K/9. At a minimum, Reed locked down the seventh inning for a team hoping to make it to the World Series. As we know, the Mets did, and Reed played his part.
Reed would appear in nine of the Mets 14 postseason games, and he would appear in all five World Series games. Reed was reliable in those games allowing no runs in seven of those appearances and just one run in another. That one run came in Game Two of the NLDS right after Chase Utley broke Ruben Tejada‘s leg.
In the World Series, where three of the five games had been a battle of the bullpens, Reed had mostly done his job. Through the first four games, he had allowed no runs and just one hit. Unfortunately, with him being on fumes, he fell apart in Game Five of the World Series becoming the losing pitcher after allowing three runs in the 12th inning.
Reed would emerge from this heartache as possibly the best pitcher in the National League in 2016. During the 2016 season, Reed made 80 appearances going 4-2 with a 1.97 ERA, a 0.940 WHIP, a 10.5 K/9, 209 ERA+, and a 1.98 FIP. His 2.9 WAR that season was the highest among relievers. In short, he was great out of the bullpen. All year long he helped a team with little bullpen depth stay afloat, and when he last stepped off the mound in the Wild Card Game, the Mets still had a chance to advance to the NLDS.
This year, all he had to do was step in for Jeurys Familia and become the team’s closer. Like he had done in his entire Mets career, Reed took on the role the Mets needed him to do, and he was great at it. In what was his final stint with the Mets, Reed made 31 appearances going 1-2 with 19 saves, a 2.57 ERA, 1.122 WHIP, and an 8.8 K/9.
Since joining the Mets, Reed was one of the best relief pitchers in baseball. He has pitched the fifth most innings (142.0) while maintaining a sterling 2.09 ERA. He has fulfilled whatever role the Mets needed him to fulfill by going from 7th to 8th and finally to the 9th inning. In that sense, Reed has become the rare pitcher in baseball. He took on whatever role was asked of him, and he performed well in that role.
In essence, Reed was exactly what you want in a bullpen arm. He was a guy who went out there and did whatever the team needed. He was used frequently, and he was one of the few arms who was not burned out by Terry Collins during his Mets tenure. He was a great reliever, and some would go so far as to say he was Raddison.
Reed is now a member of the Boston Red Sox. He goes to a team in need of a reliever capable of setting up for Craig Kimbrel. As we have seen during his Mets tenure, Reed can certainly do that. He can also give Kimbrel the occasional day off.
In the end, Reed is where he belongs. He is with a contender. Hopefully, he gets that ring he feel agonizingly short of winning in 2015. Hopefully, he will have the same success with the Red Sox he found with Mets. Hopefully, with his being an impending free agent, Reed finds his way back to New York.
Even if he doesn’t, Reed was a good Met who twice helped pitch the Mets into the postseason. Now, it is time to wish him well as he once again pursues October glory. Here’s hoping he finds it this time.
Last night, the Mets made a surprising trade obtaining AJ Ramos in exchange for minor leaguers Merandy Gonzalez and Ricardo Cespedes.
It’s an interesting trade to say the least. When looking at a pitcher like Gonzalez, he has the stuff where trading him could haunt you one day. With that said, Gonzalez will be Rule 5 eligible this offseason meaning the Mets need to add him to the 40 man roster to protect him from the draft.
It’s no guarantee the Mets would add Gonzalez to the 40 man roster, and it was certainly plausible an organization would pick him in the draft. To that end, it certainly makes sense to get something for Gonzalez instead of losing him for nothing.
The deal should also help the Mets maximize the return for Addison Reed. All the teams who were in on Ramos were in on Reed. If someone really wants a late inning reliever, the cost for Reed is likely higher than it was yesterday as there is one less viable option.
These are all well and good reasons to like this trade. However, that’s not the reason why I like this trade for the Mets. The reason why I like this trade is what it signifies.
The New York Mets are going for it in 2018.
The Mets are in the middle of a fire sale. The team is likely getting younger with rookies Dominic Smith and Amed Rosario expected to be important parts of the team. The uncertainty of David Wright continues to hang over this organization. The players returning to the roster have all had injury issues. There’s a couple of holes that need to be filled.
On of those holes is the bullpen, and Ramos goes a long way towards filling it.
With his sinker-slider repertoire, he not only has the ability to return to his All Star form, but with his working with Dan Warthen, he could be even better.
Regardless of what happens, Mets fans should be excited about this deal. It is an indication the Mets will do all they need to be a much better team in 2018. That news alone should get that Mets fans excited.
Editor’s Note: this was first published on MMO
Last year was an abomination for Travis d’Arnaud. The catcher had another injury plagued year, and he eventually lost his starting job to Rene Rivera. Part of the reason was his manager did not trust him catching Noah Syndergaard because he could not hold on base runners. The other part was he believed Rivera to be some sort of pitcher whisperer leading him to catch Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo when they joined the rotation. With d’Arnaud hitting just .247/.307/.323, he didn’t exactly force his way into the lineup.
That made the 2017 season a pivotal one for d’Arnaud.
Things started out well for him. Fifteen games into the season, d’Arnaud had seemingly recaptured his 2015 hitting .270/.357/.541, and then as always seems to be the case with him an injury happened. While following through on a throw to second base, d’Arnaud’s hand hit the bat of Aaron Altherr causing him to the leave the game. With the Mets being the Mets, they had d’Arnaud play through the injury until he could no longer.
In the subsequent 10 games, d’Arnaud would hit .091/.167/.364. With him obviously unable to play, the Mets finally put him on the disabled list with a bone bruise in his wrist.
When d’Arnaud came back, he struggled at the plate hitting .234/.278/.430 from the date he was activated from the disabled list into the All Star break. Part of this was his extremely low .247 BABIP. Now, d’Arnaud has typically always had low BABIPs with a career .273 mark entering this season. Even in his career year in 2015, it was just .289. Still, he was never a .247 BABIP hitter.
There may be many reasons for this. Players tend to suffer the ill effects of hand and wrist injuries after the injuries have been deemed healed enough to play. It’s also possible d’Arnaud suffered from Terry Collins‘ time sharing system with d’Arnaud having his pitchers and Rivera having the others. It’s possible this prevented d’Arnaud from getting into a rhythm. It’s also possible it was just a stretch of bad luck.
Whatever the case, d’Arnaud has been a much better player coming out of the All Star break. Over the past nine games, d’Arnaud is hitting .333/.394/.400 with two doubles and five RBI. Despite his not hitting for much power, he’s gotten some big RBIs.
But it’s more than just his hitting. Recently, d’Arnaud has done more to take over the game from behind the plate. The other day when Addison Reed was in a war of words with Home Plate Umpire Dan Iassogna, d’Arnaud stepped in, and he probably saved the closer from an ejection from a hot headed umpire. We’ve also seen him make more mound visits to get a pitcher back in the inning and the game.
No, he’s still not doing a good job throwing out base runners going 0-3 in the second half. In a surprising turn of events, d’Arnaud actually has poor pitch framing numbers. Still, we know he’s been typically very good in that area, and he’s likely going to return to being good in that area again. Just watching games, it seems like he’s getting that outside corner again.
Overall, it appears d’Arnaud is finally showing the Mets he is a complete catcher. It’s coming at an important time as well. The organization is in a period of transition with the team being in a position to sell at the deadline. When you have a season like the Mets have had you have to reassess everyone . . . d’Arnaud included. If he continues to catch this well, he is going to cement his status as the Mets everyday catcher in 2018.
The caveat of course is he needs to stay healthy. That’s always easier said that done with him.
During last night’s game, we got to see the full experience of what it has been like watching Yoenis Cespedes in a Mets uniform. Much like he did in 2015, we got to see Cespedes make an immediate impact in the first inning with a home run off of Padres starter Kyle Lloyd:
https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/890034579041636353
After the Padres played some Home Run Derby of their own with Hunter Renfroe and Allen Cordoba each hitting a pair of third inning home runs off Seth Lugo, the Mets were trailing 3-1. For Renfroe, it was his second homer in as many at-bats against the Mets, and it was his third homer in three days. Thank God he plays in the NL West.
After the Mets pulled themselves within a run in the fourth with Travis d’Arnaud getting another two out RBI in this series, it was time for Cespedes to go back to work and help take this game over.
Cespedes joined the doubles hit parade in the fifth. After Curtis Granderson and Asdrubal Cabrera led off the inning with a pair of doubles, Cespedes followed with one of his own to give the Mets a 4-3 lead.
It was just one of those nights where things weren’t going to be easy. After Lugo surrendered a lead-0ff single to Matt Szczur, Cabrera didn’t get down low enough to field what should have been a Jose Pirela ground out. This set up first and second with no outs. Both runners would advance on a deep Carlos Asuaje fly out. Lugo did his best to limit the damage by allowing just one run to score on a Wil Myers sacrifice fly.
Lugo’s final line was six innings, eight hits, four runs, three earned, no walks, and one strikeout. He got the win in large part because of Cespedes.
The game winning runs came on what was about as bizarre as a Little League home run as you are ever going to see:
Yoenis Cespedes tried to check his swing, he instead hit a Little League homer. #Mets (? @MLB) pic.twitter.com/8rhUyB8yaf
— RealClearSports (@RealClearSports) July 26, 2017
Where do you begin with this one? The check swing triple? Myers throwing the ball away when there was no play at third? Cespedes’ head first slide into home? The offline throw from Cory Spangenberg? Or was it that Hector Sanchez failing to both catch the ball and tag Cespedes? It was the typical comedy of errors you see in your standard Little League home runs, but with Major League Baseball players.
With the triple, Cespedes found himself a single short of the cycle – the easiest one to get. Cespedes didn’t get that chance.
Despite Gary Cohen trying to assure us Michael Conforto was coming into the game in left field in a double switch so Terry Collins could get two innings out of Paul Sewald, we all knew better. Cespedes left the game with leg problems, which were later described as a quad tightness. Who knows how many games he will miss if any.
With Cespedes being the dominant figure in the game, putting the Mets on his back offensively, and leaving the game with a leg injury, Mets fans got the full Cespedes experience. Or at least very close to it as we did not get to see Cespedes unleash his cannon of an arm.
From there, Collins went to Addison Reed, who must be on fumes, in the ninth. The closer, who the Mets are trying their best to keep up his extremely high trade value, had another shaky ninth. He allowed a Dusty Coleman two out RBI double to bring the Padres to within 6-5. Much like he did last night, Reed then shut the door to preserve the victory.
With the win, the Mets are now just four games under .500, and they are nine games behind the Colorado Rockies (seven in the loss column) for the second Wild Card. Of course, this all means little when Cespedes leaves yet another game with a leg injury.
Game Notes: Conforto was initially out of the lineup to give him a day off.
When the Mets have Jacob deGrom pitching, they look like one of the best teams in baseball. Not only does deGrom shut down the opposition, but his presence on the mound seems to wake up the Mets bats. That was true again today in San Diego.
The lone mistake deGrom made in the evening was a pitch Hunter Renfroe hit atop the Western Supply Co. Building. At that point, the impressive home run was little more than a footnote in another deGrominant start.
deGrom’s final line was eight innings, five hits, two runs, two earned, two walks, and eight strikeouts. He’s now won eight straight starts.
It was a footnote because the Mets scored more than enough runs off Padres starter Clayton Richard. The scoring against him started with Wilmer Flores:
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/889674702175784960
Coming into the game, Flores only at-bat against Richard was a homer. This at-bat made two straight homers.
In the third, it looked like Yoenis Cespedes was going to break his long home run drought. Instead, it hit the CF wall, and Cespedes pulled in for an RBI triple scoring Asdrubal Cabrera. Cespedes then scored on a Jay Bruce RBIsingle through the drawn in infield.
In the fifth, Michael Conforto got the rally started with a one out double. After Cespedes was walked intentionally, Bruce hit his second RBI single to give the Mets a 4-0 lead.
After the Renfroe homer, the Mets would get the run back.
Jose Reyes hit a two out infield single, and he stole his 500th career stolen base. He then scored on a Travis d’Arnaud RBI single.
With the Padres knocking in another run in the eighth, it created a save opportunity for Addison Reed. Things got interesting with a second Renfroe homer.
It got more interesting with Manuel Margot and Hector Sanchez hitting back-to-back singles to get the tying runs on with just one out. Jabari Blash JUST missed a homer with the ball going foul and just missing the pole.
Reed settled down, struck out Blash, and got the final two outs to save the 5-2 game.
It may have been just a mirage with this being a deGrom start, but the Mets look good again just as they’re selling.
Game Notes: Zack Wheeler was put on the DL with an arm injury. Tyler Pill will be in the bullpen for now, and Chris Flexen will be called up on Thursday to take his spot in the rotation.
As the Mets take the field today against the Oakland Athletics, they will play their last home game before the trade deadline. With the Mets looking to sell, this will likely be the final home game for many of the Mets players. If so, it has been a fun ride.
Lucas Duda – Duda has had an interesting Mets career. He was the right fielder for the Johan Santana no-hitter. He won the first base job from Ike Davis. He become a power bat in the middle of a Mets lineup that went to the World Series. He is a grand slam in the NL East clincher. He hit a three run homer in the NLCS clincher. He made a bad throw allowing Eric Hosmer to score. Overall, he has been an underrated Met, who became one of the team’s rare power threats at the position.
Curtis Granderson – Granderson has been the consummate professional, and he was the first major free agent to come to the Mets in the Sandy Alderson Era. He kept the Mets afloat in the 2015 season as the team dropped like flies around him. All three homers in the World Series gave the Mets a lead. He had a great September last year leading the Mets charge to the Wild Card. He accepted a bench role this season. He has been a great Met and an even better man doing more for the community than perhaps any Mets player we have ever seen.
Asdrubal Cabrera – It was his hot hitting bat that helped the Mets get the top Wild Card. After years of poor shortstop play, he was a steadying force. Things have not gone as well this year, but he is now doing all he can do to help the team.
Addison Reed – Reed was a shot in the dark when the Mets grabbed him before the waiver trade deadline in 2015. From there, Reed became the Mets best reliever, and perhaps the best reliever in baseball over that timeframe. He went from 7th inning reliever to a pennant winner to a dominant 8th inning guy last year to a lights out closer this year. He is the biggest trade chip, and he’s most likely going to be the first player gone. When he goes, he will leave behind a spot in the bullpen that will be near impossible to fill.
Jay Bruce – It is a testament to Bruce that he is having a career year this year after playing some of his worst baseball when he first put on a Mets uniform last year. He’s on pace for his first ever 40 home run season, and he has given the Mets a reason to consider trying to bring him back.
Jerry Blevins – The lanky Blevins is perhaps the least likely player to be traded of all that are on trading block due to his team option. If he goes, out the door goes the player who has made more appearances out of the bullpen than anyone this year. With him would go a terrific LOOGY out of the pen who pitched his best baseball in a Mets uniform.
There are other players we do not reasonably anticipate to go, which makes watching today all the more important. For any of the aforementioned players as well as some other players like Wilmer Flores, this will be the last time they will wear the home jerseys at Citi Field. Each one of these players have given us reason to cheer. Hopefully, they get an extra big cheer today.
For those of us that forget, the New York Mets really had no interest in re-signing Jose Reyes after the 2011 season. When he signed with the Marlins in the offseason, there was a war of words between the two camps with Reyes saying he never received an offer, and Sandy Alderson saying Reyes’ agent was aware of the framework of the type of deal the Mets might be willing to do.
Since leaving the Mets, Reyes was roundly booed as a member of the Marlins, was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, and finally had an overly brief and turbulent career with the Colorado Rockies. For reasons we all know, and need not be discussed in-depth at the moment, it led to the Rockies releasing Reyes. This also led to Reyes re-uniting with the Mets.
Last year, he was decent with the Mets helping the team make the postseason by obtaining the top Wild Card spot. The Mets brought him back as David Wright insurance, and he has struggled for most of the season. So far, Reyes is hitting .231/.293/.392. That’s good for a 79 OPS+ and a -0.8 WAR. Not to belabor what you already know, but Reyes has been a bad baseball player.
It’s bizarre we all know it, but the Mets don’t. Reyes’ 90 games played leads the Mets this season. Part of that is he hasn’t been hurt. An even bigger part of that is Terry Collins and the Mets organization won’t or can’t admit Reyes isn’t good. This is of course reflected in how the social media team has inundated us with Reyes since the All Star Break with tweets like this:
A man of the people. pic.twitter.com/Ovn5sg29Ce
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 12, 2017
Jacob deGrom is the ace. Michael Conforto is the All Star. Yoenis Cespedes is the most important player. Curtis Granderson is the role model. Addison Reed, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Jay Bruce are the players on the trade block. Yet, somehow, the Mets have made it a point to feature Reyes despite his poor play and his personal issues.
Yes, Reyes has played better of late, but he has been nowhere near as good as Conforto, Duda, deGrom, or Seth Lugo. You wouldn’t know that by looking at how the Mets promote their players.
Sure, this is a silly gripe, but when the Mets have nothing to play for this season, you tend to notice these things. Maybe if the Mets did the right thing by calling up Amed Rosario fans could focus on that. Maybe, just maybe, the team could promote him. I think we can all agree that is beneficial for everyone.
It is nice to see the Mets win a game because the other team had mental lapses in the field, poor managerial decisions, and had a bullpen blow a late lead and finally the game. Through the first 82 games, that seemed to be the Mets specialty. Today, in what was mostly a lethargic afternoon game, the Mets got bested by the Cardinals in something they had seemingly mastered.
Through the first 4.2 innings, Seth Lugo had a no-hitter going. Somewhere someone must’ve taken notice and said something because Greg Garcia hit a double for the Cardinals first hit of the game. Still, things were in good shape for the Mets because Lugo erased Garcia, and the team had a 1-0 lead.
That lead came because Lucas Duda hit a second inning homer against Cardinals starter Lance Lynn:
https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/888078198524841984
The sizzling hot Duda has homered three times over his last five games. Duda was also good in the field saving his infielders from a few errors. Most notably, his scoop of a bad T.J. Rivera throw in the seventh saved a run. Hopefully, one of the teams that needs a 1B/DH, and there are more of them than people will lead you to believe, have taken notice.
That 1-0 lead evaporated in the sixth. After a one out walk to Matt Carpenter, Tommy Pham, who has been killing the Mets of late, doubled him home to tie the score. Once again, Lugo settled in, shut the door in the sixth, and he pitched a scoreless seventh.
The Mets hurler deserved the win with his outstanding performance, but will have to settle for a no decision. His final line was 6.2 innings, four hits, one run, one earned, one walk, and five strikeouts. With him and Lynn out of the game, it became a battle of the bullpens, and a battle of wits between the managers.
With Erik Goeddel getting the last out of the seventh, Terry Collins turned to him to pitch the eighth. It’s hard to fault Collins when everyone else in the bullpen is terrible, but the decision backfired when Pham hit a 3-1 pitch out of the park to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. With the way this game was going, and with how poorly the Mets have played of late, it seemed like this was how the game was going to end.
That was until Mike Matheny thought it was a good idea to let the left-handed Brett Cecil pitch to Wilmer Flores in the eighth. Everyone and their mother knows Flores crushes left-handed pitching. Matheny either didn’t know that, or didn’t care. That decision cost him as Cecil hung one to Flores:
https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/888108826888556544
From there, the Mets turned to the one reliever in their bullpen that they can have confidence – Addison Reed. Reed did his job pitching a scoreless ninth thereby giving the Mets a chance for a walk-off victory.
The ninth inning rally started with Michael Conforto drawing a lead-off walk against Trevor Rosenthal. It was another excellent game for Conforto that has gone unnoticed. On the day, the Cardinals allowed eight baserunners (six hits and two walks). Conforto accounted for four of those with him going 2-2 with two walks on the day.
Conforto would be erased on the basepaths on what initially appeared to be a double play ball off the bat of Yoenis Cespedes. Credit should be given to Cespedes for busting it down the line and keeping a runner on base. It paid off as he went first to third on a Rivera single. He would then score on what should have been the last out of the inning:
https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/888108826888556544
That Jose Reyes “single” was the improbable winner that sent Mets fans home happy, and it enraged Cardinals first baseman Matt Carpenter:
I love Matt Carpenter. The look on his face, exasperation as he yelled "Trevor!" was priceless. Furious and rightly so. #STLCards #Mets
— Mike Vaccaro (@MikeVacc) July 20, 2017
It was nice to be on the other side of one of these games this year. It was also nice to earn a split in the series. Even if the Mets aren’t going anywhere, it is still always a joy to beat the Cardinals. At the very least, it was a pleasure helping ensure they didn’t get the sweep they needed to get back into an NL Central race that is suddenly in flux.
Game Notes: Neil Ramirez was designated for assignment before the game to make room for Josh Smoker on the roster.