Asdrubal Cabrera
The Mets lost this game 7-3. Sadly, one of the reasons for the loss was Seth Lugofinally having a poor game.
The guy we all want in the rotation allowed five earned on eight hits in five innings pitched.
It really was an off night for a guy having a great season. Unfortunately, despite Lugo bailing out the Mets several times this year, the Mets could not bail him out.
In the second, after a Dominic Smithdouble, the Mets had runners at second and third with no outs.
Kevin Plaweckigrounded out, and then on a shallow center, the noodle armed Jarrod Dyson threw it offline, and he still got it there in plenty of time to nail Jose Bautistaat the plate.
One of the reasons Bautista was sent was Lugo was due up. Of course, Lugo would single off his counter-part Zack Godley to start a rally. He’d score on a Todd Frazierdouble.
After the double, the Mets had runners at second and third with one out. Brandon Nimmo and Asdrubal Cabrerastruck out to end that rally.
Sure, Alex Avilabailed out Godley more than a few times by stopping a few balls in the dirt with a runner on third. But really, this was in an inept Mets offense.
Things looked interesting with a Smith fourth inning homer off the foul pole to make it 3-2.
From there, Lugo allowed two earned. Newest Mets Chris Beck allowed a run in 1.2 innings of work. Anthony Swarzakallowed a run in the eighth.
In the ninth, a bewildered Mets team stood at the top railing almost willing something to happen.
There was a rally in the ninth against Jorge De La Rosa with Wilmer Floreshitting an RBI double scoring an unearned run.
At that point, the Diamondbacks went to their closer, Brad Boxberger, who got Michael Confortoto fly out to left to end the game.
In case you haven’t noticed, the Mets are really bad right now.
Game Notes: Smith made an appearance in LF
Right now, the Mets are 28-36. That puts them eight games under .500, 9.5 games back of the Braves for the National League East, and 8.5 games back of the Nationals for the second Wild Card. With the trade deadline about a month and a half away, it’s time to consider whether the Mets season is over. Our Mets bloggers provide their opinion in the latest roundtable:
Michael Baron (nym.news)
To get to 85 wins, the Mets now have to go 57-41. That’s a .582 clip just to make it interesting. I’m guessing that won’t be enough with Atlanta, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Arizona and for fun, San Francisco and Philly in the realistic hunt for a wild card. I do agree and have said if there’s any hope, it’s in the starting rotation, but 85 wins right now is asking a lot for this bullpen and roster which lacks any sort of competitive edge in the heat, not to mention what they probably need which is another 60-62 wins, or a 62-36 record the rest of the way.
Roger Cormier (Good Fundies)
Fangraphs currently has the Mets’ playoff odds at 4.6%. It was 9.8% just two days ago; 22% at the start of June. The Mets’ offense has been historically bad. This is not an exaggeration: No team since 1900 has scored fewer runs and recorded fewer hits in an 11 game span than the Mets. So, what I’m trying to say is no the season isn’t over. Almost! But sadly no, we are not yet free. The starting pitching has finally been really, really good lately, and all without Noah Syndergaard. The offense cannot possibly continue to break records in futility, thanks to our new best friends the law of averages. In conclusion: it is definitely probably not over.
Mark Healey (Gotham Baseball)
It’s hard to be as positive as I was prior to the season, but I still think it’s too early to call it “over.” I wish I had a better feel for the organizational plan here, but I don’t know if Callaway is setting his lineups and managing his bullpen or if he is following a front office script. Until I can determine that, I’m going to wait and see.
Ed Leyro (Studious Metsimus)
The season is far from over, but if the Mets can’t figure out how to score in more than one inning per game, they will be selling off pieces once again and we’ll all be counting down the days to the start of the football season.
Joe Maracic (Loud Egg)
The season is definitely not over. The Mets will find a way to pull us all back in again. Just as everything seems to be ok again, BAM! Back to DL and losing some more.
Greg Prince (Faith and Fear in Flushing)
I allowed myself a modicum of optimism after the Mets won the final game of their otherwise winless homestand. Get on the road, get a little momentum going…but the two games in Atlanta disabused me of the notion. Except for playing 98 more games as mandated, the season is 98% done (I of course will hang on the 2% chance it’s not).
Tim Ryder (MMO & FOB)
No, I don’t think it is. That could simply be the eternal optimist in me coming out, but it’s a very long season. There are 98 games left. The ’99 Mets were 28-28 when they fired their hitting and pitching coach and finished the season with 90+ wins. Our pitching staff is only getting better and the bats are sure to come around at some point. This can’t go on forever, right? Maybe Roessler needs to go. Who knows? But there’s more than enough time to make up for this awful stretch. There’s too much talent here to ’02 this thing.
Dilip Srindhar (MMO & MMN)
Not necessarily. The Mets could always get on some hot streak and get back to .500 given that their starting pitching has been pretty solid. That said, I really want them to realize how unlikely that would be and fully commit to playing the kids. For example, give Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo starts in the rotation. Give Dominic Smith a good long look at first. See what you have in Wilmer Flores. Also call up Tyler Bashlor, Drew Smith, and Eric Handold to see the bullpen. If we get a large sample of these guys, then we can assess the off-season better and not get stuck with making poor insurance investments. This would require the Mets to move Asdrubal Cabrera soon and let Flores play but it should be a nice couple months to see the team get younger and see what might be in fold for 2019.
Mets Daddy
The Mets can’t score, and even when their starting pitching has turned things around, the bullpen has blown either the narrow lead it was given, or they have let a one run game turn into a 10 run game. It would be worse, but really, a one run lead against this Mets team is like a 10 run lead.
Right now, we’re all pinning our hopes on Syndergaard and Yoenis Cespedes returning from the DL, but no one knows when or if that is going to happen.
Meanwhile, the Mets are continuing to keep Jose Reyes on the roster and go so far as to defend the decision. That means no young players like Jeff McNeil are going to get a change. Just when you think things couldn’t get more absurd, this team picked up Chris Beck and his career 5.94 ERA off waivers to try to help fix this bullpen.
Meanwhile, Jay Bruce can add a back back to his plantar fascitiis issues. In that way, he’s much like Cabrera in that he’s adding more injuries than base hits. Neither one of these players are even being considered for the disabled list.
Bartolo Colon is singing. It’s over.
What isn’t over is the excellent work these Mets bloggers put out over the course of a season. Much like GKR, these people give you reason to at least follow the Mets with their excellent work. I hope you enjoy their work as much as I do.
Things got interesting for the Mets in the sixth inning. Very interesting.
After five shutout innings, the Braves pulled Mike Foltynewicz in favor of LHP Jesse Biddle. The Mets got to work with Todd Frazierearning a one out walk. The ensuing batter, Brandon Nimmo, stuck out his elbow, and he was hit by a pitch.
Except, he wasn’t awarded a base because the home plate umpire Stu Scheurwater ruled Nimmo didn’t try to get out of the way of that pitch. Upon review, he was correct.
That didn’t stop Mickey Callawayfrom going absolutely ballistic leading to his first ejection in his managerial career.
With Dansby Swanson unable to get a hold of an Asdrubal Cabrera grounder the bases were loaded for Jay Bruce, who actually delivered by hitting a ground rule double to give the Mets a 2-1 lead.
In case you were wondering whether this was going to be an offensive breakout, don’t.
Devin Mesoracoripped a ball right at Braves third baseman Johan Camargo, who tagged out the lead footed Cabrera, who was standing next to the bag, before throwing to first to complete the double play.
Considering how Mets starting pitchers haven’t had leads for nearly a week (with the exception of Sunday), you could almost understand Zach Wheelerseemingly not knowing how to handle the situation.
Wheeler’s first pitch in the bottom of the sixth was hit by Freddie Freeman for a game tying solo homer.
What was odd after that was even after Tyler Flowersbarely beat the throw on what was almost a double play grounder, Bruce would nail him at third on a Camargo single. On the play, Frazier fielded the throw and dove back to tag Flowers out.
In a what was impressive base running, Camargo moved to second on the Flowers gaffe.
With two outs and a runner at second, Wheeler couldn’t get out of the inning. Like most of the night, it was a soft single which did him in.
The go-ahead Ender Inciartesingle was blooped just past Amed Rosario‘s outstretched glove leaving Brandon Nimmono shot to get Camargo at home.
Now, before reflecting on the final score and Wheeler’s final line, consider this – the Mets should have gotten out of that inning down 3-2.
Inciarte took off for second, and Mesoraco made a perfect throw to second. Only problem was Cabrera flat out dropped the ball. What appeared to be a gassed Wheeler walked the next two batters.
Gary Disarcina finally went to Paul Sewald, who had been standing around for quite some time.
What is odd was with the pitcher’s spot due up third that inning, Disarcina didn’t bother double switching Sewald into the game. Considering it was a one run game, at a minimum, it was a curious decision.
It wound up not mattering as Sewald surrendered a grand slam to Ozzie Albies. With the Mets down 7-2, Sewald hit for himself in the top of the seventh because at that point, why not?
Sewald allowed another run in the seventh to make it an 8-2 game. That was the final score of a game the Mets had a lead and were in decent position of winning. Things are getting real bad.
Game Notes: The Mets have scored 14 runs in nine games this month.
In the final game of the Subway Series, Asdrubal Cabrera tweaked one of the myriad of leg injuries he’s been dealing with for over a month now.
Sandy Alderson lauds Cabrera for playing through the injuries saying, “Cabrera! There’s a guy who’s playing. He’s not 100 percent. He’s playing. ‘Oh my god, he needs a day off, he needs a week off.’…He’s playing. Will we lose him at some point? Maybe. Right now, we want to keep putting a winning team on the field.” (Tim Healey, Newsday).
Here’s the thing, playing Cabrera through the injuries and putting a winning team on the field are two things inapposite of one another.
Back on April 25th, Mickey Callaway held Cabrera out of the lineup because the second baseman was experiencing hamstring issues.
At that time, Cabrera was hitting .349/.391/.590, and he looked like an early season MVP candidate for a 15-7 first place Mets team.
After skipping a game, Cabrera would go 0-for-6 in a 13 inning loss to the Cardinals. That was the beginning of a stretch from April 26th to the present where he has hit .247/.287/.448.
It’s not just hit bat. Over the course of the season, Cabrera has been the worst defensive second baseman in baseball with a -10 DRS. While Cabrera has historically been poor at second, it’s also fair to say his leg injuries further hinder his ability to play the field.
Over this stretch, the Mets have gone 13-27. That’s a 109 loss pace.
Now, Cabrera is not the sole cause for this record. Far from it. However, his ability to hit and field is a big reason why.
Playing Cabrera everyday isn’t helping him, and it’s not helping the Mets. It’s time the team calls up Jeff McNeil and let him play second.
Seriously, the worst McNeil can do is not hit and be a butcher in the field. That’s what the Mets are already getting from Cabrera, and we know that’s what Jose Reyes would provide. After all, in the Mets last game, Reyes both failed to step on second and threw the ball away allowing both runners to be safe.
If the Mets are serious about winning and fielding their best team, they need to have Cabrera healthy and playing. At this point, he’s not healthy, and he’s hurting the Mets. It’s time to put him in the disabled list.
With the Mets blowing two games to the Yankees as part of an eight game losing streak, there wasn’t much reason to be optimistic the Mets would pull out a win tonight.
The Yankees were throwing their ace, Luis Severino, and, after a setback, the Mets were without Noah Syndergaard. Making matters worse, during the game, Asdrubal Cabrera tweaked one of the myriad of leg injuries he’s currently suffering leading to Jose Reyes taking over for him at second.
Well, a funny thing happened.
Seth Lugo, who has been terrific all year, not only matched Severino pitch-for-pitch, he was also better.
Emerging from the bullpen, Lugo went much deeper into the game than most expected. Through six innings, Lugo limited the Yankees to just two hits with no Yankee even reaching second base. Additionally, he walked none while striking out eight.
Amazingly, he departed with the lead.
Probably because the entire Yankees team fell asleep at the switch, Reyes hit a two out single in the fifth, which put him on base ahead of Todd Frazier‘s homer.
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2-0 #Mets | End-5 pic.twitter.com/ArCL6EeqAG
— New York Mets (@Mets) June 11, 2018
Mickey Callaway then did what he had to do and had Robert Gsellman pitch the seventh and eighth.
It almost came back to bite the Mets because Reyes is terrible.
After a Miguel Andujar one out single, Aaron Boone sent up Aaron Judge to pinch hit, and he hit what should have been an inning ending double play.
Not only did Reyes fail to touch second, but, with Andujar nowhere near him, he threw the ball away. Everyone was safe.
Given how the Mets season has gone, this is where it all typically falls apart. It didn’t with Gsellman getting Gleyber Torres to foul out before getting Brett Gardner to fly out to end the inning.
With Jeurys Familia going to the DL, the question was who would close games for the Mets. Tonight, the answer was Anthony Swarzak.
It was a little dicey with a one out walk to Greg Bird, and a 2-0 count to Gary Sanchez. Sanchez ripped a liner . . . right at Frazier, who made the quick throw for an inning ending double play.
With that, the eight game losing streak is over, and the Yankees were shut out for the first time all year. For this game to mean anything, the Mets will have to build off of this and win the ensuing series against the Braves.
Game Notes: For the second straight game, Cabrera led off and Brandon Nimmo by third.
If you looked at the Mets lineup today, it looked like the lineup you put together when you’re: (1) grasping at straws; (2) overthinking things; or (3) trying to do something different for its own sake:
Here is how we line up tonight. #LGM #SubwaySeries pic.twitter.com/zRqKOHqMYK
— New York Mets (@Mets) June 9, 2018
As bizarre as the lineup looked, it worked . . . at least in the first.
Against Yankee starter Domingo German, second place hitter Todd Frazier opened the scoring with his first homer since returning from the DL:
Tip that cap, @FlavaFraz21. ??? #LGM pic.twitter.com/tJw7M58Jfy
— New York Mets (@Mets) June 10, 2018
After third place hitter Brandon Nimmo tripled, Asdrubal Cabrera homered to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.
From there, the Mets offense reverted back to itself throwing away golden opportunities. That gave Steven Matz a decent lead, but not a big one against a dangerous Yankee lineup.
For a while, Matz kept the Yankees at bay. He did what he needed to do to stymie rallies including picking off Aaron Hicks in the first.
Despite Matz pitching well, it didn’t stop Gleyber Torres from hitting a third inning homer to pull the Yankees to within 3-1.
In the sixth, Matz got himself into trouble by walking Gary Sanchez on five pitches, and then he hung a curve to Miguel Andujar. Suddenly, it’s a tie game, and you’re once again wondering just how the Mets are going to score.
Really, from the Cabrera homer through the sixth, the Mets offense did little. Then, against David Robertson, Adrian Gonzalez led off the inning with an opposite field double down the third base line.
He wouldn’t move from that base. One of the reasons why was Mickey Callaway opted to pinch hit Luis Guillorme instead of Jose Bautista after a Kevin Plawecki strikeout.
Guillorme struck out against a reliever who had reverse splits.
In the ensuing inning, Anthony Swarzak hung his first pitch to Aaron Judge, who hit what would be the game winning homer.
In quite fitting fashion, this game ended with Jose Reyes flying out to end the game. Really, on a night where the Mets had no real bench to rely upon, it made sense there was no better option than Reyes, who we all knew would fail.
Game Notes: Cabrera was ejected an inning after he struck out looking for barking from the dugout. Yoenis Cespedes was pulled from his rehab start.
In the bottom of the first, Brandon Nimmohit the second pitch of the game from Masahiro Tanaka. From there, the Mets offense did nothing.
It was as if the Mets said to Jacob deGrom, “Here’s your run. Now go win this game.”
For five innings deGrom was brilliant, and he was keeping his pitch count down. It was as if he was going to make sure he wasn’t going to let the bullpen blow this one.
The bullpen wasn’t going to get that chance because the defense did.
A Tanaka grounder somehow ate up Adrian Gonzalez who booted it leading to Tanaka teaching with one out.
Tanaka went to third after a Gleyber Torres single and Brett Gardner walk. deGrom then got Aaron Judge to fly out to medium depth right field.
Naturally, Jay Bruce labored to get to the ball, and he made an absolutely dreadful season throw home that was already rolling by the first base bag.
The throw, which rolled past Gonzalez, was not in time to catch a hobbled Tanaka, who had to exit the game with a leg injury.
Because he’s Jake, and he’s great, he got out of that jam allowing just the one earned run.
That said, we knew the Mets were going to lose this one. It really was an inevitability from a team who has not scored more than one run in a game since the first of this month. That stretch is made all the worse when you consider it includes a 14 inning game.
Mets had a golden chance in the sixth withJonathan Holder needing to warm up on the fly to get ready to pitch that inning. They went down 1-2-3.
They seemed to be getting to Chad Green in the seventh. Two on, two out, and Devin Mesoraco struck out swinging.
That was a real shame because it set the stage for deGrom to lose his first game of the season.
After a Torres two out single, Gardner got a hold of one which bounced off the top of the right field wall for a two run homer.
After Giancarlo Stanton homered off Paul Sewald, the Yankees lead was 4-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth.
If you woke up from a coma, you might’ve gotten excited in the bottom of the ninth.
Nimmo was hit by Aroldis Chapman‘s first pitch. Asdrubal Cabrera followed with an infield single (no, seriously).
After Michael Conforto flew out to center, Todd Frazier hit a ball hard that Miguel Andujar made a nice play on. That said, it was a somewhat slow moving play, and it was a play that only Cabrera would be out at second.
To put a nice capper on everything, Bruce popped out to end the game because he apparently had not done enough to help cost the Mets this game.
Game Notes: Noah Syndergaard suffered a setback and won’t be activated for Sunday. Seth Lugo will start in his place. Jeurys Familia was placed on the DL before the game, and Jacob Rhame was called up to take his place.
There isn’t much to say about this team right now.
Zach Wheeler was great shutting out the Orioles over seven innings allowing just three hits and a walk striking out five.
At the same time, the Mets were dominated by Dylan Bundy, which is at least more palatable than getting dominated by Alex Cobb.
The Mets couldn’t get two on until the seventh, and it was due to a Kevin Plawecki two out double.
Buck Showalter took advantage of an opportunity to force Mickey Callaway‘s hand by intentionally walking Adrian Gonzalez to bring up Wheeler.
Despite Wheeler’s .286 batting average, with how horrid the Mets offense has been Callaway had little choice but to try to get that runner home by pinch hitting Jose Bautista.
In a tough at-bat, where Bautista took some borderline pitches, he walked to load the bases.
Then Amed Rosario had a terrible at-bat striking out on three straight pitches ending the inning.
Worse yet, he took it into the field misplaying a Pedro Alvarez hit into an infield single.
An Adam Jones single and Manny Machado sacrifice fly later, and the Mets faced an insurmountable 1-0 deficit with Jeurys Familia facing the loss.
And just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, you got to see the epitome of the Mets offensive ineptitude.
After Brandon Nimmo singled to lead-off the bottom of the eighth, Asdrubal Cabrera went to bunt his way on. Typically, this is a smart baseball play, especially for a player in a slump because the only real downside is you move a runner into scoring position.
That is unless you did what Cabrera did, which was pop the bunt up to the pitcher who could throw it quickly to first to complete the easy double play.
So, there you have it. The Mets limited the worst team in baseball to just three runs in two games, and they got swept because they could only muster one run. Just one.
This has to be rock bottom, right?
Game Notes: Mets are contemplating releasing Jose Reyes but want to do so in a way that honors him because anytime you get a chance to honor a player who threw his wife through a glass door, you just have to do it.
Well, Todd Frazier and Anthony Swarzak were back today. The MLB worst Orioles were sending Alex Cobb and his AL worst seven losses and a 6.80 ERA to the mound.
This was supposed to be the day everything got better.
It didn’t.
In the first, the Orioles played two against Jason Vargas with a Manny Machado RBI single and a Danny Valencia sac fly. Believe it or not (you should believe it), the Mets could not overcome that deficit.
It wasn’t until the fifth that the Mets would get anything going with a Jay Bruce single and a Kevin Plawecki double.
Ultimately, with runners on second and third with no out, the Mets would only plate one run on a Jose Bautista sacrifice fly. Bautista just missed it, but he missed it all the same.
With Seth Lugo pitching three scoreless and Swarzak returning with a scoreless inning, the Mets would have a chance to tie the game with a big hit, an error, really, anything.
And the Mets has a golden chance in the eighth.
After an Amed Rosario one out walk, Brandon Nimmo laid down a bunt. Valencia got to the ball, but he pulled the first baseman off the bag with his throw. With the heart of the order approaching, Asdrubal Cabrera hit into an inning ending and effectively speaking a game ending double play.
Now, the Mets are four games under .500, and you’re left wondering where the low point is going to be because the Mets certainly haven’t found it yet.
Game Notes: Cabrera is now one for his last 25.
In a scathing article from David Lennon of Newsday set to take Mickey Callaway to task for the Mets recent poor play ultimately concluding that under Callaway’s 57 game tenure as a manager, the Mets are, “A lot of talk, accomplishing nothing.”
Really, it was full of quick barbs and cheap shots like this gem:
So after two more losses, one lousy run scored in the last 24 innings and a pair of Little League-quality blunders in Sunday’s sweep-completing 2-0 loss to the Cubs, we’re wondering what Mickey Callaway has planned next for the Mets.
A how-to seminar on the basics of baseball? A weeklong retreat to restore all of this depleted self-esteem? Maybe a clubhouse visit by Tony Robbins?
This is just emblematic of how Callaway, who is in a no-win situation is now fair game for mocking, ridicule, and blame. What is interesting is these downright insults really overlook what Callaway has accomplished in his brief tenure.
Jacob deGrom has gone to a level we had never seen him pitch. For a Mets organization who looked at Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo as enigmas, Callaway has helped turn them into terrific relievers. Speaking of enigmas, the Mets have recently seen Zach Wheeler and Steven Matz turn a corner. It that holds true this rotation will be every bit as formidable as we all hoped it would be.
Offensively, Brandon Nimmo has gone from fourth outfielder to a terrific lead0ff hitter who leads all National League outfielders in OBP and OPS. Amed Rosario has been making continued strides. After beginning his career hitting .245/.275/.371 with a 27.6% strikeout rate, since May 1st, Rosario is an improved .274/.291/.415 with a 16.4% strikeout rate. It may not seem like much, but it’s a stark improvement.
We have also seen the Mets go dumpster diving for players like Adrian Gonzalez, Jose Bautista, and Devin Mesoraco. Somehow, these players have been much improved with the Mets than their prior stops, and they have salvaged their MLB careers.
The obvious question from here is if all this is true than why are the Mets 27-30 and in fourth place after such a terrific start?
Much of that answer, i.e. the blame, is attributable to the Mets front office.
Despite time and again facing the same injury issues over and over again, the team AGAIN mishandled a Yoenis Cespedes leg injury, and they are having Jay Bruce and Asdrubal Cabrera play poorly through their own injuries. What’s hysterical about this is Sandy Alderson actually utter the words, “Honestly, sometimes I think we’re a little too cautious with how we approach injuries.”
He’s also made a number of blunders with the in-season managing of this roster.
Consider this. After short start, the Mets designated P.J. Conlon in a series of roster moves to help bring up three fresh arms including Scott Copeland. After Copeland pitched 1.1 scoreless in his only appearance, the Mets called up Jose Lobaton and his -0.6 WAR for the intended purpose of allowing Kevin Plawecki and his .198/.282/.288 split against left-handed pitchers at first base to face Mike Montgomery.
Meanwhile, a Mets organization loses Conlon as the Dodgers claimed him, and a Mets organization who has been wringing their hands to find a second left-handed pitcher in the bullpen, looked on as Buddy Baumann get lit up for four runs on three hits and two walks in the 14th inning of a game the Cubs had not scored a run in over three hours.
The front office’s decision making gets worse and worse the more you look at it.
For some reason, they insist on keeping Jose Reyes on the roster. This, coupled with the aforementioned Gonzalez and Bautista signings, is emblematic of an organization more willing to trust in done veterans reclaiming their past glory than giving a young player like Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, Peter Alonso, or even Gavin Cecchini (before his injury) a chance.
This was one of the reasons why the Mets signed Bruce to a three year deal this offseason. No, this was not insurance against Michael Conforto‘s shoulder. Three year $39 million deals are not that. Rather, this signing showed: (1) the Mets wanted a Cespedes-Conforto-Bruce outfield for the next three years; and (2) the team did not have any faith Nimmo could handle playing everyday at the MLB level on even a limited basis.
Now, the Mets what looks to be an injured $39 million albatross in right, who doesn’t even know to call off a back peddling second baseman with a runner on third.
That’s bad defense, which is something the Mets actively welcome with all of their personnel decisions. Really, the team has spent the past few seasons looking to plug non-center fielders in center while playing players out of position all across the infield.
Despite what the Lennon’s of the world will tell us, the poor defense and lack of basic fundamentals isn’t Callaway’s doing. No, it is the result of an organizational philosophy.
The Bruce signing has such short and long term implications. With his salary, will the Mets bench him instead of Nimmo or Gonzalez when Cespedes comes back healthy. Will the organization let his salaries in future years block Alonso or Dominic Smith at first base? Mostly, will his escalating salaries be another excuse why the team rolls the dice and gives a player like Jason Vargas $8 million instead of just going out and signing the player who really fills a need?
Sure, there are plenty of reasons to attack Callaway. His bullpen management has been suspect at times. Lately, he’s been managing more out of fear than attacking the game to try to get the win. Really, this is part of a learning curve for a first time manager in a new league.
It’s a learning curve that could have been helped by a long time veteran National League manager. Instead, Sandy Alderson thought it best to hire a Gary Disarcina to be the bench coach because who better to help a young first time manager in a new league than a player who has spent his entire playing, front office, and minor league managerial career in the American League?
Really, that’s just one of several examples of how Alderson has set up both Callaway and this entire Mets team to fail in 2018.