Justin Turner
With Wilmer Flores and Jose Reyes suffering injuries, we got to see Travis d’Arnaud shift all game between second and third base. With the Mets not wanting to be put in that situation again, the Mets have flown both Matt Reynolds and Gavin Cecchini to New York as a precaution. In the event both Reynolds and Cecchini are activated, it appears that Reynolds, not Cecchini, will be the one who will get playing time.
Before the game and before injuries were an issues, Sandy Alderson informed reporters he was inclined to give Reynolds a long look in September. Alderson also stated the team will not be giving Cecchini a long look at second base in September. Alderson’s statements could be interpreted to mean the Mets are now moving on from Cecchini.
In one sense, this shouldn’t be that surprising. After struggling at shortstop and with the rise of Amed Rosario, Cecchini was moved to second base. While he has been good defensively at second, he has taken a step back offensively.
Cecchini had a breakout offensive season in 2015 in Binghamton. He continued that success last year in both Las Vegas and the Arizona Fall League. Seeing him hit .267/.329/.380 this season, it makes you question what was the issue with him.
There are some plausible explanations for this. For starters, Cecchini’s 2015 and 2016 stats were partially fueled by a high .348 and .357 BABIP. Certainly, his being an aggressive contact line drive hitter with low walk and strikeout rates, he is susceptible to swings in his BABIP from year to year. To that end, it may not be such a surprise to see Cecchini see his BABIP drop to .329 this year and his offensive stats drop they way they have.
Another possible explanation is Cecchini has had to put extra work and attention to learning second base. With the Mets focus this season with making their players more versatile, Cecchini has also had to work on his play at shortstop. This is a plausible explanation as to why we have seen Cecchini struggle at the plate this year.
Still, this is a talented player. It was one of the reasons the Mets made him their first round draft pick (12th overall) in 2012. In his two brief stints in the majors, he has not been over-matched at the plate. Last year, he hit two doubles in seven at-bats. In his call-up this year, he had a four game hitting streak that included a home run off Clayton Kershaw. Seeing this, and how much the Mets have invested in him, it seems peculiar the Mets would just pass on giving him an extended look in the majors.
Then again, this seems to be a pattern with Sandy Alderson. He and his front office have truly struggled with contact hitters like Cecchini who have not shown power at a young age. Many will point to his decision to non-tender Justin Turner, but there is also the way the Mets have handled T.J. Rivera. The team continuously passed him over for players who did not pan out.
Cecchini may or may not be an everyday second baseman or even a Major League player. At this point, we don’t know, but it also seems odd to take that stance when he’s still just 23 years old, who has not been afforded the opportunity to receive the benefit of Kevin Long’s tutelage. There’s also the matter of the Mets giving playing time to Reyes, Flores, and Asdrubal Cabrera. In large part, the Mets know what they have in them, and for the most part, they haven’t been good enough to help the Mets win this year.
We don’t know that with Cecchini. It’s time to give him a chance.
The New York Mets were playing on Sunday night. They were scheduled to play the Los Angeles Dodgers who are currently on a pace to win 115 games. The question wasn’t whether the Mets would lose. The question was whether the game would be competitive.
SPOILER ALERT: It wasn’t.
Shocking, I know.
Effectively speaking, this game was over in the first inning. The shame of it was the Mets initially seemed to get out of that inning unscathed. Travis d’Arnaud made a strong throw to beat Justin Turner at second. However, that’s not what happened. Upon review, Turner made a swim move avoiding the tag. It would turn out to be one of the three stolen bases on the nigh against d’Arnaud and Steven Matz.
After the play, Matz would give up a walk and three hits giving the Dodgers a 3-0 lead. It would have been 4-0 except Michael Conforto made a good throw from center to nail Austin Barnes at the plate. It was a good block of the plate by d’Arnaud.
However, it didn’t matter much. Hyun-jin Ryu dominated a Mets team that frankly looks disinterested right now. Over seven innings, he allowed just one hit to d’Arnaud while striking out eight batters over seven innings. That would be the Mets only hit in the game.
On the other side, Turner would hit a two run homer off Matz, and Josh Smoker would allow a two run shot of his own to Cody Bellinger. Apparently, Terry Collins doesn’t have access to Baseball Reference because he continues to try to use Smoker to get tough left-handed batters out despite Smoker having reverse splits.
That’s at least better than whatever Matz is doing now. His last six starts, including tonight, have been absolutely terrible. His pitching 5.1 inning is a moral victory at this point. There is something clearly wrong with him whether it is mechanical, mental, or like most of his career, physical.
Because he is now a member of the Mets bullpen, AJ Ramos had to give up a run to make it 8-0.
In sum, the Mets lost another game to the Dodgers, and they got swept in the season series in which they were not competitive. This is the first time there has been a season series sweep in this 55 year rivalry. Isn’t that just the perfect allegory to the 2017 season? The Dodgers reach new heights while the Mets are irrelevant.
Game Notes: Turner made his old team pay again going 2-4 with three runs, a homer, two RBI, and two stolen bases. Jay Bruce and Neil Walker sat with some injury issues. Walker would make a pinch hitting appearance.
Here’s the long story short on the Mets game – the Dodgers are just a much better team.
The Mets got homers from Conforto, Wilmer Flores and Curtis Granderson in the first to get out to a 3-0 first inning lead. Seth Lugo would no-hit the Dodgers for 4.2 innings. And, yet, the Mets had no hopes of winning this game.
With a pair of Chris Taylor and Cody Bellinger blasts, the Dodgers tied the game in the sixth.
Yasiel Puig homered off Paul Sewald to lead off the seventh giving the Dodgers took the lead and didn’t look back.
In total, the Dodgers hit five homers, including one from Justin Turner, who we should all remember was a player the Mets kicked out the door.
As if things weren’t aggravating enough, Terry Collins found a way to pull Michael Conforto because as we know, if you want to win a game, you pull your best bat from the game.
Game Notes: Amed Rosario was 0-4 marking this as his first hitless game in the majors.
Heading into the 2015 season, the Mets made the somewhat controversial move to make Wilmer Flores the everyday shortstop for a team that believed they could compete for a spot in the postseason. As the season progressed, Flores would lose his job to Ruben Tejada. From that point forward, Flores has had opportunities to prove he is a starting player in the majors.
Starting with Lucas Duda‘s back injury on May 20th last year, the entire Mets starting infield would go on the Disabled List for an extended period of time. With David Wright going out for the year on May 27th, there was a permanent spot open in the starting lineup for Flores.
For the most part, Flores earned that spot. From May 29th until his ill-fated slide into home plate on September 10th, Flores had good overall numbers that masked his extreme platoon splits. Flores hit .373/.409/.807 with three doubles, 11 homers, and 28 RBI in 88 plate appearances against left-handed pitching. Comparatively, Flores hit a meager .241/.297/.362 with nine doubles, four homers, and 19 RBI in 192 plate appearances. Put simply, with splits like that, Flores proved he was nothing more than a platoon bat.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t even been that in 2017.
So far this season, Flores is hitting .281/.311/.448 with 12 doubles, a triple, seven homers, and 25 RBI. Against, left-handed pitching, he is only hitting .292/.304/.462 with five doubles, two homers, and six RBI in 69 plate appearances. Against right-handed pitching, he is hitting better than his career numbers, but he’s still only at .276/.314/.441 with seven doubles, one triple, five homers, and 19 RBI.
The end result is a player with just a 97 wRC+. That’s not a bat the Mets can keep in the lineup, especially when Flores has a glove that shouldn’t be in the field:
| Innings | DRS | UZR | |
| 1B | 244.2 | 2 | 1.9 |
| 2B | 633.0 | -6 | -0.2 |
| 3B | 893.0 | -15 | -4.4 |
| SS | 1313.2 | -15 | -0.2 |
At this point, Flores has been in the majors for five years, and he has yet to truly make a case for the Mets to keep him around. All we get out of him is glimpses. We do not see any sustained success. That’s problematic considering the Mets are in a strange place as an organization.
The team needs to start making some decisions on some players. They need to decipher who can be a part of the next World Series Championship team. With the emergence of T.J. Rivera coupled with Gavin Cecchini, Amed Rosario, and Dominic Smith awaiting their own opportunity to prove they belong in the majors, it becomes harder and harder to keep Flores on this roster.
Still, Flores is still just 25 years old. It is quite possible he may still figure things out and become a good major league ball player. The unfortunate reality is he’s running out of time to prove it. He is already in his arbitration years, and he is due to be a free agent after the 2019 season.
Sooner or later, the Mets will have to make a decision on Flores. Is he a piece of the Mets next World Series title? Is he a guy who can become the next Justin Turner or Daniel Murphy? At this point, we don’t know, and we are running out of time to find out.
Things got off to a pretty good start in the All Star Game when Michael Conforto actually had his name announced during player introductions.
Things got better for him. He’d enter the game in the sixth. In his only chance in the game, he would make a nice leaping grab on an Avisail Garcia liner. He finally got to bat in the bottom of the seventh, and he singled against Roberto Osuna:
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/884963737781903361
Conforto’s big moment came in the bottom of the ninth. With the game tied and runners at the corners, he faced off against Craig Kimbrel. Unfortunately, he struck out to end the inning.
It was a good day for the Mets star, but unfortunately, it won’t be the moment we will be talking about for years to come. That moment will be Nelson Cruz taking his phone to the plate and having Yadier Molina take a picture of him with Home Plate Manager Joe West:
https://twitter.com/therendermlb/status/884957628773924864
Molina then followed this moment by hitting an opposite field homer against Ervin Santana.
Your MVP would be Robinson Cano. Cano’s 10th inning homer off Wade Davis was the difference in the game. On the bright side, the Mets weren’t the only New York team to lose an All Star second baseman.
Former Mets: In addition to Conforto, there were more than a few ex-Mets on the field.
Jason Vargas pitched one scoreless inning.
Justin Turner was 0-1 in his lone at bat.
Daniel Murphy, who was the National League’s starting 2B, was 1-2. The ball Murphy couldn’t quite get to led to the first run of the game.
The American League’s sole run came when Miguel Sano blooped a single into a Bermuda Triangle of Nationals – Murphy, Bryce Harper, and Ryan Zimmerman.
Having pitched Sunday, Michael Fulmer did not appear in the game.
Ever since the Mets parted ways with Justin Turner and Daniel Murphy, it is as if the Mets former second baseman have made it a point to show the Mets why they were wrong to get rid of them. Not only are both drastically improved players, but they also make it a point to beat up on the Mets.
Since joining the Dodgers in 2014, Turner is a .309/.381/.509 hitter who hit 27 homers and 90 RBI last season accumulating a 16.9 WAR. His 147 wRC+ is the best in baseball in that time frame among Major League third baseman. In his 21 regular season games against the Mets, Turner is hitting .290/.380/.551 with six doubles, four homers, and 12 RBI.
As we remember from the 2015 NLDS, he was the Dodgers offense hitting .526/.550/.842 with six doubles, and four RBI. Fortunately for the Mets, they had Murphy, who had one the best postseason runs in Major League history. Unfortunately, the Mets have parted ways with Murphy as well.
Since leaving the Mets, Murphy has become an MVP candidate. In one plus seasons, Murphy has hit .342/.390/.585 with 72 doubles, seven triples, 39 homers, and 159 RBI with an 8.4 WAR. He leads all major league second baseman in batting average, OBP, OPS, doubles, and wRC+. Simply put, he’s the best hitting second baseman in the majors.
He’s put that on display in his games against the Mets. In 30 games against the Mets, Murphy is hitting .388/.438/.698 with 10 doubles, a triple, eight homers, and 29 RBI.
Each and every time Turner and Murphy batter the Mets, the debate is sparked over why the Mets let both players walk in the first place.
The defenders of Sandy Alderson fall back on the position that no one could have reasonably foresaw the production from either one of these players. In his four years with the Mets, Turner was a .265/.326/.370 hitter who was nothing more than a utility player. Murphy was a much better hitter than Turner with the Mets hitting .288/.331/.424. There were spurts with Murphy where he was a 2014 All Star and his 2015 postseason run, but you’d be hard pressed to argue he’d be a better hitter than Jose Altuve and Robinson Cano.
So yes, you could point to those stats and say no one could have foreseen Turner and Murphy becoming the best hitters at their position since leaving the Mets. However, why is this is a defense of Sandy Alderson?
Isn’t Alderson tasked with identifying talented players and predicting who will improve and who will regress? Shouldn’t it be part of his job to put coaches in place that best helps cultivate the talent on his roster? More importantly, how could it be a General Manager whiffs on evaluating two players who were under his control? Put another way, how is it that Sandy Alderson didn’t know what he had in Turner and Murphy?
For all the good Sandy has done, especially getting Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud for R.A. Dickey, he has failed here.
We can make all the excuses we want for him, but it doesn’t change the fact he let two extremely talented players, who were with his team, slip out from under their fingers. Even if you argue the other General Managers didn’t see this coming, those other General Managers did not have Turner and Murphy on their roster.
Worse yet, the Mets need help now at second and third base right now. More than that, they need an answer for those positions going forward. It’s time to stop giving Sandy a pass for his failure to see what Turner and Murphy would become. After all, that is literally what his job is as a General Manager.
With the Mets announcement of selling, we have officially begun the silly season of people proposing ridiculous trade rumors. However, that isn’t limited to fans like you and I. That goes to people who are actually paid to write about baseball, and those that are paid to talk about it on the air. The first doozy came from Mark Feinstand of MLB.com who wrote the Mets should trade Lucas Duda to the New York Yankees for Austin Romine. Shockingly, instead of being met with derision, Evan Roberts was right on board with this one.
How can anyone be on board with that trade?
Since becoming the Mets everyday first baseman, Duda is a .247/.347/.484 hitter who has averaged 28 homers and 83 RBI in the seasons he was able to play a full season. This year, Duda is hitting .251/.362/.553 with 13 homers and 29 RBI in 53 games. That’s a 40 HR and 89 RBI pace.
Since 2014, Duda is eighth among first baseman with a 129 wRC+. Considering Edwin Encarnacion has been a DH more than 1B over that time, Duda is really seventh. If you focus on his two full seasons of 2014 and 2015, Duda has a 134 wRC+, which would rank him seventh. Again, if you view Encarnacion as a DH, Duda is sixth. And with Duda’s stats this year, it looks like he’s back to that 2014-2015 form.
Sure, Duda can be prone to bouts of streakiness (like any other player), and he had one bad throw in the 2015 World Series. That doesn’t detract from the fact Duda’s in the upper echelon of Major League first baseman.
His return should be much more than a career backup catcher like Romine. Think about it. Romine’s career numbers are .219/.268/.342, but he is better this year hitting .268/.305/.423. Sorry, those are Rene Rivera‘s numbers. Romine is a career .224/.258/.325 hitter who is hitting .231/.262/.314 this year.
How can anyone believe Duda is worth a player worse than Rene Rivera? The same Rivera who the Mets signed prior to the 2016 season because he was released by the Tampa Bay Rays after Spring Training. And by the way for all the hand wringing over Travis d’Arnaud‘s arm, d’Arnaud has thrown out to 22% of base stealers in his career to Romine’s 21%. At this point, you could even argue you would rather have Kevin Plawecki over Romine.
And yet, people believe Duda isn’t good enough to fetch more than a backup catcher . . . a bad one at that. They say that despite the Yankees, Astros, Angels, Twins, Royals, and possibly other teams being in the market for a 1B/DH.
There is going to be a point where Duda is no longer the Mets first baseman. He is going to go to another place where the fans are going to appreciate him for getting on base even when he’s cold at the plate. They’re going to be in awe of a 30 home run caliber bat. He’s going to play a good first base.
All the while, Mets fans will be bending over backwards to say no one could have expected this. It’s just another case of Justin Turner and Daniel Murphy. In reality, they’ll be wrong. Duda was this good when he was in New York, but you just failed to appreciate him.
Stop it. The notion is insane. In fact, it is completely preposterous. No self respecting Mets fan should even broach the topic. Before even pursuing further, we should all stop while we are ahead.
Except the Mets aren’t ahead. They’re way down in the standings. They are eight games under .500 trailing the Nationals by 11.5 games in the division. Things are worse for the Wild Card. They are behind the Diamondbacks for the second Wild Card by 12.5 games with five other teams ahead of them. Seriously, at this point what is there to lose?
And that right there is the Mets best rationale to finally seeing what they have with Rafael Montero.
Let’s dispense with what we all know. Montero has been absolutely terrible in his time with the Mets. In his major league career, he has pitched in 39 games going 1-9 with a 5.51 ERA, 1.756 WHIP, and a 5.7 BB/9. Each year he pitches in the majors, he has arguably gotten worse. What makes that all the more frustrating is when he gets sent down to the minors, he dominates. This has led the Mets to keeping him on the 40 man roster while getting rid of valuable pitchers like Gabriel Ynoa when it had come time to clear space on the 40 man roster.
It has been a frustrating four years. However, in that time frame, the Mets still see something in him that leads to them keeping him on the roster. They have given him chance after chance after chance. About the only thing they haven’t given him was an extended shot. Maybe it’s time they give him one.
For the first time, Montero has earned the shot. Due to Matt Harvey‘s injury, Montero was recalled, and he has pitched well.
On Thursday, after Robert Gsellman was only able to pitch five innings against the Nationals, Montero came in and pitched surprisingly well. In three shutout innings, he didn’t allow a hit, and in a complete shock, he didn’t walk a batter while striking out three.
On Monday, when Zack Wheeler couldn’t get out of the second inning, Montero came in, and he pitched well again. Over 3.2 innings, Montero allowed just three hits and two walks while striking out five. The only run against him was a Justin Turner home run in what was the last batter Montero would face in the game.
In those two combined outings, Montero has pitched 6.2 innings allowing three hits, one run, one earned, and two walks while striking out eight batters. If that was one start, it would be an outstanding start.
It at least seems like Montero is a different pitcher over those past two appearances. He has been throwing more strikes, and he has been trusting his stuff. These are exactly the things people have been waiting for him to do for years. It appears now he’s finally doing it, and in this ever so brief sample size, he appears that he could be an effective major league pitcher.
Fact is, we don’t know if this is for real or not. This could be another one of his mirages. It could also be him FINALLY figuring things out. If he has figured it out, the Mets owe it to themselves to finally see the fruit of their patience. With the Mets being so far out, now is the time to give him that chance. With the Mets going nowhere, you need to find out who can be piece of the future. That is especially important with Montero being out of options. Next year, he has to be on the roster or exposed to another team on waivers.
At this point, the Mets need to use the rest of the season to find out who is a part of the future. For the longest time, the Mets assumed that would include Montero. It’s time to find out if he is.
Tonight’s game effectively started like yesterday’s game. Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger each hit a two run homer to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead over the Mets.
From there, Robert Gsellman allowed solo shots to Seager in the fourth and Yasmani Grandal in the fifth giving the Dodgers consecutive four home run games.
Another run scored off a Joc Pederson RBI double. That capped off three straight Dodger extra base hits. It also was the end for Gsellman.
Gsellman’s final line was 4.2 innings, nine hits, eight runs, seven earned, three walks, and two strikeouts. At this point, it’s safe to assume he’s taking the loss.
For his part, Jose Reyes should take a lot of blame with his killing two rallies off Dodger starter Brandon McCarthy. He ended a third inning rally grounding into a double play. In the fifth, he struck out with runners on first and second.
His counter-part wasn’t missing. Seager homered off Josh Edgin in the fifth giving him three homers in the game. At that point, it was 10-0, and the game was effectively over.
[If more happens worthy of mentioning, this will be updated].
This season has completely unraveled. It’s time to sell for whatever they can get . . . no matter how little the return.
Game Notes: Gavin Cecchini was rewarded for yesterday’s homer by being put in the lineup and batting eighth behind Rene Rivera. So far, he’s 1-2. The unearned run was the result of a T.J. Rivera throwing error allowing Justin Turner to get on in front of the Bellinger home run.
From the minute Chase Utley hit a lead-off double against Zack Wheeler, you knew the game was over.
The first five Dodgers would reach against Wheeler. Justin Turner, the guy Sandy Alderson non-tendered, got the first RBI of the game. They all scored on a Cody Bellinger home run.
Dating back to his last start, Wheeler allowed 12 straight batters to reach base. With the first four scoring, the Dodgers handed Clayton Kershaw a 4-0 lead, which basically ensured the Dodgers would win the game:
Wow, what graphic our broadcast just put up. Clayton Kershaw is 91-0 in games where the Dodgers score 4+ runs for him.
— Steve Gelbs (@SteveGelbs) June 20, 2017
Even the most eternal optimist had their dreams shattered in the second when Turner homered and Bellinger hit his second homer of the game. The Dodgers then had an insurmountable 7-0 lead.
When Jose Reyes hit a solo homer too lead off get third, there was little reason to continue watching. Kershaw wasn’t getting his no hitter. At that point, there was little reason to continue watching.
To their credit, the Mets made it competitive. Jay Bruce hit a solo shot in the fourth, and Gavin Cecchini hit a a two run shot in the fifth.
.@GavinCecchini2 got a hanger…And you know what happened next. pic.twitter.com/fQpvXED1ht
— New York Mets (@Mets) June 20, 2017
While this was happening Rafael Montero kept the Dodgers off the board with three scoreless innings. It’s amazing. Montero now had a 6.2 inning scoreless streak. He has looked like a completely different pitcher.
Still, this is the same underachieving Mets team. On top of that, when you spot Ketshaw a 7-0 lead, you’re simply not going to win the game.
After Kershaw struck out the side in the sixth, he had his fourth straight 10 strikeout performance against the Mets. It was honestly as far as I could go. Seeing Utley score again will certainly give me nightmares about breaking my legs.
[I’ll update as necessary tomorrow provided I had scheduled enough time on the DVR]
Game Notes: With Montero pitching today, Tyler Pill will likely get the start on Wednesday.