On Friday the Mets fought back to tie the game against a tough Brewers’ bullpen in the ninth inning. After Robert Gsellman got the first two outs, Manager Mickey Callaway brought in lefty specialist Jerry Blevins to face the lefty swinging Christian Yelich. Blevins hasn’t been very successful all year in the role and he was unsuccessful yet again, yielding a base hit to Yelich. Then it was A.J. Ramos who was brought in to try to put out the fire. With two runners already on, he walked the first batter he faced and he wasn’t even close with his pitches. With the bases loaded, the winning run 90 feet away, he had a total meltdown, walking in the winning run, the last pitch bouncing in front of home plate. An embarrassing way to lose. It couldn’t get worse, right? Wrong.
That’s because on Saturday, Jason Vargas was the starter. And although he pitched well against the weak-hitting Marlins, he has been absolutely dreadful. And he was dreadful yet again against the Brewers.
The Mets were putting it to the Brewers pitchers on Saturday, for a while anyway, as the teams exchanged leads. But then Callaway decided to have Ramos get back on the horse and he was thrown right from the horse as he gave up a bomb of a home run and then the rout was on as the Brew Crew crushed the Mets 17-6.
Then in the finale on Sunday, the Mets somehow manage to take the lead but, again, Callaway takes out Gsellman with two outs, a man on, and a two-run lead, and replaces him with Blevins, again, to face, who else, Christian Yelich. How da ya think THAT turned out? Let’s just say that Gsellman has pitched really well and definitely deserved a better fate. His ERA has taken a hit thanks to Blevins but at least he didn’t take the loss on Sunday like he was saddled with on Friday night.
The Mets bullpen has been brutal. Yes, they may have been overworked really early, but the plain truth is that they have NOT been very good. The most glaring has been Blevins who was so very good against lefties with his sweeping curve a year ago. Yet he can’t get anyone out this year and he only comes in in high pressure situations so it is very noticeable and very damaging when he fails. Ramos always had a penchant for walking batters prior to his arrival with the Mets. But he has just been awful. He is not at all reliable and even when he doesn’t yield a run, the innings are always stressful innings. They are never easy.
The only reliable relievers have been Seth Lugo, Gsellman, and, for the most part, Paul Sewald. Everyone else who has been given a chance has failed miserably. Yet the shuttle continues between New York and Las Vegas as the need for fresh arms has become a desperate situation.
Speaking of desperate situation, Vargas is a huge bust. Why he was given such a huge contract and immediately anointed a member of the starting rotation before spring training even started is a conundrum. Has anyone checked his resume? Aside from the first half of last season, he has been a mediocre pitcher at best.
Considering Callaway and pitching coach Dave Eiland were supposed to be these “pitching gurus” coming in to work with the Mets stable of talented young arms, you have to wonder what the hell is going on. Because other than deGrom, not one pitcher has dominated, not one pitcher has put fear in the opposition. Even Noah Syndergaard has looked somewhat human in most of his starts.
The pitching isn’t the only issue, far from it. The offense has been putrid. The defense would be just as good if Marv Throneberry were thrown out there.
The team isn’t even fun to watch right now.
Yoenis Cespedes was given his huge contract, and he can’t stay on the field. Jay Bruce was brought back with a big contract, but he has a measly three home runs at the end of May. Todd Frazier, is on the shelf and the “rah rah” stuff only works when you are out there on the field.
Michael Conforto is a huge talent, but he is not Mike Trout, he is not Bryce Harper. He is not the kind of player who can carry a team. Brandon Nimmo has proven he belongs on the big league level. But it seems like having Conforto and Nimmo in the lineup together makes the team very vulnerable to lefty pitching, especially when Cespedes and Frazier are out of the lineup.
The scary thing is that there are no reinforcements on the way. There appears to be but one player who could be the next Michael Conforto. Remember when Conforto was brought up from Double A to provide the offensive spark in 2015 before Cespedes arrived? Well, Peter Alonso is lighting it up at Binghamton in his best Conforto imitation. But he only plays first base. And, truthfully, although he is not the Adrian Gonzalez of old, he has been a pretty reliable hitter and saved the infielders from looking even worse than they really are.
But understand that this is not the Yankees. There is not a long line of youngsters waiting their turn. After Alonso, there is nobody. Not even Dominic Smith…who can’t seem to find his stroke because…get this…he finally lost a lot of weight and is actually in baseball shape. Oh come on.
The Mets are still just over the .500 mark. They began the season 11-1, having somehow strung together nine consecutive victories. Since then, they are an embarrassing 14-23. They are just…well…they are just bad. Not a lot to do the old "salt and pepper shaker" move over anyway.
