The immediate aftermath of the trading deadline is Christmas morning for baseball fans wherein batteries aren’t included, gift receipts aren’t available and you’re left wondering if anybody listened to what you said you wanted when they asked.
The Mets made two deals today. They could help. They could fall short of helping. There’s no doubt they did something, though. The big one was Dilson Herrera and Max Wotell to Cincinnati for Jay Bruce. An earlier version of the deal was Brandon Nimmo as the big name heading to the Reds. Then there was some talk about medical reports holding things up, which brought to mind the whole subject of these things “pending physicals”. When I have to take a physical, my doctor advises me to fast for 12 hours in advance. I imagine every major leaguer remotely on the trading block was delighted as of 4:30 PM to no longer be wandering around peckish and lightheaded.
But I digress. We got Jay Bruce, the National League leader in runs batted in, for a last-place team no less. The Mets have driven few runners in this season. I’m having a hard time not seeing at least some upside to the addition of a bona fide RBI guy. True, he presents redundancies in terms of playing a corner and batting lefty, but he’s under team control, Cespedes might walk after 2016 (or limp through the rest of it), nobody’s ever in ideal shape in that outfield and sometimes you try desperately to stroll the sunny side of the street. I welcome Bruce’s bat and will take a deep breath where lineup configuration is concerned.
Herrera was the second baseman of the future. I’m not sure where his future went. Perhaps the front office saw something in Las Vegas that was not so futuristic for Dillon. I’d have rather hung on to a legit 22-year-old second baseman and given up Nimmo if I had to make a choice, but it didn’t happen that way. Good luck, kid. Have a good career, but not so good that we forever curse the date August 1, 2016.
The other deal: Antonio Bastardo to Pittsburgh for Jon Niese. No, really. When it was announced, I heard myself say “YAY!” and it wasn’t to welcome back Niese. Bastardo has delayed my last train. Enjoy your reacquaintance with all three rivers; jump into any and all of them if you like. As for Recidivist Jonathon, it sounds like he’ll be pitching long relief and hopefully few fits when whoever’s in left, right or wherever misplays a single into a triple. I’m not thrilled to have Niese back, but I’m thrilled to have Bastardo gone. In this funhouse mirror version of Fulmer for Cespedes, you apparently have to accept something to get rid of something.
The Mets aren’t out of the playoff race yet. They may be soon. Or they may hang in there clear into October. We don’t know. We’ve made moves and we still don’t know. Nobody ever likes to admit to that reality when the wrapping is crumpled up and the tinsel is taken down. But we might as well.
Good luck Mets, whoever you are.
Thanks to Twitter, this was the craziest trade deadline since, well, a few days before the 2015 trade deadline, just minus any broadcasted tears. And someone cleverly retweeted my comments from a week or so ago, in which I suggested that while the Mets might have many needs, none of them are named Jonathan Niese. Touche.
5 games coming up with a DH, and as much as the DH represents the decline of Western Civilization, with Jay Bruce and Wilmer Flores in the lineup, and perhaps if Cespedes doesn’t have to have any body parts amputated soon, the Mets might want to think about petitioning the League to let them use it the rest of the year.
I’d be thrilled if the NL adopted the DH. Seriously. It would help the Mets no end.
With everybody saying Dilson Herrera was the 2B of the future, Cincy believed it enough to take him.
We kinda knew better, though. Good luck to him.
Whoops, Sandy forgot to pick up one of dozen or so relief pitchers available and so we get stuck with Lugo and Goeddel….and now Niese in the pen!
Well, Josh Edgin getting called up, so there’s hope.
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