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One Good Thing

Jacob deGrom [1] returned, as promised, and was more or less as we remembered — he hit 102 on the D.C. gun, looked like his old lanky and deadly self, and befuddled various Nationals with most of his arsenal. The lone blemish came in the fourth, when deGrom’s location eluded him and Victor Robles [2] and Luis Garcia [3] turned a single, stolen base and double into a Washington run.

The Mets, perhaps, overdid it in honoring deGrom by offering him the kind of run support they too often gave him in recent years, which was to say nothing. They had Cory Abbott [4] on the ropes in the first, driving up his pitch count with grinding, relentless at-bats, but got nothing with the bases loaded and did little against Abbott after that.

Francisco Lindor [5] got deGrom off the hook with a leadoff homer in the sixth against Victor Arano [6], but by then deGrom was out of the game as well, and the Met bullpen wasn’t up to his standard. Stephen Nogosek [7] surrendered homers on consecutive pitches to Garcia and Yadiel Hernandez [8], while Yoan Lopez [9] allowed a homer/first hit to 30-year-old MLB debutant Joey Meneses [10], who got the ball back thanks to his bullpen and their trade with a kindly Nats fan (wearing a Washington SCHERZER 31 jersey, no less).

That was a nice moment on what turned out to be the Nats’ night [11] — an unexpected story that even those of us rooting for a different outcome had to admit was a bit heartening, seeing how the Nats had been stripped of not just superstar Juan Soto [12] but also Josh Bell [13], Soto’s only reliable lieutenant in the lineup. Both were shipped off to the Padres, hyperactive as always come deadline day, in return for a haul of young players and prospects. A pretty good haul, to my eyes, but is any return worth giving away Juan Soto before his agent tells you that you have to?

The Mets were active at the deadline too, though not particularly in the way their fans — or at least those loudest on Twitter — had hoped. Willson Contreras [14] stayed in Chicago, while David Robertson [15] joined the Phillies’ bullpen. J.D. Martinez [16] remained in Boston, but another J.D. — Jonathan Gregory Davis — left the Mets for San Francisco, along with Thomas Szapucki [17] and a couple of prospects. The return for them was Darin Ruf [18], who should slot in as the other half of a capable designated-hitter platoon with Daniel Vogelbach [19].

Just before the deadline, Ruf was joined in the Met ranks by reliever Mychal Givens [20], a Showalter stalwart from Baltimore. But the pined-for lefty reliever — the commodity the Mets arguably most needed — never arrived.

Fan reaction ranged from disappointed to betrayed, with no one seeming particularly interested in GM Billy Eppler’s explanation that the cost for a lefty out of the pen had been too high, or his warning that “undisciplined thinking” — i.e. giving away too many prospects now — “can lead to years of mediocrity.” It didn’t exactly help Eppler’s case that the lesser lights of his existing bullpen got walloped by fill-in Nats a couple of hours later.

Was I disappointed? A little, sure. Like everybody else, I wanted a lefty other than Joely Rodriguez [21] out there — and I’d daydreamed of catcher being something other than a black hole. But I’ll withhold judgment for now, having no idea what the dynamics of those GM-to-GM phone calls were, or how high various teams’ asking prices might have been.

(One thing I suspect might have been at play: Steve Cohen’s offseason showed he wasn’t afraid to spend, and he’d spoken of being aggressive regardless of payroll penalties. I wonder if other clubs, armed with relatively little information with which to judge Cohen and Eppler, figured the Mets would blink in their determination to make another splash, handing over blue-chip prospects in return for a rental or two.)

I was saddest about the departure of J.D. Davis [22], who probably needed another home but was a reliably entertaining Met, from his weirdo back-formation nickname and his inept heckling of opponents to his gonzo postgame speeches and buddy-cop friendship with Pete Alonso [23]. Davis often seemed completely insane, or at least a little touched, but he had a sense of the ridiculous that I always appreciated, and I wish him well.

His replacement, Ruf, should arrive soonest, as should Givens and old friend Trevor May [24]; they’ll displace Kramer Robertson [25] (whose likely lone day on the roster without playing will make him the fourth Met ghost of 2022, joining Gosuke Katoh [26], R.J. Alvarez [27] and Sam Clay [28]) and two relievers, probably the recently luckless Nogosek and Lopez.

None of those gentlemen is left-handed, so that rather obviously remains an issue. Maybe Rodriguez will find the form he’s shown at times and fumbled for at others. Maybe the job falls to David Peterson [29], superfluous as a starter through no particular fault of his own. Maybe Clay escapes ectoplasm and becomes a flesh-and-blood hero when we need one the most. Perhaps Joey Lucchesi [30] reports for late-summer duty with a repaired elbow and something to offer. Or maybe that’s a hole that goes unfilled and we rue what didn’t happen at the beginning of August.

I have no idea. No one does. For now, deGrom’s back. That’s the kind of good thing other teams dream of having happen to them. Let’s not lose sight of that.