All is fleeting, grasshopper. Even baseball teams. Especially baseball teams.
Mets come, Mets go. The franchise is an ever-shifting assemblage of overlapping stints in orange and blue, some lasting years, some concluded in minutes. For a fun game, construct a chain of overlapping Met teammates back to 1962 with as few links as possible; what I find compelling about that exercise is that you’re plucking a very few keepers from more than 1,200 discards.
So it is right now in miniature: On Tuesday the Mets traded for A’s starter Paul Blackburn, Rays reliever Tyler Zuber and Marlins reliever Huascar Brazoban, who will join recent imports Jesse Winker, Ryne Stanek and Phil Maton.
Blackburn is here as an alternative to the shufflearama necessitated by the injuries to Christian Scott and Kodai Senga, though one senses Jose Butto may not be done with SP assignments. But next to the bullpen, the starting corps looks like the very definition of stability. The bullpen has now been rebuilt on the fly since Opening Day: Of the relievers on the roster then, Edwin Diaz is still standing and Adam Ottavino‘s responsibilities have been downgraded significantly. They’re it — Drew Smith, Jorge Lopez, Michael Tonkin, Jake Diekman, Yohan Ramirez, Brooks Raley, and starter-demoted-to-longman Adrian Houser are all gone.
How do you grade the last day of the overhaul? I’ve never liked that game, to be honest — it calls for an answer like Zhou Enlai musing on the influence of the French Revolution, as the players imported will launch their own chains of transactions and transformations to weigh and argue about. Ask me in a year, or three, or 10. For the moment, I’ll note that Blackburn adds some much-needed flexibility, I’m impressed by the combination of Brazoban’s recent track record and remaining years of control, and Zuber is at least an intriguing project. More significantly, David Stearns didn’t give up a single prospect whose subtraction made me wince.
For now, the about-to-be-further-transformed Mets had business to take care of against the Twins, last seen getting outpointed by a baker’s dozen worth of runs. Tuesday night’s game was rather different: crisp, mostly clean and very fast. Minnesota’s David Festa allowed an RBI single to J.D. Martinez and a homer to Mark Vientos (witnessed by Festa’s parents in a memorable SNY shot) but nothing else; Festa’s only real mistake was drawing Sean Manaea on a night he had everything working.
Manaea was the best he’s been as a Met, striking out 11 and allowing just one runner past first in seven innings, plus showing off some amusingly elaborate personalized handshakes. (Even more amusing: whatever it is Pete Alonso and Winker are doing to entertain themselves here.) Stanek was victimized by an Alonso error to start his second go-round as a Met but emerged unscathed with a little help from Diaz, who recorded a four-out save despite throwing, by my count, 72 sliders that screamed HIT MEEEEEE while sitting in the middle of the plate. The Twins didn’t hit them; whatever works I suppose.
And so we arrive at the last day of July and the assembly of the roster that will push through August and September with hopes of playing beyond those months. A bit of hoary old baseball wisdom is you spend the first two months seeing what you have, the next two getting what you need, and the last two going for it. Well, here’s to going for it.
Addendum: Your recapper, because he’s a dick, is headed for Iceland Friday night for nine days, sticking Greg with recapping the entirety of a hate-mission road trip. Be nice to him.
I can’t get excited about Blackburn. It seems like he’s had brief strong stretches before and maybe we’ll get lucky and catch one but otherwise he seems more of what we have already – a 4/5 starter. If he can stay healthy. But we didn’t give up much. Brazoban’s another story if he can continue what seems to be his version of the old man breakout season. We hit the jackpot with one from Dickey a while back – no way this will be as impactful but a bullpen version would be nice. Plus we should get Reid-Foley and Garrett back before too long. In the end we didn’t transform the team up – Winker will help – and didn’t tear apart the farm system.
What I could get excited about is Manaea. Damn dude! The other thing I could get excited about is the White Sox. I’m just not sure which way to go. Should I want us owning the worst MLB season in modern times erased or be proud, in a strange way, of us owning that piece of history?
Also, Nunez shouldn’t be far behind Reid-Foley and Garrett in coming back. Stearns didn’t add a bonafide closer as Diaz insurance or a fireman/set-up man, someone other than Diaz who Mendoza would have trusted to finish the 8th inning last night, but that’s Nunez’s role when he comes back. The middle relief has been reinforced, which is big for a starting staff that usually goes 5. They should be able to keep a tied game tied, a close deficit within reach, or hold a 1-2 run lead for 3-4 innings.
Blackburn isn’t interesting for his own sake. Like you said, he seems redundant. What makes him interesting is what adding him could mean for Megill moving to the bullpen or Butto staying there. I don’t believe the Mets are adding Blackburn to go to a 6-man rotation after all. I don’t believe he’s going to the bullpen. Or that he’ll bump Peterson to the bullpen. But that’s possible, too, if Peterson is viewed as an answer for the lefty reliever need.
As far as the 40-win record, I’d like the Mets to keep the record. But I sometimes wonder if holding that record has been a karmic anchor holding the Mets back from sustained success.
I like how Stearns padded the roster with more pitching depth. Some of the new guys will work out, some won’t. When you combine the new arms with what the Mets have, you get a reinforced pitching staff. I think the Mets are stronger now in middle relief so that’s a plus. Nunez, Butto, and Diaz are the key performers out there. Garrett and SRF will have to earn their way into the late inning circle of trust
I like what Stearns did. He shored up the bullpen and added Winker to the offense with conservative spending. Part of that is wanting Butto to get a shot at starting, and Blackburn doesn’t obviously close the door on that, while there should be enough added to the bullpen to backfill for Butto if he’s given the shot. I don’t see that the wildcard contenders who spent significantly more prospect capital than the Mets significantly improved more than the Mets. We’ll see.
It’ll be interesting to see how rookie manager Mendoza manages the improved bullpen compared to the gasoline throwers he’s had to work with.
Seeing what teams spent makes me almost wish the Mets had tanked like the Marlins. The Mets roster is packed with players who were primed for a trade-deadline blowout sale. Imagine the prospect haul. Acuna, Gilbert, Williams, Mauricio, Baty, Scott, and Sproat could have been made yesterday’s news. Still, even though the long-term plan for sustained success didn’t get an exciting boost from the trade deadline, Stearns didn’t hurt it to contend this year.
The NL wildcard contenders have been hotter than the NL division leaders lately. 8 games behind the Phillies (thank you, Yankees) makes them closer than a dot on the horizon. Right now the much closer and crowded wildcard race (thanks for nothing, Dodgers) demands our attention, but if the Mets get to within a series of 1st place in the division, that opens up 4 realistic playoff berths.
Alonso almost hurt Stanek on that lob and cost an extra batter faced with stressful pitches and up-down for Diaz. Alonso can pick it fine, but his throws, including PFP throws to the pitcher covering, have been a Duda-esque problem this season.
You call it a “hate mission” road trip, I call it the “I get to see the Mets in my hometown again!” road trip. Have fun in Iceland, watch out for volcanoes.
Actually, Bud Harrelson was the glue to a mainly defensive team that went to 2 WS, including the Miracle Mets of 1969.
He also went to another WS in 1973.
If anything, his number 3 deserves to be retired AHEAD of a Hernandez, Strawberry, and Gooden, 3 underachievers on an underachieving team that only went to ONE WS.
If Darling and Hernandez did not broadcast for 20 years, the 1986 team would have been relegated to the dustbins of history.
If Darling and Hernandez did not broadcast for 20 years, the 1986 team would have been relegated to the dustbins of history.
Come on. The Buckner Play alone ensures that the 1986 team will be noted as long as there is baseball being played. 108 wins, Mike Scott, Game 6 against the Astros, lost the first 2 in the WS at home and came back to win, Game 6 against the Red Sox. They aren’t….oh, I don’t know…the 1942 Cardinals.
And Harrelson?
Crickets?
Sure, retire his number. He was there longer than any of those guys and was a regular, at a key defensive position, on 2 of the franchise’s 5 WS teams.
I got no beef with Bud.
The 1986 Mets are iconic both for their regular-season dominance and demeanor and post-season comebacks. Both game 6s are all-timers. Otherwise, you make a good point that since the Mets have relaxed their hitherto rarefied standard for retiring numbers, Harrelson’s history with the team makes more sense for that. I agree that the 1986 Mets team leaders aren’t inherently more deserving than the 1969 Mets team leaders who also led the way in 1973. Plus, Harrelson did more wearing the uniform than play. Coaching and managing > broadcasting.
“Should I want us owning the worst MLB season in modern times erased or be proud, in a strange way, of us owning that piece of history?”
Be proud, Curt, be proud. And Howie Rose agrees as well, as he has said many many times.
That 1962 team were a bunch of Loveable (I will not say Losers) “Players,” created by Bill Shea, Mrs. Payson, and Casey Stengel. That team is the basis for our love for this team and this organization, and it is actually something to be proud of. Those stories and anecdotes will live forever, and in a good way, as we first found out from Lindsey, Bob, and Ralph.
Go Sox Go, or whatever it is they say over there.