The Mets and Yankees Are Playing Different Games
Midafternoon Tuesday, as the clock ticked toward the 4 p.m. trade deadline, three Mets baseball executives breathed deeply, peered into each other’s eyes and rolled the dice.
No longer would the Mets stand pat. No longer would the team by Flushing Bay play underachieving little brother to that talent-laden team (to the point of ridiculousness) in the Bronx.
Uh-uh, toss down time, brother. At 3:49 p.m., a Mets news release blinked onto computer screens across New York City.
“The New York Mets today announced they have claimed infielder Jack Reinheimer off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks.”
Reinheimer — Mighty Jack, to friends — is a career minor leaguer who is batting .237 with three home runs. Last year he made his major league debut at age 25, going 0 for 5 in two games.
As neither liquor nor psychedelic substances were within arm’s reach, I opted for a case of the giggles. To watch the management teams of the Mets and Yankees this week was to stand on a platform as subway trains rumbled past in opposite directions.
The Yankees are an express outfitted with stud conductors and plush seating. The Mets are a sweaty local with brake problems, a sick passenger and signal problems ahead. And that was before they lost to the Washington Nationals, 25-4, on Tuesday night, the most lopsided defeat in franchise history.
More inventive management would take the Mets out of service for an overhaul.
Three years back, the Yankees were a mausoleum tour bus, each season devoted to the retirement of a once fine and now doddering ballplayer. The team often stumbled into the playoffs, but just barely, before exiting. It was all kind of depressing. Then one morning, Brian Cashman put on his flight jacket and embraced a makeover as a hip-hopping deal maker.
He drafted well — Aaron Judge, the Giant Slayer of Baseballs, and Luis Severino, a onetime whippet who has become a baby bull of a pitcher. And more to the point, he made deals like a swashbuckling stock trader. He traded and reacquired players. He shoved a cryogenic Alex Rodriguez into retirement. He would not stop.
He was no less frenetic this trade deadline, acquiring yet another top relief pitcher in Zach Britton (collect them all!) and better than average starters in J.A. Happ and Lance Lynn. The Yankees didn’t get everything they wanted this week — they cast covetous eyes at the Mets’ ace Jacob deGrom — and the team has a case of the aches. Judge broke his wrist and is out for a few weeks. Gary Sanchez has hamstring and hustle aches.
But this is a team on a pace to win 105 games.
Which brings me back to that broken down train on the 7 line. The Mets had a tough break in June, as General Manager Sandy Alderson had a recurrence of cancer and stepped down. Jeff Wilpon, the Mets’ crown prince, sat next to Alderson that day, his jaw clenching and unclenching, making eye contact with no one.
He had a choice of interim general managers. John Ricco was perhaps the obvious choice, as he had been an assistant general manager with the Mets for 14 years. Or Wilpon could have picked Omar Minaya, who had served as general manager in the past.
Or he could pick both men and add a third, J.P. Ricciardi, as what is more coherent than a three-headed hydra?
Ricco promptly hinted that “everything had to be on the table,” suggesting an innovative and exciting search for the best deal possible. Then they traded the team’s best reliever, Jeurys Familia, for two unexciting prospects and five pieces of plywood.
Then Ricco suggested rebuilding was for chumps. “I don’t think we’re looking at a two- or three-year thing,” he said.
So, a reporter asked Ricco, you think you can compete next year? He asked this in the manner a psychiatrist might inquire after the mental health of a patient.
“Yeah, definitely,” Ricco said.
Oh, man. Where to start? Last year this putative contender lost 92 games. This season the team began the season with the oldest starting lineup in baseball and seems surprised it has had lots of injuries and a record of 44-59, despite a 12-2 start. The Mets’ minor league system is a ship up on a reef. A year back, organizational swamis jabbered about Dominic Smith, the first baseman of the future. He hit .198 last year and .183 this year in limited time, and he’s hitting .259 in Class AAA.
In fact, save for Michael Conforto, a fine hitter who is inexplicably pull-happy this year, and Brandon Nimmo, a nice looking outfielder who endured a long minor league apprenticeship, the Mets’ minor league system and draft picks are a walk through an arid land. Players with promise, such as shortstop Amed Rosario, arrive in the majors unable to bunt and with a swing long enough to bring a smile to the face of a big slugger.
There is reason for optimism. The Mets’ three top starting pitchers, deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler, have fine arms and would be well within legal rights to sue this lineup, perhaps the weakest in the league, for nonsupport. A reality-based general manager, with the support of a creative owner and much luck, might in fact figure out a way to contend in the next year or two.
Reality, however, may not be a favored dimension for this front office. On the same day that Ricco claimed the team would soon contend, he emphasized that the team would be far more competitive this year. He noted that the slugging outfielders Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce were about to return from extended convalescence.
A few days later, Cespedes announced that he would have surgery on both of his ankles and disappear for at least eight months. As for Bruce, the slugger with three home runs, he has yet to take so much as a practice swing.
The Mets celebrated the passing of the trade deadline, and their acquisition of Mighty Jack, by losing to the Nationals on Tuesday night by three touchdowns.
As it happens, the Yankees had bad news to announce on Tuesday. Their newly acquired starter, Happ, had contracted hand-foot-and-mouth disease, and will miss at least a start. This same disease has sidelined Syndergaard for a few weeks now.
So a warning to that team in the Bronx: It could be that it is infectious to share this city with the Mets.
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "The Mets and Yankees Are Playing Different Games"
Post a Comment