Mets running out of time 'to make something out of it'
The Mets' Francisco Lindor runs to third base with a triple against the Diamondbacks during the first inning of a game on July 6 in Phoenix. Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin
When they take the field Friday night against the Dodgers, a machine of an organization that they wish to emulate, the Mets will face a big-picture, season-defining, potentially unwieldy question: Is this the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?
Their season resumes with a daunting reality: They are 42-48. They haven’t had a winning record in well over a month. They are seven games back of the last wild-card berth in the National League — with five teams to leapfrog.
Ostensibly, the Mets consider themselves to have a shot still. They have about two weeks to prove it. Then the Aug. 1 trade deadline will arrive and owner Steve Cohen, general manager Billy Eppler and their inner-circle of baseball decision-makers will have to decide whether to strip this roster of its spare parts or supplement it for the rest of the season and beyond (or some combination therein).
“Adding or subtracting, that’s not really what we’re worried about,” Pete Alonso said in Seattle during All-Star festivities this week. “We’re worried about winning as many games as we possibly can with the guys that we have in the clubhouse. There’s a reason why the front office exists and they have the responsibility to add or subtract or do whatever they want with the roster. For the guys in the locker room, we always support each other. We have a great clubhouse. We’re going to do whatever we can with the group that we have to go out there and win as many ballgames as we can in the second half.”
Speaking in general terms about a successful and lengthy second half — more than 11 weeks — is well and good. But, again, practically thinking, the Mets’ first timeline is much, much shorter than that.
After hosting the Dodgers this weekend, they’ll do the same with the White Sox next week. Then comes a pair of road series against the Red Sox and Yankees. That will bring the Mets to the last weekend of July, the last series before the deadline, a four-game set with the Nationals.
“It’s one of those where you gotta stay in the moment,” Francisco Lindor said last week. “You can’t think of what it’s going to be like in October or late in September or after the trade deadline. You gotta stay in the daily basis. Focus on what you have in front of you.”
A primary issue for the Mets: As a team, they have no discernible strengths.
Their 4.50 runs per game rank 17th out of 30 teams. Their 4.53 runs allowed per game is the same.
Similarly, their offense ranks 20th in batting average (.241), 16th in slugging percentage (.405) and tied for 16th in OBP (.321).
The rotation — headed by Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, virtual locks for the Hall of Fame having terrible seasons by their standards — is 20th with a 4.57 ERA. That is tied with the rebuilding, last-place Nationals.
The bullpen is 21st with a 4.12 ERA.
“This one magic key — there is none. You gotta have different things clicking,” manager Buck Showalter said on Sunday before the Mets broke up for four days. “The key is: When something is not the way it can be, another phase picks it up. If you want to look for one key. There’s about a hundred of them.”
If one is searching for optimism, though, consider:
- The Mets appear as healthy as they have been all season. Jose Quintana, out since mid-March because of rib surgery, is scheduled to make his team debut next week. Besides Edwin Diaz, nobody who figured to be a major contributor is on the injured list.
- Of the Mets’ remaining 72 games, 42 will be at Citi Field — where they have won at a much higher clip. They played a road-heavy schedule over the first several months, so now it will balance out.
- As Showalter points out regularly, the Mets feel they have gotten unlucky regarding hard-hit batted balls turning into outs. Some stats that attempt to quantify such a phenomenon lend credence to that idea, with Alonso, Starling Marte and Tommy Pham specifically ranking among league leaders.
“I’m just hoping that the law of averages will treat me fairly in the second half,” Alonso said.
None of it will matter, though, unless the Mets win a bunch of games very soon.
“We’re going to make something out of it,” Lindor said. “The question becomes how deep are we’re going to go.”
With David Lennon
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
