Some bush league moves out of Mets lately
The rain tarp is placed on the field before an MLB baseball game between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees at Citi Field on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Winning games is hard enough for the Mets these days.
And yet, they’ve somehow managed to increase the degree of difficulty -- in dysfunctional ways we thought left Citi Field when the old owners packed their bags -- with two head-scratching developments that went down before Wednesday’s series finale against the Yankees.
The first one was out of their hands, so to speak, when MLB announced the 10-game suspension to Drew Smith, who flunked a sticky-stuff inspection at the top of the seventh inning in the previous night’s 7-6 loss. Smith, of course, animatedly pleaded his innocence. But however broken this particular rule enforcement may be, it’s doubly bizarre that this now happened to the Mets twice — also Max Scherzer last month — and the Yankees’ Domingo German is the only other sticky scofflaw to be banned this season.
Some would call that an odd coincidence, with roughly 390 pitchers active on any particular day. But it also begs the question: after Scherzer’s penalty, wouldn’t the Mets be extra-vigilant about keeping clean? The Yankees made sure to lay down the law among their own staff after German got busted, doubling-down on their efforts to keep their pitchers from being disqualified.
Then again, the Mets don’t seem to be thinking that clearly during a current 1-9 nosedive that has them acting a bit peculiar in addition to kicking away games on the field. Losing Smith was a done deal as soon as the umpires booted him Tuesday night. Whatever wound up on his hands sealed his fate. There’s been no wiggle room with these infractions.
The thing that almost defied explanation Wednesday was the Mets willfully removing yet another player from their roster — for all practical purposes — over the past week. That player was the struggling Daniel Vogelbach, who had remained anchored on the bench since June 7, when he went 0-for-4 in that night’s loss to Atlanta.
But getting benched is not the unusual part. The strange twist here is that Vogelbach was essentially given that time off — not even considered as a pinch-hitting option later in games — to try and climb out of his offensive malaise, free of the daily pressure. While staying on the active roster, mind you.
“Buck wanted to give me maybe a mental break,” Vogelbach said Wednesday afternoon. “Not necessarily gonna use is that way. . . . I feel like when my swing is where it needs to be and I’m swinging the bat the way I know I’m capable of swinging the bat, I can make this lineup better.”
Those are admirable goals. But carrying Vogelbach for the last six games, and presumably a seventh Wednesday night — it’s unlikely the Mets would choose to feed him to a harsh Subway Series crowd after going to such lengths to protect him — is not the type of luxury they can afford being five games under .500 (31-36) and clawing to stay in contention.
Factor in Showalter’s previous reluctance to use Mark Vientos, in almost any situation, and it’s like the Mets were playing two hitters down during this recent skid. Not only that, but Pete Alonso also has been on the IL since getting drilled on the wrist last Wednesday, and replacing him on the roster with Luis Guillorme can only be characterized as a pretty severe downgrade.
And while we’re on the subject of Guillorme, Showalter inexplicably left him to face Yankees reliever Michael King in the ninth inning Tuesday, down a run with two outs. Little did we know at the time, Vogelbach was off-limits — something that Showalter didn’t reveal when asked point-blank about the Guillorme decision afterward — and him leaving a deep threat like Vientos on the bench isn’t even that shocking anymore, given the manager’s track record with the rookie.
Showalter was mum on the Vogelbach plan until Wednesday. And from a strategic perspective, it wouldn’t have been possible to pull off otherwise, letting the opposition know the Mets were playing shorthanded all that time. Did that mean Vogelbach’s swing-sabbatical was over for Wednesday’s series finale? Showalter wasn’t saying. But I did ask if there was there an initial time frame with Vogelbach. It just can’t go on indefinitely, right?
“I think the problem with saying exactly when it’s going to end, well, what’s making you do that?” Showalter said. “Are you seeing something that’s getting back progressively to what he’s capable of doing and what he’s done in the past? So just to put a closed-end on it and then not meet some criteria to get there, is probably not every wise. But he’s in the process of meeting that criteria. He’s getting close.”
Put it this way. Vogelbach really couldn’t be much worse. Their regular DH was hitting .203 with a .297 slugging percentage. Since May 7, Vogelbach had one home run and two RBIs over a stretch of 20 games (54 at-bats). All things considered, putting him in the freezer over the past week didn’t subtract much. But the Mets, with a $375 million roster, should have better options than simply leaving spots dormant.
Under that kind of management, the Mets are losing games before the first pitch is even thrown. And now it’s going to be more challenging from that point, too.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
