I’d like to apologize to Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson. Anytime Jose Reyes played too much or there was poor roster management, I was quick to blame them. But now both are gone and it is still an issue.
The Mets have somehow committed themselves to playing Jose Reyes at the expense of Amed Rosario. For a while, Jose Reyes wasn’t playing at all and then Reyes complained to Matt Ehalt of the Bergen Record about his playing time. Reyes said, “When I signed here, it never went through my mind that I was going to spend 15 days without a start.” That was on June 14 and since then, Reyes has started 10 games.
Many of those who defend Reyes say he’s struggling because he is not getting enough playing time. But why does this issue affect Jose Reyes in particular? Brandon Nimmo in 2016 hit .272/.338/.329 while not playing in an everyday role, especially in September. I’m not saying that slash was amazing but we’d be doing cartwheels if Jose Reyes managed to do that.
Point being, if you want to start, you have to earn it. Jose Reyes is not doing that. He is hitting .172/.244/.241 this season with a 38 wRC+. What did he, though? Reyes complained about playing time though so ownership had to make sure he doesn’t hurt the feelings of a former star who is now washed up.
It has now gotten to the point that Reyes is playing over Amed Rosario. Rosario has not been good by any means but this is the guy who hit .341/.392/.481 in Binghamton and hit .328/.367/.466 in Las Vegas. Minor league pitchers are not great so you can mask some flaws in your game, like plate discipline, but Rosario was a top five prospect for a reason.
What do the Mets do instead of letting Rosario play through his struggles? They are allowing a terrible player to play over him. Very few teams would even allow Reyes to even be on their roster right now but the Mets have him starting over someone that many thought would be a cornerstone player.
Lewis Brinson has not been great for the Marlins. Brinson is like Amed Rosario in many ways. He was a top 10 prospect last year, he performed in the minors, he likes swinging his bat, he’s hitting .186/.232/.338 so far this year with a 30.2 percent K-rate so he has also been underwhelming, and his team is quite bad. Unlike the Mets, they played Brinson everyday in June and the result? He hit .267/.301/.547 in the month with a 122 wRC+. If the Mets had Lewis Brinson, they would have signed Juan Pierre and played him a couple times a week.
Some don’t care anymore that Reyes plays because they feel Rosario is a lost cause and that the Mets stink anyway. The latter part of that might be true but allowing Reyes to take development away from young players such as Amed Rosario only hurts the Mets in the long run. He doesn’t need bunting practice, he needs to play.
I am sick and tired of the Mets being run so poorly and having guys like Terry, Sandy, and now Mickey take the blame. Those guys had (have in one case) their faults but are they the reason Jose Reyes is playing two times a week and they get stuck with poor situations? This same thing happened yesterday when Mickey said Jeff McNeil would not be called up due to Todd Frazier‘s injury. People torched Mickey but it’s not Mickey’s fault the Mets have prioritized Jose’s feelings over development.
Remember the second game of the season when Mickey started Juan Lagares because Jacob deGrom gives up a lot of fly balls? That’s the Mickey we expected when he was hired. And now we’re at the point where he’s starting Reyes because of people who have louder voices than him.
I don’t know what will ever fix this but at this point, the Mets are no longer enjoyable to even follow. Very little can change if the owners don’t stop their meddling and it is sad that we as Mets fans can’t do anything to stop them.
