Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal with a sobering factoid on just how tough this season has been for the Mets. He writes:
With 10 games left in the regular season, the Mets, at 68-84, are long past irrelevant. All that really matters at this point is waiting to see who makes it to the finish line in one piece.
It will be an exclusive club. Seven of the 25 players who broke camp with the team in the spring have since suffered season-ending injuries—including Ace Matt Harvey and closer Bobby Parnell—and five have been traded, cut or suspended. All told, only three players have survived the entire year uninterrupted on the Mets’ active roster: second baseman Daniel Murphy, starting pitcher Dillon Gee and reliever LaTroy Hawkins. That is the fewest of any team in baseball.
That’s amazing, and more so when you consider one of our iron men was Gee who many feared his season would be limited after arm surgery to repair an artery last offseason.
This is exactly why depth is so important.
If not for many of these injuries and demotions, we may have never seen Juan Lagares or Josh Satin this season, two players who you can bet will be here in 2014.
If not for the injury to Lucas Duda, Sandy Alderson may have never made the waiver trade to acquire Eric Young Jr. who has proven to be an excellent source of speed and a solid utility outfielder moving forward.
So you can’t just look at what Diamond uncovered and put it in a vacuum as some are doing.
All major league teams have their share of slumping and injured players. It’s how you respond that’s more important and making sure you are in a position to fill those vacated spots either though your system or via trading or scanning the waiver wire.
