It’s easy for those of us caught up in the day-to-day roller coaster ride of this Mets season to forget the narrative that most everyone agreed had to define the team if they were to contend.
Dividing the squad into four parts, it’s safe to say three of those parts have fallen into place just about as envisioned and hoped.
The starting pitching has been every bit as spectacular as we dreamed it would be, for lo those many years on the back side of the desert, waiting for Godot (sorry for the mixed metaphor).
While Harvey has predictably been uneven in his return, only the most paranoid among us have reason to panic. Jacob deGrom has impossibly been even better than his rookie of the year campaign, while Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz have demonstrated their long-heralded top-of-the-rotation potential was no illusion. It is no exaggeration to say that no team has ever had more cheap and controllable aces at one time.
The bullpen, shaken up from the first day of spring training, has somehow held forth as a minor strength despite its significantly altered formation.
Notwithstanding deGrom’s inexplicable early departure in favor of Sean Gilmartin in Atlanta and this week’s debatable decision not to call on Jeurys Familia in the soul-crushing defeat in DC, Collins actually deserves some credit for working around so many injuries and suspensions to key assets.
And Sandy Alderson would have gotten a whole lot more credit for the Blevins acquisition if the situational lefty hadn’t been sidelined for months with a freak injury. Would you have predicted the bullpen would continue to be a strength if you knew Edgin, then his replacement Blevins, then Mejia, then Montero, and even Goeddel/Carlyle would go down, and both Torres’ would prove unreliable?
Of course, the bulwark has been Familia. But while most of us have liked him from the get-go, we could hardly have counted on him becoming a dominant closer who induces the lowest level of angina of any Mets closer since, well, perhaps Randy Myers…25 years ago.
The defense has been sub-par, as we all expected, but does not constitute a glaring weakness since the realignment in light of David Wright‘s increasingly unlikely return.
The infield has recently included an average first baseman and second baseman in Lucas Duda and Wilmer Flores, a slightly above average shortstop in Ruben Tejada and somewhat below average but acceptable third baseman in Daniel Murphy, though this alignment is now likely to be shaken and stirred with the Atlanta trade.
The disappointment has been our erstwhile once-in-a-generation centerfielder Juan Lagares, whose upper body and elbow injuries seem to have diminished his game in the field and at the bat. The corner outfielders have been about as predicted; serviceable gloves, poor arms.
It’s that fourth part, the offense, that has not only been a glaring weakness, but a source of embarrassment. In fact, it’s been a trending topic nationally in recent days, quieted somewhat, I suppose, by new storylines Michael Conforto, Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson.
So let us not forget that most everyone agreed that this team would need a medium to big-sized return from the captain, combined with a productive middle-of-the-order bat in Michael Cuddyer, to provide at least a 1969-level offense to go with our ‘69-level pitching.
The narrative was so heartwarming: the poster boy captain returns to lift his team, energized by the presence of his old boyhood friend and professional hitter Cuddyer. The veterans providing performance and leadership in a clubhouse fronted by the jaw-dropping young studs in the rotation. They would combine for around 40 homers and 150 RBIs and everyone would coo at the wonderful energy surrounding this team.
It is the collapse of that narrative that has this team hanging on for dear life, and infuriating us with one dominant pitching performance after another washed down the drain. You simply can not compensate for the loss of Wright and dramatic underperformance of other middle-of-the-order bats. Might Duda have been a different player if the collapsed narrative had played out? Would Lagares and Flores be raking with the expected protection of Wright and the Cuddyer of days gone by?
Who knows. Now, the bench has now at least been purged of the embarrassments of John Mayberry and Daniel Muno. Perhaps Conforto could be ready, Uribe could provide some desperately needed power, and if spotted effectively, Kelly Johnson could be a minor spark plug.
Maybe Alderson goes out and gets a middle-of-the-order bat. Maybe DW actually returns and can do a few things. Maybe Cuddyer returns from the DL and somewhat resembles the batting champ of 2013. But few of us can realistically expect anything more than an offense that is no longer historically bad but just plain old bad.
Yes, the lack of growth in Duda, Lagares and Flores has been disconcerting and crippling at times, as has the loss of TDA for long stretches. But in the end, if things turn out the way the worry warts suspect…with tee times in October…we will look back at the collapsed narrative as ground zero of another disappointing season.
However, for the optimists, perhaps the additions of the last 24 hours could one day be looked upon as a turning point as the season winds down to a hopefully successful conclusion.
