As Taijuan Walker joins walking wounded, Mets persevere
Mets manager Luis Rojas walks to the dugout during an MLB baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field on Sunday, May 9, 2021. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
To get a feel for how dire the Mets’ medicals are at the moment, here’s a snapshot: Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Seth Lugo are members of the Class A St. Lucie rotation.
The big-league starters? That would be Marcus Stroman, David Peterson and whichever bullpen arm is the freshest on any particular day.
Somewhere in the limbo between lies Carlos Carrasco and now Taijuan Walker, who was placed on the IL before Wednesday’s game, making him No. 14 on that current list.
Walker, like deGrom, came back with a clean MRI after complaining of "side tightness" that had been bothering him for a while, but the Mets are choosing to play it safe rather than risk any complications with his pitching mechanics. They did the same with deGrom, who will make his first (and maybe only) rehab start Thursday for St. Lucie.
Looking at the shattered state of their rotation, it’s hard to believe the Mets entered Wednesday’s series finale in Atlanta sitting in first place, four games over .500 (20-16) and 11-5 against NL East opponents. And that’s before glancing at the lineup they cobbled together, another makeshift nine that would have been impossible to predict even a few weeks ago.
Still, the Mets nearly completed a sweep of Atlanta, but more heroics from unlikely heroes weren't enough as Ronald Acuna Jr. opened the ninth with a walk-off homer that delivered a 5-4 victory for Atlanta.
The latest Mets’ configuration includes three players who began the season at Triple-A Syracuse -- Khalil Lee, Jose Peraza, Johneshwy Fargas -- and a fourth, Cameron Maybin, who was playing in the Cubs’ farm system at the start of the week. Maybin, by the way, was hitting third, despite a .391 OPS in 10 games at Triple-A Iowa, so the Mets are clearly banking on his 14 years of major-league experience.
It also meant that the Mets had a No. 2 hitter in Lindor who just signed a record $341-million contract and a No. 3 they just acquired for $1 from the Cubs. But getting devastated by injuries creates some odd dynamics, and only six weeks into the season, the Mets already had used 37 players -- Maybin makes 38 -- after deploying a total of 47 a year ago for 60 games.
Maybin struck out three times in his Mets debut, but reached on the third K because of a wild pitch — and made it as far as third base as the go-ahead run in the ninth before he was was stranded. Lee has whiffed in all eight of his big-league at-bats so far, but made his second brilliant, sprinting catch in as many nights. Tomas Nido was almost a hero again, too, but his pinch-hit, two-run single in the seventh went for naught.
The Mets are in survival mode. No one builds a roster deep enough to sustain this many casualties this early, but they still took the first two games from the Braves after losing both Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil to hamstring injuries upon their arrival in Atlanta. On the first night, they watched in horror as Kevin Pillar was hit in the face with a 95-mph fastball, but still rallied to win both games — the second with a bruised, battered Pillar in uniform, watching from the dugout rail with his teammates.
"This team has a big heart all-around," said Nido, who delivered the game-winning homer Tuesday night in the ninth inning. "It’s a big family, everyone pulling for each other, and ultimately that’s going to win a lot of games. It’s a long season and things like this bring us closer."
Nido isn’t wrong. But the Mets could use a little less bonding by now and a few more of their regular players. In a somewhat surprising move, Rojas went with the slumping James McCann over Nido’s sizzling bat for Wednesday’s finale, which felt like a concession to the $40-million catcher rather than a sound strategical choice.
It’s a tricky spot with McCann. Even with Nido outplaying him, they don’t want to be burying McCann on the bench this early. He drove in the go-ahead run Monday with a pinch-hit double, but his .519 OPS pales in comparison to Nido’s .872.
"I thought that the four days without starting was going to be too much for McCann," said Rojas (the Mets have Thursday off). "We want him to get hot as Nido is getting hot, too."
The Mets were scavenging for offense when their roster was intact, so to remove Nido -- who batted fifth Tuesday -- from this fractured lineup was a questionable nod to longer-term concerns. Rojas also made what initially seemed like a bold move Wednesday in deciding to sit Pete Alonso for the first time after he had started all 36 games previously. Before the game, Rojas said Alonso was healthy, then afterward explained that he was unavailable to pinch-hit because of a sore hand — a bit of information he clearly didn’t want the Braves to know. Alonso’s recent numbers did suggest he could use a break, as he was batting .143 (6-for-42) over his last 12 games with only two extra-base hits (one HR), three RBIs and 12 strikeouts.
"He’s been a little out of whack," Rojas said before the game. "We’re dealing with a lot of injuries right now. A lot of guys have stepped up, but even the guys that are grinding, we’ve still got to be smart about guys that are playing every day."
The last thing the Mets needed Wednesday was to subtract another All-Star. And this time, they ultimately didn’t have enough.
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.
