Buckle up, Mets fans: Daniel Vogelbach trade the start of a fast-paced race to finish line
Manager Buck Showalter of the New York Mets looks on before a game against the San Diego Padres at Citi Field on Friday, July 22, 2022 in the Queens borough of New York City. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Baseball is a slow sport — a spring training that starts in the winter, played by boys of summer striving for a shot at October. So when Buck Showalter was asked last month if he was worried about an Atlanta winning streak that eventually grew to 14 games, he all but chuckled.
This season was never going to be easy, he said. And June is no time to be looking at the standings.
But late July might be. And August? August definitely is.
“You realize that what seems like an infinite number of games is not infinite anymore,” Showalter said Friday. “There’s a finish line that’s starting to appear in the distance . . . That’s happened in the past, it doesn’t really matter. Now, here it is. Here’s the plot in front of you.”
That “plot in front of you”? It’s getting mighty interesting.
Science says heating molecules makes them go faster, and it turns out that’s true for baseball seasons, too: The heating up of the weather, along with the mentally and physically grueling weeks ahead, are going to provide a pivotal test for a franchise that’s no stranger to late-season swoons.
The Mets began their second “half” — half in quotation marks because there are only 69 games left — in less-than-ideal terms, a limp offensive effort in a 4-1 loss to the Padres. But looking down at the finish line also means looking at the big picture, and Friday heralded more than just a loss. It also welcomed trade deadline season, and that, at least, was as aggressive a showing as they come. General manager Billy Eppler traded reliever Colin Holderman to the Pirates for Daniel Vogelbach, a lefthanded-hitting DH.
There absolutely are reasons to question the move. The Mets were high on Holderman and Vogelbach is an imperfect answer to a difficult question. He can mash righties but struggles against lefthanded pitching, and it’s not clear how much the Mets will trust him at first base. He has a career .213/.336/.408 slash line but a wRC+ of 118 (weighted runs created, with the average being 100), and he could add pop to a listless lower part of the order.
But the market is more robust for relievers, Eppler said, and the Pirates were intent on Holderman, so the Mets pounced. He also made it clear that they are nowhere close to done. Look for them to make good on that reliever market and to probably add another bat, too (one that can hit lefthanded pitching wouldn’t hurt).
“We’re having to rob Peter to pay Paul a little bit,” Eppler said of the trade. “We’re going to be open-minded on everything.”
Risky? Sure. But you have to admire the gumption — especially for a franchise that, not so long ago, was pleased enough with the mere existence of “meaningful games in September.”
Eppler looks primed to play like a man who’s one hand of poker away from winning back the family farm. And Showalter is talking like a manager whose moratorium on scoreboard-watching is coming to an end.
“Sometimes you may do something that doesn’t necessarily put your best foot forward but puts you in position to win the next three games,” Showalter said. “We’re not at that point yet with the number of games left. I might start looking at the standings here at some point — probably sometime around August.”
That could affect a few areas, but bullpen usage no doubt will be up there. Showalter already has said he doesn’t like to see his relievers up high on the innings-pitched rankings, and when you look it up, you have to scroll past 25 bullpen arms before you get to a Met and 25 more until you get to another. It will affect rest days, too. And it absolutely affects Jacob deGrom, who’ll be wrapped up like a Faberge egg for as long as the Mets can stand it.
To wit, he’ll get another rehab start, Showalter said. No, nothing’s wrong with him. But stalling deGrom does fit that long-term plan nicely: For one, deGrom, who has routinely pumped it up to 100-plus mph in his rehab appearances, won’t get his first taste of major-league competition against the Yankees in a charged environment that would be a prescription for overthrowing. He’s building up his pitch count, Eppler said, and he’ll get to do it in a competitive environment rather than the simulated game he was last forced to throw.
In a perfect world, it also means one of the best pitchers on the planet will be at his peak when everyone else is edging down the bell curve. It doesn’t hurt that the Mets have one of baseball’s easiest stretch schedules — going into Friday, remaining opponents had a .488 winning percentage, or eighth lowest. Atlanta has the 14th hardest.
“It’s a different time of the year now,” Showalter said. “The dog days are here as far as the heat. These next two months are really a challenge physically, mentally and emotionally and it’s what we all get up in the morning for, to be put in that situation and see how you respond.”
No equivocating, no “one game at a time,” no “the standings don’t matter.”
The grind is here, the end is nigh, and it’s time to let the games (and the gamesmanship) begin.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
