With a week like this, the Mets are quickly and swiftly sealing their fate before July ever arrives, and perhaps, with it, the fates of both Manager Mickey Callaway and General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen.
To say it has been a frustrating season would be the ultimate understatement.
The 2019 season has been beyond frustrating and disappointing, and with the bullpen imploding over the weekend against the St. Louis Cardinals, and on Monday night in Atlanta, it is clear the Mets biggest Achilles heel is ultimately going to be their downfall.
The sad truth is outside of Seth Lugo the Mets do not have any reliable relievers in their bullpen right now.
In each of the last five games the Mets have watched leads disappear quickly in everyway possible as the team has dropped to four-games under .500, and a season high 8.5 games out of first place in the NL East.
Last Thursday the culprit was Edwin Diaz who couldn’t hold a 4-2 lead over the Cardinals, as St. Louis tied the game at four on a double by Harrison Bader before the rains forced a suspension. Diaz returned the next day to give up the game winning single to Paul DeJong when the game resumed in the 10th. Mets lost 5-4.
In the nightcap, the Cardinals torched Jeruys Familia for three homers in the eighth inning as St. Louis erased a 5-4 Mets lead. St. Louis won 9-5.
Rinse and repeat on Sunday, only this time it was Chris Flexen on the mound. Flexen served up the game-winning homer to DeJong as the Cards won 4-3. Then on Monday, it was Familia and Drew Gagnon, who watched the Atlanta Braves pound both pitchers into submission with seven runs in the seventh and eighth innings combined. The Braves won 12-3.
To be blunt, the bullpen stinks, and there is nowhere for Callaway to turn for help.
Diaz has seen his season ERA blow up by almost two runs over the last month, having allowed eight earned runs in his last six-and-two-thirds innings of work. Familia has been bad all season with an ERA of 7.81, and yet Callaway keeps running him out there hoping lighting strikes.
Robert Gsellman’s ERA is near five. Gagnon has an ERA of 7.65, and Tyler Bashlor an ERA of 5.40. Who knew perhaps the most reliable guy of the bunch would be a former Indy ball pitcher in Wilmer Font, who tossed three shutout innings against St. Louis on Sunday.
Who is to blame for this mess? Certainly Callaway has to shoulder a lot of it. He has mismanaged the bullpen to the point he has been asking starters to overexert themselves well past 100 pitches in a given outing in recent weeks.
Van Wagenen, who has seen his off-season acquisitions of Robinson Cano and Jed Lowrie blow up in his face, also has to take some heat. While VanWagenen did a nice job of filling out the roster with veteran players like J.D. Davis, Rajai Davis and Adeiny Hecchavria, he didn’t find those diamonds in the rough for the pitching staff.
The Mets are now paying for it. They don’t have any depth in their pen, and with Noah Syndergaard now out with a hamstring injury, they have to go deep into their minor league system to find someone, anyone who can pitch and record more outs than he gives up runs.
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