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Say hey, baseball: The Mets lose even when they win
Monday morning’s baseball includes the Mets breaking bones, further A’s vs. Royals violence, and the Marlins’ manager in potential trouble. Subscribe for your daily Say Hey!
Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports
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The Mets are 10-3, and have the most wins in the National League. That’s good! The cost of that 10th win was high, though, as in the process of notching the W, the Mets lost reliever Jerry Blevins to a fractured arm courtesy a Dee Gordon line drive, and then starting catcher Travis d’Arnaud went down with a fractured hand after a hit by pitch. In the case of Blevins, he wasn’t even supposed to be on the mound to face Gordon that inning: Matt Harvey was feeling ill during his start, so he only threw 84 pitches over six-plus innings before manager Terry Collins finally handed things over to the bullpen
There is depth in the organization to handle both of these losses -- catching prospect Kevin Plawecki will take d’Arnaud’s roster spot, while Blevins will be replaced by minor-league reliever Hansel Robles -- but that’s of little comfort. d’Arnaud was hitting .317/.356/.537 and had the prospect pedigree for a huge season like that to be believable, and his loss comes at the same time David Wright is on the DL with a pulled hamstring. Blevins isn’t the greatest reliever around, but the Mets’ bullpen is an obvious weak point, and already lost closer Jenrry Mejia to a PED suspension this month.
The Mets kept a deep roster together by avoiding trading any of it this offseason, and while it’s only April, it’s already being tested. Those 10 wins are in the bank, but there is a whole lot of season left for even more to go wrong in New York.
- The Marlins didn’t escape the Mets unscathed, either: manager Mike Redmond is reportedly on the hot seat already after a rough start to 2015.
- The Rays gave away a half-Evan Longoria, half-duck hybrid, and it is as terrifying as you think that sounds.
- Jon Lester has had trouble throwing baseballs to first base, but it turns out he can toss an entire glove there no problem.
- So, Brett Lawrie reportedly texted Alcides Escobar to apologize for his hard slide on Friday. Escobar then reportedly denied the apology in a response, but then denied Lawrie even texted him, so it’s possible Eric Hosmer gave Lawrie the wrong phone number to text in the first place. All of this drama resulted in two more days of back-and-forth hit by pitches and throws behind the batter, and also Royals’ reliever Kelvin Herrera pointing at his own head while yelling at Lawrie.
- Lawrie’s slide was a bit much and merited that apology, but he’s somehow come out of this looking like the adult thanks to the Royals.
- The Rays designated former closer Grant Balfour for assignment. Balfour was great as recently as 2013 with the A’s, but managed an ERA of 5.00 over 71 games with Tampa Bay.
- It looked like Jake Peavy was going to avoid it for a time, but the inevitable has happened, and he’s now on the DL thanks to his back.
- Hanley Ramirez cracked the Green Monster with a line drive during batting practice. There is no truth to the rumor that this was a warning shot to convince Boston’s mascot Wally to quit it with the ridiculous dance, but Wally should lay low for a while all the same.
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