Mets Are Pitching For Lefties

This past week, New York Mets had unofficially announced that they were shopping for another lefty for the bullpen. This came after word that the player with major league experience that they already signed for the bullpen, Kelvim Escobar, was complaining of a “weak arm”. The news of his arm status really doesn’t come as a surprise, however, given that Escobar was supposed to be the answer to the bullpen woes and replacement of J.J. Putz, it is troubling. The Mets sudden interest in Ron Mahay or Joe Beimel now makes sense. Today, comes word from the rumor mill, that the Mets and Beimel may be close to a deal. This would be a upgrade, for sure, over the current platoon they have to compete for late innings, but you have to wonder why now?

It is just like the Mets to be on the defensive. They make maneuvers based on not foresight, but hindsight. They have a player with some question marks, who they sign, and then when he goes down or doesn’t perform up to par, they go shopping. As opposed to just signing the free agent that doesn’t have question marks.

I’m not talking about injury replacements for healthy players, such as trading for a pitcher when Duaner Sanchez went down a few years ago. I’m not even referring to Gary Matthew Jr after Carlos Beltran decided to opt for surgery when most of the offseason behind him wasted away and only a month or so until reporting to Florida. The franchise makes this a every season scenario. They respond rather than attack. This is the mindset of a smaller market team, it is not supposed to be the mentality of a major sports franchise in one of the major cities, let alone the biggest city in the country. This conservative mindset on the free agent and trading market is a major reason the Mets have roster trouble and are one of the older ball clubs in the league. However, there are many more reasons, deeper organizational reasons, that the franchise as a whole is in disarray. It starts at the very top and reverberates all the way down through the franchise, from the owners to the peanut vendors.

There must be a change in this organization for the future to be brighter. I’m not suggesting different ownership, as I truly believe that the Wilpons, though clueless at times, do care about the team and the bigger picture. They may not always know or care what the average fan wants, but they do care about the health of the organization, their product, and the future of it. That is a good start, but my prediction is, despite what they promised Minaya and Manuel, if the team doesn’t get off to a good start, they may be shopping for new “baseball people”. That would be a good start.