Collect the Mets

Well, that happened

The 2018 Mets included Adrian Gonzalez, Jose Bautista, and Austin Jackson. Someone really needs to tell Fred and Jeff that it’s not 2011 anymore. No wonder Jose Reyes started 48 games… Maybe half of the 2018 newcomers will be back in 2019, so is it even worth going over who did what to whom? A good number of them will probably never get a Rookie Card, much less an autograph card, so they’re largely irrelevant anyway. The back half was just Jeff McNeil and a bunch of random guys, so let’s just leave it at that. Sadly, that might also describe Mets Rookie Card offerings for the first half of 2019…

Adrian Gonzalez	Todd Frazier	Anthony Swarzak	Jose Lobaton
29 March 2018	29 March 2018	29 March 2018	13 April 2018
Gerson Bautista*	Corey Oswalt*	P.J. Conlon*	Devin Mesoraco
17 April 2018	25 April 2018	7 May 2018	8 May 2018
Luis Guillorme*	Buddy Baumann	Jose Bautista	Tim Peterson*
11 May 2018	16 May 2018	22 May 2018	30 May 2018
Scott Copeland	Chris Beck	Drew Smith*	Kevin Kaczmarski*
31 May 2018	15 June 2018	23 June 2018	24 June 2018
Tyler Bashlor*	Drew Gagnon*	Jeff McNeil*	Austin Jackson
25 June 2018	10 July 2018	24 July 2018	27 July 2018
Bobby Wahl	Jack Reinheimer	Daniel Zamora*	Eric Hanhold*
2 August 2018	15 August 2018	17 August 2018	4 September 2018

*MLB Debut

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Crashing back down to earth after a hot start

Few could have guessed that the Mets would be 10 games over .500 barely two weeks into the season. Wasting strong outings from their two good starters and losing winnable games on the other hand… Opening Day gave us out first look at new corner infielders Adrian Gonzalez and Todd Frazier plus bullpen addition Anthony Swarzak. Swarzak quickly landed on the DL and Gonzalez hasn’t done much to prove that he deserves a roster spot over even a struggling Dominic Smith, but at least Todd Frazier has been solid on offense, if not defense. Still, the Mets couldn’t stop winning. And when they lost both of their catchers to freak injuries, the Mets kept winning. And when turbulent bullpen churn brought the major league debuts of Gerson Bautista and Corey Oswalt (alongside Matt Harvey demoted to relief), um… The Mets started losing. Badly. The Mets’ meteoric rise to the top of the NL East has followed the trajectory of a literal meteor caught in Earth’s gravity – blazing hot before a fast fall that ends with everything in pieces, leaving you still fairly close to the top of things because the Earth’s crust is a tough nut to crack.

Breakin’ Too: DL Boogaloo

If you thought things couldn’t get any worse, well, you must be new here. After Jacob deGrom exited a game early with a hyperexpended elbow, time seemed to stop as fans waited for the results of his MRI. It was clean! deGrom was expected to make his next start and all was right with the world. And then P.J. Conlon was called up to replace deGrom, who went on the DL. For their next trick, the Mets killed two birds with one stone by trading (frequently injured former All-Star) Matt Harvey to the Reds (while they were in Cincinnati) for (frequently injured former All-Star) catcher Devin Mesoraco (while he was expecting to be in the other dugout for their next game). Goodbye, Jose Lobaton! And then Luis Guillorme was called up to replace Todd Frazier, who went on the DL.

Blowing leads all night, DFA every day

So, um, some stuff happened. I’m not sure what, but when the dust settled, Noah Syndergaard was on the DL, recently DFA’d Jose Bautista was on the Mets, the Mets called up a bunch of pitchers and then quickly DFA’d most of them, losing Conlon to the Dodgers in the process, and Jose Lobaton is back? Conlon, too, with Phillip Evans DFA’d again. Jose Reyes: Still not DFA’d. I do not understand this team, which managed to last until June without a losing record. They’re not out of it yet! Except for that complete inability to hold a lead thing. The Mets nearly matched their 9-game winning streak in April with an equal losing streak in June until Seth Lugo stepped up and proved that he deserves a shot at the starting rotation. With things looking up (or at least slightly less down), the Mets cut bait with Adrian Gonzalez and DFA’d Jose Lobaton to call up Dominic Smith and Ty Kelly. The DFA for Jose Reyes is still on hold until the Wilpons can plan an appropriate sendoff. Apparently it’s hard to arrange an Uber to take him to a farm upstate…

<Sigh>

Chris Beck? He is an answer, but the question I do not know. As the roster churn continues, a trio of prospects debut on consecutive days. Losses pile up, despair firmly sets in. No savior stands on the horizon, waiting to rescue a season descending to the depths of hell. Three heads sprout in place of the GM, gone to do battle with an enemy within. With July not yet begun, all eyes turn to September and the seemingly inevitable ascension of Tim Tebow. All hope is lost.
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