Marlins 5, Mets 2
Remember when we thought rock bottom was batting out of order during a little slump? Or calling Dom Smith up for a weekend series against the Phillies, only to give him a single at-bat before sending him down again? Well, I have news for you: This, this right here, this is rock bottom.
Rock bottom is when your ace, who has defended his teammates countless times to the press despite their inability to provide adequate run support, finally has had enough and tells the media “I’m tired of losing, to be honest.” Rock bottom is when your 5-21 record in June is good for the third-worst month in franchise history. Rock bottom is when your manager declines to chastise Jose Reyes, a supposed veteran mentor, who refused to run out a ground ball in the sixth inning. Potentially worse is anointing your backup shortstop with the nickname “Rey-Rey” when all he’s done in your tenure is hit .184/.263/.252 and make seven errors in the field.
Rock bottom is when your rookie manager is literally the “this is fine” meme, despite everything around him being anything but fine.
The season’s effectively over before the All-Star break, Brandon Nimmo isn’t having fun anymore and there’s probably a good argument to be made that trading Jacob deGrom is the right move.
Well, deGrom started Saturday and gave the Mets another quality start despite what was essentially a “bad” outing by his standards. The NL leader in ERA allowed three runs in his six innings of work, giving the Mets their best chance at a win in the series against Miami. Still, the offense could only muster solo home runs from Jose Bautista and Todd Frazier on the afternoon. The Marlins starter, Pablo Lopez, made his first career big league start Saturday, and the Mets failed to take advantage of him or Miami’s bullpen.
Smith was off to a decent start in what’s apparently his final audition, but even that wasn’t enough to earn him consistent playing time. Instead, Mickey Callaway told the press that he’s decided to roll with Wilmer Flores in order to give the Mets the best chance to win. Flores is a nice little bench player, while we still don’t know what Smith is for certain. So, why not give the kid a chance to play in what’s already a lost season?
The Mets are now in last place in the NL East, 14.5 games back of division-leading Atlanta, and own the worst winning percentage in the entire National League. Now’s the time to see what they have in Jeff McNeil and Peter Alonso. Amed Rosario needs everyday at-bats and reps at shortstop to develop into the player we all hoped he’d become. Let Seth Lugo start and build up his trade value to a contender that may be willing to surrender notable prospects for his services down the stretch. We’ve officially reached rock bottom, so I suppose it can only go up from here.