It’s inexplicable, in part, because his surge has come in light of two injuries–one major and one minor. Cabrera spent 18 days on the disabled list with a knee injury. Then, on Aug. 28, he left a game with a hobbled knee again. Suffering and re-aggravating an injury which could compromise your swing and power is usually not the best way to facilitate for a hot streak. Yet, here we are.

So what’s behind all this? How did Asdrubal Cabrera go on a tear and set the team’s record for most home runs by a shortstop. (21, at the time of publication.)

First, let’s put his season into three snippets and see how he gradually gets more dangerous at the plate. On July 31, Cabrera got hurt for the first time. He’d miss the next 18 days. Up to that point, he was pretty unimpressive. He was hitting .255 with 13 home runs and a .718 OPS. Cabrera was hitting for more power than he had in any of the four previous years–he hit between 14 and 16 home runs per season from 2012-2015–but he was actually less productive offensively than he had been last year in Tampa Bay.

The respite obviously helped. He came off the disabled list and notched hits in eight of his next nine games, homered three times, and doubled four times. Still, he wasn’t much of a different hitter than he had been. His average exit velocity (88.8 mph, via Baseball Savant) was right at league average and actually below what he had posted over the first four months of the season. His average launch angle (10.2 degrees, via Baseball Savant) was actually near three degrees lower than it had been.

Cabrera’s strong nine games looked like a fortunate blip. Then he left Aug. 28’s game with the sore left knee–the same he had hurt previously. Somehow this has correlated with a boon for his stat line.

From Aug. 29 through Sept. 20, Cabrera batted .324 with a 1.013 OPS. He homered again Wednesday. It’s during this last stretch that Cabrera has changed his results and his pathway to getting there. His average launch angle jumped to 19.2 degrees and his line drive rate spiked from 21.5 percent to 32.2 percent. His average exit velocity bumped to 93.1 mph–35th-best in all of baseball of all hitters with at least 20 at-bats in that time frame.

Cabrera has suddenly become the Mets’ hottest hitter and, most importantly for them, it doesn’t look like he’s just getting lucky on balls in play. He’s hitting the ball harder and higher.

In a season plagued by injuries, it seems like the Mets actually didn’t have one of their best players derailed by one. Cabrera has actually turned into one of the best signings of the Sandy Alderson regime. Like Bartolo Colon and Yoenis Cespedes, he is one of the relative bargains the general manager found a way to buy this past offseason. 

Just as importantly, he’s under contract for next year, when the Mets’ infield situation is uncertain and interestingly vague. Cabrera is likely locked in at shortstop but the rest of it is up in the air. David Wright can hardly be counted on at this point. The Mets don’t have an incumbent second baseman at this point with Neil Walker a free agent to be. Sure, they could just use Jose Reyes and Wilmer Flores as roving platoon options for those two positions, along with whatever Wright can provide or even Gavin Cecchini. And while there has been murmurs (mostly from fans) questioning if Lucas Duda will return next year, letting him leave would be short-sighted and deprive the Mets of a possible 30-home-run bat just to save about $6-8 million.

Then again, with the Mets nothing is unfathomable, not even the team’s bargain shortstop out-hitting the Yankees’ newest phenom.

Photo Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

Whatever.

When September actually rolls around this year (today!), the Mets will call up Michael Conforto and Kevin Plawecki to head their first wave of promotions. How they perform this month actually does have some meaning.

Both players are still young–Conforto is 23 and Plawecki is 25–and have value and importance in the Mets’ long-term plan. They’ve both struggled this year and this final month–or more, depending on your level of confidence that the Mets can make the Wild Card–can actually help untangle the question marks that both have raised this year.

Conforto’s case is much more higher-profile. After his sterling debut in 2015, his production dropped drastically, primarily starting in May and June. Since then he’s had a few nice vacations in Las Vegas. He tore up the league in his latest stint and perhaps that’s all he needed to find his groove again. Call this the d’Arnaud Corollary; the Mets’ catcher took a two-week trip to Triple-A in 2014 and came back hitting like one of the best offensive catchers in baseball following a few tweaks and an injection of confidence. (Is this one of the reasons why Mets fans pine for Wally Backman? Like there has to be an actual rational reason, right?)

The performance is important, but Conforto’s plate approach and process will need the most scrutiny. He dropped what made him so good over those lost months. He lost his discipline at the plate and his strikeouts spiked. Not surprisingly his contact rate dipped too.

Conforto has the 33rd-highest strikeout rate in baseball this year of any hitter in baseball who has amassed at least 300 plate appearances (out of 229 eligible batters). That’s a significant jump from last year, when he actually struck out less than the league average. Obviously strikeouts aren’t problematic on their own, but in this case it speaks to his larger sense of wandering. He swung at more pitches outside of the zone and his swinging strikes jumped not surprisingly. Off-speed pitches have been an unrepentant nag.

His average exit velocity fell by two miles an hour from 93.2 mph to 91.1 as well. While it was still above the league average (89.1 mph), it was decidedly less spectacular than his debut season when he had hit balls as hard, on average, as Yoenis Cespedes.

What opportunities Conforto will get over the last month is uncertain. The Mets’ outfield is crowded like a rush hour 7 train. “I’m going to find ways to get him in the lineup,” manager Terry Collins said ahead of Conforto’s return. “When Michael comes back and we get him in the lineup, he hits, he stays in the lineup. We’re fighting tooth and nail now to get into the postseason. Right now, as much as I’m a development guy, there’s a time and a place. We fall out of it, little different situation. We’ll put him in there when we think he’s a major factor of us winning a game.”

More worrisome is the performance of Plawecki. Just last year there were real questions of how the Mets should share the catching job amongst the Plawecki and d’Arnaud. If only they could afford to be so gluttonous right now.

To say Plawecki has not produced over two seasons and 401 plate appearances is like saying d’Arnaud has injury issues. It’s an understatement. That’s kind of the problem for the Mets because those two things are inter-related. Plawecki has a .570 OPS and 59 OPS+ in that time, staggeringly bad even before you consider he was touted as bat-first catcher who Baseball Prospectus named its No. 80 prospect ahead of last season.

You could at least point to signs of hope for Plawecki last year. Hitting coach Kevin Long frequently enough touted Plawecki’s hard-hit rate and his exit velo. Even though he wasn’t getting hits, at least Long contended, he was smoking the ball often enough–at least in line with league average.

This year, Plawecki has a problem. He is making hard contact. Like at all. His average exit velocity is almost without peer. Of the 381 players in baseball who have put at least 75 balls in play, Plawecki ranks no. 375–right ahead of Ben Revere but behind Andrew Romine. Anemic would be one way to describe that.

Who knows how much he’ll play. Rene Rivera and d’Arnaud sit atop the depth chart and Plawecki hasn’t really deserved playing time so far in the majors, though at least he’s hitting in Triple-A.

But the Mets do need to know to use the next month to gauge what progress he and Conforto have made in Las Vegas. It won’t tell the whole story but like most baseball conventional wisdom, September isn’t useless either.

Photo Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

It’s this lack of definition that must make it so difficult to understand the Mets right now and for their fans to know how to think about it. Mets Twitter is vacillating somewhere between calling for Terry Collins’ lineup card so someone new can lead the way the rest of the year and salvage it, and calling for Steven Matz to be shut down for the future’s sake.

Actually, Erik Malinowski did just that here this week. And he’s right. There is a very strong and reasonable argument to put Matz on the disabled list. Let his elbow mend, dispose of that troublesome bone spur and get on with next season already. And maybe even consider doing the same to Noah Syndergaard. Talented arms are nothing to risk with, after all.

And then you take a look at the standings again. And you see the Mets are still three games behind the Cardinals for the second wildcard spot. Somehow just three games out of the playoffs despite a season that can kindly be described as a factory line of crap(py luck). And then that decision doesn’t become so easy after all.

The Mets know better than most what a hot stretch can get you, especially in August. And especially with that pitching staff they still have mostly intact and what it can do in the postseason. That’s why waving a white flag on 2016 isn’t easy nor prudent. The Mets may have the eighth best odds to make the playoffs in the National League but they’re also not unreasonable just yet.

But this type of neither here-nor-there confusion does cause problems. Unlike last season, when the Mets were expecting returns to Travis d’Arnaud and David Wright and their rotation was healthy, they could afford to go full bore for a playoff chase. It helped the Nationals were also so troubled.

This year, they have no such parachute. It’s partly why they spent their resources on Jay Bruce. The Mets needed help now but they needed help for 2017 as well. Their window doesn’t close after this season and by late July it became clear that was a major consideration too. The pain and marginal advantage of this season must come with a gain next year.

It’s why these last two months have and will look stilted. What else are the Mets to do? They are playoff contenders who need to worry about 2017. There is no pivot to the future because they’ve already called up all the high-end talent in the system that’s near the major league level. While the Yankees can bench Brian McCann because Gary Sanchez deserves the at-bats, the Mets have no such luxury. Matz, Syndergaard and Conforto came in a wave last year.

The rest of this season will be predicated on two things primarily. Even as they contend for October, there must be a way to preserve Syndergaard and Matz. Their 2017 rotation is already growing fragile with Matt Harvey and Zach Wheeler having their own issues this year. While Harvey is supposed to be back to normal next year, we know by now there are no guarantees. And Wheeler’s future is murkier by the day.

Syndergaard is on pace for another season of about 200 innings–no light load to begin his career. Matz, bone spur and all, is on pace to jump up about 25 innings from last year.

Whatever choice Yoenis Cespedes makes this offseason and whoever ends up at second base, preserving their bedrock rotation is the Mets’ key goal over the next few months. At some point, they’ll have to decide what this season means to them. They’ll either remain in the playoff chase and push their starters further, or spiral out and decide to call it a year.

These are the decisions the Mets must already be thinking about, and surely they are. Because next year seems as if it will be an even tougher road in their division. The Nationals’ rotation should only get stronger and a likely rebound season from Bryce Harper. The Marlins seem as if they are getting better. And the Mets have more question marks now than they did in the spring.

But by choosing to divert their resources to Bruce before the trade deadline, it will be interesting to see how they try to augment their roster in the offseason.

For now, however, the Mets must make sure they don’t end up spoiling next year by prioritizing this year at a cost.

Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Just as interesting, however, is what the Bruce trade means for 2017 and what that team could look like. That was one of the reasons the Mets dealt for him now. He’s under contract for next season and that was of great importance in their willingness to deal Dilson Herrera for him. It gives the Mets a glut of corner outfielders for two more months and then some questions to work around next year.

Trying to make sense of what the Mets outfield could look like next year is a fun game to play. Bruce is a given, obviously. He’s the type of player the Mets love–he hits home runs and who gives a damn about a defense. And he provides insurance for Yoenis Cespedes. If Cespedes opts out–and as likely the best player to hit free agency this year he probably definitely opts out–there’s probably no way the club could get a player of Bruce’s ilk for the $13 million he’s set to get next year.

They’ll also have to pay Curtis Granderson $15 million and that’s not a steal. He is still an above-average offensive player but he’ll be 36 in 2017 and could continue his eroding production. Though the Mets aren’t actually at a place to just give up on competent and worthwhile hitters, it could make some sense to see what the trade market bears for him. If a team doesn’t want to pay dozens of millions of dollars for Josh Reddick or Mark Trumbo in free agency, or try to wrangle in Jose Bautista’s reportedly obscene demands, or isn’t an American League team that also put Carlos Beltran at designated hitter, then absorbing Granderson’s remaining contract isn’t a bad idea. It’s at least something for the Mets to explore, not only for the payroll flexibility it would give them–take that phrase as you will based on your trust and opinion of the Wilpons–but possibly give them at least something for the farm system.

Of course, it would also open up a window for Michael Conforto. Though he’s had a rocky season, he is still just 23 and highly talented. If he’s healthy and back to his 22-year-old self, he could be the lineup mainstay the Mets hoped he would be this year.

With Brandon Nimmo and Juan Lagares, the Mets would also have the outfield depth they seek and at least one center fielder. Lagares presents an interesting case though. By the start of next season, he’ll be two years removed from the Gold Glove gold standard he was defensively. He’s obviously injury prone and can’t be trusted to last a full season. And his contract begins to escalate. He’ll make $4.5 million in 2017, then $6.5 million, then $9 million. The Mets have never seen that deal as too healthy to be traded but it would become harder with every passing year.

Nimmo would also make an interesting trade candidate. Nimmo plus two others allegedly got the deal done for Bruce this week before an injury issue derailed that version of the deal. Perhaps that was under the pressure of the deadline or maybe it speaks to how flawed Bruce actually is, but it could also point to the asset the Mets have in hind to augment the 2017 team for a player who doesn’t seem have a guaranteed everyday role at this time. Maybe he could even help the Mets get a second baseman for next year in case the idea of Jose Reyes or Gavin Cecchini doesn’t excite you.

For now this all speculation but it does add another layer to the Bruce deal. The Mets still have an open window next season and he will play a role. His acquisition will lead to some tough decisions this offseason, however.

Photo Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

But the Mets made their choice and while his alleged actions will not be forgotten, there are also the baseball consequences to deal with. Signing Reyes and then plugging him atop the lineup was pretty odd in and of itself. He’s 33, no longer quite the speedsters and posted a .310 on-base percentage last year. The Mets needed major-league worthy players on the roster, yes, but it didn’t mean they had to just give him a starting job. Especially as it came at the cost of Wilmer Flores.

It’s now been about three weeks since Reyes joined the Mets and while the sample size is hardly dispositive, it’s worth looking at what the Mets are getting out of their bargain. He’s played 16 games to this point and that number will stay there for some time after he got hurt earlier this week and is expected to miss a few days—of course that timetable is provided in Mets estimates so actually days missed may vary wildly.

Some of the results have not been surprising for Reyes. He’s continued his plunge in batting average (.239 from .274 last year) and on-base percentage (.310 to .278 now). These are not the hallmarks of an ideal leadoff hitter. The utility of his speed is limited by his ability to, you know, get on base. And the fact that his strikeout rate has rocketed—nearly doubling up to 18.1 percent—is probably not the best of signs either.

But what has been interesting about Reyes in this limited run is that he’s hit for power. This may all, of course, be a small sample size blip and run its course soon enough. Yet it’s also interesting that maybe Reyes has changed some of his tendencies.

He has only posted a slugging percentage as high as his current one, .493, in one other season—he slugged that same number in 2011, when he won the batting title by hitting .337. His isolated power, .254 so far, has never topped .187 (that was 2006). It’s obvious that Reyes is a far different hitter than he was five and 10 years ago and it’s not usual for a player to swap out speed for power as he gets to the downside of his aging curve. But here he is.

Reyes is starkly hitting the ball harder this year, with his average exit velocity jumping from 84.7 mph in 2015 to 87.7 mph this year, which has taken him from fall below average to only below average.

While his line drive has fallen to just 15 percent this year, a 25 percent dip from 2015, his hard-hit and fly ball rate has rocketed up. His average launch angle this year is 14.1 degrees—it was 9.6 degrees last year.

It could all be part of a new approach for Reyes. Perhaps is no longer cut to slash and run and wants to put more emphasis on the ball, believing his equipped to do that more consistently at his point of his career. That swing for the moon emphasis could also explain why his contact rate has fallen significantly and why he’s swinging and missing more than he ever has—more than twice as much as he did the last time he was with the Mets in 2011.

It’s all combined to make him a barely above-average offensive player this year. Which is fine but his presence in the lineup still comes at the cost of Flores (116 wRC+ and .795 OPS) who has still been the better hitter and more valuable bat. And it still hasn’t really solved the questions the Mets needed to answer in the first place—on the field or off it.

To this point, the Mets rotation has outpaced the 2015 staff. Their ERA, FIP, and xFIP (entering Wednesday) are all lower than last season. They’re tied with the Dodgers for the most WAR, according to FanGraphs, of any staff in baseball. And their strikeout percentage is higher too.

Taking this step back it’s worth remembering something: That the bedrock of this Mets team has always been their rotation. This was the way they made themselves into World Series contenders and could survive a month’s long power outage.

And it’s a reminder that things are never as bad as they seem. That the talent the Mets have amassed into one rotation is so vast and so valuable that it can overcome Harvey turning from a super-hero into a lost wonder in one offseason. Still, it was a shock when they put Harvey on the disabled list Wednesday with shoulder woes; a Newsday report says they have suspicion of thoracic outlet syndrome and sent him to a top specialist.

But with that pretext, this also serves as an opportunity to compare the Mets’ pitching to where it was a year ago, and to see where they’ve found improvement and where new questions have popped up.

There has been no bigger boon for the Mets than the ascent of Noah Syndergaard. He has gone from a promising hulk on the mound to an ace who causes havoc and devastation for whichever team crosses his path. As talented as Syndergaard is, his improvement has still been rapid. Last season, he put together one of the best seasons by a rookie pitcher in the last 10 years, and now he’s just one of the best pitchers in baseball, period.

It’s reminiscent of the leap Jacob deGrom made last year, though even steeper. While deGrom came with a different narrative, the trend line was much the same. Sure, he wasn’t as fearsome but by the time he mauled three poor American League hitters in one inning in last year’s All-Star Game, it was clear deGrom had become of the better pitchers in baseball.

He’s kept his place this year despite struggling with a case of missing velocity. deGrom has lost nearly two miles per hour off his fastball, on average, so far this year but his ERA (2.61), FIP, and xFIP are all largely almost unchanged. But the differences are visible on the edges. His strikeout rate is no longer elite, nor his WHIP. Opposing hitters have posted an OPS 59 points higher this year than last year. That fastball is no longer as strong a weapon, with his whiff rate falling from fifth best in baseball last year to 17th this year. Where that fastball was the third most valuable in 2015, according to FanGraphs runs above average formula, this year it’s 49th.

Still, it’s been remarkable to watch deGrom whittle away at opposing hitters. One of the reasons the club’s general manager was so impressed by him after his rookie year was the pitcher’s mental fortitude and that’s been apparent again this season as he guts out inning after inning despite his missing heat.

While deGrom has found a way to stabilize despite diminished stuff, Harvey has come apart–perhaps because of the health troubles that caused him to miss time in spring training and sent him to the disabled list now. His velocity has fallen dramatically too. He no longer misses as many bats and his statistics are just wretched at this point: he’s losing many of his games thanks to a 4.86 ERA. He ranks 138th in PWARP– that’s just as productive in 17 starts as Julio Urias has been in eight this year. The Mets and Harvey seem out of answers.

Fortunately for them, Harvey’s issues have been compensated for. Bartolo Colon continues his Dorian Gray-like aging curve. Steven Matz has pitched very well again–just like last year–and has been bothered by minor injuries again–just like last year. His left arm is as talented as it is worrisome.

That has been the motto for the Mets all season however: talented but worrisome. This team enjoyed enviable health last year despite the loss of Zack Wheeler and Matz for two months. Harvey, deGrom and Syndergaard all were stout and Matz returned by the postseason.

This year, the Mets’ staff seems to be walking a tightrope. Productive but constantly harangued by worries. Harvey’s DL trip is just the latest machination of them. There’s still another half of the season to come, so hang on.

Photo Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

In pointing to some reasoning for this, Hahn mentioned the White Sox pitching coach, Don Cooper, and their trainer, Herm Schneider. Both have been with the club in those roles for the whole duration. It was a reminder to me of how organizations view injuries. That they are not just flukish and unlucky all the time and that they believe there could be systemic reasons for preventing them.

It’s something I’ve thought about recently as I’ve watched the Mets, again, fall into this injury-abyss. This year’s set of problems seems to be even worse than last year. Along with David Wright, they now have Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz pitching through bone spurs in their pitching elbows. Last year, it was just the offense that was mostly bruised in-season. Now, it’s that rotation too.

This also is not a new dilemma for the organization. The Mets are … what’s the word here–habitually snakebitten?–by injuries. It’s something of a running joke amongst its fans. The only person guaranteed to get booed at Citi Field on Opening Day is trainer Ray Ramirez. The Wall Street Journal had a telling infographic last year about the team’s injury prognosis.

I’ll just leave this here. pic.twitter.com/EGJv58Jnmy

— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) July 8, 2015

The numbers are more telling than the rhetoric. Only the Rangers lost more games on the disabled list than the Mets last year. And they rank in the top-five in days on the disabled list over the last three-year (fourth), five-year (fifth) and 15-year spans (second).

So is this just a long period of bad luck or is this systemic?

Only the Mets executives know best. They are the ones with access to the medical procedures their training staff and medical staff uses. And the best understanding of what’s right and what’s wrong.

But it’s also interesting to watch as organizational medical staffs become one of the most recent sources of change in baseball. The Nationals restructured theirs this past offseason and brought in the former head of medicine for Leeds United, an English Soccer team. Mike Rizzo, Washington’s general manager, was abundantly clear on why he made the change.

“Maybe the next Moneyball,” he said of injury prevention. “Keeping players on the field.”

This is both new but no longer innovative. The Dodgers and Rays have deals with Kitman Labs, a sports health technology company that also works with Everton FC.

There’s a reason that teams are heading down this route. European soccer teams are considered to be more advanced in injury prevention and team health tactics that American sports teams–that’s why it was a surprise last year when Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge went to rehab with Red Sox staff, though both teams are owned by Fenway Sports Group, John Henry’s ownership conglomerate. Without the constraints of a CBA and a players union as strong as the own in Major League Baseball, European soccer teams have more resources and wherewithal at their disposal. And it’s likely that this trend will continue, with more MLB teams rearranging or changing their medical staffs. The Mets, despite all their many injuries, seem to have remained static the last few years — or at least have not given any public notice on their own medical staff. The only change they’ve announced is a shuffle in their strength and conditioning leadership.

But if injury prevention is the latest way to gain a significant marginal advantage, those that don’t look for it can get left behind.

Photo Credit:  Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

This is where the Mets are right now. Their backup plans have moved onto backup plans. They have been beat up by injuries. James Loney and Johnson are temporary life vests. And with it being the middle of June, there doesn’t seem like there’s a damn thing they can do right now to help themselves.

That’s the brutal helplessness that comes with being stuck neck-deep in problems at this point of the year. June can sometimes seem like a no man’s land for finding reinforcements. The Mets are nearly tapped out at the top of their minor league system and it’s too early to swing a trade. So what’s a team left to do but wait.

The Mets’ similarities to last season have been well-noted by now but this is a reminder that there isn’t much they can do now either.

“I think the deficiencies are similar,” general manager Sandy Alderson said. “The question is if we’re better equipped to overcome them? I’d like to say yes in the sense that we have a little more major league caliber depth than we had but we’ve gone through it. … I think the other thing that may be different is I think we’re a little more cognizant of the need for that experience and therefore have been a little more proactive. I think we’ve demonstrated that over the last few weeks and we’ll try to be proactive as we go forward.”

But the time for building depth is pretty much gone. That could come in the last few days of spring training–a chance for adding marginal roster pieces as organizations shuffle their cards near cut-down day. To add one now, like the Mets did with Johnson, is trade from a position of scant leverage. That’s how Akeel Morris–no great prospect but not invaluable either–goes for someone like Johnson.

It’s also why there aren’t many deals of consequence in June. Teams that need help would be giving up prime talent and paying for an extra month-plus than if they waited until the trade deadline. And there are 22 teams that are currently on track for the postseason or within five games of a wildcard spot–as the Mets are. The rumors that have tied together the Brewers and Mets in the exchange for Jonathan Lucroy may just ignore the fact that even if Milwaukee doesn’t have much franchise-building intent to compete for a playoff spot this year, they’re still only 5.5 games out. Optics matter to owners and even first-year wunderkind GMs.

“Are we able to be as aggressive?” Alderson said. “I still think we have the prospects in our system to move.”

But trading right now could mean picking from the very top of the prospect list and Alderson has always kept long-term implications in mind even as he dealt away last summer.

If the Mets are hoping to find help internally, they don’t seem altogether sold on their options. Brandon Nimmo, their 2011 first-round pick, is raking in Triple-A, with a .411 on-base percentage and .940 OPS entering Wednesday. But he’s doing it in the hitting heaven of the Pacific Coast League. And though Alderson has praised Nimmo for his increased aggressiveness and complimented him for being “less passive,” he doesn’t seem ready to deem Nimmo ready just yet.

“He’s getting there,” Alderson said. “He’s been great the last two, three weeks and so I think he has put himself in a position to be considered. We’ll just have to see how he continues to perform as we monitor what’s going on at the major league level. He’s put himself in position for consideration.”

So what’s a team to do? Call up Dilson Herrera? Move Neil Walker to third in his free agent walk year right after he’s able to actually play again because of his balky back? Hope Conforto rediscovers his formerly superb batting eye and approach?

The options are scant and passive right now for the Mets. They’re stuck in the middle of June and there’s no worse place to be.

Photo Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The beauty of sports, and baseball especially, is that it always seems to provide comps and context. For the Mets, it’s easy this year. It’s 2015 all over again, it seems. The good start, the two-team race with the Nationals, the sudden discombobulation as their roster reveals itself to be a Mr. Potato Head in a baseball jersey.

But what’s interesting about this season as opposed to last is the tenor and the context. There isn’t the same, um, shall we say, panic amongst the non-organizational employees. Baseball teams view issues as problems to solve and looks for ways to do so. The rest of us tend to be a bit more myopic at times.

Now consider these Mets as opposed to last year’s. Their starting third baseman, first baseman, and catcher are all injured–which constitutes a healthy portion of the lineup. Not surprisingly, of course, that’s led to a decay in offensive production. Just two National League teams have scored fewer runs than the Mets and they are the Braves and Phillies, two teams predicted in the offseason to be the worst in baseball.

The effects of attrition are clear and undesirable. Ty Kelly. Eric Campbell. Kevin Plawecki and Rene Rivera. These are not the pieces any team would want to be relying upon in a division battle. Wilmer Flores might be palatable offensively in the middle infield, but he’s not enough bat at first.

“There’s no instant fix, no scramble the lineup, take this guy out,” Terry Collins told reporters Tuesday after the Pirates swept a doubleheader. “It’s a total package. You’ve got to get everybody going and we’re not hitting as a group.”

So we get to the return of Johnson. He is, by no means, an answer. His current .562 OPS is putrid. He ranks 861st out of 905 players in Baseball Prospectus’ Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) leaderboard. Thats not quite as miserable as Mark Teixeira–this year no one is–but not quite as not-good as Alex Rodriguez. (Mets punchline Eric Campbell is 868th, just a few spaces away from Johnson.)

But he is again an opening to the likely thinking of the Mets front office. The Mets are looking for respectability on the bench and they are unwilling to wait for it to find them. Last July, they almost made it to the trade deadline before a deal as the Nationals left the division for the taking. That open window is what spurred a week of trades and drama. This year, general manager Sandy Alderson is pulling the trigger early–unwilling to watch the Mets atrophy into the summer.

The Mets are still just three and a half games back of Washington–essentially the same place they were when Johnson came aboard a year ago–and are looking for an infusion of major league players to stem the tide until the major talent gets back. To do it, Akeel Morris had to go. The Braves are just happy to have one more lottery ticket for their rebuild. The Mets had to deal a pitcher on their 40-man roster to make this move work. After all the deals of the past year, their farm system isn’t barren, but it has been depleted. Each trade comes with a larger opportunity cost now because there aren’t as many prospects to throw around.

More intriguing will be to see how Alderson and the Mets act in the coming months. The 2015 season has given them the shield of success but also weighty expectations. There are no more reasons left to stand pat if these struggles persist. The National League East is more competitive this year and there (probably) won’t be a Jonathan Papelbon bomb to implode the Nationals. And the Cubs are the behemoth looming over the entire league. With Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes, the Mets already have the dynamic talents they sought last year to prop up that dynamic pitching staff–but now they need help around them.

We’ll have to wait and see if the return of Kelly Johnson is 2015 déjà vu or if this is where the similarities end.

Photo Credit: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports

There aren’t many great options. This is where the 2016 Mets differ from last year’s team. Last season, their farm system was a boon for the major league team and among the best in baseball. This year, thanks to graduations and trades, it’s depleted at the top. At times like these, with Harvey and even Lucas Duda’s injury, they can’t just pull high-end talent up to the majors anymore.

This obviously isn’t a negative on the whole. Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz–two arms the Mets turned to when they needed to and wanted to last season–are now excelling for the big league club. Michael Conforto jumped straight from Double-A in July to help spark the offense; now he is the No. 3 hitter. Prospects are supposed to become major league talent and the Mets have found success that way.

It’s just that now that when the Mets need help, where can they look internally? It’s not hard to think that if there were legitimate options to put into the rotation, they might be more open to letting Harvey breathe for a bit. Logan Verrett has been good to this point–a 3.89 ERA in seven career starts–but his pedigree is underwhelming. Rafael Montero has repeatedly struggled in major league tryouts.

The options in the minors are limited too. The only non-Matz pitching prospect in the Mets’ top-10 prospect this spring, according to Baseball Prospectus, is Robert Gsellman and he’s at Double-A and just off the disabled list.

At Triple-A, Gabriel Ynoa, the Mets’ No. 13 prospect according to MLB.com, leads the pack. And while he’s got a 2.50 ERA, 28 strikeouts in 57 ⅔ innings are hardly reaffirming. Seth Lugo has struggled–and his peripherals aren’t great–while Montero and Sean Gilmartin have had their turns in the majors already.

The same goes with their attempts to replace Duda. There is no impact bat near major league ready, with Dominic Smith still just 20 and in Double-A. It’s the gift and curse of the Mets being flush with all that young talent last season. The Mets’ system, on the whole, ranks 21st in baseball and this assessment from BP sums it up well:

“The Mets dropped the furthest, going from a top-five system to a bottom-ten one. Graduating Michael Conforto and Noah Syndergaard will do that though. In addition, trades have thinned out the pitching depth some, and the pre-Conforto first round picks (Nimmo, Cecchini, Smith) have had some developmental hiccups. The most interesting names spent 2015 in short-season ball, and Luis Carpio is already slated to miss the 2016 season with a labrum tear. Steven Matz is currently propping up the system, but two top-30 picks should help Sandy Alderson and company reload.”

A pitcher like Michael Fulmer, who has already touched the majors with the Tigers, could surely be useful right now, either to help or for trade deadline help, but surely the Mets have no regrets about dealing him for Yoenis Cespedes last July.

Instead, the Mets must work out their own issues for now. Internal reinforcements are harder to find. What came so easily and often for the Mets last season–calling up an instant star to reinforce their World Series team–doesn’t seem to be an option now.

Photo Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports