The New York Mets were a curious case when people were making pre-season predictions. They had a lot of young players with a ton of upside, and the predictions ran the gamut from 90 wins to .500 to yet another disappointing season. But few people predicted that after the first two weeks of the season, the Mets would have the best record in the NL and one of the best records in all of baseball. At 10-3, the Mets have begun the season by stomping all over their fellow NL East teams, and currently have an 8 game winning streak.
The starting rotation, which was expected to be their strength, has more than lived up to expectations. Matt Harvey has struck out 24 batters in 18 innings, winning his first 3 starts returning from Tommy John surgery. Jacob deGrom, coming off his Rookie of the Year season, has started with an absurd 0.93 ERA in his effort to avoid a sophomore slump. And at 3 wins, 2.25 ERA, and even 2 RBIs on the offensive side at age 42, we may all have to accept that Bartolo Colon is a wizard. Throw in Jonathan Niese being reliably solid in the back of the rotation and Jeurys Familia developing into a shutdown closer, and the Mets in total have a 3.00 team ERA.
But the offense has also come to play and been a big reason for the Mets winning streak. Lucas Duda, looking to prove his 30 home run season wasn’t a fluke, is hitting .347 and is second in baseball in doubles. New Met Michael Cuddyer is hitting .333 to begin the season, returning Met Curtis Granderson has been taking a ton of walks as the leadoff hitter, and young shortstop Wilmer Flores has two home runs.
But even a hot streak like the one the Mets are on is going to have some lows, and they’ve been dealt a few crushing blows. During this 8 game win streak, 3 of the most important Mets have gone down with injuries and been forced onto the disabled list. Two of their most crucial offensive players and arguably their best reliever so far, and the Mets may have to wonder how this team can continue their hot streak if their best players continue to go down like this. Certainly there’s more depth to the Mets this year than in years past, but the depths of certain positions pales in comparison to others. Here are the 3 key Mets who have gotten hurt in the past 8 games, and how the Mets plan to continue without them.
David Wright
David Wright has been the face of the Mets since he came up midway through 2004. The past few years has seen both phenomenal and mediocre seasons for Wright, but what they had in common is that all those seasons at some point involved injuries. Wright missed 78 games from 2013-14, and this season was to be a rebound for him, a season where he could reestablish his offensive prowess and stay healthy. After the first 8 games of this season, Wright was hitting .333 with a home run and 4 RBIs. But in an April 14th game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Wright strained his right hamstring while stealing a base. Hamstring injuries are tricky and can be a recurring nightmare for a player if it gets worse, so Wright wisely took himself out of the game and was on the disabled list the next day. Later in the week, Terry Collins told NJ.com “He’s coming along great.” Mets fans are optimistic that Wright won’t take too much time to recover, hopefully no more than 3 weeks on the DL. In the meantime, 28 year old Eric Campbell has been starting at third base and providing perfectly serviceable offense, with 3 RBIs and a .250 average in 5 games.
Travis d’Arnaud
This looked to be the year for d’Arnaud. After struggling early in 2014, he was sent down to AAA. After raking in AAA, he was brought back to the majors and was much, much better for the rest of the year. Going into 2015, the hope was that d’Arnaud could keep the momentum going and provide a full season of great offense. He came out of the gate literally swinging, hitting a fantastic .317 with 2 home runs and 10 RBIs in just 11 games. On April 19th, though, he was hit on his right hand with a pitch, fracturing it. It sounds awful, but reports are that it could’ve been worse. ESPN reports that d’Arnaud will be in a splint for 3 weeks, and can resume baseball activities after if the injury has healed the way it’s expected to. While d’Arnaud’s hot bat will be missed, his injury gives the Mets an interesting opportunity to give a starting chance to one of their top prospects, catcher Kevin Plawecki. If Plawecki hits and catches the way the Mets anticipate, they could have a rare good problem on their hands.
Jerry Blevins
Jerry Blevins is one of the newer additions to the Mets organization, as he was traded to the Mets by the Nationals for Matt den Dekker at the end of Spring Training. Blevins quickly became a blessing for the Mets as the lefty specialist in the bullpen, not giving up a single hit or walk in 5 innings of work. Blevins was the middle reliever the Mets desperately needed, but in the same game that took out d’Arnaud, Blevins wound up with a fractured forearm after Miami’s Dee Gordon lined a shot off of him. Blevins still made the play to get Gordon out, but now he’ll be out for a while. The same ESPN report on d’Arnaud noted that while d’Arnaud would wear a splint for 3 weeks, Blevins would be in a splint for 6 weeks. The Mets called up right-hander Hansel Robles from AAA to replace Blevins. Alex Torres, another lefty, could take Blevins’ place as the lefty specialist, but his 4.50 ERA and 4 walks in 4 innings are less than encouraging. Blevins’ injury is yet another crushing blow that ironically took place during the Mets’ longest winning streak in years.