New York Mets: Players finally returning to the team

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With the below average play so far this season, the New York Mets are finally getting some key players back from the disabled list.

To start the season, all you heard about the New York Mets was that their pitching was superior to that of the rest of the league. With a stacked rotation from starters 1-4, the only main issue was if Zack Wheeler could bounce back and be serviceable after missing the last two years. Well so far this season, Wheeler has probably been the Mets’ most consistent starter.

With Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom‘s inconsistency, Noah Syndergaard‘s injury and the fact that before yesterday neither Steven Matz nor Seth Lugo had even pitched this season, the Mets pitching has been beyond disappointing, to put it lightly.

Relying on guys like Robert Gsellman and Rafael Montero (as scary as that seems) not only created the inevitability that the rotation would be below average, it hurt the bullpen as well because they were undermanned and overused. While Gsellman is a nice pitcher to have, he would be better situated toward the back end of the rotation.

While the pitching has been the main issue surrounding New York this season, the offense has had key injuries to it as well. While players like Travis d’Arnaud have been on the disabled list multiple times already this year, we’ve seen Lucas Duda, Wilmer Flores and Asdrubal Cabrera on the disabled list and playing through injuries as well. Neil Walker has even been out the last few days with swelling in his left knee. We haven’t even mentioned that “La Potencia,” Yoenis Cespedes, had been out since April 20, before yesterday, of course.

Every team battles injuries on a season-to-season basis. It’s how the teams continue to push without their top players around for the long haul. We saw last year that the Mets, who dealt with injuries all season, were able to play through it and secure the top NL Wild Card spot. The one thing they had on a consistent basis, though, was their pitching. With that being said, let’s take a look at how these players’ key returns could effect New York in a positive way for the rest of the season.

Yoenis Cespedes

With his return to the lineup yesterday afternoon for game one of a day/night doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves, Cespedes continues to show why he’s the best player on this team.

With his ninth inning grand slam in his first game back since April, this offense is just a different beast when he’s in it on a day-to-day basis. While he was injured, Michael Conforto and Jay Bruce have carried this team offensively. Before the season started, all you heard was how Conforto wasn’t going to make the team and the front office wanted to trade Bruce for essentially anything they could get their hands on. Imagine if both of those things had happened? With the injuries all over the team, the Mets probably wouldn’t even have 20 wins.

“I know they have a plan for me but nobody knows my body better than I do. So if they want to give me days off it kind of has to be based off of how I feel and how I feel my body is reacting.’’ – Yoenis Cespedes, via NYPost.com

Back to Cespedes, it takes the weight off other players like Conforto and Curtis Granderson. While he’s been playing better, you don’t need to rely on Granderson being a bat in the middle of the order. He could not only be a spot starter, but he makes your bench that much stronger and deeper. These types of players have impacts all over the diamond, and lengthening your bench is just one of those perks. But if you don’t have the pitching, it’s all for naught.

Steven Matz

Wherever he’s been, he’s pitched well. The only problem with Steven Matz is that he has become accustomed to the injury bug.

Through 15 starts at Triple-A Las Vegas, Matz pitched to a 7-4 record with a 2.19 ERA. For his big-league career, Matz is currently 14-8 with a 3.09 ERA. But after his second career start, it was announced that Matz tore his lat muscle and missed about two months. Battling bone spurs for most of the 2016 campaign, he was finally shut down in August with left shoulder tightness. He hadn’t pitched until the nightcap of the day/night doubleheader yesterday against Atlanta because of elbow inflammation.

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In his first start of the season, he was not only masterful, but he did what he usually does: He pitched well.

“This is what we thought we were going to get, guys we thought we were going to have. Unfortunately we haven’t and we have had to play without them, but we have a lot left and now we’ve just got to make sure we work very hard to make sure Steven Matz goes out there every five or six days and Yoenis Cespedes finishes the season healthy.” – Terry Collins, via NYPost.com

Going seven strong against the Braves, he kept his pitch count under 100 and worked quickly. In something we haven’t seen for most of the season, a Mets starter actually went seven innings without blowing their arm out. With no durability seen this year, the Mets need their starters to get that certain swagger back and go deep into games. It won’t only give the offense more of a puncher’s chance, but not every game will be a slug fest. It also keeps their bullpen out of the game, which is always a good thing.

Seth Lugo

The wild card has always been Seth Lugo, who stood in, along with Robert Gsellman last year, and helped right the ship for the injury-ridden Mets.

Pitching to a 5-2 record last year with a 2.67 ERA, Lugo was used mainly in the bullpen to start his major league career when he was called up. Because of injuries, he started eight games for New York and pitched as well as anyone could hope.

“It’s big if they pitch good. That’s the biggest key. It’s nice to have them back, I am just hoping they are ready to go.” – Terry Collins on Seth Lugo and Steven Matz, via NYDailyNews.com

Pitching so well , there was talk that the Mets would use him as the fifth starter coming out of Spring Training. Pitching for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, Lugo was their ace. Winning both games against Venezuela and the United States in the first and second rounds, he was roughed up against the United States in the championship game.

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Undergoing an MRI because of a tired arm, it was reveled that Lugo had a partial tear in his UCL. Rather than surgery, Lugo rehabbed and all has gone well. Penciled in to start for the Mets on Sunday, it’ll be another arm the Mets could slot into their rotation. The main decision to make is if they should go to a six-man rotation, or knock someone out of the rotation to help out the bullpen. If all goes well, it could possibly right the ship until even more firepower comes back from the disabled list.

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