Michael Ray Richardson Has Your Life Preservers Ready

If this season doesn’t turn around because Terry Collins gave his standard “no more excuses” speech at the end of Thursday’s loss, we’ll all probably point to April 27th as the day we all hit the bottom. And by “bottom”, I clearly mean 2009. Thursday felt a heck of a lot like 2009 to me, specifically the day that Carlos Delgado ran out a triple and walked off the field and we all knew that we were screwed. (That was April 26th, which would have been spooky if it was one day later.)

After the morning announcement that Noah Syndergaard was having his start pushed back again due to what the team thinks is biceps tendinitis, which could be a result of the Mets telling him to not throw while building muscle during the offseason, the game got rolling. While Gary and Ron were discussing R.A. Dickey’s injuries past and present, Yoenis Cespedes ripped a double to the gap in right center field, but then pulled up lame going into second and had to be helped off the field. This happened after the Mets decided not to put Cespedes on the 10 day DL, created to make decisions about putting players on the DL easier for everybody except for the Mets, after a less severe injury. Now, we’re not going to see Cespedes for a good long while because the Mets did the same thing they did last year with Cespedes and blew a month for the good of a week.

Then there was the performance of Matt Harvey, who gets a lot of focus in this city regarding his ability to carry the team on his back because he’s the Dark Knight. When the Mets needed him on Thursday, he was busy giving up three run home runs to Kurt Suzuki and sinking the team on a day Syndergaard was scratched again. He’s gotten flak for coming up small in big games. But as it turns out, his performance which featured five walks and six runs in four and a third wasn’t his fault at all. The Mets had him let loose in a bullpen session on Wednesday while they knew it was a possibility that he could start. If this was all about the mental side of the game and the only inconvenience laid on Harvey was short notice, then there’s a valid point. But Harvey wasn’t put in the best position to win by his “superiors”, and he couldn’t physically answer the bell. There’s no amount of zeroes on your paycheck that can solve a physical issue, in case your argument is “he gets paid a lot, suck it up” like certain MLB Network experts.

So now you have two injuries caused by decisions and miscommunications by the coaching staff/front office, and one that is still up in the air. This after losing a ton of other players in a 48-hour span and a full season span. Can we now agree that this isn’t just a case of “everyone has injuries”? Yes, everyone has injuries. But not every team has a culture of miscommunication that affects the team on the field. And the Mets have had this problem for the last nine years. They may have been damned either way, but they’re damned either way because of the decision they made to not communicate with Harvey to let him work out hard without a heads up that he might have to pitch on Thursday. (Remember this when Harvey leaves as a free agent.) This isn’t a new thing with the Mets either. Their record of communication is horrible, and it’s putting this team at risk. The way this team is going, they’re fragile already. A front office/coaching staff during these times needs to guide them out of this mess with good, competent decision making which puts their team in the best position to win. Instead they do what they did. They’ve done this constantly, and it’s the reason why this is a franchise that has trouble breaking the ceiling that has the elite on the other side of it.

This season is teetering on the brink, and the patient attitude that this front office has taken, and has worked over the last couple of years, isn’t going to work this year. If the season is lost, the season is lost. But something has to be done. I’ll tell you right now it isn’t going to be the manager, especially when the narrative of last season is “Terry got them to the playoffs despite all the injuries.” But how many times can Terry go to that well and expect the team to respond? Something has to be done that’s a little more concrete this time. There are top flight prospects waiting to come up and even with the initial jitters will be better than some of the dreck they’re putting out there now. They can’t wait for Jose Reyes to turn back the clock to 2008. They can’t wait for Curtis Granderson to have his three week hall-of-fame stretch to save the season. There may not be much than can be done but do something. They could be ten and a half games behind the Nationals after this weekend. Then what?

Today’s Hate List (And One More Quick Rant)

1. Ray Ramirez
2. Kurt Suzuki
3. Freddie Freeman
4. Adonis Garcia
5. Jim Johnson

Editor’s note: Noah Syndergaard will be responsible for a lot more good than bad for the Mets. And yes, he’s still young. But he can’t just be famous on his whim (and on his twitter account). His injury is noteworthy. He should talk to the media, or disappear completely. Bitching out Jay Horwitz within range of the New York press corps isn’t a good look. If you don’t want to talk because you’re hurt, stay in the trainer’s room.