Slumping Mets need a lineup upgrade
If you were to draw up a top-10 list of the worst trades in recent memory, the Mets' deals of July 30, 2004, would probably deserve a mention somewhere near the summit. That was the day the team traded a hard-throwing young left-hander named Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano and also dealt a package of players -- including an unheralded infielder named Jose Bautista, who would take a lot more time to blossom -- for Kris Benson.
Those deals turned out very badly for the Mets, and the timing of them was especially strange, because at the moment of consummation, the Mets were six games out of first place in the NL East, and by the time Zambrano and Benson actually wore Mets uniforms, New York was nine games out of first. The Mets' final record of 71-91 underscored the folly of those decisions.
The Mets are in a much better place in the standings now, sitting 3½ games behind the Nationals in the NL East and 4½ games out in the wild-card race with 89 games to play, and the team's leadership needs to do something to reinforce an offense that has devolved from April's functionality to the repeated failures of May and June. The Mets held a team meeting Wednesday -- something different, Tim Rohan writes -- and then had the same result, losing their seventh straight game.
Even the most irrational Mets fan doesn't expect the front office to land a star player right now, in what is the seller's portion of the trade market. Nobody is suggesting they offer up Jacob deGrom for a lineup upgrade. Nobody is suggesting a reprise of the Victor Zambrano and Kris Benson Hail Mary, and if general manager Sandy Alderson is the driving force behind the decisions over the next 36 days, he's not the sort to get bullied by public expectation into making a rash deal.
But what the Mets shouldn't do -- what they cannot do -- is run out the same weakened lineup day after day after day without any external additions and expect to be able to reasonably say at season's end, "Well, we just weren't good enough."
The Mets' leadership needs to make a better effort than that.
Mets manager Terry Collins won't blame the Mets' front office for its inaction, Adam Rubin writes. Wilmer Flores could be shifted to second base.
The pressure is mounting on Alderson to make a trade, John Harper writes.