This just in: The New York Mets are unwatchable on days that Matt Harvey isn’t pitching.
Terry Collins is working with a lineup that, on any given night, has six or seven automatic outs sprinkled in among a couple of major league hitters. David Wright and Co.—though this is no fault of the captain’s—are 28th in the league in hitting and last in on-base percentage, a part of the game that Collins and Sandy Alderson have attempted to make of paramount importance.
His pitching staff, outside of the aforementioned phenom and the sporadic, solid Jonathon Niese start, has been abysmal. The team is 7-2 in games started by Harvey, and 9-22 in others. Outside of Harvey, everyone has been serving up a nice buffet of batting practice and gopher balls.
No team in baseball swoons like the Mets swoon. Their slides are a perfect storm of anemic hitting and pathetic pitching.
But, just as all teams do every summer, the Mets have an opportunity to make improvements at the trade deadline. The team has sat idly by as the deadline has come and gone these last few seasons. Even a marginal improvement is necessary this time around.
While it may be two months before the trade deadline, it’s never too early for speculation. Here are four possible trades the Mets could make in late July.