Palladino: Mets Crossing Fingers For Strong Resurgence
By Ernie Palladino
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There's a lot of finger-crossing going on in Flushing these days.
Fingers crossed that Terry Collins' six-man rotation works.
Fingers crossed that David Wright's spinal stenosis isn't severe enough to curtail his career.
Fingers crossed that the recent resurgence of Michael Cuddyer is a permanent thing.
Fingers crossed that the Mets have come through the fire of their recent 4-10 stretch and will get back on the horse that ran them into first place in April.
That's a lot of fingers, enough to make a few knuckles ache.
But that is where the Mets are right now. The schedule has yet to turn over to June, and already Collins' crew sits at a crossroads. The trend, despite two straight wins over the beatable Phillies, can resume its downward spiral in the coming days and leave the Citi Field faithful with no relevant season to cheer for a ninth straight year.
Or, perhaps some positive things can happen.
Take Wright, for instance. The Mets put him on a cross-country flight to a California specialist with the idea of rehabbing the soreness that comes with the narrowing of the spinal column. He does not require surgery, which is a good thing. But spinal stenosis can be tricky, so best to explore every avenue of treatment possible before jumping to any conclusions.
The good thing is that Wright plays a non-contact sport. He can come back from this. He is not David Wilson, the former Giants running back whose own spinal stenosis forced his retirement from the heavy contact sport of football.
The question, though, is whether the Mets will still have a season worth fighting for when Wright does get back. It is obvious that Eric Campbell, Ruben Tejada and Danny Muno are not going to get it done long-term. But with no trade for backup help on the horizon, that's what the Mets are looking at for now. So the sooner Wright gets back, the better.
Then there are questions about whether Cuddyer will ever hit as expected when Sandy Alderson signed him from the Rockies in free agency. The offense, ranked 27th with a .236 team average, has sunk back to last year's levels. The 37 homers rank 22nd, even with Lucas Duda, Wilmer Flores, and Cuddyer going deep Monday.
Cuddyer was supposed to add some pop to the middle of the lineup. He hasn't. His blast Monday was his first since May 1, a period of 73 homerless at-bats. And it wasn't like he was hitting for average, either. The man who hit .331 and .332 the last two years in Colorado is at .256 now. And the four homers sit well below expectations for someone who hit 20, 16, and 20 three of the last four years and 10 over 49 games in an injury-shortened 2014.
And then there is Collins' plans for a six-man rotation, ostensibly to give the starters more rest without skipping starts. Given how pitchers tend to be creatures of habit, this will probably not be remembered as one of the manager's more inspired decisions.
Matt Harvey already doesn't like it. Dillon Gee, sent for another rehab start, sounds downright angry about it. But Collins is looking further than the next start with his rotation. He sees it as a way to keep his pitchers fresh and their innings count low. He's thinking September with this one, not June.
It's not going to mean a thing if the pitchers lose their sharpness over the extended rest period.
Then again, unless the Mets can turn this current trend around permanently, Collins won't have to worry about September -- again. They're 11-13 in May heading into Wednesday's game against the Phillies. Before Monday's win, they had lost five of six. The 65 runs they had in May before that win marked the second-fewest in baseball this month.
They need to turn things around.
Collins and the rest of the organization have a lot of fingers crossed on a lot of issues.
They can only hope all those aching knuckles are worth the results.
Otherwise, they might have to face another lost season.
