Corey Sipkin/New York Daily News Chris Young scores in Game 2 of Sunday’s doubleheader, but not before leaving six runners stranded in the first game. It was never clear just how on board Terry Collins was with his boss Sandy Alderson’s bold and emphatic “90-wins” projection for the Mets back in February, other than the manager knew that it wasn’t going to be achieved on pitching alone.
For the first time in his four-year tenure as Mets manager, however, Collins believed — or maybe wante d to believe — he had a legitimate power-packed middle of the order with Alderson having signed Curtis Granderson and Chris Young, both of whom were former 30-plus home run guys, to hit behind David Wright and ahead of Lucas Duda (or at that time Ike Davis). In particular, Collins held out hope the 30-year-old Young, whom Alderson signed to a one-year, $ 7.25 million deal, would reverse a steady four-year decline in production and revert to the 27-homer, 91-RBI, 28-steal player he was in 2010 when baseball people viewed him as a budding superstar. In one private moment in Port St. Lucie in early February, Collins confided to me: “Chris Young may be my most important player this year.”
It kind of reminded me of what he had said the previous spring about needing to get “at least 60 homers” from Duda and Davis for the Mets to contend.
We have reached the Memorial Day juncture of the season and with the Mets in a virtual tie with the Phillies for last place in the National League East, in large part due to their No. 10 ranking in the National League in runs scored, it can be said with some certainty that 90 wins is no longer an option. But more ominously and tellingly for the long haul, it isn’t happening for Chris Young, who went 0-for-3 with six runners left stranded out of the five-hole in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader against the Diamondbacks, grounding into two of the five double plays that did the Mets in, before walking in his only at-bat and scoring in the nightcap.
Before the twin bill, Collins was asked if there was one aspect of the Mets’ play this season that has most disturbed him and, without naming names, made no bones about his supposed production guys being anything but.
“We approached spring training about how important it was going to be for the middle of the lineup to produce runs,” he said, adding, “Sometimes it takes time for players to adapt to a new setting.”
Maybe, but you have to think there has been a sufficient track record for both Chris Young and Duda, who stranded seven baserunners Saturday and another six in Game 1 Sunday, then left two more on as a pinch-hitter in the nightcap, to determine they are what they are — which is to say they aren’t going to be what Collins had hoped they’d be. In truth, the same can be said of Daniel Murphy — whose critical drop led to the D-Backs scoring the go-ahead run in the ninth inning of Sunday’s opener — that he is never going to be an adequate second baseman. And while we’re at it, the small sampling we’ve had from Wilmer Flores has been more than ample to establish he’s not a major-league shortstop.
But getting back to Young, batting .204 with three homers and 11 RBI, who was benched in favor of Bobby Abreu for the second game Sunday, a scout observed to me: “To be honest, it was really kind of surprising they signed him so quickly (Nov. 26) last winter, and for that kind of money. What did they think they were getting? He hasn’t been a good hitter in three years.”
And after the doubleheader, the GM not-surprisingly, defended Young and asked for more patience.
“We have to give Chris an opportunity to get back on track,” Alderson said. “That doesn’t mean anything is guaranteed. With Chris, what we were looking at was somthing in the .240-.250 range and a guy who will take a walk occasionally and have a decent on-base percentage. A couple of weeks and he can be right there.”
Alderson was talking about a guy who hasn’t had an on-base percentage over over .330 since 2011. Collins was looking for a guy who could deliver 25-30 homers and 90-plus RBI in the middle of his order.
Coincidentally, Kevin Towers, the D-Backs’ GM who traded Young to the Oakland A’s in 2012 after a season in which Young missed 60 games with a shoulder injury, was at Citi Field Sunday. While Towers declined to give an opinion on Young as a player, other than to say “people say he’s never been the same since crashing into that fence with us in 2012,” he offered some food for thought that Collins most likely has already taken into consideration.
“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got in this business was from (longtime manager and GM) Jack McKeon, who told me: ‘If a player you got isn’t doing the job, you’ve got to just get rid of them and move on. You can’t let yourself fall into the trap of continuing to play them in the hopes that they’ll enhance their value. It’s not fair to the team.’ ”
When asked about his benching of Young for the second game Sunday, Collins shrugged. “I’ve given him every opportunity,” he said.
Same thing with Duda, whose average has dipped to .226. He was also on the bench for Game 2 Sunday, despite the presence of an underwhelming rookie righty, Zeke Spruill, called up from Triple-A for the emergency start for Arizona. At this point, with the Mets in danger of falling completely out of the race in an otherwise mediocre and very winnable NL East, Collins is going to have to give more playing time to Eric Campbell, who is hitting .333.
The problem is, Collins has too many players who are what they are. Which is to say something considerably less than a 90-win contingent.
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