Back in the good old days of 2015, when the Mets has a nice pitching staff but no offense, it took a push from ownership to get general manager Sandy Alderson to promote Michael Conforto to the majors.
Although the move worked two years ago, the young hitter had a huge step back last season, forcing the team to trade for Jay Bruce and only now is Conforto beginning to live up to his potential.
Unfortunately, No. 30’s production is not enough as the Mets are reeling, losing eight of nine game and in a 5.5 game hole in the National League East.
With both Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith tearing up Las Vegas, with Rosario hitting .403 and Smith .338, could Alderson bring up one, if not both players, to help the ailing Mets tread water?
Even though, there is Smith can fill in for Lucas Duda rather nicely and Rosario can replace the slumping Jose Reyes in the lineup at third. A little youth in the nine will make the Mets better, right? Well it’s not that simple.
First, Jay Bruce moved to first, which gave the Mets an opening to play Conforto. Assuming Yoenis Cespedes comes back tomorrow, then there will be no place for Smith to play if Conforto stays in the lineup.
As for Rosario, it’s just too soon to release Reyes. Like Curtis Granderson, who forgets about April every year, Reyes is starting slow. One should think he will eventually break out of this funk. He hit .267 last season, so why would he just fall off the map.
Plus, calling up the youngsters goes against two Alderson beliefs. He doesn’t want to put pressure on them by making them look like saviors and, he doesn’t want to yo-yo them up and down between Citi Field and Las Vegas.
The first reason was why he didn’t want to bring up Conforto two years ago and remember when he came up the Mets made a trade for Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson with Cespedes coming to town the next week. Conforto was then a wheel in the cog and was able to just fit in.
And then there’s the arbitration aspect. By waiting the Mets will get another year of control if they wait until the middle of June. The situation is not that desperate yet to burn advantage.
Both players will probably impact the Mets sometime this season, but right now they will be staying down in Vegas for the time being.
Their time will come, though.
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