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New York Mets: Mickey Callaway’s inconsistency is hurting the team’s long-term growth

By John Carroll Jr.

Mickey Callaway, New York Mets. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
Mickey Callaway, New York Mets. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /
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The New York Mets are officially in silly season and the only thing to do is root for future promise. Mickey  Callaway has a plethora of young talent at his disposable but he is wasting it.

The New York Mets are not playing for the post-season in 2018. Now that the biggest, most obvious elephant in the room is out-of-the-way, let’s break down the little things.

One of those little things is the way Mickey Callaway sets his lineups and the players he is using. Say what you want about the results, or thereof, in which his lineups get, but his inconsistencies are becoming confusing.

The Mets lineup night in and night out is pretty abysmal. What is even worse is what the Mets’ skipper does and does not do.

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When it comes to position players, he has players like Jeff McNeil, Phillip Evans before the injury and Luis Guillorme on the team.

The right thing to do is bench the struggling Reyes and give him time off. Or, he can more frequently bench Wilmer to make room for younger players. The now oft-injured Todd Frazier should not play every day for a little bit too.

Instead, Callaway seems to come up with every excuse in the book to keep giving Reyes reps. Flores, whose defense needs work, is out there every day too.

I don’t care if Callaway just plays Reyes and whoever over the younger, primed to prove themselves players, but he is just all over the place with it.

I say that because he is still using the younger talent on the team, in his bullpen. The Mets traded Jeruys Familia so he’s out. However, instead of constantly pushing the struggling Jerry Blevins out there, he keeps playing the guys who are in and out of the big leagues. That is good.

Pitchers like Tyler Bashlor, Bobby Wahl, Drew Smith, Tim Peterson, Corey Oswalt, anyone who has been used this year when games are over or don’t matter, have been getting reps.

I’m sure this has to do a lot with play the cards your dealt kind of thing but Callaway has plenty of options or could create plenty. The Mets have no problem bringing players up and down from Vegas all season so why not keep doing this.

That is the problem.

Why can’t Callaway use the youngsters in the infield like he does his bullpen or starters? It’s not because he is a “pitching specialist” he needs to be a baseball specialist now.

This is going to hurt the Mets’ long-term plans. The young players will not get a lot of time being everyday players and we will not know their progression or any future role on the teams of the future.

The bullpen can be something special but what good is that when there is no offense.

Mickey Callaway needs to go all-in with both. Either he should play all the young talent altogehter or not. He can’t keep having a chess match with himself and benching players at random times.

There are always circumstances around not playing younger players in the middle of the season, but I don’t think I have seen anything as crazy as this. Their transactions page is the busiest page on their website.

There is some room for experimentation like the Mets were doing before. But now, every time Jose Reyes plays or Seth Lugo goes five innings out of the pen, it is hurting the Mets.

This is why they have no identity. It is not young players struggling to get their feet wet. They don’t play enough for me to be able to say that. It just feels like the Mets are putting out the worst lineup possible, like some kind of sick game.

Next. Cluelessness is only thing Mets are good at. dark

Mickey Callaway’s lineups are wild, I do not expect that to change either. He needs to remain set on one or the other because the Mets will not know what to do with their talent moving forward if there are this many question marks.

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