New York Mets: Syracuse sends its troops to the rescue Amazins

New York Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen had a plan to stockpile depth when took over the job in October. That plan is paying dividends as more roster players head to the injured list.

With the New York Mets season looking like it was ready to go over Niagara Falls without a life preserver, halfway down the New York Thruway came the reinforcements. The Syracuse Mets, like the ancient Greek city of Syracuse, sent fresh troops to relieve the beleaguered soldiers of Queens.

The latest Injured List members to be inducted are Robinson Cano, and Jeff McNeil on Thursday morning. They follow Brandon Nimmo who is out with a mysterious neck injury that just will not go away.

During Wednesday’s game against the Washington Nationals, Cano injured his quad and McNeil has a sore left hamstring. Cano may be right by not hustling down first because something like this may happen, and it dit. See, he told you so.

But things happen for a reason.

Is Brodie Van Wagenen a prophet when he signed players like Hector Santiago, Rajai Davis, Adeiny Hechavarria, and Carlos Gomez. He presented the idea that in order for the Mets to stay competitive, they needed to add depth.

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Granted, he had a point as 2018 showed, the injuries started piling up with no viable replacements to fill in. The season came crashing down like a sinkhole in Port St. Lucie, and the new general manager had to take different personnel measures to deal with injuries in 2019.

Many in the media and the Amazins fan base were shaking their heads wondering what a no-experience, fast-talking agent to the baseball stars was doing. But with the Mets battling to stay in the playoff race in the month of May, his vision of signing battle-tested former major league mercenaries may pan out. After all, they still have some fuel in their tanks and they want another shot at the show, so they settled for Syracuse to start the season.

The fact that the Mets moved their AAA affiliate from Las Vegas to Syracuse, NY proved to be one of the best moves this organization has made since the days when they were in Tidewater, Va. No more does the team need to call up a player and wait while he flies over two time zones on a redeye.

This year the New York Mets can call 38-year-old Rajai Davis up. He hops on a Uber car from Lehigh Valley, Pa and gets to know his Uber driver named Jason, who gets Davis to Citifield by the third inning. But somebody forgot to direct Davis to the Met clubhouse until the fifth inning. He might have been distracted by the Shake Shack. I bet if he went on the field, he would have been jumped by security.

So he finally gets into uniform. Kudos to the seamstress for stitching his last name on the blue top of a number18 Mets jersey, the number formerly worn by Darryl Strawberry. Callaway called on Davis, the last batter he has on the bench to pinch hit in the eighth inning. On a 2-2 count after fouling off several pitches, the 14-year MLB veteran took Nats closer Sean Dolittle deep. His blast put the icing on a two-out six-run rally to defeat Washington 6-1.

Next. Knicks 2018-19 End of Season Player Awards. dark

This is why BVW signed these Major League retreads. Syracuse, like in the ancient Greek days, was one of the most powerful cities in the Greek Empire. Now its namesake in upstate New York is proving to be the same, sending its troops to the front lines in Queens. Cheers for Syracuse, the battle has just begun.

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