The Mets couldn’t wait any longer. Being unable to win even one game on consecutive weekends against the majors’ worst team demanded action, so the Mets responded by doing the following Sunday:
Removing three players who were failing in favor of three players who already had failed for them. The transaction could have read this way: New York Mets — Garbage out, garbage in.
That is unless you think Colin Cowgill II is going to be a sequel worth seeing this summer.
The Mets got their headline (distraction?) out of this by finally deciding to demote Ike Davis to Triple-A.
But this all felt like running in place — at best. Because the promise of this Mets season was never in the standings except for the delusional who thought John Buck’s hot start was about more than a random tear for an ordinary player. The exchange for losing was going to be running out the bad contracts of Jason Bay and Johan Santana, using a high draft slot to infuse more talent into the system and leaving this season with five or six cornerstones to build around.
And the Mets desperately wanted to believe Davis was one of those, that he had graduated in skill and mental fortitude from last year when he overcame a horrendous first two months to finish with 32 homers.
But Davis regressed to the helpless two-plus months, so what is even the upbeat scenario now? Say Davis goes to Vegas and uses that friendly hitting environment to get his mind and swing right and comes back with a stellar second half? Let’s even give it numbers: He hits 17 homers after the All-Star break. So?
Can the Mets really move forward with Davis and risk that this is just his pattern, that he is going to sink himself and his team in the first two months of every season? And can they really risk letting him go for little or nothing when power is in such demand? When they have seen a player of the same age (Philadelphia’s Domonic Brown) and of essentially the same skills (Toronto’s Adam Lind) go from “get rid of them” at their Davis-like worst to arguably the best hitters on their teams this season?
This is a problem of the Mets of this moment: They have so little talent and so few financial resources that they may find themselves playing the déjà Davis game yet again next year. Because as even GM Sandy Alderson admitted in a phone conversation yesterday the money he does have to spend for 2014 probably has to be earmarked on positions — think center field, right field, bullpen, probably shortstop — where he cannot even hope and pray like he can that Davis can get right and be a helpful piece moving forward.
And it is not like he is going to have unlimited spending money.
It was Alderson’s best guesstimate that the Mets are committed to roughly $55 million next year with raises on long-term deals for David Wright and Jonathon Niese, and increases for arbitration eligible players likely to be retained including Daniel Murphy and Bobby Parnell and — depending how you calculate it — the buyout on Santana and deferrals to Bay.
He believes the team will have a 2014 payroll between $90 million and $100 million. So that is $35 million-$45 million to spend. Which sounds like improvement, but keep in mind that would rank the Mets 15th this year — exactly the midpoint — in payroll. And should a team in New York with dedicated fans, a still relatively new stadium and its own network be 15th in payroll?
“I think it is unlikely to go from $55 million to $150 million,” Alderson said. “Do I think we can get there? We would have to outperform our payroll, so we can increase attendance and increase payroll consistently over time. Overall, I agree with you [that a Met payroll should be near the highest], but I think we will get on a progression toward something. We will basically spend [on 2014 payroll] almost as much as we currently have committed next year, so that is a doubling.
“It [the lowered payroll] is not because [of ownership financial problems]. It is because they have been burned by the big, long contacts, so we are not prepared to go from zero to 60 [mph] in 3.5 seconds, which I can’t argue with. But if we have enough young pitching, then $100 million will be enough to be competitive because we can use the money on position players, which is our problem right now.”
Which brings us back to the cornerstones. The Mets are hoping that by the end of this year Zack Wheeler and perhaps Rafael Montero could join Matt Harvey in the low-cost, huge-production department. Maybe Travis d’Arnaud, too. But how often does that work? Harvey is the rarity, the prospect even better than your imagination from Day 1.
And that is why the Mets needed Davis, to offset some of the almost-certain failure that will occur elsewhere. Instead, they are back to familiar ground with him, which is to say unsure how to move forward: Do they non-tender him? Pay him the $4 million-$5 million arbitration will award to try yet again in 2014? Trade him at low value?
It is one thing to be unable to beat the Marlins in five straight games on consecutive weekends. But as miserable as that is, that is merely losing games in an expected losing season. But losing a hoped-for cornerstone along the way, that is the pain that is going to keep giving.
joel.sherman@nypost.com