On the surface, it was David Wright, Marlon Byrd and the Seven Dwarves facing the Diamondbacks last night, a bridge to 2014 for the Mets creakier than Shaun Marcum’s upper body.
Four members of the starting lineup had begun the season at Triple-A Las Vegas and another — Eric Young Jr. — was designated for assignment by the Rockies. Anthony Recker was supposed to be long displaced to the minors at this point, and when spring training began Jeremy Hefner was among the pitchers in camp merely as rotation insurance.
Nobody will confuse the likes of Josh Satin, Andrew Brown, Juan Lagares and Omar Quintanilla for future All-Stars, but there is a cohesiveness about these Las Vegas Mets that makes them, dare we say, somewhat interesting to watch.
“The great thing about it is they can play, and they are good,” Byrd said after the Mets rolled to a 9-1 victory at Citi Field. “Young guys can come up and struggle and there’s no infusion of energy. These guys are bringing us energy because they are playing well.”
The story was different just over a month ago, when Ike Davis was on a strikeout binge that ultimately led him to Sin City and Ruben Tejada continued a downward spiral that would have sent him to the minors if he didn’t land on the disabled list first.
Enter Wally’s Wallbangers from Vegas to breathe at least a semblance of life into the Mets, who have won 11 of 17 games.
Davis was “[ticked] off,” according to a club source that he wasn’t promoted last week when the Mets had a roster vacancy. That spot instead went to Zach Lutz, who stayed for a week and was shipped back to Vegas yesterday. Davis will still have to wait, as his close friend Satin continues to impress the Mets at first base.
Last night Satin delivered an RBI double as part of the Mets’ seven-run seventh inning that included a rain delay of 1 hour, 41 minutes. For Satin, that made 13 straight games reaching base, the kind of streak Davis would envy.
It was Davis who requested Satin get his locker when the decision was reached last month that the two players switch jobs. But for Satin, the promotion to the Mets came with a seat on the bench, as Terry Collins initially experimented with Daniel Murphy at first base before yanking the cord on that experiment after a week and handing the job to Lucas Duda. But when Duda hit the disabled list 10 days ago, Plan D was unveiled, and Satin hasn’t disappointed since.
“I can honestly tell you when I came here as a field coordinator there weren’t many people who thought Josh Satin was going to do much at the major league level,” Collins said. “And all he did was continue to play and continue to hit at every level they put him. He never complained about any position: He played second, he’s played third, he’s played the outfield, he’s played first.”
Satin delivered a game-tying RBI single in the ninth inning Monday night before Brown ended the game in the 13th with a two-run single. Last night John Buck received a much-needed seat on the bench as an escape from his offensive struggles and Recker delivered in his place, with a solo homer against Patrick Corbin in the fifth before adding an RBI single as part of the wild seventh.
Hefner, who allowed one run over seven innings, has been a godsend to a rotation in need of healthy arms. Marcum is the latest concern, after he underwent an MRI exam yesterday on his upper back, according to a club source. The Mets were considering placing the veteran on the disabled list, but decided against it. Nevertheless, there is a good chance he will miss his scheduled start on Saturday in Milwaukee.
So Hefner remains a valuable commodity to a team that can’t send Matt Harvey or Zack Wheeler to the mound every day. Dillon Gee is also a health concern because of lingering elbow tendinitis, further boosting Hefner’s status.
The Mets will need an infusion of talent next winter, through a combination of free agency and trades, but they have the rest of this summer to find out about these Las Vegas Mets.
If the Mets are lucky, a few of the Seven Dwarves that surrounded Wright and Byrd last night will seem all grown up by late September.