MLB

Mets surge fueled by Vegas pipeline

CHICAGO — In the Las Vegas pipeline they trust.

As the Mets consider their recent surge — they entered Tuesday with victories in six of seven games — the role of players who have arrived this season from Triple-A Las Vegas is noticeable.

It’s a group that includes Wilmer Flores, Matt den Dekker, Eric Campbell, Jacob deGrom, Vic Black, Josh Edgin and even 40-year-old Bobby Abreu, who spent his first three weeks this season at Las Vegas.

Still to come, likely at some point this season, is the organization’s top pitching prospect, Noah Syndergaard, who is scheduled to resume pitching on Thursday after forearm soreness sidelined him for two weeks. Another potential help to the pitching staff, Rafael Montero, was optioned to Las Vegas on Saturday after spending 2½ weeks in the Mets’ rotation.

“It’s pretty cool,” said den Dekker who received a second straight start in center field since Juan Lagares was placed on the disabled list. “I’ve been playing with [Flores] since my first full season and now I’ve come up and I’m trying see how we’ve both kind of grown and gotten better.”

Receiving so many contributions from the Las Vegas pipeline has saved the Mets, according to manager Terry Collins.

“To have quality major league players ready to play at the Triple-A level, it’s a huge saving,” Collins said. “That’s where you try to get to here, and they are Mets. They aren’t six-year free agents — although we have a couple up here — and we’ve got some young guys coming.

“The whole goal all along has been to restructure the minor leagues so that you push some of your better minor league guys and get them to where they can help, and certainly they are doing that.”

DeGrom has been the best of the group. In four starts for the Mets, the right-hander is 0-2 with a 2.42 ERA. But the Mets also have gotten strong contributions from Black and Edgin as part of a bullpen restructuring in which the Mets dumped veterans Kyle Farnsworth and Jose Valverde.

Abreu, who didn’t play in the major leagues last season, has been a major surprise. In 54 at-bats entering Tuesday, he had posted an .897 OPS.

Flores had his best game Monday, when he hit his first career grand slam and finished with six RBIs in the Mets’ 11-2 demolition of the Phillies.

“We just have to keep doing what we were doing in Vegas,” Flores said. “We don’t have to change anything.”

Another element of the Las Vegas pipeline has been Campbell, who can play the corner infield and outfield positions and gives the Mets a dependable right-handed bat off the bench.

Den Dekker made his presence known in his first start by reaching over the center field fence at Citizens Bank Park to steal a home run from Ryan Howard. Later, den Dekker threw out Reid Brignac attempting to score.

“We had a great group of guys here already — from spring training we know a lot of them,” den Dekker said. “We’re just trying to come in and do our part and help the team win.”

Collins said the production the Mets have received from the Las Vegas pipeline isn’t surprising.

“Even when I was the field coordinator [in 2010] to listen to ‘We haven’t got any players,’ to now ‘They are helping us,’ ” Collins said. “We did have players. Just because they weren’t necessarily ready three years ago doesn’t mean you don’t have quality players in your system.”