The Mets did not just send a profound message to the rest of their division, or to all of baseball, with a positively surreal 15-run, seven-homer barrage in Cincinnati on Monday night, winning a game in 11 innings that seemed hopelessly lost a few times along the way.
They sent an equally profound message to Sandy Alderson and Zack Scott.
A first-place team that keeps battling through adverse circumstances is a first-place team showing the front office it is worthy of trade-deadline support. Alderson and Scott should honor that effort and resilience by being ultra-aggressive over the next week-and-a-half.
The Mets should go get the pitching they desperately need. And they should go get Kris Bryant too.
The National League East is still under the Mets’ control — they hold a 2 ¹/₂-game lead over Philadelphia after their 15-11 victory over the Reds — and it could be a long time before the division is this gettable again. Bryant is reportedly available, and he is a former league MVP who can play five positions. As long as the asset/prospect price isn’t exorbitant for a star with an expiring contract, the Mets should do the deal.
That doesn’t mean they should make that trade in lieu of one aligned with their top priority — pitching help. They should do both. Despite a relentless wave of injuries, the Mets have spent the season fighting for their place atop the NL East. Even after the grim Francisco Lindor and Jacob deGrom news, and a Saturday night loss that could’ve irreparably harmed the cause, the Mets overcame Sunday’s 6-0 first-inning deficit — and that dribbler from hell that scored three Pittsburgh runs and ultimately cost Luis Rojas two games as manager — to win on Michael Conforto’s two-run homer in the ninth.
Monday night, the Mets were down 7-3 after two innings and 8-7 after seven, and they just kept coming, just kept hitting home runs. James McCann put them ahead with his two-run shot in the eighth, and again with his RBI single in the 10th. After the Houdini-like escape executed by Anthony Banda, who had a 6.52 ERA in Triple-A this year, Kevin Pillar hit a three-run blast and Conforto added a solo shot in the 11th. In the end, the Mets picked up Taijuan Walker in Pittsburgh one day and Luis Guillorme and Edwin Diaz in Cincinnati the next.
“I keep using the quote that we’re built for this,” Pillar said.
“It’s a persistent drive to continue until the very last pitch of the game,” McCann said.
Dave Jauss, the old baseball lifer who filled in for the suspended Luis Rojas, went on after the game about the work ethic shared by the men and women who prepare the Mets to play these games, and how it represents “what our fans are watching on the field.”
Now, that winning Mets culture needs support for a serious postseason run, the luxury-tax threshold be damned. Not that the tax should have any place in a post-Wilpon conversation about the Mets. Steve Cohen is baseball’s richest owner, and he walked his talk by signing Lindor for $341 million. He came advertised as the Mets’ answer to George Steinbrenner, and now is not the time for him to put away his wallet. It would surprise nobody in the coming days if Cohen treated the tax threshold the way an ambitious owner worth $16 billion should treat it.
Bryant should be part of his investment. He is a former league MVP and drought-busting World Series champ. The returns of Brandon Nimmo and J.D. Davis have given the Mets a more potent attack, but before Monday night’s staggering show of power, they were averaging 3.8 runs per game, second-worst output in the sport. With Lindor out for a while, the Mets could still use another high-impact bat.
Trevor Story might make more sense in Lindor’s absence (and in the wake of Guillorme’s performance at short in Cincinnati), but he’s never played another position, making Bryant the better fit after Lindor returns. Cohen can deal with Bryant’s agent, Scott Boras, in the offseason to see what, if anything, makes sense for down the road.
But this isn’t about down the road. This is about now. The Mets haven’t won a postseason game since the 2015 World Series, and if Bryant can handle the pressure of helping the Cubs win their historic title, he can handle the pressure of helping a New York team return to the playoffs for the first time in five years.
The Mets have earned the benefit of the front office’s doubt and the benefit of their owner’s limitless resources. It’s time for Alderson, Scott, and Cohen to give them the best available shot at a magical October.