It’s come to this for the spiraling Mets: One of their supposed young building blocks is being sent to the bench for lack of production. And he’s being replaced, for the next few days, by a 35-year-old veteran batting .170.
Such is the sad state of the Mets, as Amed Rosario heads to the bench, replaced by Jose Reyes.
“Reyes has been swinging the bat really good. He’s looked good at shortstop in my opinion, so we’re going to let him play for a couple of days, let Rosie take a break, work on some things and go from there,” manager Mickey Callaway said Sunday before the Mets lost their sixth straight, falling to the Dodgers, 8-7, at Citi Field. “Rosie’s played so many games, so we’re taking the opportunity to allow him a couple days off and partly for his sake and partly because Reyes has been playing well.”
Yes, the same Reyes who has produced a .180/.270/.247 slash line with a .517 OPS and has committed seven errors in 52 games. He has shown life of late offensively, hitting .300 this month with a .862 OPS before going 0-for-5 in Sunday’s loss.
Rosario’s June, by contrast, has been troublesome. The 22-year-old former top prospect is slashing .212/.235/.303 with a .538 OPS and has struck out 16 times in 66 at-bats while walking only twice. He got the news Sunday morning before going 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter and said he had no problem with the move.
“That’s the manager’s decision,” Rosario, who overall is hitting .246 with a meager .635 OPS, said through an interpreter. “I agree with him. It’s something he does for my own good.”
Rosario seemed at least somewhat relieved to get a breather, as his personal struggles and all the losing — the Mets have dropped 17 of their past 21 to fall a season-high 13 games under .500 at 31-44 — have worn him down.
“I’m having a couple of days off for me to relax and enjoy the game again,” Rosario said, making comments similar to Brandon Nimmo, who Saturday night said it was difficult to remain positive as the losses have piled up.
The thinking behind the decision, according to Callaway, is the team wants Rosario to work on some areas of weakness in his game without having to worry about performing later. Callaway emphasized Rosario’s patience — or in this case, lack thereof — and the plan to work on that in the batting cage and during batting practice over the next two days.
“We can get more and more work in when he’s not having to perform that night,” the manager said.
Rosario believes he can get a different perspective from the bench and use that to his advantage, by identifying better how pitchers work against hitters. He knows there are improvements he has to make.
“One of the things I have to do is work on my adjustments every at-bat, every pitch,” Rosario said. “One day the pitchers take advantage of me, and then I’m doing very well. That’s one thing I have to work on in my game, to do the adjustments and make it right.”
