BLOOMINGBURG, NY – Losing. It sucks no matter what you’re competing in. I know a lot about losing as my Boston Bruins sh!t the bed Wednesday night at home in a Game 7 for all the marbles. In the process of losing the Stanley Cup, despite Boston being recently labeled as the City of Champions, the Bruins now own the distinction of having lost the most Finals in NHL history with fourteen and I have lived through more than half of them. But I’m not here to talk about the Boston Bruins today but rather the New York Mets and their incendiary bullpen.
Since Wednesday’s last hockey game of the 2018-19 season, I’ve been forced to watch Mets baseball on a more routine basis with some obvious anxiety. It just doesn’t ever seem to change for the Metropolitans when we talk about the team’s bullpen “stoppers” – you know the names Armando Benitez, Billy Wagner, Jeurrys Familia, and now Edwin Diaz. These are the high-priced failures who have frequently grabbed defeat from the clutches of victory during their tenures with the team. I have witnessed excruciating losses in three of the four games against the St. Louis Cardinals with Familia’s implosion probably the worst of them all. Maybe Familia should try PED’s again for a change in fortune or needs to be shown the door. Just sayin’.
Diaz is trending down in his appearances lately and that’s keeping in line with the team’s league leading blown save total. Is there something in the water in Queens that causes relievers to suck all of a sudden? After all Diaz was supposed to be the feather in the cap of general manager Brodie Van Wagenen’s trade with Seattle. The transaction certainly hasn’t panned out at all but that’s a discussion for another time. From what I see of Familia and Diaz outside of the use of a translator to answer questions after their crappy performances, they just don’t have the movement on their pitches to make them or any other reliever effective in the Bigs.
The Mets are a very cost-conscious organization and Diaz fits on the roster at a very fiscally responsible half mil a year and is arbitration eligible at season’s end. 
The Amazins might be wise to cut him loose if he keeps screwing up, as the righthander is not helping his cause to cash in on the arbitration process. From what I see of the Mets bullpen, there’s only one character that I like but wonder why the team doesn’t trot him out to the mound more often in tense situations, and that’s Seth Lugo. Does somebody who watches the Mets more than me have the answer? Another righty who is making the league minimum deserves a shot at some point and the fact that it makes perfect sense means it won’t happen because the Mets are the Mets.
Like I said in the opening, losing sucks but when you lose the way the Mets are it takes years off the life of diehard fans.
Speaking of diehards, come back tomorrow for Bouncin’ Ben Whitney, who just keeps bouncing back!
