PORT ST. LUCIE — The sad word circulated throughout the game Saturday that Yu Darvish likely needed Tommy John surgery. The Pavlovian response, when it came to the Mets, was to imagine Texas as a landing spot for Dillon Gee.
However, Darvish’s injury should not have been a reason to think further about dealing Gee. It should motivate the Mets to keep him.
After all, the Mets’ rotation currently consists of the majors’ oldest starter, the anti-Adonis, Bartolo Colon, 41; the dubious shoulder of Jonathon Niese; two Tommy John surgery survivors, Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom; and the power stylings of Zack Wheeler.
The subset that believes that quintet is going DL-free this season also would swear they saw Bigfoot kissing the Loch Ness Monster last night.
The Mets shunned giving a minor league make-good deal to a veteran starter such as Carlos Villanueva, Erik Bedard or Wandy Rodriguez. So if Gee were dealt, the Mets would have to hope either Rafael Montero, Noah Syndergaard or Steve Matz is major league-ready now.
That made sense from 2011-14 — Sandy Alderson’s first four seasons as general manager. Rebuilding teams should let talented youngsters learn on the job. But the Mets are talking the talk of 2015 contenders.
So now is the walk-the-walk portion of the program. If the Mets are really “big-market” contenders, then keep Gee as a $5.3 million security blanket.
If Gee could fetch a piece to upgrade this year’s squad — a better shortstop than Wilmer Flores or even a high-end lefty reliever — then, sure, do that. But the reasons Gee is available — his costs are getting a little too high for a back-end starter — keeps interested clubs from offering much of a return. The Rangers, according to a source, are not interested in Gee and are, thus, offering nothing.
Fine. Keep him and look to the NL East team to beat for inspiration.
The Nationals invested $210 million in Max Scherzer to make an elite rotation better. That knocked Tanner Roark — 15 wins and a 2.85 ERA last year — into a long-relief/safety-net role. He is not making near the 2015 coin of Gee, and plus, Washington is thinking big picture with Jordan Zimmermann and Doug Fister in their walk years.
Still, Roark would garner a strong return — maybe even moving back to the Rangers team that drafted him. Instead, the Nats have their own Tommy John survivors in Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg and are retaining Roark.
“We have debated all of this all winter,” Mets assistant GM John Ricco said. “That he is still here should say something.”
It says that after dalliances by the Rockies and Giants, the trail is now cold. No suitor is calling the Mets about Gee. Maybe that changes later in spring, but it is hard to see how Gee returns something more valuable than his presence as a legitimate rotation alternative should something go wrong with the starting five.
“No one is going to give up very much for Gee,” a top NL executive said. “Therefore, what is the point of getting rid of pitching depth? Assuming they can afford to have him on the roster, I don’t see why they would dump him off for a B-level prospect or whatever they get for him.”
Ah, yes, the elephant in the bank for these Mets. Is this about what is best for the roster or the bottom line? Word in the game is the Mets baseball operations department is paralyzed from going further than Michael Cuddyer and John Mayberry Jr. unless a salary is unloaded.
Ricco said no mandate exists from above that they must abracadabra Gee’s salary before making another appear. Alderson said the team isn’t trying to add anything of substance now anyway, and believes the money will be there during the season if the Mets contend.
But this is a prove-it moment for these Mets about how they use their money. Gee is the kind of luxury item that, say, a Miami can’t afford — an important distinction when the Marlins and Mets could be battling for a playoff spot. But the “New York” Mets should definitely be able to afford Gee and still add to the team.
Gee is no star. He wants to start. But even working in relief on Saturday, Gee pleased the Mets by showing his four-pitch , strike-throwing repertoire. He has No. 4 starter pedigree in the majors, something the Mets can’t know Montero or Syndergaard or Matz can offer in 2015 — when 2015 really, really matters for this franchise.
Maybe by June or July one of the youngsters will make it clear it is safe to deal Gee to a starter-hungry contender. Or maybe by then the inevitable will have taken place and a current Mets starter (or two) will have gone down and the Mets will be relieved they walked the walk of a big-market team and had Gee as a safety net.