A Ridiculous MLB Rule Is Crippling The New York Mets

Following a series loss to the Astros and a blown five-run lead to the Nationals Wednesday night, mainstream baseball fans are readily prepared to dismiss the Mets’ June resurgence as a brief respite from mediocrity. These fans may end up being correct, but at the moment, they’re missing what’s right in front of them.

If not for an illogical rule, the Mets would currently be a Wild Card team.

In order to keep things moving, we will have to skip a considerable amount of the discourse surrounding Mets closer Edwin Diaz, who was suspended for 10 games for using an illegal substance on the mound on June 24.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that he was extremely guilty. He has repeatedly denied this, arguing that he only used rosin. Umpires also didn’t give him the opportunity to wash his hands, as they often do for pitchers with overly sticky hands. But all of that is irrelevant to the real problem here.

If a team loses its best starting pitcher for 10 games, someone would simply have to fill in for a spot start. The pitcher would return after another week and hardly be missed, regardless of his ability. If a team loses its best relief pitcher for 10 games, however, the bullpen implodes.

There are at least three Mets losses in the last week where Diaz would have likely made a difference if he was available. He might have been able to pitch in at least two of those games. Instead, an exhausted bullpen had to carry on without him and struggled.

On June 29, New York allowed five runs in the last two innings against Houston and lost 9-6. The following day, the two teams went to extra innings and the Mets simply ran out of pitching, sending journeyman minor leaguer Matt Festa out to give up five runs in the 11th inning.

On July 1, the team took a 9-2 lead in the top of the 10th inning but still had to have all hands on deck as another minor leaguer, Tyler Jay, nearly blew it as Festa did. New York hung on to win 9-7. On Wednesday night, the team took a 5-0 lead but allowed seven unanswered runs late in the game. Most of these runs were allowed by young starter Christian Scott, who the team left on the mound for the sixth in order to buy the bullpen an additional inning.

All of this led to Thursday when Mets starter Jose Quintana pitched seven innings of shutout baseball before Adrian Houser gave up a solo home run in the eighth and the team lost 1-0.

Even with the wheels falling off late in games, the Mets are still red hot at the plate and firmly in the Wild Card hunt with a 42-43 record. They scored five or more runs for nine straight games between June 23 and July 3. They’re still playing good baseball.

Because Diaz is being treated like a starting pitcher for his offense, however, the team’s remaining relief pitchers are simply being stretched too thin to compete. Diaz will return to the team on July 6, but the damage may already be done. No bullpen in the league needs the All-Star Break more.