WASHINGTON — It was the eighth inning when the trade deadline passed without a sound. No players being pulled from the lineup for the Mets. No deals in the works.
New York Mets pitcher Jon Niese delivers to the Washington Nationals during the first inning of a baseball game in Washington Sunday.
So the 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline passed with all of the remaining pieces in place and the Mets ready to soldier on to the finish line with the team that they have. On this day, it wasn’t good enough to win, dropping a 3-2 decision to the Nationals to finish off a long, arduous road trip.
Through three cities, 10 games and sometimes unbearable heat, the Mets traded away Carlos Beltran, began plotting for their future and still managed to win six of the 10 games, hanging on to their slim hopes of staying in contention this season. After this heart-breaking finish, with a walk-off loss, the Mets readied for the long-awaited flight home. But they would get one more bit of work — listening to manager Terry Collins deliver a speech, imploring the team to believe.
“Right now we think we’re still playing for something,” Collins said. He added that he would speak the words, but believed his team already had absorbed the message. “Like Mike [Pelfrey] said, he could probably give the speech. He said I know what you’re going to tell us — that we’ve got a chance. He said we all feel the same way.
“It’s going to be brief. All that stuff is over with, let’s just continue to gather around each other and grind it out for the next 55 games.”
In the last month the Mets unloaded their closer, Francisco Rodriguez, to avoid a poison pill vesting option for 2012 that would have added $17.5 million to the payroll, and sent Beltran to San Francisco for a 21-year-old pitcher who, as highly-regarded as he is, is a long way from helping now.
“I think you all knew, everybody knew, it was going to happen,” Pelfrey said. “I don’t even know if he needs to say anything. We’re all professionals in here, professional enough to understand this is a business. The organization is going to go on next year whether it’s with us or with somebody else.
“They’ve got to do what’s in the best interests of now and in the future. If we didn’t like it we probably should have played better, shouldn’t have been so far out, and maybe we would have kept Carlos. It’s just unfortunate we didn’t do that and he had to be sent out for it.”
The story for now is that they retained Jose Reyes as general manager Sandy Alderson said earlier this month that he would, assuring the Mets of having their most energetic — and this season, their best — player. But that leads to an off-season bidding for Reyes on the free agent market, a truer test of the intentions of the front office and the financial abilities of the Mets’ ownership.
“Jose obviously being here is a surprise,” Pelfrey said. “Back in spring training three guys were going to be gone, two are gone and he’s still here. It shows the organization’s commitment to want to keep him and bring him back. We’ll see what happens on that front.”
“I mean, like I tell you guys, that was something that I don’t worry about,” Reyes said. “That’s something that I don’t have control in my hand, so that’s why I don’t worry about that stuff. It is a relief now that nobody is going to talk about they’re going to trade me — at least for now. That’s good.”
So when will the talk switch to his contract?
“After the season,” Reyes added with a laugh.
If it wasn’t going to be Reyes there were players that the Mets could have dealt in the final days with interest in the likes of closer Jason Isringhausen and outfielder Scott Hairston. But Isringhausen was assured by Alderson and ownership that he wouldn’t be dealt. Hairston might have been if there was another option behind him in the minors, but three of the Mets top outfielders in the system are injured.
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