The New York Mets are spending their Memorial Day (hopefully) getting two games in on the road against the Atlanta Braves. Before they took the field, though, there were a number of changes made to the roster.
The best way to get out of a funk as a team is to mix things up, right? The New York Mets are doing just that prior to their Memorial Day doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park. It’s mostly because they had to, though.
Here’s what the announcement from the team’s official Twitter account said:
We have made the following roster moves. #Mets pic.twitter.com/BSA12btgdL
— New York Mets (@Mets) May 28, 2018
Can you keep track of all that? It sure sounded like Wilmer Flores was going to hit the disabled list as of Sunday night, so that’s no surprise. He joined A.J. Ramos in New York, who was already there getting his shoulder examined. Clearly, the results favored him sitting on the sidelines for a certain period of time.
As we heard Sunday night, Phillip Evans returns to the club to take Flores’ place for the time being — at least until Todd Frazier finishes his rehab assignment, we can presume. And now with Tomas Nido heading back to Triple-A, New York will be working with a Kevin Plawecki-Devin Mesoraco catching tandem behind the plate.
That duo looks a little more enticing than the Nido-Jose Lobaton paring they were forced to use before acquiring Mesoraco. Plawecki had slashed just .150/.393/.200 through his first 28 plate appearances, but his 97 wRC+ is head-and-shoulders above Nido’s, which stood at just 10 through 48 plate appearances.
Hansel Robles won’t exactly be bringing a dependable arm to the bullpen in Ramos’ absence — he owns a 5.23 ERA in 10.1 innings this year — but his 32.6 percent strikeout rate and 6.2 percent walk rate are much better than his fellow right-hander (25.0 percent and 17.1 percent, respectively).
Who knows if these changes will help spark the club, but it can’t hurt — especially with a crucial stretch of games ahead of them.
