Despite the fact that Dillon Gee's magic wore off against the A's, there was reason for optimism about the rest of the Mets season on Tuesday.
Sandy Alderson made a very strong statement about the team's intention to try to keep Jose Reyes in the fold for the rest of this year, at the very least, and suggested that the team won't be holding a closeout sale a month from now. It isn't quite the same as a 15-game winning streak, but you take what you get in Mets world.
Alderson was back in front of the media on Wednesday afternoon, but no one is going to be smiling as a result of this briefing. Alderson was at the microphone to talk about the prognosis for Ike Davis's return and the news couldn't have been much worse.
An MRI showed that there is cartilage damage in addition to the bone bruise on Davis's left ankle that forced him on the disabled list in the first place. Davis will lose the protective boot that he's been wearing for the initial injury as a way to improve chances of the cartilage healing and will try to run again in three weeks.
If he can't run again at that time, he will be re-evaluated to see if he needs to undergo surgery that will cause him to miss the rest of the season. All this after what looked like a garden-variety sprained ankle in Colorado.
Lucas Duda will play first base on Wednesday night, and the team would be wise to give him a steady dose of playing time while Davis is on the shelf. They need the power Duda has shown in the minors and now is as good a time as any to figure out what kind of asset they have on their hands.
We started off by talking about the Reyes news and we'll finish there as well. While the team should feel no pressure to deal the shortstop, they should be listening to offers for his services when and if they are truly out of the race.
Sports
Anything less than that is doing a disservice to the team, especially if they are less than certain about their ability to make a competitive offer for Reyes in the offseason. The news about Davis makes the likelihood of falling out of contention much higher and that changes the Reyes equation as well.
David Wright is having his back examined on Thursday. Keep those fingers crossed, people.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
