NY Mets Monday Morning GM: 2 small yet questionable roster moves from the weekend

When it comes to David Stearns, it feels like we get two extremes from the fans. Either everything he does is in line with reinventing the wheel or he just introduced brown-colored toilet paper to the world. In reality, his New York Mets roster moves have been a mix of brilliant and risky without any reward.

That’s the life of a baseball general manager, or specific to him, President of Baseball Operations. Scrutinized as much as anyone representing the Mets, he had two questionable roster decisions over the weekend that didn't sit well.

1) DFA’ing Dom Hamel and recalling Wander Suero

Dom Hamel finally got to make his MLB debut. The last time he was called up, Hamel sat idle in the bullpen. A scoreless inning led to a quick hook. Hamel was DFA’ed and replaced on the roster by Wander Suero, a pitcher with a lifetime 4.96 ERA and one over 11.00 this season in limited action.

Not long ago, Hamel was considered a top 10 Mets prospect. His fall as well as the rise of others made him irrelevant enough for the team to leave him available to the other 29 teams in last year’s Rule 5 Draft. He survived but didn’t manage to skate through waivers. The Baltimore Orioles claimed him just as they did with Jose Castillo and Rico Garcia earlier.

Apparently, the Mets saw enough from Hamel to risk losing him on waivers. They could have demoted him. What’s really unfortunate is he was replaced by Suero who didn’t even pitch for the club and is now in DFA limbo for the second time as a member of the Mets. Undoubtedly, it feels like there was a better move to make.

2) DFA’ing Chris Devenski

A 2.16 ERA in 16.2 innings wasn’t enough to save Chris Devenski his job with the Mets. A real trooper, willing to accept minor league assignments regularly this season, the Mets DFA’d him this time to make room for Sean Manaea on the roster for Sunday. Manaea needed to come back. Was DFA’ing Devenski the move to make?

It’s possible Devenski would have refused a minor league assignment this time. He’d have little to gain, though. Ineligible for the postseason on any team that might’ve claimed him, he’d have more to gain by staying with the Mets organization even if it meant going into the vortex known as the Triple-A roster when there are no more games on the schedule.

The easy decision would have been to DFA Richard Lovelady instead. Implosive in his limited time with the Mets this year, he was never likely to pitch on Sunday in a big spot. He didn’t get into the game, making the roster move even less necessary.

Are these two roster moves the reason why the Mets lost either game this weekend? Not in the least. It doesn’t eliminate the headscratching reaction we should have had at the series of decisions that doesn’t appear to put the team in the best position to win now or in the future.