1 Mets injury the team has yet to fully overcome

We continue to wait for updates on when Kodai Senga makes his way to the New York Mets roster. There’s a lot of mystery there. Where there isn’t such an unknown is with another injured Mets player whose absence has been felt even more harshly of late.

Brooks Raley underwent Tommy John surgery and ever since the Mets have tried a few different things to overcome it. Josh Walker had his chance and more recently we saw Danny Young excel only to get sent down to the minors due to a lack of room on the roster upon the return of Edwin Diaz.

The Mets have asked Jake Diekman a team-high 30 times to pitch in a game. The 3.97 ERA is by far the least of his problems. Simply seeing 30 games and 22.2 innings in the three-batter minimum era helps to tell the tale of how ineffective he has been at times this season.

The Mets are missing Brooks Raley right now

Diekman’s .160 batting average against is another one of those statistics to look at and say “all right, this ain’t so bad.”

His more than 7 walks per 9 innings immediately steps in and slaps you in the face. Diekman has been wild through most of his career. This season happens to be one of the more menacing ones. On top of that, he has already surrendered 3 home runs.

Diekman remains tough to hit against, but if you have enough patience, there’s a good chance he’ll walk you. Then maybe the guy behind you. Sprinkle in an error and the wheels can come off quickly as they did versus the San Diego Padres on Sunday. Fortunately, Carlos Mendoza knew better than to trust his one lefty to go any further than he had to.

On a team option for next season for $4 million which’ll become guaranteed with 58 games played, he has gotten to the point where you have to expect the worst without even seeing much contact. He has allowed only 3 hits in June but 5 runs with 3 of them being earned. Most alarming, he has struck out just 2 batters. The 7 appearances and 4 innings this month showcases how quick of a hook he has gotten on a regular basis.

We got to experience only 7 innings of Raley this season, but no runs across and only a pair of hits allowed hinted at another awesome season on the way. If there’s one thing the Mets could use now more than anything, it’s a reliable lefty reliever. Diekman isn’t cutting it.