2 Mets roster Hail Mary's worth considering, 1 idea to spike into the ground

If the MLB season was an NFL game, we’d only be a little past half-time. There is so much road ahead for the New York Mets to completely collapse or soar into a playoff spot where their odds of making the postseason become undeniable.

When it comes to the roster, a Hail Mary cannot wait until the final seconds. To be playoff eligible and maybe even more importantly win enough games to get into the playoffs, those deep and long passes need to take place in July or August.

The year began with a lot of people expecting the farm system to be the major story. Thanks to an impressive June, the big league club has gained most of the attention. The ball is in the Mets’ hands. These two roster Hail Mary’s should be on the table before fourth down while this third idea needs to get spiked into the ground.

Hail Mary 1: Immediately replace Ben Gamel or DJ Stewart with Luisangel Acuna

There isn’t much of a reason to carry Ben Gamel and DJ Stewart on the roster together. Neither has played a whole lot since Gamel was called up to replace Starling Marte on the roster. It was a move that made sense if Stewart wasn’t already riding the bench as often as he was. Gamel hit well in Triple-A and was a natural fit to play a bunch of right field for the Mets.

Instead, Tyrone Taylor has gotten the majority of innings at the position. That’s all fine and dandy. But what use is having two left-handed hitting corner outfielders on the bench?

The more impactful move would be to call up Luisangel Acuna. It’s understandable why the Mets didn’t. The arguments against it are plentiful. They don’t want to ruin the kid’s confidence. Calling him up and sitting him wouldn’t make much sense either. He has hit well, but is he MLB-ready?

That’s why we call it a Hail Mary. Calling up Acuna might work. It might not.

Hail Mary 2: Call up Brandon Sproat in late August and put him in the bullpen

The Mets have a couple of notable pitching prospects in Triple-A. However, all three have performed poorly. Dom Hamel and Mike Vasil and more recently promoted Blade Tidwell have each taken turns getting lit up with Syracuse. The exact opposite has happened with Brandon Sproat who, while still only in Double-A, might be accelerating to the majors more quickly.

An argument could be made that by the time we get to August one of the other three are deemed more MLB-ready than Sproat. A move of calling up Sproat to pitch in relief for the Mets for a couple of weeks would be a bold attempt to catch some lightning in a bottle. Let’s not forget the Mets let Tylor Megill skip Triple-A back in 2021 when he made his MLB debut. A far different situation, there would be a lot more riding on this type of move than rewarding Megill with a big league promotion out of necessity back when he first made the majors.

There example of a move like this. One of the better ones was in 2008 when David Price, who was taken first overall in the 2007 MLB Draft, graduated to the majors by the time the year was over. The Tampa Bay Rays used him as a reliever in the playoffs with a lot of success.

Sproat isn’t nearly the same level of prospect as Price was back when the Rays made it to the World Series. But when your options have been exhausted and the kid is showing he’ll probably be on the big league roster at some point next year anyway, you take a risk. At the very least, let him help you get to the postseason even if he is unable to join the team in October.