Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
On a day where New York Mets fans received the news that they would lose ace Matt Harvey for the rest of this season and maybe next, Zack Wheeler went about his business as usual.
Lost in the Harvey fever since the day he was brought up, Wheeler finally had his chance to become the no. 1 for the Mets and begin the healing process for fans. While a dejected Harvey watched on from the dugout, Wheeler threw his fourth consecutive quality start by going 6.2 innings and allowing only two runs while striking out seven against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Mets lost the game 2-1 on Monday, but that was nowhere near as important as the potential loss of Harvey until opening day 2015. The question remains: would he be the starting pitcher on Opening Day 2015? Not if Wheeler has anything to say about it.
With all the failed signings and trades the Mets have made in the last decade, they can look at Wheeler as the beginning of the correct way to do things. He is the epitome of the correct way to build a MLB team, and a different way of thinking for the Mets.
A team that was always overspending to compete with their crosstown rival, the Mets have spent big on players like Carlos Beltran, Jason Bay, Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana and Francisco Rodriguez, and have no rings in 27 years.
They only thing they have to show for all those big signings was on the mound on Monday Night in Philadelphia.
All Mets fans have to do is look at the team in the other dugout and see what they have done wrong over the past 10 years. While the Phillies won the game, they are getting older and losing ground in the standings every season. The Mets, on the other hand, are getting younger, cheaper, more talented and stocking their organization full of aces.
It’s hard to come up with a silver lining when you have lose a player the quality of Harvey, but it’s time for the Wheeler era in the Big Apple to give fans a 1-2 punch to look forward to in 2015.
