May slumps are the worst. An icy breeze cuts through the warm air this time of year, and the CitiField sky appears ink-black when the sun goes away. May slumps become ingrained in the psyche of the team, creating a void that appears untenable. Why does a team look so lethargic when they’re not hitting? The Mets in particular seem to have molasses in their pockets when the May slumps set in.
The last few seasons you could set your clock to it: A fast April, zipping out the gate with bats and arms and first to third and all that. Then May slumps.
2-0 Rockies on a brisk-winded Saturday night. Balls hit square right at opposing fielders. Bats barely missing the sweet spot on easy fat pitches. May slumps.
* * *
Harvey has been fired. Awhile back I made a comparison to The Graduate after he was moved to the bullpen; Harvey looking all depressed and Benjamin Braddock-ing himself out there with Paul Sewald. Turns out he wasn’t really depressed. Just angry. And apparently in complete denial.
I guessed that Matt wasn’t thinking very much while trekking out to the bullpen, mostly because I assumed that professional athletes don’t get very introspective unless it is forced upon them. But I couldn’t have imagined just how little he was thinking. About anything.
There’s a weird hole on this team, and it didn’t just appear yesterday when Harvey was DFA’d (fired). My gut tells me that this hole has been there since springtime 2016, when Harvey started losing his mojo. The guy gave this team an edge that they simply haven’t had since the good ‘ol 2015 days. At the time, I thought it was a Murphy-sized hole. And that may well have been a part of it too. The double-whammy of having Murph on the Nats and raking it, and Harvey on the mound sucking it, just gave the 2016 Mets weird vibes all season. Kelly Johnson showed up to bring back some faint 2015 vibes, “Lugo & Gsellman” helped recreate “Johnson & Urine” vibes, and the season was almost something interesting, until it wasn’t. What was missing was the Harvey mojo.
And even now, as the Mets slump through May, I wonder what that missing Harvey mojo would do to help them. Probably nothing, because “mojo” is a made-up thing that sounds good when you’re writing about sports.
It would have been nice to experience a new kind of Harvey mojo: the Finesse Pitcher Harvey mojo. I actually convinced myself we would see that at some point this season.
Evenings with the Unbored 