It would appear, for now, that this is the final curtain on Dillon Gee’s Mets career, as the team announced they have designated him for assignment on Monday.
While this is likely signals the end, manager Terry Collins believes that Gee could still be in the mix for the Mets in the near future. “We’re gonna need a 6th guy here pretty soon,” Collins told reporters on Monday. “There’s no reason why it can’t be him.”
It’s been a wild-and-crazy season for Gee to get to this point, and it really stems back into the offseason. This whole transgression began last December at the Winter Meetings when trade rumors swirled around Gee, and it even sounded as if a trade to the Rockies could have been close at a certain point.
While Gee stayed with the Mets into the spring, the rumors still swirled, and it just seemed that because of the Mets extreme pitching depth that he would eventually be traded.
Then began the changing of his role, as the Mets decided to convert him into a reliever early in Spring Training. After just a small handful of relief outings in the Grapefruit League, it was revealed that Zack Wheeler would require Tommy John surgery, thus ending his season and reinserting Gee into the starting rotation.
While his first two starts of the season were nothing short of lackluster, Gee seemed to be hitting a groove afterwards, posting a 3.86 ERA in his first five starts. Complications for Gee arose once again, however, as he headed to the disabled list with a groin injury on May 8th.
This is when things got even more crazy for Gee and the Mets.
When Gee went down, the team called up–arguably–their best pitching prospect in Noah Syndergaard, who has had flashes of brilliance, in addition to some struggles as well, to take his spot in the rotation. After recovering from his groin injury, the Mets still had Gee pitching in rehab starts in the minor leagues, something that Gee referred to as “wasting bullets.”
On June 3rd, Gee was activated from the disabled list and re-entered the rotation, as the Mets began use of their highly publicized 6-man rotation. After just one start, not even an entire turn into it, the Mets decided to ditch the 6-man rotation and revert to the original and more conventional 5-man. This meant that once again, Gee’s role had changed, as he headed back to the bullpen.
Gee made one appearance in relief this season, going 1.2 innings against the San Francisco Giants while allowing a walk and a solo home run.
After being placed on the bereavement list following the death of his grandmother, Gee was activated on Sunday, and was once again re-inserted into the starting rotation–something Sandy Alderson referred to as a “6-man lite” rotation.
While Gee isn’t free of blame, as even he would admit he could have pitched much better this season, it’s incredibly tough to perform when you don’t know what your role is on a day-to-day basis over the course of a six-month span. His struggles showed once again on Sunday as he allowed eight earned runs in 3.2 innings against the Braves, putting the Mets in a hole–luckily for team, their offense was able to overcome the five-run deficit.
Since coming off the disabled list on June 3rd, Gee allowed 13 earned runs in 9.1 innings pitched and, overall this season, is 0-3 with a 5.90 ERA. The writing has been on the wall for months now and at some point, it was clear something had to give here. Unfortunately, it had to go down this way.
“He handled it like a pro,” Collins said in regards to breaking the news to Gee. “He’s got to go work hard and he will.”
With the team designating him for assignment, the Mets have a 7-day window to work out a trade for Gee. Alderson said he will shop Gee over the next week, but if he is not traded within the 7-day span, Gee will then be waived, and if he clears, Alderson said he will likely be outright to Triple-A Las Vegas.
Alderson said he had one meaningful discussion with a team involving a deal for Gee this past winter, but those talks broke down and he was unable to drum up interest elsewhere.
To listen to Alderson’s entire talk with reporters on Monday, watch this:
Just Mets 