Mets, Stumbling in Third Place, Are Shopping for a Power Hitter

CHICAGO â€”  The New York Mets may have bullied the Chicago Cubs and Rick Sutcliffe for 10 runs in one game this week. But when they fell back in form Thursday by losing to Chicago, 5-4, in 10 innings, they offered yet more proof that big-run games are more often teases than trends.

Unlike the recent years gone by, the Mets’ offensive tap has more often been off than on this season. Because it is, the Mets find themselves stumbling about in third place in the National League East, 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Cubs, who outscored the Mets, 33-21, in taking three of the four games in this series.

The lack of offense is the biggest reason why the Mets are culling the market for another hitter. “So far, we’ve looked under just about every rock there is,� Joe McIlvaine said. “We haven’t found one, though. At least one another team is willing to give up.�

Therein lies the dilemma. The Mets, as rich in talent as any team in baseball for the last half decade, are used to dealing from strength. The question these days is, “Have the Mets failed to deal because they are now just another vulnerable franchise with no good Samaritans volunteering to save them?�

No, says McIlvaine, the Mets’ vice president of baseball operations who does the wheeling and dealing.

Yet, McIlvaine has been trying to work a deal of considerable worth since December. And he’s been turned back at every juncture, something new to a team that, in the not-so-distant past, appeared only to have to snap its fingers to have a Kevin McReynolds, Bob Ojeda, Keith Hernandez or Gary Carter fall in its lap.

The 1989 Mets have coveted a prime-time hitter since December, but still they have not snared one. They wanted Seattle center fielder Jay Buhner, the player the Mets believed to be the other “plum� in that Mark Langston deal that wound up as a frustrating trade-that-never-was.

The Mets have held other talks involving, to varying degrees, Kansas City’s Danny Tartabull, Atlanta’s Dale Murphy, Cleveland’s Joe Carter, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Von Hayes as well as Boston’s Ellis Burks.

Some negotiations still go on.

A mere mention this week by McIlvaine that he is still talking to Boston about Burks set off a storm of media interest as soon the Red Sox center fielder stepped foot in Yankee Stadium Thursday. It also set off another series of denials by Sox General Manager Lou Gorman, who stated the Mets would never give enough to pry Burks loose.

That’s generally interpreted by most to mean that the Red Sox want at least two pitchers capable of starting, plus Len Dykstra. And that’s about one prime-time player more than the Mets would part with.

So McIlvaine waits for the other side to crack.

Why?

“Because we don’t have to make a trade,� he said. “I still feel we have a good enough team to win.�

McIlvaine believes that, even though Carter and Hernandez are disabled and not expected back any time soon.

“You don’t replace those kind of impact players in kind,� McIlvaine said, “but it hasn’t been a devastating blow because the guys who stepped in, (Dave) Magadan, (Barry) Lyons and (Mackey) Sasser are hitting.�

Indeed, Magadan, the replacement for Hernandez, was hitting .324 with nine RBI in 108 at-bats entering Thursday’s game. Hernandez had 12 RBI in 117 at-bats when he broke his kneecap May 17. Lyons (.301) and Sasser (.324) combined for 12 RBI in 130 at-bats. Carter had five RBI in 79 at-bats when he was placed on the disabled list May 12.

The subs are not the reason the Mets had the second-worst team batting average in the National League. The regulars were.

The homer Kevin McReynolds hit off Mitch Williams to tie the game in the ninth Thursday was only his seventh. The RBI was just his 25th. Darryl Strawberry has 13 homers, but only 29 RBI.

One can only imagine where the Mets would be without Howard Johnson, who homered Thursday and leads the Mets with 33 RBI.

So, as the Mets wait for an offensive breakout, only to come away disappointed, execs like McIlvaine are looked to for answers, if not miracles.

If power is what the situation demands, the Mets will not find it in their farm system. The otherwise-rich franchise is not exactly speeding a Jose Canseco or Ken Griffey Jr. through the ranks.

So that leaves McIlvaine to parry with teams that want to envision a desperation on his part and raid the Mets’ vast pitching riches. Right now, he’s not alone in wondering how long a pitching-thin club such as Boston can hold out. For that reason, McIlvaine says of the pursuit of Burks, “I haven’t given up on that one. And I don’t give up easily.�

Will he get his man, from Boston or elsewhere?

“I’m willing to overpay,� McIlvaine said. “But there are lines I won’t cross.�

Thus far, to the Mets’ dismay, no team has willingly crossed either, no matter how often pitching prospect David West or Sid Fernandez or outfielder Len Dykstra is dangled.

“Are we being frozen out?� McIlvaine said. “Well, I’m beginning to think teams are shying away, but I don’t know quite how to say why. I don’t think it’s personality. I don’t know if it’s our track record. I try to be equitable.�