Day 1,181, Quasi-Quarantine: It's Past Time For The Mets To Trade Vogey For A Hoagie

OK, so New York has a ton of problems right now. Well, yes, the city itself is currently glowing orange amidst smoke from Canadian forest fires, so I should clarify that I'm referring to the Mets. And one of the biggest of those problems -- literally and figuratively -- is Daniel Vogelbach.

I've been an unabashed "Vogey" fan for purely name- and Farley-related reasons, but he's hitting .203 with seven extra-base hits, driving in just 14 runs all season. Due largely to his pure ineptitude, the Mets rank 27th in baseball in designated hitter OPS (.669) more than 60 games into the campaign.

As of today, he has exactly four hits in his last 44 at-bats, including a single extra-base hit. Overall, the Mets are one of just seven teams with fewer than four players with more than five homers.

You're starting to see the problem, right? On a team bereft of pure power sources outside of Pete Alonso, Vogelbach can provide no protection for the "Polar Bear," and not just from a power standpoint, but from a, like, making-contact-with-the-ball standpoint.

Vogelbach was brought in as part of a disastrous trade deadline for New York last year, which also saw a horrific trade for another failed DH option in Darren Ruf. Vogelbach was swapped for reliever Colin Holderman, who, of course, has posted a 2.74 ERA for the Pirates, striking out 27 batters in 23 innings. Think the Mets could use a 6-7 righty out of the 'pen about now?

Exacerbating the issue is the presence of three highly-thought-of rookies in catcher Francisco Alvarez, third baseman Brett Baty, and first- and third baseman Mark Vientos. Only Baty is a lefty like Vogelbach, but manager Buck Showalter would rather bury Vientos on the bench and play multiple players out of position in an effort to manufacture offense instead of acknowledging the reality that Vogelbach is unplayable at this point.

The only logical way forward is to give Vogelbach's at bats to Vientos and Baty (letting the latter DH on occasion and letting Eduardo Escobar handle third), try to flip Vogelbach for a low- to mid-tier volume reliever, and call Luis Guillorme back up to the bigs.

Because the stubborness and refusal to embrace what the data and our eyes are telling us are quickly morphing this situation from a Vogey problem to a Showalter problem.