For Mets, deleting Chris Young addition by subtraction

PHILADELPHIA — Fitting, isn't it, that the Mets made such loud declarations in the city where our nation produced its most famous declaration of all?

The Mets held on for dear life Friday night to prevail against the lousy Phillies 5-4 at Citizens Bank Park, preventing what would have been a calamitous meltdown after holding a bulky lead for most of the game. But really, Mets fans probably would be giddy this morning even if Jenrry Mejia had given up a walk-off, two-run home run to Reid Brignac, instead of getting the banjo-hitting former Yankee to look at a third strike, because of what transpired after the last out.

Chris Young is an ex-Met after the team designated the outfielder for assignment, putting last winter's riskiest and head-scratchingest move to bed after a brutal, four-plus-month lifespan. The transaction capped a day that began with manager Terry Collins proclaiming Wilmer Flores and Kirk Nieuwenhuis would get extended playing time. By day's end, Matt den Dekker, promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas, had joined that group.

"At some point, you have to move on," Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said. "This was about the time we would do that."

Young has a tick over $2 million coming to him in the one-year, $7.25-million contract he signed last winter, and given how many pennies the club has pinched in recent years, it was reasonable to think the Mets would ride out the painful relationship all the way until the winter. There would have been no compelling baseball reason to do so. If anything, you criticize them for taking this long to bite the bullet, given Young's final 2014 Mets slash line of .205/.283/.346 and mediocre defense, to boot.

Alderson used the words "investment" and "development" when discussing the Mets' moves of this past week — Bobby Abreu preceded Young out the door by four days — and those scream "white flag!" to most of us. The Mets (55-61) trail the Nationals (62-52) by eight games in the National League East thanks to Washington's 7-6 loss to the Braves. They pulled within seven games of the Giants (62-54) for the second NL wild-card spot, thanks to San Francisco's 4-2 loss to Kansas City. These are not odds on which you bet.

Nevertheless, Alderson said: "I have not concluded that this is a step back from competition. We made some changes in the bullpen in May. Some people may have interpreted that as a step back from competition. I don't think we viewed it that way. I think the way viewed it at that time was if we were going to compete, this had to work a little bit differently. Fortunately, it's worked out fairly well.

"I kind of viewed this the same way. "There's some upside potential here," Alderson said, "and we have to see if it's there."

Certainly, the Mets lose nothing and might gain something by jettisoning Young and promising extended playing time to den Dekker, starting against right-handers in left field, and Nieuwenhuis, who figures to float among all three outfield positions. There's a greater risk in the Flores endeavor, since shortstop Ruben Tejada has reached base (.344 on-base percentage) and played good defense just as the Mets hoped when they blew off current Yankee Stephen Drew. Yet Flores possesses the greater upside on offense, and the Mets desperately need more run production, so it's a worthwhile venture.

In another project involving the future, only with a much older player, Bartolo Colon pitches for his future trade value, be it this month or this offseason. He picked up the 200th win of his roller-coaster career Friday by throwing eight easy innings against the Phillies, giving up a run and six hits, walking none and striking out six. The 41-year-old lowered his ERA to 3.97, and he reinforced what we've seen from him this season: When he spots his fastball, he's golden, especially if he has Juan Lagares to track down some long fly balls to center field, like Ryan Howard's and Marlon Byrd's back-to-back moon shots in the fourth inning.

When he doesn't? Well, he has six starts this season in which he has allowed five or more runs.

The Mets might have to sweeten the pot and pay a nice percentage of the $11 million Colon has coming next season in order to get something decent in return. They need many more bold declarations. Friday provided a nice starting point and nothing more.

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