Craziest 24 Hours in Mets History?

We may have lived through the craziest 24 hours in Mets history. What a time to be alive!

To recap, Wednesday night came word that the Mets agreed to a trade with the Brewers to send Zack Wheeler and Wilmer Flores to Milwaukee for Carlos Gomez. Word spread like wildfire through Citi Field via Twitter. However, the information apparently never got to Flores or Terry Collins in the dugout, Flores was kept in the entire game. When he got a standing ovation after batting in the seventh inning, everyone knew something was up. Flores was told and started crying — and was still sobbing as he took the field for the eighth.

Collins was livid during his post-game news conference, cursing so much he had to be bleeped on SNY. Meantime, Sandy Alderson announced to the world that the deal, which was never official, was dead. He said it was because the Mets were concerned about Gomez’s hip. Gomez’s agent Scott Boras pronounced Gomez fit as a fiddle as word came from Milwaukee that Alderson nixed the deal over money. Gomez was later traded to the Astros, who apparently have doctors who know how to read an X-ray.

And that was just off the field stuff (except for the crying). The Mets played a noon matinée with the Padres on Thursday. They jumped out to a seemingly insurmountable 7-1 lead. Even a grand slam in the seventh that cut the lead to 7-5 didn’t seem like a death blow (that would come later). Struggling closer Jeurys Familia got the first two outs in the ninth when the skies opened up. The downpour was so heavy, the umpires had to stop the game with the Mets two strikes from victory.

After a 45 minute delay, they started up again. Five minutes later, so did the rain. But in that time Familia allowed two hits and a home run to Justin Upton (the aforementioned death blow) to give the Padres an 8-7 lead. Familia got the last out and the game was delayed yet again. The tarp was so heavy from the previous rain, the grounds crew had a hard time getting it on the infield. It stalled on the outfield as the infield took massive amounts of water.

Two hours and 49 minutes later, the game resumed, and a few minutes later it was over, the Mets going down meekly in the ninth.

So many questions. Why was Flores allowed to stay in the game? Even though the trade was not official, the players were agreed upon. Why risk injury? And Alderson had to know the names were out. Why put Flores through that?

And who leaked the trade information to reporters? Mets officials? Brewers sources? Agents? We’ll never know.

And why did Alderson back out? A mystery hip problem or money? Again, we’ll never know.

And why did the umpires start the game only to stop it five minutes later? They all get sophisticated weather forecasts. Or they could simply look at a weather app with live radar. They had to know the rain was going to resume. Or maybe they thought the Mets wouldn’t need more than five minutes to get one out. If that was the case, they have not watched many Mets games.

And why was Familia allowed to stay in the game after the first delay? It is rare for pitchers to continue after a rain delay. Maybe Collins thought Familia had one more out in him. Instead, he blew his third save since the All-Star break.

Whatever the answers to those questions, it was a strange and bizarre 24 hours, some of it unavoidable, some of it perfectly avoidable with a little common sense. Unfortunately, we have seen that is in short supply in Flushing.