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Late last month Youth Chicago Bears Jerseys , when the New York Mets were on the road, a display case at Citi Field went up in flames.

Just like their 2018 season.

Nobody got hurt in the fire, which was extinguished by an automatic sprinkler system, and damage was minimal, according to the team.

If only it were that simple to fix the product on the field.

With the Mets sinking fast toward the bottom of the National League standings, baseball operations were turned over Tuesday to a trio of Sandy Alderson’s assistants as the 70-year-old general manager made the stunning announcement that he was stepping down because his cancer has returned.

John Ricco, J.P. Ricciardi and Omar Minaya have decades of front office experience between them, both in New York and elsewhere around the majors. But it might take all three to clean up this mess, and time is of the essence.

”We’re well below our expectations, from ownership on down,” chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said. ”Talk to the baseball department, talk to the scouting department, talk to the development department, coaches, the players – nobody expected to be in this position.”

Alderson’s indefinite leave of absence comes at a critical juncture for the languishing Mets (32-46) ahead of the July 31 trade deadline.

Needing to accrue young talent, they’ll probably try to sell off pending free agents such as shaky closer Jeurys Familia and switch-hitting second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera for whatever they can get.

But ace pitchers Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard could fetch an enormous return, and the club must decide whether to undertake such a sweeping overhaul at this stage – without a general manager in place.

”We’re going to talk about that. We just kind of got into this,” Ricco told reporters Wednesday. ”For me, everything has to be on the table. But you’ve got to look long and hard before you move a game-changing, top-of-the-rotation pitcher.”

Even with last season’s 70-92 finish in mind, Ricco didn’t sound as though a total tear-down was likely. At least not yet.

So how do the aging Mets, not even two years removed from consecutive playoff appearances, re-energize their injury-prone team and turn it around?

The offense is stagnant. The defense is deplorable at times. The bullpen has been horrendous since New York’s 12-2 start and requires a complete rebuild next year.

Due in large part to leg injuries and a hip problem that Alderson called ”somewhat chronic Youth Cincinnati Bengals Jerseys ,” slugger Yoenis Cespedes has played in less than half of the Mets’ games since signing a $110 million, four-year contract in November 2016. He has a no-trade clause and almost certainly isn’t going anywhere. New York needs to figure out how to get him back in the lineup.

Banged-up right fielder Jay Bruce, also in his 30s and sidelined by a hip injury, is batting .212 with three home runs, 17 RBIs and a paltry .613 OPS in the first season of a $39 million, three-year deal.

Touted prospects Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith have flopped at the plate so far.

”That’s what we’ve been charged with: improving this club,” Ricco said. ”Obviously, the trade deadline is coming up and that’s a big pressure point in which to better your club, and certainly we are going to take advantage of that and look to be active.”

Syndergaard, like several Mets stars, is on the disabled list again with a strained ligament in his index finger but could be back next month. The 25-year-old right-hander can’t become a free agent until after the 2021 season.

As for deGrom, he just turned 30 and leads the majors with a 1.69 ERA going into Friday night’s scheduled start at last-place Miami. Still a salary bargain relative to his brilliant performance, deGrom is under club control through the 2020 season.

Both pitchers were instrumental in leading New York to the 2015 World Series.

”We know what we have in those two,” Alderson said last week. ”At the same time, you never say never.”

In the end, maybe the Mets will choose instead to shop mid-rotation starters Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz. Both are fully healthy for the first time in years, and their stuff looks crisp.

Of course, New York could simply wait until the winter to settle on a strategy – perhaps after a new GM has been hired.

Regardless of what happens over the next few months, it appears the team plans to conduct a search that includes external candidates at the end of the season.

That also might affect the status of first-year manager Mickey Callaway, hired by Alderson last fall.

So many questions. No easy answers.

Alderson said his prognosis is good but he doesn’t expect to be back on the job at any point, partly because his health is uncertain but also because he’s not sure it would be ”warranted.”

Whoever winds up in charge, if they keep deGrom and Syndergaard, the Mets maintain at least the foundation of a potentially competitive squad for the next two years Youth Dallas Cowboys Jerseys , provided Cespedes and some other key pieces finally manage to stay healthy.

But the team might also be bypassing an opportunity to trade deGrom at peak value, running the risk that he or Syndergaard will get seriously injured before those chips are cashed.

And then there’s this tricky little complication: One of the October contenders in hot pursuit of top-notch starting pitching is the New York Yankees.

With a stocked farm system, they could be a perfect trade partner for the Mets – a buzzy topic that’s generated plenty of fodder for sports-talk radio in New York.

NEW YORK — Through their first 66 games, the New York Yankees have shaken hands 46 times to celebrate a win.

While some of the big names such as Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez and Didi Gregorius have experienced slumps, a consistent bat is Aaron Judge.

Judge is following up winning Rookie of the Year by constantly delivering key hits for the Yankees, who go for the four-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

After setting a rookie record with 52 homers, Judge is batting .283 with 18 homers and 46 RBIs to go along with a .399 on-base percentage and 49 runs. He leads the Yankees in homers, RBIs and runs scored while his 17 doubles are second-most behind rookie Miguel Andujar.

“He’s just such a good player,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Even when Aaron goes through a few days where he’s not swinging great, the at-bat quality doesn’t really change all that much. You know night in and night out, he’s going to make it really hard on the pitchers and they understand that they have to make their best pitches just to retire him.”

Judge left the homers to Stanton and Sanchez on Saturday but contributed a pair of doubles in a 4-1 victory. He is 8-for-18 on the homestand and has 19 hits in his last 63 at-bats.

“That’s one of my main goals every year, just try to be consistent, especially with the lineup we got,” Judge said. “If I can consistently get on base for the guys around me, I feel like we’ll have a pretty good game.”

Judge’s contributions to the latest win occurred on a day when Sanchez homered for the first time since May 19 at Kansas City against the Royals. He had a bases-clearing double Friday and snapped a 66 at-bat stretch without a homer.

Even with some of the ebbs and flows of some other hitters, the Yankees own the best record in baseball and are 13-3 in their last 16 games.

“We’ve had timely hits, big hits, guys step up,” Stanton said. We haven’t all clicked at the same time. Once that happens and we’re on all cylinders, there’s more room to get better.”

Tampa Bay is hoping Sunday is not when everything clicks for the Yankees given its recent history.

Only Matt Duffy’s ninth-inning homer avoided a second straight shutout. The Rays are 4-12 in their last 16 and on a nine-game road losing streak.

“It’s frustrating losing games,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said after his team mustered five hits and struck out 10 times. “You want these guys to come up here and experience success personally and as a team and the good thing is, we talk about it all the time Youth Denver Broncos Jerseys , these guys have won together, they’re going to be able to withstand some tough stretches.”

It has been a particularly tough stretch for the Rays against the Yankees. They are 0-5 in the season series while getting outscored 31-10.

Tampa Bay is also 10-24 in its last 34 games against the Yankees since Aug. 12, 2016, and 4-18 in its last 22 trips to New York since. That was the day Alex Rodriguez played his last game and one day before Judge made his major league debut.

“That’s a good hitting team,” Duffy said. “We’ve held them to a pretty modest amount of runs considering what they’re capable of, especially in their home park.”

After Luis Severino dominated for eight innings Saturday, CC Sabathia will start for the 522nd time in his career and when he does, he will break a tie with Hall of Famer Jim Palmer and former teammate Andy Pettitte for 38th place on the all-time list.

Sabathia will also go for his 242nd career win, which is one behind former Cleveland Indians teammate Bartolo Colon and Hall of Famer Juan Marichal for 54th on the all-time list.

The left-hander is 4-1 with a 3.15 ERA in 10 starts since returning from a brief disabled list stint April 19. He last pitched Tuesday against the Washington Nationals when he became the fifth pitcher to get 1,500 strikeouts with the Yankees and allowed four hits in 5 2/3 innings of a 3-0 victory.

Overall, Sabathia is at 2,893 strikeouts and inching closer to becoming the 17th pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts, though he was not aware he reached 1,500 after striking out Michael A. Taylor on Tuesday.

The left-hander is 16-14 with a 3.77 ERA in 45 career starts against the Rays. His 45 starts and 296 innings pitched against Tampa Bay are his most against any opponent.

Sabathia is 5-0 with a 3.57 ERA in his last seven starts against the Rays.

Tampa Bay will use a reliever to open the game for the second straight time. After Ryne Stanek started by throwing 21 pitches in 1 1/3 innings Saturday, Wilmer Font will pitch.

“It’s weird,” Stanton said of Tampa Bay’s unorthodox strategy. “It’s just like a guy coming out of the pen, how you prep for him, except you do it at the beginning of the game. Get ready for the starter. It’s weird, out of order, but the same sequence.”

Font is 0-1 with a 2.31 ERA in six appearances since joining the Rays last month and Sunday will be his third start for the Rays. On Wednesday, he threw 66 pitches and allowed two hits in 3 1/3 innings during a 1-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Rays will make a roster move as shortstop Christian Arroyo will be placed on the disabled list with a strained oblique and Adeiny Hechavarria will be recalled from his rehab assignment after missing 28 games with a strained right hamstring.