Man the Lifeboats

Things aren't going well for the 2023 New York Mets one-quarter of the way through the season. Today we'll look at the starting pitching as we try to determine what hope there is for turning things around.

Along with being a Mets fan, I've been a New York Knicks fan almost my entire life. I'm not sure whether that's due to an affinity for the blue and orange color scheme or some inner urge to punish myself. After all, James Dolan and the Wilpons were neck and neck for the worst owner in New York until the Wilpons sold out. Anyway, during Monday afternoon's debacle in the nation's capital, I flashed back on the famous Michael Ray Richardson quote, "The ship be sinking" — something I did quite frequently with the Wilpon Mets.

Some Roster Thoughts as Spring Training Nears

With Carlos Correa out of the picture, the Mets still have issues to address before spring training starts in just 4 weeks.

When I finished my last post, I was hoping that by the time I wrote my next one, there would be a positive resolution to the Carlos Correa sage. While there was a resolution, it differed from the one most New York Mets fans, including me, hoped to see. Carlos is back with the Twins, and the Mets will take the field this season with a lineup a bit weaker than what it could have been with Correa.

How the Dominoes Fall

More thoughts on constructing a Mets starting rotation in 2023. Is exercising Carlos Carrasco's $14 million option for next season really a no-brainer?

The New York Mets had a rough time down in Atlanta this week. They lost starting pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Taijuan Walker to injuries in the first two games of the Atlanta series, although it looks like Walker will only miss one start. Their infield defense took a big hit, losing Luis Guillorme and Eduardo Escobar to the I.L. The Mets' offense seems to be in hit-or-miss mode since the series against the Cincinnati Reds with run totals of 1, 1, 6, 1, 0, 9, 2, 7, 8, and 1 through Saturday's doubleheader split with the Phillies. They lost all but one of the games in which they scored 2 runs or fewer.

Decisions, Decisions: Starting Pitchers

The failure during the Wilpon era to institute long-term strategies has forced Billy Eppler and the Mets to face a coming offseason of countless decisions.

The Mets had a tough 2-game series in Houston this week. It was particularly galling for older Mets fans like myself, whose disdain for that club long predates their blatant cheating scandal. And, of course, the Atlanta Braves continue to close the gap between the two clubs. It was down to 4 games after the Braves' win over San Francisco Thursday.

Gratitude

The New York Mets are 58 games into the season. If this was 2020, we would almost be at the end of the regular season. In 2021, as in so many other seasons past, there are still 104 games left to play. My purpose in noting this is not to show off my second grade math skills. It just drives home once again how very different 2020 baseball was from what a baseball season is supposed to be.

A Third of the Way Home

When the New York Mets began play in June, I was cautiously optimistic but nonetheless worried about their chances. June has been a harsh month for the Mets in recent years, and the club was embarking on a difficult part of the schedule with a still quite depleted roster. They've survived the first third of the month pretty well with their 5-4 road trip. That they were able to come back and win the last two against the San Diego Padres was particularly gratifying.

The Challenge of Surviving June

Since I last posted here, the New York Mets managed to play one of their three scheduled games against the Atlanta Braves this past weekend and the first game of the Arizona Diamondbacks series last night. Putting aside the uncharacteristic offensive explosion Saturday night, it was still going to be difficult for them to win games against Atlanta with a Triple-A offense. I guess we can hope that the Mets are in better shape to play these games later on, but the number of doubleheaders they'll be playing in June and July is going to be tough, also. This year was supposed to be the year that we at least made progress towards returning to a normal baseball season, but the injuries and postponements have got in the way of that journey. Last year's extreme abnormal pandemic season has given way to the year of endless injuries.

Making the Future Brighter

The main storyline for the New York Mets is about treading water while all of their players on the Injured List work their way back. It's been a bit frustrating to watch them try to win Major League games while playing mostly their Triple-A lineup, but I do admire that they've been able to compete in most of their games during this stretch. Still, their listless loss to the Marlins today capped a disheartening 3-6 road trip. It might be a bit more interesting if their roster at Syracuse included more true prospects. Then there would at least be the sense that we were previewing the future of the big league club these last few games. Sadly, this is not the case.

Building Better Pitching

Tim Britton had an outstanding piece in The Athletic today about the Mets organization's efforts to create a state-of-the-art pitching development program. Under the Wilpons, the team had been notoriously reluctant to buy into the latest trends in player development. This likely reflected some skepticism towards new technologies on their part and a certain cheapness towards investing in something that didn't pay obvious and immediate benefits. That's probably a good reason why the Mets have historically lagged behind the top organizations in developing talent. Fortunately, new Mets owner Steve Cohen sees the benefits of investing in the future. That should pay dividends for the club and its fans going forward.

What Needs to Happen

I was doing the dishes and some laundry this morning, two fairly necessary but quite boring tasks. We have a Google Hub Max in the kitchen so, to divert my attention a bit, I put on last night's Baseball Night in New York from my YouTube TV DVR. I know, I know, a lot of it is mindless sports talk radio-caliber stuff, but some of it can be pretty good. Former Met Anthony Recker, in particular, can be funny and say really smart things sometimes. SNY's Andy Martino can be irritating at times, but he could be interesting, too. It depends on the day. At least with the DVR, I can skip the really dumb stuff along with the commercials.

Some Early Thoughts on Mets Starting Pitching

As a lifelong baseball fan, I always look forward to the start of spring training. This year, of course, was extra special. The combination of the Wilpons exiting the scene and the deep roster the Mets have built over the offseason has led to increased expectations. It was cool over the last few weeks to see it all come together on a playing field, even if the games didn't really count. But, at least for me, we're now at the point of spring training where the thrill is decidedly gone. Although not every question has been fully answered, we have a pretty good idea of what players the club will take north with them. Any questions still lingering about the 2021 Mets will require real games for the answers to be revealed.

Minor League Delays and Prospect Development

The original plan for Minor League Baseball this season called for Triple-A teams to begin playing in early April, while the lower-level affiliates would wait until May to get their seasons underway. The reasoning behind this was that COVID-19 protocols limited spring training to Major Leaguers and Triple-A ballplayers. The other minor leaguers wouldn't even report for their spring training until those players departed at the beginning of April.

Signing Taijuan Walker Was a Terrific Move

Mets fans received some good news today. Signing a starting pitcher to compete for one of the two bottom-of-the-rotation slots really was a must for this team. Don't get me wrong, David Peterson and Joey Lucchesi are both perfectly acceptable options for the role, but there needed to be more competition for those spots. Now there is. Bringing Taijuan Walker into the fold for a reasonable 2-year, $20 million deal seems to be, at least in my opinion, exactly the right balance of risk and potential upside. While it seems almost comical to refer to a $10 million per year salary as "reasonable," it really is in the context of how players are valued these days. As a fan, I feel much better about the Mets' chances of having enough starting pitching to survive this season today than I did yesterday.

Mets Working on Filling Out the Roster

Since I last wrote here, the Mets signed another not-very-exciting bench player, infielder Jonathan Villar. As with the signing of Albert Almora, who also didn't cause goosebumps to appear when I heard of his signing, this looks like a solid addition to the team's bench. I know some folks get frustrated by moves like this, but I like it so much more than the sort of Quad-A ballplayers the Mets used to build their bench in previous years — think John Mayberry, Daniel Muno, Eric Campbell, Ty Kelly, and the like. Sure, there's a reason no one signed Almora and Villar to be starting players for their teams, but they both have some upside and some decent talents.

Time for Action, Part 1

MLB.com's Mark Feinsand tweeted out yesterday that lefty reliever Brad Hand was coming close to making a decision on where he would sign, with a decision coming "perhaps even by the end of this weekend". The Mets are still in the running for Hand, but other teams are in it, too, and I've read a lot of speculation that the Mets aren't interested in giving a multi-year deal to the reliever. Hand has enjoyed plenty of success in his career as a closer. While there are questions about him losing some velocity, I'd be shocked if interested teams weren't willing to go 2 or more years for the guy. He'll be turning 31 before the season starts, which isn't old enough to scare teams from offering him 2- or even 3-year deals. If the Mets really are committed to holding to a 1-year contract, it seems likely that Hand will sign somewhere else, too.

Filling the Gap

I wrote a post yesterday on the Jared Porter firing. I not only believe the Mets did the right thing by firing him, I think it was their only possible move once all of the facts came out. The type of behavior that the man engaged in was not only morally indefensible, but also showed such an extreme lack of judgment that essentially disqualified him from any possibility of staying in such an important position. A friend of mine asked me if I thought it mattered that Porter's toxic interaction with the female journalist happened a few years ago. The guy was in his mid-30s at the time, hardly a kid, and the actions were way beyond inappropriate, so no.