The Mets Bet on Their Kids with Baty and Alvarez

Eduardo Escobar's struggles and the early success of the young third baseman have forced the Mets' hand. Let's hope this is the start of something big for Brett Baty.

Depending on what's going on in my life, it usually takes me two or three days to write one of my posts for this blog. I'm not a very slow writer, but the free time I can put into this project is fairly limited right now. What keeps me going is how much I enjoy writing in general and how much I love baseball, particularly Mets baseball.

Too Much of a Good Thing

2021 was a disappointing season for the New York Mets. The pitching staff was beset with injuries. Jacob deGrom and Carlos Carrasco, the two pitchers penciled in as 1 and 2 in the Mets' rotation, made only 27 combined starts. That was only the tip of the injury iceberg that sunk the Mets'season — all told, 42 starters and relievers toed the rubber for the Mets last year. That was not a recipe for success.

Game Changer

Apologies for not posting for a while. I'm going through a difficult time personally. I had to endure another back surgery on December 16 — my fourth since September 2020. It's been a lot to deal with. It's been hard to maintain optimism to get past these problems after many setbacks. I have to admit that I was down in the dumps for a while.

Big Changes Ahead After Another Disappointing Season

As I write this post, the New York Mets are in the process of dropping the final game of the season. It's a fitting end for the disappointing club to go out on a losing streak with their offense once again shut down. In fairness, the Mets have found their way to some victories this week — long, long past the time when those wins would have been of any real consequence, of course. I always miss baseball when the season comes to an end. It's the only sport that I still follow with more than passing interest. The close of the regular season also marks the end of whatever tattered shreds of summer remain. Even as the earth continues to get hotter, I still miss the long days and bright sunshine of summer throughout the New England winter.

Catching up on the Mets

The New York Mets are in the midst of their first nice winning streak in months. After today's ugly but ultimately successful game in Washington, they have won 7 straight games they have played. Technically their streak is 6 in a row, as the first of those wins was the final 8 2/3 innings of a game suspended on April 11. Even though only one single out of the game was recorded in April, it goes in the books as a win on that day. Go figure.

(Still) Waiting for a Turnaround

The just-completed weekend wasn't a high point in New York Mets history. The Mets are coming off a long homestand where they did nothing to solidify their tenuous hold on the National League East. The Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves are doing all they can to give the division to the Mets, but the New Yorkers refuse to accept the gift. Instead, after taking 2 of 3 from the one good team they would face — the Toronto Blue Jays — the Mets offense slipped back into stone-cold mode against the mediocre Braves and Cincinnati Reds. The end result was losing 3 of 5 to the Braves and 2 of 3 to the Reds. And it could have been worse. They only scored 3 runs combined in the 2 games they took from the Braves, and it took a rare late-game comeback to win once against the Reds.

Some Quick Thoughts on the Baez Trade

Ken Rosenthal is reporting on Twitter that the New York Mets have made a deal with the Chicago Cubs for SS Javier Báez and RH starter Trevor Williams. We're still waiting to hear about who the Mets are giving up. Also on Twitter, Bob Nightengale is reporting that the Mets are sending the Cubs our #5 ranked prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong. Crow-Armstrong made a big impression in camp this year but injured his shoulder only 6 games into the season with Low-A St. Lucie. The injury required shoulder surgery and put the 19-year-old out for the season.

The Conforto Conundrum

The New York Mets have been showing signs recently that they were bouncing back from their early-season offensive struggles. Unfortunately, those travails returned with a vengeance yesterday. The Mets managed to scratch out only one single, solitary run against the Atlanta Braves over 14 innings of their doubleheader. As disappointing as that was, it's also rather miraculous that they were able to cash in that lone run for a split of the doubleheader. But that's the kind of season it's been for the Mets as they have battled continuous adversity to hang onto their tenuous lead in the NL East.

Pete Alonso Has Fun Playing Baseball

The All-Star Game and all of the related festivities have come to an end. I didn't watch a second of it live, but I did find the Home Run Derby on YouTube and scanned some of Pete Alonso's highlights the next day. It wasn't that I was psyched to see him win the thing. I believe the Home Run Derby is fairly boring to watch on tv, even if one of "your guys" manages to come out on top. Most of the majesty of watching the best-hit balls sail far out of the park is lost with the way television has to cover it. The only way to really experience that is to attend in person.

98 Pound Weaklings

I mentioned in yesterday's post that a really hectic week kept me away from watching the two games our New York Mets played against the Red Sox this week. I guess someone on the Mets noticed. Last night they "treated" me with a game that was essentially a replay of their anemic 2-game set against Boston. Apparently, they didn't read the second sentence of that paragraph where I mentioned that I had no regrets about missing those games. Not that it would really matter, anyway, as the Mets have been losing a version of that same game since the season got underway.

That Winning Feeling

The New York Mets won a rubber game against a Division opponent today. They accomplished this by getting enough offense, more than adequate pitching, and surprisingly good defense. It also didn't hurt that the Washington Nationals are currently playing without their best player, Juan Soto, and the Mets missed Nats ace Max Scherzer in the series. Still, a series win is a series win, especially sweet when you're a fan waiting for your club to play at their full potential.

Old Habits Die Hard

I started smoking cigarettes when I was 16 years old. I thought smoking made me look cool. When I turned 21, I decided to quit. I figured that it wouldn't be too hard; I was stronger than a stupid habit. And I was, I guess, but it took me a quarter of a century to finally do it. If those 30 years of smoking taught me one thing, it was not to underestimate the power of bad habits to stick around, long, long after they're no longer welcome.

Armored For Success?

The Mets won a game yesterday in a somewhat ugly fashion. As home plate umpire Ron Kulpa admitted after the game, Michael Conforto should have been called out on strikes when he was hit on the arm by a ball in the strike zone. Those are the hard facts of the matter. When folks start speculating on other things, such as Conforto's intent or whether that play definitively cost Miami the game, that's where they lose me.

Some *Fearless* Predictions for the Season

Hey, this prediction
business is tough!

When I began writing yesterday's post, my intent was that it would be my season preview piece. After all, this is the time of year, with Opening Day approaching this week, when these pieces are supposed to be written. While you can never predict what injuries might crop up, you usually have a pretty good idea of how most of the players on your team are going to perform. This year really is different, however. There are a lot of variables in play, including some limited data for key performers. It led me to write a season preview that was relatively light in actual prediction. It also makes this New York Mets club a little more fascinating as we approach Thursday's season opener.

Seth Lugo's Elbow Hurts All of Us

The bad news about Seth Lugo came along with my morning coffee. When I saw the words Lugo, elbow, and surgery together in the headline, my first thought was that the frayed medial ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow had finally gone and we were kissing him goodbye for the season. While the news proved to be better than that, the Mets are going to have to figure out their bullpen without one of their best relievers for a while. Lugo will be shut down completely for "at least six weeks," and then he has to ease back into pitching shape. And this is assuming no hidden damage when they cut into the elbow and no setbacks in his rehab. Given what we've seen previously with pitchers and elbow problems, would it shock you if Noah Syndergaard was pitching again before Lugo?

Time for Action, Part 2

Before I take a look at where things currently stand with the Mets infielders and outfielders, I'll take a moment to react to Brad Hand signing with the Nationals. The accounts I have read said that the Mets were willing to pay Hand and give him a second year on the contract, but that Hand preferred a one-year deal with the Nationals and the opportunity to close. If the Nats had simply outbid the Mets I would have been ready to write something very uncomplimentary here. I'm still not happy when a Mets free agent target chooses to go elsewhere, particularly to a division rival, but I get that it's tricky to sign someone as a setup man who had been a closer and still wants to close.

Thoughts on George Springer and Jared Porter

Your order is up, Mr. Porter

I started writing a post about Jared Porter yesterday, but then doctor appointments chewed up the majority of my day. I have a few thoughts on that matter that I'll share later in this post, but I thought I would weigh in on George Springer's signing with the Blue Jays first. I spent most of this offseason pretty sure that Springer would sign with the Mets, especially once they signed James McCann to be their starting catcher. I stopped believing that Springer would be a Met the day the Francisco Lindor trade was announced. I still hoped that the Mets might somehow land the guy, but I knew that it would require some luck. The reality of the situation was that the Blue Jays were able to offer more than the Mets were comfortable with to land the guy. Frankly, if the rumors that the Mets were willing to go up to north of $120 million to land Springer are true, I find it hard to find fault with that effort.

On Extending Lindor and Sustaining Success

Now that the Mets have Francisco Lindor on their roster, the next big question is how they go about trying to keep him past this season. I think we can assume that it's a given that they at least make a big effort at extending him. I've seen some in the media postulate that the Mets may want to wait until they've had a chance to see how Lindor reacts to playing in New York, which would obviously mean that negotiations wouldn't even start before the season got underway. I could understand the rationale for that thinking. Not every player thrives in this city. I might even feel the same way myself if Lindor was under contract for a couple of years. That's not the case, however, so if the Mets decided to go that route they would need to ask themselves how long they would be willing to wait to begin negotiations, and if Lindor would even be willing to negotiate during the season. At his press conference today he indicated fairly strongly that he wouldn't do that.

Maximizing Player Value

The Tampa Bay Rays get a lot of credit, most of it deserved, for running a pretty successful baseball club on a small budget. Of course, it wasn't always that way. When they came into being as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, they spent their first decade of existence in last place in the AL East. Their best year from 1998-2007 was in 2004, the only time they won 70 games. Meanwhile, they lost over 100 games in three different years. I know the Mets franchise got off to a much tougher start back in the sixties, but baseball was much less liberal in giving players to expansion teams back then, and there was no amateur draft until 1965. I'd argue that being terrible for a decade puts the Rays in a class by themselves for ineptitude, despite the assist from the Mets in giving up Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano in 2004.

Depth Isn't a Four-Letter Word

Although anything certainly can happen, we're probably not going to see a big flurry of moves in baseball over the next two weeks. The Mets have made some progress in signing depth pieces, while also adding Trevor May to the bullpen and inking James McCann to a four year deal. Getting Jared Porter into the fold as their new General Manager was important for this offseason and for the future. They still have a lot left on their to-do list, however. If they went into battle with the players already under contract, you'd probably be looking at a .500 baseball team, and that would be dependent on key players staying mostly healthy. Of course, we'd all bet the farm that major additions are still coming, and we would be pretty disappointed in 2021 if the Mets weren't at least strongly competitive for a playoff spot.