Winter is Coming

As long as the Mets are determined to transform into an international superbrand they’re going to go hard after the big free agents, which is why Juan Soto might be more attractive to them than most. I actually feel like he’s going to sign here, be given No. 22 and play right field until he inevitably moves to first base. Brett Baty, should be avoid being traded for a pitcher, shows up in a new number and it all works out. Baty needs a change of scenery.

I hope Pete Alonso is back. I like him! I know he’s limited–he basically does one thing well and he didn’t do that as well as he should have last year. Who knows what will happen.

Let’s catch up on the news. Eric Orze, a young starting pitcher they had up briefly this season was traded to Tampa Bay for speedy outfielder Jose Siri, who like Baty and Soto, prefers No. 22.

New to the 40-man roster are Justin Hagenman, a minor league reliever signed to a big-league deal; Kevin Herget, a journeyman reliever most recently with Milwaukee; Luis de los Santos, a power-hitting reserve third baseman claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays; and outfielder Jose Azocar, claimed by the Mets back in September from the Padres.

There are also several invite-to-spring-training types we’ll get another time.

Finally I am bailing on Twitter after some 10 or 15 years. It was fun for a while there, dangerous today. If I get back into the habit its springer66.bsky.social on Blue Sky and @jon.springer on Instagram.

 

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Undercover Angel

And not a California Angel.

No instead it’s Luisangel Acuna getting the call (and the start!) today, playing shortstop instead of Francisco Lindor whose consecutive-game streak is ending. I don’t believe Acuna is here for injury but to pinch run. Given he OPSed all of .654 in triple A its not the bat you want out there.

Acuna gets the No. 2 worn most recently by released catcher Omar Narvaez. DJ Stewart is going down.

As we know Eddy Alvarez was acquired from Boston and took the spot of Pablo Reyes in a hot second, tearing the No. 26 off his back on the way. Reyes is among a long list of guys who probably won’t be getting World Series rings.

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All Aboard

As I’d mentioned often before, 10 games over .500 is the level I need my team to be at before I start getting excited about their possibilities. And unless the circumstances are exceedingly weird, that’s a minimum. Ideally a playoff team demonstrates this is a possibility in May or June on their way to 20 games up. That of course hasn’t happened for the 2024 Mets but something stranger and more powerful has. After plateauing at the ~4-games-under and ~7 games over marks they’ve blown past 10 on their way to 13, and perhaps more if they can keep this hot streak going.

And who’s to say they can’t? Mark Vientos, whom I’d once dismissed as a discount-store Giancarlo Stanton, is hitting for average and power; Francisco Lindor is having an MVP year and the role-players and reserves are all doing their jobs. The scrap-heap starting rotation has also been good and the bullpen after a few turns of the soil has also come through most nights. And don’t look now but Carlos Mendoza is a manager of the year candidate even after that awful start.

I don’t have to tell you this; just that it’s OK to believe.

Pablo Reyes was the only new callup when rosters expanded (they don’t expand like they used to). He was issued No. 26.

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Reinvention

So the trade deadline passed without any major moves for the Mets, just a lot of stitching up the corners. Will the new guys make a difference? Sure, as long as the other 22 guys already on the team continue doing what they can do well.

Until he broke out with three hits last night, I was worried about Nimmo who wasn’t even sprinting to first on walks with the same gusto. And if you stayed up late last night you also saw Paul Blackburn make his debut, wearing No. 58 and ringing up his WHIP score with guys on base every inning. He persevered though, with the help of a couple DPs and generally wasn’t hit hard.

The other night it was Huascar Brazoban making his Mets debut, wearing R.A. Dickey’s former 43. Tyler Zuber has been assigned No. 54 but is still in the minors.

One way the Mets made room for the new guys was cashing out Jake Diekman and Adrian Houser, trading Josh Walker to Pittsburgh and Cole Sulser to Tampa Bay and releasing Ty Adcock. Will Adam Ottavino survive the pending return of Sean Reid-Foley and Reed Garrett?

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Here Comes Jesse Winker

It’s a small step from “loves to hate” to “loves to love.” Jesse Winker is on his way to the Mets, reportedly, and my morning perusal of available media indicates fans love this move without even knowing what the Mets are giving up.

I like it too. Winker is a good hitter, especially vs. right handed pitching, can steal bases, and play the outfield better than DJ Stewart, whom I’m afraid is about to lose his job. Who knows, maybe Stewart is in the package. Winker is also a colorful performer so some new energy on the team sounds like second-half fun. Ryne Stanek also matches that description; the Mets made it official by the way and gave him 55.

Winker’s favored number, 33, is technically not available as it belongs to Drew Smith but this is an unusual circumstance. Smith has an injury he won’t return from this year, and will be a free agent before he can pitch again. Add to that Smith never seemed to care much what number he wore, loving from 62 to 40 to 33 over his Mets career. Winker is currently wearing No. 6 for Washington.

Still time to add that starting pitcher we need. No reason to half-ass it now

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Trade Winds

I wouldn’t have guessed two months ago the Mets would be in a position to buy and not sell at the trade deadline, or that they stood any chance of reeling in the Braves in the standings, or any of that and here we are. It’s important not to forget this Mets team has also demonstrated it is capable of awful of stretches of baseball so I’m keeping my expectations in check. Next goal: 10 games over .500.

The first new arrival is shaggy reliever Ryne Stanek of Seattle, acquired for a minor-league outfielder, Rhylan Thomas. Stanek (yes he’s named after Ryne Sandberg) looks like a hunting-and-fishing type who should get along well with Jake Deikman. It’s easy to find highlights of him fist-pumping out there, and could be an exciting reliever, which is always fun to have, and necessary with Dedneil Nunez joining Reed Garrett and Sean Reid-Foley on the injured list.

Stanek has worn 45, 55 and 35 in his career. I saw a mockup of him in 65 with the Mets. That’s available, but so is 55, 85, 95 and 35, now that Adrian Houser has been kicked off the 40. That move came as Kodai Senga returned, however briefly collapsing in a heap near the mound like he was Ike Davis or something.

You wonder if that means a trade for a starting pitching might also be in the offing before Tuesday at 6.

One more note from the Twitter, where I don’t hang out very much anymore, but to be young again!

 

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The Road to SHaMbala

I found it a little presumptuous at first for Phil Maton to walk in, take 88 off the back of coach Mike Sarbaugh, then go out there and be the first guy ever to wear 88 in a game in Mets history. Then I found out Maton has a demonstrated fondness for 88 since having it issued to him as a Padre, and that he was friendly with Sarbaugh from their time together in the Indians’ organization. Sarbaugh by the way is now suited up in 86.

There’s only 14 never-issued-to-a-player numbers left and that’s before we give anything to Alex Young, the lefty bullpenner waivered away from the Giants and assigned to Syracuse (for now). 69, 78, 79. 80, 82, 83, 84, 90, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97 and 98.

Who knows with the bullpen but I’m glad we’re making some choices beyond the Tyler Jay, Ty Adcock, Danny Young and Matt Festa rotation. Also, great to see Jose Butto doing his thing only now in relief. He’s got some bulldog in him. The other guy to look out for (perhaps) is Shintaro Fujinami, who struck a buncha guys out wearing 19 in Spring Training. He might come back with Kodai Senga, who knows.

It’s all pretty positive for the Mets lately but we also know what they’re capable of. There are 67 games remaining. If the SHaMs (Second HAlf Mets) play .600 ball (that’s less than their .650-ish June-July pace) they’ll go 40-27 and finish with 89 wins. That would mean we’d be going to the playoffs. But 55% would probably do it as well.

For now it might be fun just to catch the Braves and see where it goes.

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Half and Half

So I was out there on Friday, watching the team in the black jerseys that are unreadable from the stands, and felt the magic. People were going crazy, the Grimace was there, people watched the comeback and walked out chanting LGM, giving one another high fives and the only thing that worried me was the realization: This team is one game over .500. And now, after losing the last two games of the series to the Astros due to their complete lack of pitching depth, the team sits 40-41, exactly half the season gone, and “on pace” for 80-82. It’s been a great month anyway.

Lots of new Mets to meet.

On the mound there’s Ty Adcock, who was given No. 52. Tyler Jay (74) is back and we were unfortunate enough to make acquaintances with Matt Festa, who stunk it up wearing No. 73 tonight. Gone are Edwin Diaz, popped for a stupid sticky-stuff violation that is hurting the entire team. Sean-Reid Foley has been out since June 22 with shoulder trouble, and Drew Smith out  since June 24 with elbow issues.

Smith’s issues appear to be serious enough to warrant season-ending surgery. That’s too bad because he will become a free agent in the offseason.

I wanted a long time for Smith to be the closer I thought he could be, and reward for the trade of one of my favorite all-time Mets, Lucas Duda. He was all over the places though. He wore 62 then 40 then 33 (he’s pretty much still a 62 to me). He had long hair for awhile, remember that? For a time it was easy to confuse him in print for Dominic Smith. If boxscores still existed, it’d be DrSmith and DmSmith.

Now he’s gone, and so is Tomas Nido, a forgotten man in the catcher scrum until resurfacing briefly this year. Here’s a fun piece of trivia you might have forgotten in the seven years that Nido’s been a Met: He started off his career wearing No. 77, in September of 2017.

For a moment we saw Joe Hudson as a Met, wearing 57 like he was Eric Valent out there, and now there’s Ben Gamel, wearing 21 like he’d Duda or something.

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Grote to the Max

There’s a lot to talk about since my last update including the City Connect unis (should have used more 7-train purple, don’t like the hats but better than I feared they’d be) the “new” black look (terrible), the new guys (the miraculous Luis Torrens and the dazzling Jose Iglesias), and the old guys (Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, rocketed to eternity). Then there’s the whole month-of-May thing where it’s plausible the Mets might not have won any games and it seemed at times our rookie manager, whom I liked in April, was getting in over his head.

But what we should be talking about is what happens after we die.

Take Jerry Grote. He’s a Met Hall of Famer who passed away in April, and the the Mets haven’t done a thing to remember him, beyond (I assume) a pregame scoreboard video. Yet there’s a patch for Grote’s longtime teammate and fellow Mets Hall of Famer Bud Harrelson there.

The Mets haven’t missed the opportunity to pay tribute to a late Hall of Famer yet (though Tommie Agee‘s patch was a one-day thing). Yeah with the new sponsor patch taking up most of the available real estate it might take some creative arrangement but in this era where Steve Cohen cannot wait to deify Met stars from the past you’d think this was too good an opportunity to miss but so far its crickets.

Back to Iglesias for a moment: I was surprised he didn’t come north with the team in March and it was obvious a versatile infielder who could actually play the infield belonged on the team. Now he’s getting starts ahead of Jeff McNeil who looks like he’s getting the Daniel Vogelbach Treatment. I was also mildly surprised to see them cut ties with Omar Narvaez, despite his performance, being a David Stearns Milwaukee stock.

Goodbye Omar. You won’t be getting a sleeve patch either.

 

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Great Scott

Promising pitching prospect Christian Scott is arriving even sooner than I would have guessed and without an obvious need for a starter (unless they cut bait on Adrian Houser or something). Clubhouse video from Florida, where Scott will start tomorrow, shows he will wear No. 45, which belonged last to Sam Coonrod (it belonged to Cole Sulser in Spring Training, only to see him turn up in 54 for his ineffective appearances).

I’m glad they are giving Scott a pitcher number to begin his career and so won’t have him looking like a clown as they’ve forced Jose Butto into with that unseemly No. 70. Butto should go to the clubhouse and demand No. 21 while its still available. He’s a good enough pitcher to pull that off.

Yesterday we saw Danny Young become the all-time Mets leader in wins by a guy wearing No. 81. If you remembered that Johneshwy Fargas was the first to wear 81, you win a prize of some kind.

These Mets have a little scrappiness about them that I like, with a better-than-expected bullpen and a streaky offense that’s not afraid to come from behind like inferior versions of the Mets. But I’m concerned with offense out of the catching position, we were much better off before Alvarez went down and he wasn’t even hot.

Catching up on the downroster churn:

Michael Tonkin was DFA’ed for Julio Teheran, and traded to the Twins

Yohan Ramirez was DFA’ed for Cole Sulser, and signed with the Orioles

Julio Teheran was DFA’ed for Dedniel Nunez and wound up with the Cubs

Tyler Jay was DFA’ed for a returning Michael Tonkin, and re-upped with Syracuse

Kolton Ingram was DFA’ed for Tomas Nido, and re-upped with Syracuse

Michael Tonkin was DFA’ed a second time as Sean Reid-Foley returns, and lands with the Yankees

Zack Short was DFA’ed as JD Martinez arrives,

 

 

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