Issuing a mea culpa as Mets continue remarkable turnaround
Sometimes it is best to admit when you got it horribly wrong, as I did with the 2024 Mets. Plus, Paul Blackburn impresses on the mound as New York opens up the road trip with a win...
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets got their long road trip off to a winning start after beating the Angels 5-1 on Friday night in Anaheim (box)
RHP Paul Blackburn impressed in his Mets debut, allowing just one earned run on six hits while walking two and striking out six in six innings
RHP José Buttó pitched in relief and was money again, tossing two scoreless innings with no hits, no walks and three strikeouts
RHP Phil Maton entered in the ninth and also pitched a scoreless inning, striking out one with no hits and no walks
C Francisco Álvarez got the Mets on the board in the second with an RBI single to score Jose Iglesias
1B Pete Alonso crushed a two-run homer in the top of the third to make it a 3-1 game
DH J.D. Martinez recorded an RBI single in the sixth, while also finishing his night with a walk
OF Brandon Nimmo, entering Friday engulfed in a brutal slump, went 3-for-5 with a run scored in an encouraging display
New York went 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position and left 12 runners stranded on base
The Mets are now 9-5 since the All-Star break and are 58-51 overall on the year
Playoff Race 🏁
The Mets moved back into the third Wild Card spot on Friday after beating the Angels, with the Padres losing to the Rockies. New York is a half game back of the Diamondbacks for the second Wild Card spot, and two games back of the Braves for the No. 1 berth. San Diego remains right behind the Mets.
The Mets have 53 games remaining.
Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 50.8% chance of making the postseason.
New York has the 5th easiest schedule in MLB the rest of the way.
Tiebreakers:
vs. ATL: 5-5
vs. ARI: 2-2
vs. STL: 3-2
vs. SD: 3-0
vs. CIN: 2-1
vs. SF: 2-4 (finished)
vs. PIT: 5-2 (finished)
vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)
Roster Moves 📰
RHP Paul Blackburn activated and will wear No. 58 for the Mets
RHP Tylor Megill optioned to Triple-A Syracuse
C Logan Porter outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse
Injury Updates 🏥
OF Starling Marte (bone bruise in knee) will head to Port St. Lucie on Monday and is expected to begin playing in minor league rehab games next week
SS Ronny Mauricio (torn ACL) underwent surgery to remove scar tissue in his right knee on Tuesday. He remains on pace to be back on a baseball diamond this offseason
RHP Reed Garrett (right elbow inflammation) in expected to pitch in a minor league rehab game for Double-A Binghamton on Saturday
Who’s Hot 🔥
Pete Alonso now has three home runs, two doubles, five runs scored, two walks and six RBIs in his last five games
Over his last five outings, José Buttó has allowed just two earned runs with three walks and 14 strikeouts in 11 innings of relief work
Phil Maton has given up just one earned run on one hit in his last five outings for the Mets
Down on the Farm 🌾
RHP Brandon Sproat (No. 5 prospect, Double-A): 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 13 K, 0 HR
RHP Sean Reid-Foley (Double-A): 0.0 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 0 HR
RHP Joel Díaz (Single-A): 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
2B Boston Baro (No. 22 prospect, Single-A): 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 3B
BOX SCORES
Single-A STL | High-A BRK SUS | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR PPD
Stock Rising 📈
Brandon Sproat had himself a night on Friday. The No. 5 prospect in the Mets farm system tossed an absolute gem for Double-A Binghamton against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
Sproat struckout 13 batters in just five scoreless innings while allowing two hits, including fanning 11 straight to finish his dominant outing. As a result of another stellar start, Sproat lowered his ERA to 2.45 in 11 starts at Double-A this year. He also has 77 strikeouts in 62.1 innings with Binghamton.
Friday was just the latest in a long line of successes for Sproat. The righty also pitched in the MLB Futures All-Star Game, throwing 12 pitches in a scoreless outing to raise his already-high stock even more.
The best pitching prospect in the system, and armed with some lethal and elite stuff, Sproat is riding a rapid trajectory and maybe it won’t be all that long before we see him in the majors with the Mets.
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (58-51) vs. Angels (47-63)
Where: Angel Stadium - Anaheim, CA
Starters: LHP David Peterson (5-1, 3.52 ERA) vs. RHP José Soriano (6-7, 3.69 ERA)
When: 9:38 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY, MLBN (Out-of-market only)
Thoughts on Friday’s win and offering up a long-overdue mea culpa! ✍️
It was a pretty routine win for the Mets in Anaheim on Friday.
They rode an impressive debut from veteran Paul Blackburn, who struck out six and allowed just one earned run in six innings. Blackburn wasn’t a sexy, headline-grabbing addition at the trade deadline, but he’s a solid middle-of-the-rotation starter and he made the All-Star Game as recently as 2022. There is some upside there.
On the flipside, the offense wasn’t perfect after leaving 12 runners stranded on base and going 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position. However, a couple of clutch RBI singles and Pete Alonso’s two-run home run was enough to get the job done. Oh, and the Mets took full advantage of a couple of errors by the Angels to throw the hammer down and get the job done.
Alonso, by the way, is seemingly turning a much-needed corner. The All-Star slugger now has three home runs in his last five games, in addition to six RBIs, two doubles, five runs scored and a couple of walks. He also now has 23 homers on the year. If the Mets are to come out on top in what is an incredibly tight race for the National League Wild Card, then they will need Alonso at the peak of his powers the rest of the way.
All in all, it was an important win for the Mets given that the Padres also lost, and it got what is both a long and hugely-important road trip off to a good start.
It was when watching Friday’s game, and thinking about how I was going to put this newsletter together, that I realized it was time for me to offer an all-time mea culpa.
Everyone, I was wrong and I am sorry.
Back in March - man, doesn’t that feel like it was years ago - I predicted the Mets would finish 80-82 and miss the playoffs. I did say that this team would be fun to watch and be competitive going into August.
But, ultimately, I wasn’t exactly buying high on the Mets’ chances of being heavily involved in the race for the postseason.
For the first couple of months of the year, I thought I was going to be proved right and wrong. It looked like New York would miss the playoffs, but it also seemed certain that it would finish as one of the worst teams in baseball. This ballclub was on collision course with an ugly record way below .500.
I felt pretty confident about my prediction as we emerged from the dark days of May. Very, very confident.
However, it now looks like I screwed the pooch on this one and I’m more than happy to be proved wrong.
Since those ugly days of May, the Mets have emerged as one of the best teams in baseball and they always seem to be able to find ways to claw out a win. Even after losing some tough ones, as they did against the Braves and Twins recently, this team is able to bounce back and get the train right back on the tracks again.
Despite having to absorb a slew of crushing body blows, from losing Kodai Senga (twice) to the bullpen being gassed for most of the year to a plethora of other bodies going down hurt, these Mets just keep on rolling.
It really is impressive what this team has done up to this point, and this road trip will be a good litmus test. If the Mets are able to navigate this trip successfully and return home with a winning record, we should all feel mighty good about things the rest of the way.
Of course, there are no guarantees that the Mets will make the postseason.
The race for the Wild Card is incredibly tight in the National League, and it really will come down to a game or two. The Braves are being the Braves - getting the job done despite being hit with nothing but adversity. The Diamondbacks are hitting their stride, and the Padres are a damn good baseball team who acquired an elite closer in Tanner Scott at the deadline.
With games still to come against both San Diego and the D-Backs, one or two losses against either of those teams could prove fatal for the Mets.
However, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
For now, I’m just happy to hold my hands up and admit that I was seriously wrong about this team. Yes, they still have flaws. Yes, the rotation scares me and there are a lot of things that could go wrong on the starter front in the final two months of the season. And, yes, the big hitters on this team are going to have to play to the back of their baseball cards and really carry this team down the stretch.
With all that said, though, this team has proved me wrong time and time again this year, and I’m looking forward to them continuing to do so down the stretch run and into October.
President of baseball operations David Stearns didn’t make a splashy move at the deadline, but he did improve this team without having to give up any major prospect capital. He deserves a lot of credit for that, as well as resisting the urge to take advantage of an extreme seller’s market by flipping expiring contracts. You can make a compelling argument that he could have got a lot back for the likes of Pete Alonso and Luis Severino. Instead, Stearns decided to reward this group for what they’ve achieved since the end of May, and they are now perfectly primed to go for it down the stretch. If they make it to the dance, then anything is truly possible. Just look at what the Diamondbacks did last year as a Wild Card team.
Ultimately, we will see what happens down the road. Sadly, I don’t own a crystal ball to be able to predict if the Mets will have a very special ending to what has been a truly incredible year.
For right now, with this team winning games at a high clip and setting up a thrilling end to summer, I’m just content to be able to say I got it wrong and I didn’t give the 2024 Mets nearly enough credit.
Sometimes you just have to throw your hands up and admit you screwed up.
I certainly did with my 2024 predictions. I’ll be careful not to make that same mistake again.
Around the League 🚩
Blake Snell tossed his first career no-hitter, and pitched more than eight innings for the first time, as the Giants beat the Reds, 3-0
The Yankees had their winning streak snapped by the Blue Jays, but Aaron Judge hit a mammoth 477ft home run to become the first player to reach 40 homers and 100 RBIs this year
Justin Turner, acquired at the trade deadline, went 2-for-4 with a run scored, four RBIs and a grand slam to help Seattle rout the Phillies, 10-2
Josh Bell hit two homers for his new team the Diamondbacks, who hit three homers in a row to beat the Pirates 9-8
Yusei Kikuchi struck out a franchise-record-tying eight consecutive batters in a row in his Astros debut in a 3-2 win over the Rays
You get a free pass!
I thought the Mets had a reasonable shot at the playoffs before the season began. I figured the line-up was good, the pen decent, and the rotation (with Senga) okay. I along with most figured after they fell ten under that they were done. Happy to see they were not. Looking at tiebreakers, the Padres tiebreaker can be very important. And they are in a good position there.