Mets power their way to their fifth straight win

Plus, notes on Tylor Megill's growth, Luisangel Acuna's ascent, Francisco Lindor's awesomeness, and the elephant in the room

Image courtesy of the Mets

What’s up with the Mets? ⚾

• The Mets defeated the Phillies 5-4 at Citi Field on Monday night (box | highlights)

• Tylor Megill started for the Mets and he was brilliant - he struck out ten while allowing one hit and four walks over 5.1 IP

• Francisco Lindor homered twice - he led off the game again with a home run and then contributed a big three-run home run in the seventh inning

• Jesse Winker also broke out of his funk with a solo home run and and a single

• Reed Garrett gave the Mets a scoreless effort out of the bullpen, but the adventure began in the ninth with Max Kranick allowing a run before Edwin Díaz allowed a three-run home run to Bryson Stott. But that would be all as Díaz was able to close it out with an ugly save

• The Mets have won ten of their last 12 games and improved to 10-1 at home, tying them with the 2015 club for the best start at home in franchise history

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Injury Updates 🏥

• Jeff McNeil (strained oblique) and Francisco Álvarez (fractured hand) will head for Triple-A Syracuse this week for some more at-bats before being activated for the Mets series against the Nationals this weekend

• Mark Vientos (groin discomfort) did not start for the second day in a row, but was available off the bench on Monday

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Play of the Game ⭐️

Francisco Lindor hit two home runs on Monday, but it was his second one - a three-run home run - that meant the difference in the game for the Mets:

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Who’s Hot? 🔥

• Luisangel Acuña has a nine-game hitting streak, during which he is hitting .387/.441/.516 with 12 hits, four doubles, five stolen bases, and nine runs scored

• Tylor Megill’s 1.09 ERA is the fourth-best in MLB and second-best in the National League (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 0.93 ERA)

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Stat of the Day 📊

• Tylor Megill’s 1.09 ERA through a pitcher’s first five starts of a season is the fourth-best in franchise history, behind only Jacob deGrom (0.51 ERA, ‘21), Frank Viola (0.58 ERA, ‘90), and Nolan Ryan (1.02 ERA, ‘68)

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Image courtesy of the Mets

Francisco Lindor! 🌟

• Joined Curtis Granderson (2017) and Kaz Matsui (2004) as the only players in franchise history to hit a lead-off homer in consecutive games (Sarah Langs)

• Is now batting .476 (10-for-21) with six extra-base hits as the first batter of the game and leads the majors in hits and extra-base hits as the first batter of the game

• Was his 20th career multi-homer game and his first since August 24, 2024 at San Diego, joining Alex Rodriguez (33) and Ernie Banks (24) as the only shortstops in major league history with 20 or more multi-homer games

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Down on the Farm 🌾

All Mets minor league affiliates were off on Monday.

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Today’s Game 🗓️

Match-up: Mets (16-7) vs. Phillies (13-10)

Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY

Starters: RHP Griffin Canning (2-1, 3.43 ERA) vs. LHP Cristopher Sanchez (2-0, 2.96 ERA)

When: 7:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

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Notes: Tylor Megill’s growth, Luisangel Acuna’s trajectory, Francisco Lindor’s awesomeness, and the growing ninth inning dilemma ✍️

Nobody said every game was going to be pretty. But in the end, wins are wins, and the Mets have done a lot of that despite having yet to fire on all cylinders through the season’s first 23 games.

Despite nearly falling over themselves in the ninth inning, the Mets extended their winning streak to five games, their second such winning streak in their last 12 games. The offense is starting to come around, which is being led now by both Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, and of course, the Mets continue to get stellar starting pitching, the latest coming from Tylor Megill, who is now second in the NL with his 1.09 ERA and is clearly taking a big step forward for this club.

Let’s talk about all of that as we get started with our Tuesday…

Tylor Megill’s growth

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I freely admit I was worried about Megill coming into the year, as I have been pretty much since 2023. He always seemed like a guy who was trying to reinvent himself pitch-by-pitch on the mound, could never give the Mets more than three or four effective innings, and always seemed to profile best as a late-inning reliever thanks to his power fastball and breaking pitch, and not a whole lot else.

But this is a different pitcher now. Yes, he still has a lot of moving parts to his delivery, and the strike quality of his secondary pitches needs to improve a bit. But he has cut down on his repertoire to be primarily a four-seam/sinker/slider pitcher with a curve and a change-up in his back pocket, and I think deciding on that identity has helped him refine that repertoire to give him a lot more command and become more efficient, thereby allowing him to become more dependable on the mound.

Do I think Megill will pitch this well all the way through? If he does, he’s going to win the Cy Young. I don’t think he’s there yet, but I think he’s taken enough steps forward to be a mid-rotation staple here, which is all the Mets really want him to be right now.

And put it this way - when he’s out there, there is a new sense of confidence with him. It’s present with him on the mound, and it’s clearly present for him with his manager.

Luisangel Acuña’s trajectory

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In my view, the Mets are clearly stalling the return of Jeff McNeil specifically because they don’t know what the best alignment would be with him on the active roster.

Why? Because Luisangel Acuña has created a very good problem for the Mets over the last couple of weeks.

Acuña is currently enjoying a nine-game hitting streak. On the surface, that’s great. But there’s more than meets the eye in Acuña’s ascent.

That nine-game hitting streak has allowed him to demonstrate his value to the club, and he has brought certain intangibles to the lineup they don’t have much of with the rest of the group. He has stolen five bases during his nine-game hitting streak. His first-to-third speed has helped him generate nine runs scored during that span. His athleticism and range up the middle allow him to cover far more ground than McNeil or Brett Baty could ever do, specifically McNeil, who, to be fair, has become a diminished player at second base (it’s fine - it happens). We all know that, so do the Mets, and there’s a big gap between McNeil and Acuña defensively right now.

So, with all of that said, it’s not hard to figure out who the regular second baseman should be at the moment. It’s Acuña, hands down.

So, what do the Mets do with McNeil when he gets back?

First off, it probably means José Azocar’s stay on the roster is temporary. But the Mets have to make another big decision on Baty too, who has shown signs of life lately but isn’t keeping up with Acuña, for some reasons which are out of his control (the athleticism, for starters). Do they keep Baty in a bench role, or do they send him back to Syracuse where he will play every day?

To be clear, Baty’s situation has nothing to do with Francisco Álvarez’s return - he will likely replace Hayden Senger, who doesn’t deserve to go back to the minors but will unfortunately become a victim of a numbers game.

Francisco Lindor’s greatness

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For a while there, people were really riding Lindor’s sluggish first two weeks of the season. At some point, perhaps those people will realize a player’s season isn’t defined by a short-term batting slump and appreciate the greatness and true steadiness Lindor has brought the Mets over the course of his tenure here.

Sure, it would be cool if he were to become the Mets’ next captain at some point. He deserves it, he has proven to be worthy of it, he’s a standup guy who engages the media and the fans on good days and bad, is accountable for his bad days and is never one to take credit for his good ones. All of that is nice and he meets the criteria for the “C” badge on his jersey.

But lately, I have started to think about bigger things for Lindor. Like his Hall of Fame profile.

In the end, time will tell on that one. He needs to finish his Mets career strong if we are to seriously have that conversation. But there’s unquestionably a Hall of Fame pedigree with Lindor simply in his proven ability to seize the moment and play like a perennial MVP on both sides of the ball year after year. But he has brought an indisputable value to this franchise and its history, is unquestionably one of the top 5 players they’ve ever had, and is one of the best shortstops of his era.

Last night against the Phillies— which seemed a little bit like déjà vu by the way— was just another example of all of that.

And now, the elephant in the room

Yeah, Edwin Díaz is a major concern.

And despite his good finish to the 2024 season, he has been a major concern since he returned after missing the entire 2023 season. Anyone who thinks he was fine last year had a blindfold on if you ask me.

His fastball velocity isn’t what it was before the injury, at least not consistently. He can occasionally get it up to 98-99, but right now, he is mostly living at 95-97 mph. But that isn’t even his main problem. He still has 15 strikeouts in 9.2 IP, so he does have the ingredients to be a dominant pitcher again.

He’s had a command problem, which is leading to too many deep counts and too many walks. He’s also had a strike quality problem, especially lately, which is resulting in a lot of hard contact. I’d argue his slider has regressed further than the apparent regression it had last season. Too many cement mixers after falling behind in the count, and he is therefore arguably going with the slider too much, albeit he is going with it at generally the same rate he did last season. The metrics say his spin rates are down too.

So far, this hasn’t killed the Mets. So, they’re able to navigate this process with Díaz even though there are concerning signs for him. But there are red flags all over the place with him right now - can the Mets work through this with him again, like they did last year?

He isn’t going to be what he was in 2022. Even if he hadn’t gotten hurt in the WBC in 2023, there was no way he could be that good again. But the Mets need to find a version of Díaz that they can fully trust. Otherwise, they’re going to have to find a Plan B instead.

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Around the League 🚩

• The Braves put up five runs in the eighth inning and held off a late rally by the Cardinals to come away with a 7-6 win, however they lost Spencer Strider to the injured list with a strained hamstring

• The Guardians knocked around Clarke Schmidt for two home runs as the Guardians beat the Yankees 6-4

• Max Meyer fanned 14 Reds over six innings to help the Marlins to a 6-3 win

• The Cubs acquired LHP Drew Pomeranz from the Mariners for cash