Pete Alonso homers, and the Mets are still looking for starting pitching
The Mets improved to 4-1 on the spring with their shutout of the Cardinals on Wednesday
What’s up with the Mets? 🍎
The Mets shutout the Cardinals 3-0 in Port St. Lucie on Wednesday afternoon (box)
The Mets went with a bullpen game on Wednesday - Reid Garrett opened with a scoreless first, followed by scoreless frames from Josh Walker and Grant Hartweig. The Mets then got two scoreless innings a piece from Peyton Battenfield and Trey McLoughlin before Josh Cornielly and Wilkin Ramos closed the game out in the eighth and ninth
Starling Marte made his spring debut, going 0-for-2 out of the leadoff spot and started in right field
Pete Alonso launched his first homer of the spring as part of a 2-for-2 afternoon
Trayce Thompson continued to make his case for a roster spot with a single, double and a run scored
Rumor Mill 🤫
The Mets tried to sign Julio Teheran this week before he went to the Orioles (SNY)
The Mets are in contact with the agents for Michael Lorenzen (Athletic)
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (4-1) vs. Astros (2-4)
Where: Ballpark of the Palm Beaches – West Palm Beach, FL
Starters: LHP Jose Quintana (spring debut) vs. RHP Ronel Blanco (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
When: 7:05 PM EST
Where to Watch: n/a
Spring notes: Alonso’s power, Marte’s debut, and Jordan Montgomery… ✍️
Aside from Kodai Senga’s injury concern, it’s been a generally “business as usual” camp for the Mets so far. It’s still early of course, the Mets are clearly shopping for pitching depth, they perhaps should arguably make a run at Jordan Montgomery (we can talk about that in a second), but so far, generally ok (minus Senga of course) in camp.
Let’s break some of this down.
Alonso’s homer stick
Pete Alonso cranked his first home run of the spring on Wednesday. His spring is off to a strong start - he’s 4-for-6 with two doubles and a homer over the first week or so of games.
Last week when he arrived, Alonso said one of the key areas of improvement for him was his chase rate over last year. In 2023, he was very vulnerable to breaking pitches outside and he really struggled to use all fields as well. He got very pull happy as a result and while his power output was all there, that approach cost him quite a bit of production.
What ultimately makes Alonso the great threat he is ultimately comes down to his multi-pronged attack. No, he probably won’t ever hit .330 but when Alonso is at his best, he’s producing on balls center and right, not just on balls to the left side. Yes, he homer on Wednesday was pulled but his doubles the other day were taken the other way, a really strong sign for him and perhaps the most encouraging sign to me.
See, chase rate can be a little deceiving to me. Everyone will chase a good slider and probably miss it too. That’s why it’s such a good pitch. What it comes down to is Alonso’s ability to hit hittable pitches on the outer half the other way and if he is going to “chase,” make contact and foul those pitches off a bit better than he did last year (and the way he did in previous years).
Let’s see if he’s able to maintain this adjustment.
The Marte Parte is back?
Starling Marte made his return to action on Wednesday. He led off and played right field. Yes, it’s a spring training game but it seemed more like a rehab game to me. They wanted to make sure he got his two at-bats and some time in the field before getting him out of there.
Assuming he’s good (and right now, there’s no reason to expect he isn’t), it will probably be a rinse/repeat exercise for him in his next appearance on the main field and then a continued ramp him up to see how his body can take a full game.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza seems confident that Marte is truly ok now, noting yesterday, “You can see the way he is moving around and how the ball is coming off his bat and the bat speed.”
In other words, regardless of what the player says, they’re trusting the eye test with him.
If the Mets have any chance whatsoever in 2024, the Mets are going to need a version of Marte that is close to the 3.8 bWAR he produced when he was fully healthy (before the broken hand) in 2022. In order to get there, I can see the Mets using Marte a lot as a designated hitter over the course of the season, especially since they have not procured one via free agency to-date.
But in the end, Marte is a puzzle. He’s 35, is coming off a year which saw him not just struggle with his performance, but struggle to even be pain-free. He’s going to be a delicate player for the Mets to handle if they want to maximize whatever he has left in the tank.
Either way though, it was nice to see him back out there on Wednesday. He’s one of the most athletic players the Mets have had in recent memory and when he’s been healthy and on in his career, he’s also appeared as one of the best players on the field at any given moment.
What’s going on with the pitching?
Well, not much but that doesn’t mean people don’t want to talk about it. And for good reason - the rotation was a question mark before Senga went down, and now it’s, well who knows.
SNY’s Andy Martino reported yesterday the Mets were in on the game for Julio Teheran before he joined Baltimore. And, the Athletic is reporting the Mets are in touch with the agents for Michael Lorenzen.
To me, that’s signifies a couple of things:
The Mets know they still need pitching depth
While the club seems confident Senga can return relatively quickly, this is the shoulder, it’s always dicey in that part of the body, so the Mets are looking at ways to add to their depth because of that
Now, Teheran’s best days are undoubtedly behind him. He’s a shell of the pitcher that drove him to success in Atlanta all those years ago. He didn’t even pitch in the big leagues in 2022, and was generally pedestrian for the Padres across 14 appearances in 2023.
Lorenzen is always up and down but can be very tantalizing at times. He was very good for Detroit before moving to the Phillies last summer when he struggled after the trade. He’s been a starter and a reliever and actually fits the Mets short-term needs better than Teheran.
But that’s not the point.
The point is, the Mets, regardless of what David Stearns or Steve Cohen or Carlos Mendoza say, know their pitching lacks a whole lot of, well bodies right now.
That leads me to Jordan Montgomery. I promised I’d get to him!
Yesterday, Joel Sherman in the New York Post suggested the Mets should sign him if they could get him on a five-year, $115 million deal.
He made a bunch of compelling reasons why, most notably that the club will need starting pitching again next winter and securing Montgomery now would check one of those boxes for them now.
Also, if the Mets truly aren’t punting on 2024, signing even a mid-rotation starter like Montgomery would go a long way towards demonstrating that position, if you ask me anyway.
The problem of course is for now, Montgomery’s price hasn’t budged and I’ve said all winter his direct comp is Carlos Rodón. Montgomery maybe a better fit for New York and certainly doesn’t have the durability questions Rodón has had, but we are still talking about 2x for every dollar they spend right now, so even if Scott Boras were to “settle” for such terms, the Mets would still be paying over $46 million this year for Montgomery (His salary plus tax), who again is a third starter.
Is Montgomery going to net the Mets the wins they need to transform them from what is probably a .500 roster to a playoff team? If you believe 84 wins is the threshold and paying upwards of $50 million for, say five team wins is worth it, then there’s your short-term case.
But what if the Mets go all in on Alonso, go all in on Juan Soto, land them, and get all of the starting pitching they need for 2025, and so on and so forth? They’ll be right back where they are with the payroll and the tax situation with Montgomery still serving as an overpay as a result.
I think that’s what gives the Mets pause on this part of the market. They’d have to pay more than ace money here for a pitcher who is a 3, a good 3 at that and potentially for a while.
I am not arguing for or against Montgomery. They do need more pitching and they need better pitching. He’s a very good fit for any rotation, he has played in New York, and he’s unquestionably come into his own in recent years. I’d love for the Mets to sign him.
I am just explaining the math problem that shrouds the Mets current payroll situation.
Around the League 🚩
Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out three over two innings in his spring debut for the Dodgers
The Padres are still looking for outfielders (Athletic)
Kolten Wong went to the Orioles on a minor league deal
The Astros are expected to offer Alex Bregman a contract extension (MLB.com)