Post-deadline skid continues, and answering your Mets questions

The Mets lost their fifth consecutive game since the trade deadline. Plus, our first ever Just Mets mailbag.

Rich MacLeod

Aug 06, 2023

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

The Mets lost yet again to the Orioles by a score of 7-3 on Saturday (box)
RHP Tylor Megill struggled in his return to the starting rotation, allowing five runs on nine hits over 4.2 innings
2B Jeff McNeil hit his first home run since June 11th, his fourth of the year
RF Starling Marte is now 0-for-8 at the plate since coming off the injured list
3B Brett Baty’s difficult rookie season continued as he is now 0-for-his-last-17 and has seen his OPS drop to .619 on the season
Mets No. 3 prospect Ronny Mauricio needs to “earn” his call-up to the major leagues (New York Post)
New York remains winless (0-5) since the trade deadline

Roster Moves 🗞️

RHP Tylor Megill recalled from Triple-A Syracuse
RHP Jimmy Yacabonis recalled from Triple-A Syracuse
RHP John Curtiss optioned to Triple-A Syracuse
RHP Reed Garrett optioned to Triple-A Syracuse
OF Tim Locastro sent to Single-A St. Lucie on rehab assignment

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (50-60) at Orioles (69-42)

Starting pitchers: LHP José Quintana (0-2, 3.57 ERA) vs. RHP Kyle Bradish (7-6, 3.32 ERA)

Where: Oriole Park at Camden Yards – Baltimore, MD

When: 1:35 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

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Mailbag: Where do we go from here? ✍️

Happy Sunday and welcome to our first ever Just Mets mailbag! We took questions you asked us on Twitter over the last few days, and answered as many below as we could…

@matthewsardo: Is it next season yet?

I wish… but if we’ve got to watch these last two months, so do you!

@delo417: Why are so many Mets fans praising what Billy Eppler has done at the deadline and failing to see the big picture of how this entire experiment was an unmitigated disaster?

I’ve seen this sentiment over the last week on Twitter, and I think the key thing here is that they’re two separate things. The 2023 Mets were and always will be one of the great modern disappointments in the sport. There is no getting around that, and the sting from this season’s fall from grace will remain for quite some time.

That being said, I do appreciate the fact that this owner and front office were quickly able to admit that they miscalculated things and that this was not, in fact, going to get better. Often times, organizations are hesitant to give up quickly and usually double-down on their mistakes, which often only winds up making things worse and kicking the can down the road. New York’s willingness to look themselves in the mirror, pivot and get excellent prospect value in return for several veteran players who were not long-term pieces on this team does deserve to be commended. But it does not mean this season wasn’t a total screw-up, either.

@LPolenberg: How aggressive do you think the Mets will be on Ohtani?

I hate to say it, but I think the Shohei Ohtani to the Mets dreams are all-but dead at this point. Originally, I went into this season thinking the team was going to be one of the biggest players for the no-doubt-about-it best player in the sport, but now that the organization has hit the reset button, it just seems extremely unlikely.

There’s always been speculation that Ohtani prefers to stay on the West Coast, too, and he is clearly looking for a club that is fully committed to winning. While I do think the Mets are positioning themselves to be one of those teams, they just stripped their roster down in a very public fashion, and had their former ace go public and say that they’re not going to try very hard in 2024, which likely wouldn’t be very appealing for Ohtani, either.

I’d love to be wrong here, but the writing on the wall seems to indicate that they will not be a major threat to sign him.

@Gaurilla: Brett Baty - time to send him back to AAA?

Considering the state of this roster right now, I don’t think you can really justify sending anybody down to the minor leagues. That being said, it has not been talked about enough just how bad Brett Baty’s rookie season has gone. Forget defensively, which has been an unmitigated disaster at times, but even if you just looked at his offense, he has not remotely resembled the player the Mets saw in Triple-A earlier this season. Coming into Saturday night’s game, Baty had a .624 OPS with a negative WAR (on both Fangraphs and Baseball Reference) for the season. At no point has Baty ever really had any sort of hot streak, he hasn’t hit for average, and the power has completely vanished since coming up early this season. His career is young — he has yet to play 100 games at the big league level – but there are certainly concerns at this stage.

@JaytheMetsGuy: How do you believe hiring a president of operations will improve things?

Well, first off, it would mean that Billy Eppler isn’t making decisions anymore, so that’s already a win.

In all seriousness, though, having an established President of Baseball Ops will allow someone with the experience and vision to dictate where this organization is planning to go for the next several years and put that plan into action. If that man does wind up being David Stearns, as many have believed for the last few years now, he is the type of baseball executive that is capable of doing this. Plus, imagine what he could do going from the penny-pinching Brewers to the deep-pocketed Mets.

@SteveSeidman1: Will the Mets sign Yamamoto for next year?

Man, if this isn’t one of the biggest questions ahead of the offseason. After Max Scherzer decided to go ahead and burn bridges by airing out his private conversation with the Mets brass following his trade, there is a lot of speculation and confusion as to exactly what level the club is going to spend at in free agency this offseason. Signing an international free agent like Yoshinobu Yamamoto would be more than just a short-term play, which does seem to keep it as a possibility. But are the Mets willing to so quickly jump back into the deeper end of the pool of free agency?

Until the offseason kicks off, we’re simply just not going to know how far this club intends to go or not for 2024. It is worth noting, though, that Billy Eppler has had success with signing free agents from Japan in the past, inking Shohei Ohtani and Kodai Senga in the last few years.

@AfyAnthony: Why not trade Lindor?

I think this one is pretty obvious, but this can be a helpful exercise to assess where the Mets truly are as an organization.

Every player the club just traded away was over the age of 34 (not including Dominic Leone) and was not guaranteed to be under contract past the 2024 season. To me, that is a clear indication that the team is reloading and not fully rebuilding. Francisco Lindor is 29-years-old and still has over nine years left on his remaining contract. He is one of the faces of the franchise and hitting the soft reset button for a season or so isn’t going to change that.

Unless the Mets were truly tearing things down to the studs and embarking on a multi-year full-scale rebuild, there is no reason to trade players on long-term deals like Lindor, Brandon Nimmo or even Edwin Díaz. This team may not be title chasing next year, but I do think they’ll put a respectable product on the field and will be back to going for it by 2025. You simply don’t trade away young core pieces if that’s your plan.

@mleiman1: I'm curious about who the Mets received back in the Tommie Pham trade. A 17 year old infielder? What can you tell us about him?

This was an interesting one. When the Mets traded Tommy Pham to Arizona, they got back Jeremy Rodriguez, a 17-year-old infielder who just recently signed as an international free agent with the Dbacks this past January.

Rodriguez hasn’t even reached the minor leagues yet, which may explain why he’s still pretty under-the-radar when it comes to prospect rankings. In 41 games in the Dominican Summer League, the left-handed hitting shortstop is batting .246/.365/.392 with two home runs, seven doubles, three triples, 20 RBI, 24 runs scored, 12 stolen bases and a .757 OPS.

One scout recently told The Athletic that Rodriguez was a “plus defender” that should stick in the middle infield. Rodriguez also has good bat-to-ball skills with “sneaky power.” While he is currently not among the club’s top 30 prospects (according to MLB.com), this does feel like a lottery ticket type of young player that could soon make his way onto those prospect rankings.

@FMSD14: Do you think they are strategically trying to lose in order to land in the top 6 and avoid the draft slot penalty?

Honestly, no. I think the Mets are just this bad.

Look at this roster. They’re trotting out non-competitive starting pitchers on most days, giving significant playing time to guys like DJ Stewart and Danny Mendick, and have basically nothing left in their bullpen. For crying out loud, they traded for Phil Bickford, a reliever with an ERA close to six, just to fill in some innings – that tells you all you need to you.

I’m sure the Mets won’t be upset about landing in the top six for next year’s draft, but it won’t be because the players or manager aren’t trying. They’re just bad.

Around the League 🚩

Guardians 3B José Ramirez and White Sox 2B Tim Anderson got into a fist fight that turned into a brawl in the club’s match-up on Saturday night
The Rangers overcame a 5-0 deficit to beat the Marlins 9-8 and win their fifth consecutive game
Phillies SS Trea Turner hit his first home run in 21 games, a three-run shot to give the club the lead in their 9-6 win over the Royals
Yankees LHP Nestor Cortes pitched well in his return from the injured list as New York defeated the Astros, 3-1
The Cubs used a five-run first inning to knock-off the Braves, 8-6