Quintana deals, and a tale of two JD's for the Mets...
José Quintana continues a good stretch for Mets starters in a 4-1 loss. Plus, New York shows interest in a pair of free agents.
What’s up with the Mets? 🍎
The Mets lost to the Nationals by a score of 4-1 on Tuesday evening (box)
LHP José Quintana had a strong start, going four scoreless innings and allowing just three base runners
LHP Joey Lucchesi struggled in relief, allowing four runs over 1.1 innings
RF Starling Marte drove in the club’s only run of the night with a bases loaded walk, but saw his batting average drop to .100 this spring with a .243 OPS
New York’s offense recorded just two hits on the night and has scored a total of one run over their last two games
Rumor Mill 🤫
The Mets and free agent DH J.D. Martínez reportedly have mutual interest in each other (New York Post)
New York has also reached out to former friend JD Davis, who was released by the Giants earlier this week (New York Post)
Injury Updates 🏥
Jeff McNeil (biceps soreness) took live batting practice on Tuesday and is expected to make his Grapefruit League debut in the coming days
Darryl Strawberry had a heart attack on Monday in St. Louis, but is recovering and doing well at St. Joseph West Hospital in St. Louis. He also celebrated his 62nd birthday on Tuesday (Instagram)
Today’s Game 🗓️
Match-up: Mets (8-8) vs. Astros (9-8)
Where: Clover Park — Port St. Lucie, FL
Starters: RHP Luis Severino (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Christian Javier (2-0, 3.00 ERA)
When: 6:10 PM EDT
Where To Watch: SNY
A tale of the two JD’s – Martínez and Davis – that the Mets are showing interest in… ✍️
Despite the fact that it’s already the middle of March, baseball’s hot stove is still raging as free agents remained unsigned at a nearly unprecedented level.
Pitchers such as Blake Snell, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, and Jordan Montgomery, a top pitcher for the reigning World Series champions, are still left seeking jobs with Opening Day a mere few weeks away. And while the Mets still do not appear to be shopping in that particular aisle of free agency, they do appear to be looking at a pair of bats.
Two different reports from Jon Heyman connected the Mets to a pair of JD’s on Tuesday – DH J.D. Martínez and their former friend and infielder JD Davis.
We’ve written about Martínez quite a few times over this offseason, and with the Mets lack of experience at the designated hitter position and need for a bat to provide protection for Pete Alonso in the lineup, the veteran DH still presents himself as a pretty seamless fit.
It’s also worth noting that Starling Marte, after a lost 2023 season where he battled injuries and underperformance, is hitting just .100/.143/.100 this spring with zero extra-base hits. And while I often don’t take too much stock into a veteran’s numbers during Spring Training, this is notable considering Marte’s age and that he’s coming off of several injuries from last season. If these struggles follow Marte into the regular season and they need to rely on the light hitting Harrison Bader or D.J. Stewart more often, the DH role would become even more important for this team to get impact from.
Martínez can certainly provide that impact, as the 36-year-old hit .271/.321/.572 with 33 home runs, 103 RBI and a 134 OPS+ for the Dodgers last season. Martínez also reportedly shares this interest, as Heyman’s report indicated that the interest between the Mets and the free agent were mutual.
In regards to the other JD, things didn’t exactly end smoothly when the sides parted ways the first time around. It was leaked not long after the Mets traded Davis to the Giants that he was unhappy with his playing time and blamed his struggles at the plate with that inconsistency. Personally, I always thought that was more of sour grapes than anything as Davis was prolific as a part-time player at times with the Mets early in his tenure before the league seemed to catch up to the holes in his swing in later seasons.
So, while I’m unsure of how willing Davis would be to return to the Mets less than two years later, it is an entirely new organizational structure. While some of the players remain the same, New York has a different front office and manager as opposed to the last time Davis was around.
Even though I would consider him the “lesser” of these two JD’s, I do think that Davis could provide some value for the Mets as a bench piece or insurance for Brett Baty and/or Mark Vientos if the youngsters struggle again early on this year. Historically, Davis has hit left-handed pitchers well – something the Mets have struggled with for several years – though he was actually worse against lefties this past season than righties.
At this stage, I’d assume that the Mets can only realistically bring one of these two players in as they’d both likely want guaranteed time as starters. If they had to make the choice, I think it’s pretty simple – J.D. Martínez offers the club more of what they need at a position of need, and is just an all-around significantly better offensive player than Davis is, even at this stage of his long career. Davis may give you the flexibility of playing him in the field at third base, but his defense has often been more of a negative than even neutral, and his offensive numbers were nowhere close to Martínez last year.
So, in the battle of the two JD’s, it would stand to reason that Martínez would exit victorious. We’ll see if the Mets can get it done.
Around The League 🚩
The Rangers and Yankees could be the top two suitors in acquire White Sox RHP Dylan Cease after his market has heated up once again (MLB.com)
Yankees RHP Gerrit Cole is still awaiting the results of an MRI done on his pitching elbow
Yankees OF Aaron Judge also underwent an MRI and is taking a few days off due to abdominal soreness
Tigers No. 3 prospect Jackson Jobe hit 102 MPH in his spring debut as the club knocked off the Twins, 1-0
LHP Justin Wilson opted out of his minor league contract with the Dodgers and will become a free agent (MLB Trade Rumors)