The no-show Mets are back!
The offense was utterly comatose for a second straight day in Miami
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets lost their fourth game in five days and once again to the Marlins by a score of 4-1 (box)
RHP Freddy Peralta was better than the box score indicates, striking out nine Marlins over seven innings, but he allowed more hits than he has all season, including two homers to Miami DH Liam Hicks
1B Mark Vientos reached base three times, tallying two of the Mets’ three hits and an HBP in the seventh
RHP Jonathan Pintaro had a perfect debut, shutting down the middle of the Marlins’ order in the 8th
It was the Mets’ 14th game this season in which they scored one or no runs, and they’ve scored two runs or less in 22 of their first 52 games of the season
Roster Moves 📰
RHP Jonathan Pintaro recalled from Triple-A Syracuse
LHP Zach Thornton optioned to Triple-A Syracuse
Injury Updates 🏥
LHP A.J. Minter (left lat surgery, left hip discomfort) should be activated this coming week against the Reds
RHP Kodai Senga (lumbar spine inflammation) threw 64 pitches over 3.1 IP in his first rehab start for St. Lucie; his fastball touched 97 mph
Play of the Game 🙃
To open the bottom of the fifth, Freddy Peralta gave up his second homer of the day to Liam Hicks. Though Peralta retired nine of the next ten batters he faced, allowing only a single to Marlins backstop Joe Mack through the end of the seventh, that nailed this game shut for the Mets and their sleepwalking offense.
Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
ICYMI: Rich and Michael discussed the Morabito number situation and offered thoughts on which number the Mets should retire next.
To watch the full video, subscribe to the Patreon here.
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Who’s Cold? 🥶
In his last 15 games (29 AB), OF/DH MJ Melendez is hitting .034/.200/.034 with 13 strikeouts (45%), one hit, no runs or RBI, and four walks
2B Marcus Semien is hitting just .196/.230/.268 with 14 strikeouts against just three walks in his last 15 games
Down on the Farm 🌾
LF A.J. Salgado (Single-A): 1-for-3, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI
C Vincent Perozo (Double-A): 2-for-2, 2B, BB
3B Branny De Oleo (Low-A): 1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI
BOX SCORES
Single-A SLU | High-A BRK (PPD) | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR (PPD)
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (22-30) at Marlins (24-29)
Where: loanDepot Park - Miami, FL
Starters: RHP Christian Scott (0-0, 4.12 ERA) vs. RHP Tyler Phillips (0-0, 1.20 ERA)
When: 1:40 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
It’s back to the same old, same old with the Mets ✍🏻
The no-pulse Mets are back!
Since the Mets arrived in Miami on Thursday night, they’ve returned to being painful on the eyes, haven’t they? I’d venture to say that’s been the case since the second game of the Nationals series, in large measure.
And that has been a recurring theme for this club over their first 52 games of the season.
In these last two games in particular, the Mets have produced the sum total of two runs and six hits, two of which have gone for extra bases.
That’s it.
And that has only served as an extension to their general offensive futility this season, as they’ve scored two runs or less in 22 of their first 52 games of the year, or 42 percent of their games to date.
Carlos Mendoza, Mark Vientos, and others decided to offer credit where credit was due after Saturday’s empty loss. They talked about how Max Meyer just shut them down and how great he looked. They discussed Miami starting to come out of their own collective malaise, and all of the other usual platitudes to try and explain away this team’s gross underperformance over the first two months of the season, rather than actually owning their problems, which might actually be a first step into fixing them.
In the end, it’s the same old, same old with the Mets. Sure, the offense looked better during the first half of May, and the team was performing better leading up to this road trip. But here we are, back into this lifeless, going-through-the-motions at the plate thing that was so maddening over the first 30-40 days of the season.
We are well beyond the point where this can be called a team-wide slump. It’s Memorial Day Weekend, the time when every organization starts to assess where this is all going for them - this is what this unit is. Sure, they’re without Francisco Lindor, but is that why Bo Bichette and Brett Baty have been worth just 0.4 fWAR combined so far? Is this why Vientos has been worth -0.2 fWAR, or Marcus Semien -0.4 fWAR?
No, it isn’t.
It’s because of flawed execution with the roster design, flawed execution with their core philosophies, and hoping way too many things break right at the top of their depth chart among the incomplete players they’ve spent way too much money on.
It’s as simple as that.
What’s worse - it appears this is a problem throughout the organization.
Ernest Dove, who has covered the Mets minor leagues for a long time and spends a lot of time with the St. Lucie Mets, recently discussed their organization-wide “do damage at all costs” hitting philosophy, which hasn’t exactly led to great results among their minor league affiliates this season.
As is the case at the big league level, all of their minor league affiliates are in the bottom tier or last in their respective leagues in walks. That cannot be a coincidence.
“Is this about the players, or is this about the philosophy?” Dove asks.
When the same problems repeatedly surface at multiple levels in the minor leagues and there’s a consistent pattern to them, yeah, it becomes difficult to ignore the possibility that the organization’s overall hitting philosophy isn’t actually good.
At some point, and probably really, really soon, the Mets are going to have to re-evaluate all of this within their system, because it just isn’t working at all. The Mets are floundering at the big league level and at multiple levels in the minor leagues, and all of these smoke signals are pointing to the same thing.
Again, we are at Memorial Day, the first true mile marker of a baseball season. They have tried to inject energy with their top prospects. They have talked this thing to death. And here they are, 22-30 and spiraling into the baseball abyss.
Is it a change in philosophy? Is it a change in staff, both in the dugout and in the front office? Is it all of that? If so, how much more turnover can the Mets tolerate? Predictability hasn’t exactly been this club’s strong suit under Steve Cohen’s stewardship, as they’ve had four general managers, three on-field managers, flipped the dugout staff multiple times, and flipped the roster over completely in the last two years while enduring a massive fire sale at the trade deadline in 2023.
It certainly looks like a repeat of the 2023 season is forthcoming, isn’t it? Unless things dramatically change and fast, they should look to recoup as much as they can for Freddy Peralta, get what they can for David Peterson, try and move some of their late-inning relievers like Brooks Raley, Luke Weaver, and maybe even Devin Williams if they can find a taker for the remaining two years of his contract, and hope against hope they can unlock themselves from the Bo Bichette and Marcus Semien deals, as unlikely as that may be.
Why not? They don’t need any of these players to lose. And that would at least allow the club to develop AJ Ewing, Carson Benge, Nick Morabito, Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, Zach Thornton, and Jonathan Pintaro in a pressure-free summer at the big league level. Maybe they could bring up Ryan Clifford too, who at least is an actual first baseman, and they can see what they have in his bat.
Even so, predictability and perhaps more importantly stability are the key ingredients for a winning organization. Look no further than the Bronx for that, as they’ve had three managers total since 1996, are in the playoffs pretty much every year and have more than zero World Championships since 1986.
Sigh. Onto the next one. Don’t get swept today.
Around the League 🚩
The Blue Jays got to Paul Skenes for four runs as they toppled the Pirates, 5-2
Kai-Wei Teng tossed six shutout innings as the Astros blanked the Cubs 3-0
Rōki Sasaki continued his ascent, allowing only two walks and two earned runs over five innings as the Dodgers cruised to an 11-3 win over the Brewers
Zach Wheeler lowered his ERA to 1.67 for the year thanks to six innings of two-hit ball in the Phillies 3-0 win over the Guardians
Well stated. Damnit.