Two things that have to change for the Mets going forward
Plus - the Mets rallied past the Dodgers for their only win of the year against the defending champs
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets salvaged the final game of their three-game series with the Dodgers with an 8-3 win at Citi Field (box)
The Mets scored seven unanswered runs on the Dodgers thanks in part to a three-run home run from Tyrone Taylor in the sixth inning and a three-run home run from Marcus Semien in the seventh inning
Freddy Peralta made what could’ve been his final start for the Mets on Sunday, and he struggled once again, allowing three runs (two earned) over 4 IP - his ERA for the season is 4.99
The Mets bullpen was stellar again, holding LA to just three hits over five innings
The Mets went 1-5 against the Dodgers this season
Play of the Game ✨
Tyrone Taylor did it again!
His three-run home run off of Evan Phillips in the sixth inning gave the Mets the lead on Sunday, a lead they would not relinquish for the rest of the afternoon. It was a rare good day for the Mets offense, highlighted by Taylor’s clutch home run.
Carlos Beltrán & Jeff Kent - Hall of Famers 🏆
Former Mets Carlos Beltrán and Jeff Kent were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, on Sunday afternoon.
Beltrán became the third Met to don a Mets cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, joining Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza.
The Mets signed Beltrán as a free agent before the 2005 season and went on to become the greatest center fielder in Mets history. He posted 31.1 bWAR over 6 1/2 years with the Mets while hitting .280/.369/.500 with 208 doubles, 149 home runs, and 559 RBI in 839 games for the Mets. He would end up being traded to the Giants in the summer of 2011 for Zack Wheeler. He now serves as a special assistant to David Stearns in the Mets front office.
The Mets acquired Kent along with Ryan Thompson in August 1992 from the Blue Jays in exchange for David Cone. Kent spent five years with the Mets before they traded him to Cleveland along with José Vizcaino to Cleveland for Carlos Baerga and Álvaro Espinosa. In between, Kent began to blossom into what would ultimately become a Hall of Fame career, hitting .279/.437/.553 with 98 doubles, 67 home runs, 267 RBI, and 244 runs scored over 498 games. Overall, Kent hit 377 home runs during his 17-year career and became among the best second basemen of all time.
The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
On the latest edition of the Just Mets Podcast, Andrew was joined by Alex Cintron to discuss Carlos Beltran’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
SUBSCRIBE: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Down on the Farm 🌾
1B Christopher Morel (AAA): 2-for-4, HR, 2 RBI
OF José Ramos (AA): 4-for-5, HR, 3 RBI, 3 R
INF Mitch Voit (no. 5 prospect, High-A): 2-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI, R
INF Jeremy Rodriguez (Low-A): 4-for-4, 2B, RBI, 2 R
BOX SCORES
Single-A SLU | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (44-62) vs. Braves (62-43)
Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY
Starters: LHP Zac Thornton (1-1, 1.93 ERA) vs. LHP Martin Pérez (6-6, 3.38 ERA)
When: 7:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
The human element, and risk being part of the game ✍️
One more week to go with this Mets team, as currently constructed.
It’s also possible that we’ve seen the last of Freddy Peralta as well.
It’s hard to believe that this acquisition could go so badly for the Mets. It was just ten months ago Peralta finished in the top five in the National League Cy Young Award balloting, and now he’s literally been a negative value player for the Mets. I don’t want to get into the metrics and why he has been so poor for this club statistically at this point. Again, he might’ve made his last start for the Mets, and all they can do is hope they can try and find something for him and sell him as a change-of-scenery arm for a contender. He’s only owed around $3 million the rest of the way so that in and of itself is attractive. But, the Mets gave up a lot to get him - two top-100 prospects in Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams - so they can forget about recouping that kind of value. But, if they can get a top 5-10 prospect back from someone’s organization, that would have to be viewed as a win at this point for a guy who rarely pitches beyond 4-5 innings with a 4.99 ERA on top of that.
The thing is, Peralta is a super guy and seems like a real positive for the clubhouse. He may not be that bulldog leader, but he certainly doesn’t appear like he’s subtracting from the room. It was just a total misread by Stearns and the front office on the personality fit for the team and the city on a roster that was already poorly constructed before they procured him. The Mets probably failed Peralta more than they failed him in the end, which can probably be said about numerous veterans and young players at this point for that matter.
Don’t get me wrong - I am not excusing his poor performance. I am just saying, not only was this probably never a fit to begin with, but also the Mets clearly did nothing to help him successfully make the adjustment to playing here.
And I think Peralta’s situation is emblematic of what could be the biggest mistake the Mets front office has made with this team and organization for that matter.
With their elimination of so many scouts, per Jon Heyman of the Post, and a heavy reliance on analytics to drive roster building and general decision-making, the absence of the human element is as evident as ever with this franchise. That’s not to say they shouldn’t rely on analytics at all or they’re even doing it too much. Rather, they lack an overall balance between the numbers and the actual eye and character/personality tests to make sound judgments, which has clearly impacted their ability to make quality decisions about the major league roster, and their player development for that matter considering how much they’re struggling, again, to develop quality players.
The team Steve Cohen has said he wants to emulate, the Dodgers, absolutely rely on analytics. But, they also have a strong balance with their scouting department to create a balance between the numbers and the people themselves, which helps them to build the culture they’re seeking as well.
Look - any team can just sign and trade for players to buy wins. They can think all they want that just because the player performed in the past elsewhere, those numbers will translate to the same success on their team. They can think it’s all fine and dandy to move career middle infielders to first base, and career middle infielders to the outfield. But, if they’re only taking into account the player’s performance and overall athleticism and not considering their actual ability to handle those transitions and even stay healthy based on those track records, it will just lead to failure.
And, the Mets are clearly prime examples of that this season.
For instance, was there anyone who really thought they’d be able to keep Luis Robert Jr. on the field? How about Jorge Polanco? When the Mets were interested in Robert at last year’s trade deadline, that was the first thing I thought of, which is why I didn’t want them to even consider him. Yet, here he is.
Certainly, the injuries to Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto were unforeseen, but now the Mets have to be cognizant of that in future years as well, and not simply forget that happened like they did with Robert and Polanco.
They need to make sure, as they build their next starting rotation and bullpen, that they’re not only procuring personality fits for their organization, but that they’re molding the players who will fill those roles internally into people who can deal with the trials of playing here as well. That, to me, has been a big part of their failure to develop quality position players over the years.
And then there’s the ugly ducking strategy that simply must change with this front office, which is something Heyman also discussed this week and I’ve said repeatedly over the last couple of years.
Since Stearns arrived, there’s one player they’ve signed for longer than three years, and that is Juan Soto, and it’s safe to say the owner had a direct involvement in those proceedings before he was signed. The Mets are simply going to have to assume more risk in free agency, especially with a new collective bargaining agreement coming and the economics of the game changing in short order. There’s a reason why the Polancos and Sean Manaeas of the world can be had for three years or less, and those reasons weren’t good before, and we are seeing why here.
I am not saying the Mets need to lock in a bunch of 30+ veterans to seven-year deals. Not at all. But they need to balance their short-term risks with their long-term risks, and it’s as simple as that. They’re showing in real time that there can be very, very bad two- and three-year deals. Yes, Clay Holmes is one of the good short-term deals, and the reward was unquestionably worth the risk. But, aside from Soto, Holmes, and Luke Weaver, and I’ll give you Brooks Raley, which other short-term deal since November 2024 has worked out for this team?
The true irony of it all is this: the best contracts the Mets have signed in the last six years are for Lindor and Soto, and those are all mega, decade-plus-long deals. Yes, they were both in their mid-20s when those deals were signed, and that’s all fair. But, was dealing with potentially 1-2 diminishing years of Pete Alonso at the end of a five-year deal really that terrible when they look at the alternatives they chose to go with then, what they clearly won’t be going forward, and the complete uncertainty they’ve created at the position over the same five-year period Alonso will be in Baltimore?
Remember - they’re still paying more than $20 million for their first basemen in 2026, and will probably be doing the same in 2027, since that’s what they signed Polanco to be. And I am not saying the Mets should’ve retained Alonso, but they should’ve replaced him with an actual first baseman and assumed some more risk in the process.
Of course, opting to go with Polanco, Brett Baty, and Mark Vientos at the beginning of all of this not only demonstrates what they thought of Alonso, but pretty much every other available first baseman via free agency or trade as well.
I might have gone off on a tangent there, but of all of the missteps that have been made by Stearns and this front office, the dumpster fire at first base is probably their biggest indictment but is still on my point of being so risk-averse to the point they thought their way into an abyss. And that’s just at one position.
At the very least, we know change is coming. We know that change is coming very soon. In a week or so, the Mets are going to look a lot different, again. But, that can only be a good thing for this franchise even with the uncertainty around the economics of the game coming for 2027, or whenever it is they play baseball again after October.
Around the League 🚩
Alec Bohm drove in four runs as part of the Phillies 11-4 rout of the Yankees
The Marlins allowed four runs in the eighth inning and fell 5-3 to the Padres for their 12th loss in a row
The Rays increased their lead in the AL East to three games over the Yankees with a 1-0 win over the Guardians
The Royals scored two runs in the eighth inning in a 5-4 win over the Tigers - Detroit is now 50-56 on the year with a week to go before the trade deadline
Diversity of thought delivers the best decisions. Your comment emphasizing the combining of analytics and the human element is well said. Analytics are only as good as the data that feeds it. It has no data on introvert vs extrovert, big city kid vs rural upbringing. All of these and many more factors matter. Until Stearns opens his management style to human data he clearly, through his interaction with the media and fans, does not understand, us Mets fans are doomed to repetitive failure. The game of baseball is played by humans and not computers. The human element counts.
Alonso was a fool6ish non-signing for the Mets when you consider what else they are paying to replace him. I mean they are paying Sean Manea nearly that much per year. Should have gotten creative and found a way to make both sides happy. Four year deal with two option years, mutual option year 5. Club year 6. Buyout of 1 million in year 5, 5 million year 6. But both sides were doing what they wanted. Alonso is not at fault for not coming back. Think his ego was ruffled a bit by Stearns and Cohen, especially during the chase for Soto.