Final Thoughts And Upcoming Roster Decisions

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It followed up with the opener of this series against the Giants on Thursday, which we'll discuss in a few minutes. And then on Friday, with a 1015 East Coast start, very late night, I had to take a nap to make sure that I'd be able to get through this entire game. The Met offense actually shows some muscle. And I think what was very encouraging about Friday's game, game two of this series, is that you can look up and down the score card, other than Juan Soto, which will address the injury concerns around him, they really got contributions from everybody. Uh, one of the guys I've voiced my concerns about, my displeasures about is Marcus Simeon. And Marcus Simeon contributed with three hits in this game, including his first home run as a New York Met. So Friday was game two of this series, it was a cleansing. It was an offensive cleansing for this team. But before we get to the offense, before we get to Juan Soto, before we get to what happened in Thursday's game, I do want to start with Nolan McClain because never for a second, I have to admit this, never for a second did I think Nolan McClain was going to throw a perfect game. Now, I still have that , you know, that fantasy as a Met fan that we are going to see one of our pitchers throw a 27-up, 27-down perfect game. There's only been what, 23 in the history of this sport. Obviously, this franchise has now had two no-hitters, the Johan one and the combined no-hitter from a few years ago. But seeing one of our young studs, specifically Nolan McLean, accomplish that would be incredibly special. But it's funny you watch this game and you watch the first five innings as McLean did throw five perfect innings, which is pretty impressive, and five and a third, no hit innings. Never during those five innings, did you think he could pull this off? And a part of it was the amount of times he was behind in the count three and oh. You know, I said this about McClain's first start, which I thought was impressive in that his command was so off, and yet he was able to battle into the sixth inning, pitch five innings, keep his team in the game. I think it was five innings, two runs to be exact. That the fact he was able to take a game in which his command was so off and still give you a decent start, I think was a great positive. I I sort of felt in some weird ways a similarity into this game because again his command was off. And you go back to the very first inning of this game, he goes full on Willie Adamas to start the game. Great. He gets him out. Then he falls behind Rafael Dever's three-0. Count goes full. He gets him out. And then we would see a 3-0 count to Adamus in the fourth inning, a 3-0 count to Jung Ho Lee in the fifth inning. We saw 10 three-ball counts in this start by Nolan McLean. So it was not easy . But despite that, despite falling behind 3-0, despite all the three-two counts, he still took a perfect game into the sixth inning. And I was getting, I guess, a little bit excited, even though I knew there was no chance that Nolan McLean was going to be able to complete this, just because like you watch a guy, and I think we saw this a lot with Jake back in the day, where a guy looks unhittable, where a guy's command is pinpoint, he's getting tons of swing and misses, and you just feel like, whoa, that guy's got no hit stuff. That guy's got perfect game stuff. And there's been plenty of times I think in the first few innings of a game you felt that way. Obviously more recently with DeGrom, but certainly at times with Matt Harvey uh during his prime, his brief prime, even R. A. Dickey back in the day, uh, brief ly with Pedro when he first got here, where a guy is just so locked in. Not that you think they're gonna throw a perfect game, but you can envision how they would throw a perfect game. Never felt that way with Nolan McClain in the start. I don't know how you could have, consider ing the full counts, the falling behind hitters. But look, to his credit, he fell behind so many hitters in this game and he was able to make the pitch to get through it. He was also a little bit fortunate because there was some heart contact. Bo Bachet made a really good defensive play. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it was a really good defensive play to start the third inning against Harris and Bader. But there was some hard contact, and Nolan McLean was in full command. Um, what was great for Nolan, and I joked on Twitter, this is why he can never be compared to deGrom, is that the Matt's actually gave him run support. And I I think, I think probably that is maybe even more of the headline than Nolan McClain. Because at the end of the day, Nolan ends up issuing the walk to start the sixth inning, back-to-back walks., might I say Gives up the RBI double to Willie Adamas. And his final line is five and a third innings, one run. Or two runs, one earned, I should say, four strikeouts, two walks. Like totally fine, but an outing that maybe you'll forget. What was really, really important for this team on the heels of Thursday, on the heels of Wednesday, on the heels of Tuesday, is that we saw a complete offensive effort. We saw it from top to bottom. Now, it didn't come without its negatives because number one, you do have this Juan Soto injury concern. They're saying it is a right calf tightness for Juan. And I think what'll really tell you how concerning this is is if Juan Soto plays on Saturday and Sunday, because Juan has a track record of playing. You know, I remember he had an injury scare with the Yankees two years ago, and I'm I'm trying to remember the context of it, but it was a uh going into their series against the Dodgers two years ago, and he ended up missing maybe a day or two, and then he was back. And if you look at Juan Soto's career, whether it was the brief year with the Yankees or the few years with San Diego or obviously before that with Washington, he plays . And, you know, one of the mis nomers in sports is that a guy doesn't get hurt. No, he probably gets hurt, but he plays through it. He probably has nagging injuries, but he plays through it. So I think we'll get an idea on the level of concern for Juan Soto based on does he play Saturday and Sunday? The Mets have an off day Monday, so they could very easily turn this into three and a half straight off days for Juan and hopefully get him back quickly. Uh will it hurt this Met lineup over the next two days and the rest of this series to not have Juan Soto? Of course it would. I mean, it's not something I'm looking forward to. You know, we saw Tyrone Taylor step in and taking home for four. Obviously, you'd line things up very different ly. Unfortunately, when you take Juan Soto out in the first inning, you got to put Tyron Taylor in the two-hole. So in between Lindor and Bachet, you're stuck with a guy who we like, but isn't much of a hitter. So my level of concern is it's it's it's there. I can't ignore it. You never know with a guy's health. And certainly we understand the importance of Juan Soto and what he means to this lineup. But that is probably the biggest negative you could take out of game two of this series because the rest of this offense gave you a lot of positives. Let's start with Lindor at the top of the order. Set the tone for the game with a leadoff base hit, but he was on base three more times in this game. He's done a really good job, despite coming into this game with a 130 batting average. He's done a good job of setting the table because he's drawn a lot of walks. So despite still waiting for his first home run, still waiting for his first RBI, despite a very low batting average, so not a lot of hits until he picked up the two in this game. He does do a good job of getting on base, and he was able to add to that with three in this g ame. Bo Bouchette, I mean, it feels like Bo Bouchette is coming out of his slump. He's had good at bats recently. I know that's not something we necessarily want to hear with a player. Oh, the at-bats are good. You want to see the results. But one thing is sometimes, not always, but sometimes when a guy is giving you better at bats, when a guy is giving you quality at bats, it's just it's helping you see the future. Because it's telling you, even if the results aren't there right now, it's coming. And I think we saw that with Bo Bach et over the last couple of days. His at bats have been considerably better. And we saw him twice in this game attack the first pitch in his first two at bats, comes up with the RBI single in the first inning, which gave the Mets the quick lead, leads off with a base hit in the third inning on the first pitch, ends up doubling on an O two pitch in the seventh inning. Uh we are st arting to see Bo Bachet wake up. So that is absolutely encouraging, especially if they're going to miss Ju for any period of time. Luis Robert Jr. continues to get on base. You know, he's really done a good job of drawing walks. He had two more walks in this game. The negative with Robert Jr., and I do want to discuss it, was what happened in the first inning when he doesn't score from second on a Marcus Simeon base hit with two outs. So couple of thoughts on this play. Number one, Luis Roberts Jr. clearly as soon as that ball ha is hit has to run. And that slight hesitation on the line drive, almost thinking boy Adamus may catch this. That tells you he may not have been aware of how many outs there were. Which I I guess that's the second time we're dealing with this right now on this road trip. I mean , that ball is hit with two outs. You gotta move. There cannot be any hesitation. There cannot be any let me go back in case Adamus catches it. It doesn't matter if Adamas catches it. There's two outs. So it was slight. Like I watched that replay about three or four times because there were a few things I wanted to digest about him not scoring. Number one , did he hesitate? And he did. It wasn't pronounced, but you saw it. And it was slight. And then number two was he sent home . Like, I'm already forgetting our third base coach's name. Maybe that's because I'm doing the Rico at one thirty two in the morning. Uh Leaper. Yeah, Tim Leaper, who we killed on Sunday for sending Lindor. Leaper does hold him. Now is he holding him because of that slight hesitation? Probably . But you do have to wonder, and I hope that Robert Jr. has asked about this, or Mendy's asked about this. He may not be, just because the Mets won the game by a lot. So sometimes when you win by a lot, you win a game 10 to 3. The last thing a reporter is asking is, hey, let's go back to the first inning. What was going on? The reason it matters, the reason I care about it is not to harp on negatives. I'm in a good mood. The Mets w.on I'm happy . You wonder about it because we have noticed that the Mets have played very sloppy baseball and they've played almost unprepared baseball. It's an observation I've made here on the Rico, and I made it on Evident Tiki the other day that there's just a lot of unpreparedness that you sense from this team. And obviously what happened with Lindor a few days ago, we've talked about . I was angry doing the Rico right after it. Uh I mentioned on Evident Tiki that I thought it was at least an opportunity for Carlos Mendo za to send a message to the rest of the room by benching him. And I'll make it very clear what I mean by that. It doesn't mean Lindor needed to be benched. It means that I've heard these stories about what Greg Popovich used to do with Tim Duncan and what Bill Belichick used to do with Tom Brady that those guys, Tim Duncan and Tom Brady, are not just all-time greats, but they're unique enough where they could be embarrassed in front of their teammates because it sends a message to everybody else. I I compliment Lindore by saying I think he's one of those guys who could take it . You know, I got a lot of emails after I made that comment about it was a great opportunity to bench Lindor and a lot of it was would you do that to Soto ? Would you do that to Pete? Well, I'm I'm about to give Francisco Lindora a great compliment. I'm not sure if Pete Alonso and Juan Soto could handle that. I'm not sure if they're the right guys to handle something like that. I get the sense Lindor is. Lindor is always there in front of his locker admitting when he makes mistakes. He is the first one out there saying, hey, that's on me. He's a big take responsibility kind of guy. So whether you want to take that as a knock on Pete or a knock on Soto, Lindor reeks of a guy who could take it. So I thought it was an opportunity, but that's neither here nor there. In the case of Luis Robert Jr., are we really looking at another example of someone not being prepared, not understanding how many outs there are? With that said , great. Okay, it happens. The Mets still score two runs instead of three. The offense scores three more runs in the fourth inning when Marcus Simeon hits a home run and Francisco Alvarez hits his first of two home runs. Uh they score three more runs in the seventh. So look, overall, this was a really good offensive effort. Let me give the proper credit to Marcus Simeon. What I've said about Simeon over the last few days is he'd be the first guy I would get concerned about just based based on the decline of the last couple of years, based on his age, and also based on you know sometimes we get nuts or we get angry when Mendoza or a manager says, Hey, that guy's having good at bats. That guy's hitting into bad luck. Real skin results start with one daily ritual. Meet Daily Microfoliant from Dermalogica. This iconic exfoliating powder activates with water to gently polish away dullness and uneven texture. It leaves skin instantly smoother and more luminous while supporting your skin barrier. Formulated with professional expertise to deliver visible results daily, even on sensitive skin. Discover your healthiest skin today. Visit dermal ogica.com and use code SMOOT at checkout for an exclusive gift with your $65 purchase. The pressure on data centers has never been greater. Whether you're expanding capacity, supporting AI workloads, or building new facilities, Grey Bar works alongside you with the solutions, specialists, and logistics expertise you need today. We help you power performance. Yep. Gray Bar does that . The reason why it annoys us is because it's a results business, but the reason why it matters is it's a sign that maybe a guy is hitting into bad luck and they're bound to break out of it. Marcus Simeon's at bats until this game were not of bad luck. I mean, his exit velocity was horrible. His base hits were lucky. So he was not hitting into bad luck. But in this game, major props. Comes through with the RBI single in the first inning. Should have been two RBIs like we talked about. He hits that two-run home run to dead center field that got past Harrison Bader. Luckily, he didn't like Spider-Man and make the play, and even tax on a base hit in the ninth inning. So major props to Marcus Simeon. Hopefully, he can pick it up. But talking about hitting into bad luck, let's go back to spring training, ladies and gent lemen. Let's go back to Mark Vientos' terrible spring. Remember that? Awful spring training. Awful. And do you guys remember when we quoted Carlos Mendo za, Mendy was saying about Mark Vientos, you know, he's hitting into a lot of bad luck . And I said, you know, I should do some research on this because just because Mendy says something, just because a manager says something, doesn't mean it's true. Like what's so great about 2026 is that I can look it up myself. And we analyzed it. And the results were Mark Vientos had the highest exit velocity of any player in Met Spring training. And you file it away. Like, what are you gonna do with it? It's just, hey, Mendy wasn't lying . That was the point. Mendy was not BSing us when he said that, right? And now you flash forward to this regular season. And even though Mendy didn't back up his words by giving Mark Vientos a chance, he's finally been forced to give Mark Vientos a chance. Jorge Polanco, he's dealing with this Achilles injury. There was a lefty on the mound. And Mark Vientos gets an opportunity. And what does he do with that opportunity? He starts to hit . He starts to perform . He starts to look halfway decent. He gets a double in the game Wednesday afternoon, but then they pinch it for him, but okay, little peck there. There's a double. He gives him the start against Robbie Ray, as he should against the lefty. Hits a home run on Thursda y. And then kudos to Carlos Mendo za. And maybe it was because Polanco is hurt. Maybe that's the only reason he did it, but he gives him a start uh on Friday night against the right-hander, Tyler Molly. And what does Mark Vientos do? Not only does he draw two walks in this game, not only does he pick up two base hits in this game, including an RBI, he becomes the first position player in the the history of New York Mets to win a challenge. And then he does it again. So he wins two challenges. He gets on base four times. He is proving that either spring training didn't matter or Mendy was right the entire time and that he was unlucky. And here's what Mark Vientos is doing before our eyes, and I'm so happy for him and happy for us . He's grabbing the playing time. He's taking it. And we can sit here and debate who he should take it from. Brett Beatty, who looked awful in this game until he hit that RBI double in the ninth in ning, bounces into the one, two, three double play, strikes out three times. It feels like this Vientos Beatty pendulum is changing again. So if you still think it's Beatty, that's totally fine. Maybe it's Polanco because well he's not healthy. Maybe a wan soto injury takes care of it itself. But either way, no matter who you want to say has to lose playing time, whether it's Polanco, whether it's Beatty, whether it's Benj, whether it's give Soto a few days, Mark Vientos is grabbing it again . And all through spring training, we talked about how it's going to be tough for him to get a chance. But once he gets a chance, he's got to take advantage of it. Well, he is. He is taking advantage of it. And I think we could all agree, no matter what you wrote in the emails during spring training about getting rid of him or DFAing him or trading him for a relief pitcher, none of that matters now. He's on the team, he's performing, he's answered the call And for now, because card is subject to change, as they like to say, he is earning playing time. Kudos to Mark Vientos. Obviously, major kudos to Francisco Alvarez, who hits two home runs in game two of this series. The first one was the second of the fourth inning that extended the Met lead to five to nothing. And then he hits an absolute bomb to start off the se venth inning, which sort of felt important because the Giants had scored those two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning against Nolan McClain . So it was a nice response by the Met offense to take a game that was tightening up and basically say, no, we're going to make this easy. Alvarez hits the home run. Luis Robert Jr. adds the blue bar BI single. Mark Vientos tacks on another run. And the Mets respond to the Giant two and the sixth with three in the seventh inning. Very encouraging top to bottom from the offense . And over all, a nice bounce back victory. Nolan McLean, like we mentioned, goes into the sixth . Brooke Brooks Rayleigh uh continues to be automatic coming out of the bullpen . And then luckily, because the Mets scored those three runs in the seventh inning, after Rayleigh and Brazobon get the big outs in the sixth and the seventh, Carlos Mendoza is able to protect Luke Weaver. He's able to protect Devin Williams, Tobias Myers, and use Dickie Lovelady and Luis Garcia to get the last six outs. That was the most important thing. You know, as this game is eight to two in the eighth inning , and maybe many Met fans are shutting the TV off. It's it's a long n ight, it's a long week. It's a holiday weekend. But you know what? It's past midnight. I'm watching those last two innings, and the key to those last two innings was not if the Mets are gonna win. I know the Mets are gonna w in. At least I have confidence up eight to two in the eight, they're gonna win. But it comes down to can Mendy get these last six outs without having to use his high-leverage relievers? Can Love Lady and Garcia, who in this moment are the mop-up guys, if you will, can they get the last six outs? And they did. Not that Dickie Love Lady was great. He gave up a run, he gave up a couple of hits, but that's okay when you have an eight to two lead and then eventually a ten to two lead. That's okay. That's okay. And so the Mets go into the final two games of this series, and the final two games of the March before the off day with a very fresh Devin Williams, a very fresh Luke Weaver, a relatively fresh Tobias Myers, who's now had a couple of days off since the extra inning thing from Wednesday, left two days off. So you're not going to have Shaw Maniah for a few days. You may not have Brooks Rayleigh because the Mets are very careful about pitching him on back-to-backs, but you got Devin, you got Luke Weaver , you're at least in decent position with this bullpen going into the final few games of this series. Let me go back though to the opener of this series against the San Francisco Giants. You know , the Mets score a run early. And I thought, all right, maybe this is where the offense breaks out. Me and Hoff had made that bet, that little prediction on how many runs they were going to score in this four-game series, and Bo Bichette, who like we talked about, was starting to have these quality at bats, delivers the RBI double. Mark Vientos hits the home run. And even though David Peterson was awful, which I'll get to in a few minutes, the Mets scored two runs in the first two innings . It's like, all right, here we go. The offense is going to break out of it. And it is amazing how they had a few opportunities in the third and fourth inning. They got the leadoff men on in both innings against R obbie Ray due to control issues, not surprising from Robbie Ray. He's had that over the years, and they can't take advantage of it. What else is new? But from the fifth inning on, it was actually disgusting how bad the offense was. It was awful. And you know what really pissed me off about Thursday's game? I get it. They're down seven to two. It feels like the game is over, seven to two in the seventh inning. But I never believe a game is over. You know, I mentioned before I had confidence up eight to two, the Mets were gonna win. I have confidence, but a game is never over. It's baseball. There's no clock. Forget the pitch clock. There's no clock that you can run out the way you can in an NBA game or an NFL game. Which is why I very rarely, if ever, turn a game off. Just because you never know. I don't want to miss the collapse. I don't want to miss the amazing comeback. When they're down seven to two in the seventh inning, and Blake Tidwell comes in, and we know Blade Tidwell , I'm at least hoping and thinking . M thisake interest ing. Make the Giants have to maneuver in the late innings of this game. They used Ryan Walker, who has closed for them at times, early in this game. I have no idea who's going to close this game out for the Giants. I expected , I expected, and I believed that while the Mets weren't going to come back against Blade Tidwell and the Giants, they will force the issue. It's the opposite of what I just said about the Met bullpen. Hey, can they get those last six outs without having to use high-leverage relievers? And the fact that the Met offense did dick against Blade Tidwell over the last three innings. That actually disturbed me more than anything else I saw offensively in this game. You know, they have an opportunity in the third and the fourth against Robbie Ray. They don't come through. Look, Robbie Ray's want a Cy Young . I'm not in the tip my hat business right now, but I get it. He's Robbie Ray. You had some opportunities. You didn't come through. At least you got the pitch count up and you got him out at 96 pitches in the sixth inning. You're facing Blade. We know Blay Tidwell . We watched Blade Tidwell . You can't manage a run against Blade Tidw ell ? Now, another thing about the offense on Thursday, there was a little bit, not a lot, but a little bit of bad luck too. We talked about Bo Bichette and some of the good at bats. He comes through with that RBI double in the first inning. I mean, the guy essentially had a two-run home run in the third, and Harrison Bader brings it back. Brings it back. But overall on Thursday in the opener of this series, the Mets have five hits. T ofwo them are lucky infield hits. Now I get things even out because, like I said, Bader hits one that should be out. I'm sorry, Bachet hits one that should be out, and Bader makes the great play leaping defense. So I guess it evens things out . The other thing was you continue to see miscuse . You know, we talk about the Mets not being prepared to play baseball or being sloppy. Game one of this series against the Giants, two huge miscues early in this game. Number one, the David Peterson error. Clearly, the Giants have a game plan to attack David Peterson early, and he gives up that RBI triple to Luisa Rise. And dude, when he hit that triple off defense, I kept thinking to myself about how I wanted the Mets to pursue him during the offseason. And part of why I wanted to pursue him is so he couldn't do that to us anymore . I know that's not the best reason to pursue somebody. I think I said that about Jesse Winker as well, but Luisa Rise is a Met killer . But David Peterson, after giving up the triple to a rise and the double to Matt Chapman, gets this great defensive play by Mark Vientos, makes this headlong dive. They're gonna get out of the inning and only give up two runs. Great. And David Peterson, who's usually such a sure-handed defender, can't catch what is, okay, not a perfect throw by Viantos, but certainly catchable. It's right in his glove. And not only does he not catch it to get the third out, because he drops it and Matt Chapman is busting, he's able to score rounding third base and, you give the Giants a third run . Hand it to them . And the other one that really drove me nuts was the blooper hit by Casey Schmidt in the second inning , which didn't lead to a run. At least that's the positive, but that was the Marcus Simeon, Luis Robert Jr. play, the little blooper in a short center field where Marcus Simeon bullied Luis Robert Jr. into not calling him off . And Simeon was unable to make what was a difficult play that shouldn't have been a difficult play because it was Luis Robert Jr.'s baseball. And I wonder, I'm going to wonder aloud for a second. The Mets have been very careful, or the Mets had been very careful in spring training about keeping Robert Jr. fresh. You know, we got to keep his lower half healthy. We're not going to play him a lot in spring training. And the reason behind that is it's a strategy. We're trying to keep him healthy. Makes a lot of sense. Not arguing with that. But then you ask yourself, well, how many innings has Marcus Simeon and Luis Robert Jr. actually played together? You know, these are strangers basically converging on a short pop-up the center field. This is such a new team. And yes, it's a new team for us, but it's a new team for these guys. They've barely played together. And so I just wonder, I don't know. Does that contribute to To I don't even say miscommunication, but does that contribute to maybe Luis Robert Jr. not having the confidence to basically scream, YOLO Tango ? YOLO Tango. That's a famous 1962 story, but whatever, for those who get it . As opposed to just Marcus is calling it. He's a veteran. I'll let him catch it. It's not his ball . I'm Spencer and I work at United Healthcare. So, Spencer, why do you care? I care because my daughter, Adeline, has special needs. I am motivated by Adeline who inspires me every day. I am driven to help families like mine navigate the healthcare system . I'm so blessed to lead an amazing team at United Healthcare focusing on the member experience and making that better. I'm Spencer and I'm committed to care . Look around. Every car you see is probably on auto trader. New cars, used cars, electric cars. As for flying cars, well, we're ready when they are. If you see a car you like , find it on Auto Trader. That's our kind of thing. Auto Trader. Hey Fidelity. Can I get a second opinion on stocks in the Fidelity app? With Fidelity, it's easy to get an outside opinion from independent experts in a single score. And then when you're ready, trade US stocks and ETFs with no commissions. That's right. I am always right. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss, online US equity trades and ETFs and retail fidelity account. Seller assessment the not included. Some account types and securities excluded. Details at Fidelity.com slash commissions. Fidelity Broker Services L C number NYSC S IPC . And luckily, that doesn't come back and hurt them, other than you know, putting two guys on base with nobody out. What hurt them is that David Peterson made zero adjustments. What hurt them is that the San Francisco Giants on Thursday night, game one of this series, clearly had a game plan to attack David Peterson. And they did it. They swung at a ton of first pitches. They swung at a ton of uh second pitches, basically. Like early in the count, they were lambasting David Peterson and he made zero adjustments. It went on the entire game until he was finally chased with one out in the fifth inning. So not a good performance by David Peterson. He ends up giving up nine hits and two walks and four and a third innings. He kept his pitch count low. So I I always find this hypocrisy so funny to me. Uh we are victims of looking at the pitch count too often. Not all pitch counts are created equal. So because David Peterson threw 47 pitches through three, there's probably a sense of, well, let's keep him in the game. I mean, it's five to two. It's not 12 to 2 . But because his pitch count is low and you never want to rush to go to your bullpen because it can tax you for the following few days, Carlos Mendoza says, Can you start the fourth? And he rewards him. He pitches a one, two, three inning. Then he says, Can you start the fifth? And after he issues that one-out walk to Jung Ho Lee, finally Carlos Mendoza says, All right, I gotta take you out . So bad performance by David Peterson. I'm not panicked. I'm not concerned. Let's see what he does in his next start. I'm not going to connect the dots to his final month and a half of last season, which some may want to do. It's a brand new season. It wasn't a good start. Not going to defend that. They ambushed the hell out of him and he made zero adjustments. We'll see what he does in his next start, which is scheduled to be against Arizona. Pretty good offense . When Peterson was taken out, Mendy went to Sean Mania . I would have probably gone to Mania in inning earlier. Like I thought after three , to me, that's when I would have taken him out, with the attitude being, hey, look, Shaw Maniah, go eat the rest of this game. You know, we're working on making sure your pitch count stays up. Go out there. And once you decide to use Shaw Maniah in this game, you are deciding that he's not going to take the baseball on Sunday for Kodai Sanga. And the Mets are officially going to start Kodai Senga on Sunday on regular rest, four days rest as they say . As far as what I thought about Mania , it was a very mixed bag. I mean, he was not fooling anybody. You look at the first battery faced. Harrison Bader just missed a home run. He walks Susak on four pitches. He gives up an RBI single to Casey shit. Uh , I apologize, Casey Schmidt . Well, that's a podcast, I guess. If I curse by accident, I don't have to dump it. Casey Schmidt, I should say, gives up the home run to Raphael Devers. There was a lot of hard contact against Shamania . So three and two thirds innings, one run is probably not indicative of honestly the way he pitched. Like he was not fooling anybody. I thought there were two minor positives out of Shaw Mania. And it's sad that I'm saying that about a guy making $25 million a year who I thought was the ace of the team a year ago. You talk about a fall from grace, Shaw Mani us had one, but I I can't harp on that. Like we can't freak out about how much money he's making or what we thought about him a year ago. We can only react to the current moment. I thought the two positives were there was a little bit more velocity on his fastball. He touched 90 a handful of times. So a little bit of growth in terms of the velocity. Maybe it's slowly coming back. But the real positive wasn't about Mania . It was about the fact that he was able to eat the rest of that game . You know, a big part of baseball nowadays, as much as this soksc, and a big part of games is the chess match of when you use arms, not just for that game, but how it affects the next day and the next day. A little bit earlier I was talking about how in game two of this series, Garcia and Love Lady getting those last six outs and not having to even warm up Devin Williams is a huge win. It is a huge win. Minaya being able to pitch the final three and two th irds innings , it's huge. Because it kept them on Friday with a fresh bullpen, which helps them on Saturday with a fresh bullpen, which may well help them on Sunday . It matters . The question, though, about Sean Mania is when is he making a start? Now let's assume everybody's healthy because I don't want to go down that road of well, Evans, someone can get hurt. Of course, somebody can get hurt. But as of right now, the Mets are in this midst of a significant stretch of games that's about to end. And I had pointed out for a while that I kind of thought Minaya was going to start the game on Sunday against the Giants because it was an easy pushback on Senga to not have his second start of the year be on quote unquote regular rest. But he's going to pitch on Sunday, Kodai Sang. It's going to be his regular rest st art. And based on the schedule, based on where Sangha fits, and based on just the off days that are coming up. This is actually going to be the last time Kodai Senga is going to have to pitch on regular rest until the first week of May. And that's without doing any alterations. That's without putting Shaw Mania h in the rotation at any point, which leads me to ask the question just based on the schedule, and I'll briefly give it to you . Is Shaw Maniah making a start before May? I mean, they could, I guess, insert him whenever they want and push everybody back, but if the concern is Senga, if that's the guy you're looking at saying, hey, I wouldn't want him on regular rest, then it's not necessarily. In fact, coming up after this off day on Monday, they play nine straight games again. The only guys who would be scheduled to pitch on regular rest are Peralta , David Peterson, N olan McLean, and Clay Holmes. Basically, everybody in the rotation, but Kodai Senga. So is there somebody in that mix, maybe it's Clay Holmes, who you would want to give an extra day to? If not, then they have an off day. They play three games, there's another off day. They play six games, there's another off day. And so Kodai Senga would not have to pitch on regular rest until Monday, May 4th . So I wonder if Shaw Maniah is making a start . Shaw Maniah's role may be as you know you could call it a piggyback all you want. So far, he hasn't piggybacked. He's a long man. There is a difference between the two. And if you ask, what's the difference? Here's the difference. A long man comes in when your starter sucks. A long man comes in to eat up innings when your starting pitcher gives up nine hits and six runs in four and a third innings. Hello, David Peterson . A piggyback is when you get four solid innings from your starter, and you say, you know what? Before things get bad, I'm taking you out of the game. Like we saw last year with the piggybacks between Clay Holmes and Sean Mania . That's a piggyb ack. Right now, Shawmann ain't piggybacking. He's a long man . He's a $25 million a year long man. And I'm not complaining about it. I'm just telling you, that's what he is . The other thing to keep an eye on, how about the allotment of playing time at first base ? At the very beginning of the season, even before that during spring training, we were guessing. We were playing that game of who's going to play the most games at first base. Well, we are eight games into the season. Four guys have played first base as starters, and it is literally two , two, two , and two . You can't make it up. Jorge Polanco started the first two games at first base, two . Jared Young has started two games at first base, two. Brett Beatty has started two games at first base, two , and Mark Vientos has started two games at first base . Excuse me . two . So it'll be interesting to see how that continues. Obviously, Mark Vientos is doing a wonderful job of grabbing the playing time, of taking the playing time. And we'll see if he can continue that. So two more games in this series. Obviously, the Mets have broken out offensively. We'll see if they can keep that up over the weekend against Landon Roop and then Logan Webb on Sunday afternoon. I went into this road trip hoping for four and three. Right now they are two and three. So to accomplish that goal, they gotta find a way to win the next two games, and that would certainly get us in good moods as they come home next week to take on the Diamondbacks and the Athletics. But overall, nice to see the offense break out. It's nice to see the individuals that have been so concerning show you a pulse offensively, and now the Mets will get a crack to seal the deal over the next two days against San Francisco. We'll have a Rico Brogna after the series is over, our traditional series recap, in which we'll name the Rico I'm the man now star of the series and also our net negative. But I do want to read a few emails, thereico b at gmail.com, thereco b at gmail.com. There are a couple that I certainly want to get to . We'll start off with uh you want to rip Carlos Mendoza? Want a Mendy's Gotta Go email? Should we start there ? Christopher writes I've been a Mendoza apologist since the team turned it around in twenty twenty-four. However, he's losing me. I don't think his bullpen management has been that bad, but on top of not hitting, this team has bad fundamentals in the field and on the base paths. The locker room vibes seem off. Kinda like it's just a bunch of rich guys going to work. What do you think? Does this fall on Mendoza? They're grown men at the end of the day. The one thing I'll agree with you about is and it continued even in a victory. So we can acknowledge that. And that is the fact that there is a lot of lack of fundies. Yeah, two bat two pass balls from Francisco Alvarez. You had a wild pitch uh that Alvarez should have blocked in the opener of this series. You had the miscommunication between Robert Jr. and Simeon, uh the error by David Peterson. You had the Luis Robert Jr. base run ning. There's a lot of that. I agree. And ultimately, fair or not, like it always does come down to the manager . Like, that is true. How concerned am I about that right now? I mean, I'd like to see that change. You know, as this team is continuing on, because we are still so early in the season and it is such a new team. L likeike, yeah, you want to see the fundamentals get cleaned up. It's got to be better, it's got to be improved. And I don't think there's any question that if the Mets falter, and it certainly needs to be a heck of a lot more than, you know, a handful of games. But if the Mets falter, the person that's going to take the blame is going to be Carlos Mendoza. I don't think there are any doubt. Uh, the update on Juan Soto is that they're gonna get imaging on Juan Soto's calf on Saturday. So I mean, cross your fingers on that one because it's scary. Who knows what that image is gonna imaging is gonna show. Uh could we lose Juan Soto for an extended period of time? I mean, yes, it's on the table. So keep your fingers crossed and uh try not to refresh Twitter too much on Saturday, or you're gonna drive yourself nuts. Well, let me ask you a question about the Soto thing because if you have , am I correct that the calf issue that we've seen lately in sports leads to an Achilles. Am I am I wrong with that? Has that been going on? Yeah, that's been going on more in football and basketball than baseball, but yeah. Okay, so say we put 'em on the IL. Say say even if it's pre precautionary and just we want to avoid injury. Who sees the play in time? Because I I thought about this right now, the what the the Stearns and the Mendoza move is all right, we have Jared Young and we got Taylor who is gonna see time, but like Mark Vientos, and you talked about it earlier, has been earning like he has taken whatever it was bad luck from the spring , but what he's done on these 11 at bats or 12 at bats that he has so far, he has proven that he needs to play every day. So do you put Beatty in the outfield and take him off of first base? Yeah. Uh I think that Tyrone Taylor is going to play a lot. I know that's not exciting, but Tyrone Taylor is a really good defender and defense does matter. Um, but I think Brett Beatty in the outfield , Mark Vientos, and Jorge Polanco sharing first base in DH is probably the best approach when it comes to offense. But obviously, defensively, Tyrone Taylor is a good outfielder. Now, look, you're losing Juan Soto and his defense isn't great to begin with. So it's fair to say how much defense you actually losing if you're talking about Beatty and right, Robert Jr. in center, Benjamin left. Just assuming that's how they do it, because you're probably not going to want to bounce Beatty all around the outfield. You're probably not losing that much. But I think it's Beatty. Assuming Vientos is about to get a lot of playing time and assuming Polanco is healthy enough to play again, I I think that Beatty and Taylor probably just get more playing time out of it. And naturally Jared Young will too, just because they they love him, clearly. But I I think the guy who probably ends up benefiting the most in terms of playing time is Tyrone Taylor. He barely played the first week and a half of the season. They've gotten him into games recently. And let's say this about Tyrone Taylor. He is what he is. We all know that. He can get hot and you know help this team out for a few weeks. I think he went back-to-back Rico on the man right now, stars of the series last year. But he's a professional. So I think he'll end up getting plenty of playing time as well. I'm nervous though. I mean, it's crazy. Juan Soto, I'm looking at his career. I don't know if he's ever been on the I. Just based on the amount of games he's played. 160 last year, 157 with the Yankees, 162 with the Padres, 153 with the Padres and Nationals, 151 with the Nationals in 2021, 47 of 50 in 2020, and 150 in 2019. That's like 9 8 % of available games. So he has got an incredible track record of being out there all the time, which I guess would make you feel good that it'll be okay, he'll play, but I don't know he's going for imaging. I mean, who knows what they're gonna show? You never know, but yeah, he has not spent much time not playing baseball. All right, so I did a quick search. Thank you, Google. Um , he was in May of 2019 , landed on the I. L with back spasms. In 2021, 10-day IL with left shoulder strain, and that's been about it. So twice . That's nothing. And those are short IL stints just based on the amount of games he ended up playing. A calf is scary, though. I mean, it just is. So yeah. And you saw and you saw him around the base. It wasn't like he came up and was like hopping to third. It was more something that like you saw the concern on his face, which may be worse. What do you mean? The concern on his face made it worse? Yeah, because like uh if if we all saw like something happen, like oh, there you go. Like he he blew something or whatever the case is, the fact that he was taken out after like just like kind of like slowing down, I don't know if that's something like I almost feel like there's something that he knows in his body that we all don't know. Well, I think he knew enough to take himself out of the game. I mean, again, he's not someone that comes out of games often. No. Uh yeah, watching the replay of it. I mean, he clearly something was bothering him. I also the Mets have to be cautious. They've got to be careful. I know that every game matters. Uh we we get that. They've their seasons ended on tiebreakers, two straight years, advancing and not advancing, but you gotta play it cautious with him. He's so important. And so if he's got to go on the IL just to make sure he's right, you do it. I don't want to hear, oh, he's going to DH for a few weeks. Like just put him on the IL. You know, it gives other guys opportunities, like you said, to step up. You know, and guys can step up. I mean, it's it's not impossible for guys to step up while someone's on the injured list for a few weeks. But fingers crossed, hopefully we don't get bad news. But based on the fact they're going to do imaging, I I would be stunned if we saw them this weekend. I think he's definitely done for the weekend. And I think the the hope is he avoids the I. L and we see him early in the homestand next week uh when they take on Arizona. Do they fingers crossed? Do they press Polanco to to to play now because of like that's the other thing too? Like if Polanco is missing days already with his Achilles, like I'd almost want to see him go in the IL too rather than like save, not say save him at now, but I don't need it to get worse. If he's someone that we're gonna rely upon all season long, don't get worse and then be out for more time in the future. You know, I agree. Go on the IL.in Aga, it creates more opportunities. I don't know if that means Ronnie Mauricio would come up or who we're talking about from the minor leagues necessarily, but I mean, certainly we know who's going to get the opportunities here. I mean, Mark Vientos between the injuries and his performance