Looking Ahead to the Next Matchup

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It's the amazing Rico Bronya Podcast with your host, Evan Roberts. Welcome to a morning or day after edition of Rico Brunha . On Monday night, if you were fortunate enough, you stayed up very late to watch the New York Mets get shut out by the Los Angeles Dodgers by a final score of four-nothing. I stayed up for the entire game. And as the game ended, a little after midnight, I said, you know what? I'm going to collect my thoughts. I'm going to go to sleep. And we'll do the first ever morning after day after Rico Brunya. So I've had about eight to ten hours to marinate over another Met loss and we will talk about it. So this podcast I think is good for those that didn't watch the game. We'll give you a quick recap and for those that want analysis after the Mets lost the first game of this series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It is now, if you're keeping track at home, their sixth consecutive loss. I always say that these West Coast games are tougher because if you're investing your time in staying up late past your normal bedtime, you almost have higher expectations, or almost more upset when your team loses. This was like watching a game in a coma because in the top of the first inning, you know, is your typical we got nothing top of the first inning. I thought off the bat Francisco Lindor made decent contact. It turned out to be a fly ball to right field. Luis Robert Jr. inserted into the two-hole, which I can't argue with. Right now, there's nothing about lineup construction I could argue about, considering everybody sucks. So we could sit here and parse it and be like, hit this guy fifth, hit this guy third, hit this guy ninth. Dude, if people don't hit, it does not matter. And then Mark Vientos came up, actually had a decent at-bat, and he struck out. And Mark Vientos has not had a hit in what feels like six years. So the Met offense does nothing against the immortal Justin Roblesky. More on that as the pod goes on. And then you get an absolutely bizarre first inning from David Peterson, where he's ahead of show. Hey Otani Owen too, and he drills him. He walks Kyle Tucker and gives up an RBI hit to Will Smith that none of us ever saw because SNY, God knows what they're doing. They're as bad as the Met offen se these days, is showing highlights of a home run from last October. And so we actually never see Will Smith pound the ball up the middle for an RBI single that gave the Dodgers the early one-nothing lead before David Peterson ever recorded an out. And yeah, I I'll admit, I know my issues are with the Mets, my issues are with the lineup. But again, when you stay up late, it's okay to be irrational. It's okay to just be mad at everything. SNY , get your heads out of your ass. You have one job. One job. Your network exists for one thing to broadcast Met Games. I like some of the shows. I like Craig Carton. I like baseball night in New York. I love it. You are here to broadcast the Mets. Don't F it up. And you did. You did. So apologize to all of us who are staying up late at night, and you gotta show us a replay from a home run last October, as opposed to what's happening on the baseball field. But I digress. My issues aren't really with SportsNet New York, my issues are with the Mets . And I give David Peterson a lot of credit because after he walked to Oscar Hernandez and the bases are loaded with nobody out, and the Mets are down one-nothing with an absolute LD offense, aren't we all thinking the same thing, which is let's just shut the TV off? I thought about it. I did. And I'm not one to shut the TV off. I'm not one to give up. I'm a hey, it's baseball, you never know. But with bases loaded, nobody out, down one-nothing already, an offense that has not shown a pulse. It felt like this game was going to slip away immediately. And I will give credit to David Peterson, and I will give credit to Justin Willard, who came out and said something to David Peterson. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was find a way to get out of this, because if you don't, you're gonna lose your rotation spot. Maybe in that. And David Peterson pulled it off. He struck out Freddie Freeman. He struck out the red hot Andy Paes. He struck out the other Max Muncie. And David Peterson did this. You know what he did for us? It was what we call a stay of execution. The game was not over. You can't shut it off down one-nothing. And David Peterson escaped. A little Houdini act in the bottom of the first inning. And jokes aside, I give him credit. Like that's called finding a way out of trouble. And he did it. And it was not easy, especially when you look at the hitters he was facing. Now, the LA Dodgers are not a major league team. They're an all-star team, even without Mookie Betts. We know how good they are. And for him to find a way through that part of the lineup, I mean, I know it's five, six, and seven, but again, Freddie Freeman is not your typical five-place hitter. Andy Pajas, who's been tearing the cover off the ball, as we'd see a few innings later, is not your typical six-hitter. And even Max Munz, he's a capable major leaguer. So great job by David Peterson. The problem is , this offense, and there's a difference between an offense that's slumping, an offense that's having good at-bats, an offense that's just hitting into some bad luck, and this mess. And I get there is some bad luck involved, like Bo Bachet started the second inning with a ball that should have been a base hit, and Miguel Rojas made this incredible diving play. So I'm not going to just ignore the fact that there are some tiny examples of the Mets hitting it of bad luck, but I think what was so discouraging about the LD offense performance on Monday, maybe more so than some of the others, was how easy they made it for Justin Roblaski. It was easy. It was a Maddox-like performance. Ground ball after ground ball after ground ball . And it was quick, man. Like I started this game about a half hour late. My strategy last night was to take a nap, which I did at about nine fifteen. I set my alarm for 1030 because I didn't want to fall too far behind. So I'm sitting down watching this game at about 1040. So about a half hour late, but I'm skipping commercials, and that's what keeps me, my blood flowing. So I'm not sitting there with commercials potentially putting me to sleep. And so I would hit that 30 second jump button when you get to the commercials. And sometimes it's not perfect. You're like maybe 10 seconds bleeding into the next inning . And most of the time when that happens, you know, you'll see it and it's 0 and 1, or it's 1 and 0, or maybe you missed a pitch or something of that nature. I cannot tell you how many times I would miss an out . In fact, I could tell you right now, second pitch of the fourth inning out, first pitch of the fifth inning out, second pitch of the sixth inning out . Like it was quick . It was painful ly quick. There was no battle. There was no compete . And you know, Carlos Mendoza after the game, he's running out of answers. So he'll say, hey, I think the effort's there. I'm not questioning the effort because I can't get anybody's brain to know if they're trying or not. All I can do, all we can do is describe what we're seeing, and what we're seeing is pathetic. What we're seeing is listless. What we're seeing is you're facing a guy in Justin Robleski who, has never gone beyond six innings in his major league career. Not once . This is a guy whose career is riddled with, you know, bad performances. Even in the minor leagues, he wasn't overly impressive. Even in college, this kid wasn't overly impressive. And you let J ustin Robles ky , like a knife through butter, go through this lineup as easily as he did, pathetic. Now back to David Peterson. He's about to get out of a jam in the third inning and he hangs a curveball to Andy Pajas, who delivered the back breaking three-run home run to make it four-nothing. Here's how I would describe David Peterson's performance. Because at the end of the day, you're judged on your numbers. You know, we could sit here and say it's only one bad pitch or it's only this or that. Five innings, four runs is not good enough. If you have a capable offense, it can be good enough. Like if you've got an offense that scores runs, sometimes we'll describe five innings, four runs as, hey, he kept you in the game. But with the way this team is hitting, five innings, four runs is not nearly good enough. David Peterson to me gets like a C grade for this performance. I give him credit for escaping the first inning. I give him some level of credit for going five after he gives up the home run, getting through the fourth inning a one out double, getting through big trouble in the fifth inning with second and third and one out and nobody scoring. But at the end of the day he gave up four runs and five innings. So it wasn't a dreadful performance by David Peterson. I don't think it was even a he's got to be out of the rotation performance by David Peterson, especially when you factor in that the LA Dodgers came into this game, averaging six runs per game. Let me give you some perspective. They came into this game having hit tw enty-eight home runs . Twenty-eight. The Mets had hit thirteen. So double plus two. And when you include the Pajas home run, it's double plus three. David Peterson was not the problem. The problem was the offense. The problem was this team has been shut out for a third time in four games. Let's play a little math. You want to have some fun with math? A little math game. So the Mets have been shut out for the third time in four games and for the fourth time this season. They have played 17 games. They have been shut out four times this season. That's basically, let me do some more math. Once every four games, the Mets are getting shut out. But I got a fun game for you. Last year, and I certainly made the case that the Met offense underachieved, in my opinion, last season. It wasn't horrendous, but it wasn't good enough, especially early with the lack of clutch hitting, which they made up for by having brilliant starting pitching. When do you think the Mets got shut out for the fourth time last season. Like, so this year it was in their 17th game. 17th game, April 13th, the Mets got shut out for the fourth time. Last year, in a year in which I certainly made the case. I think most people agreed. The offense underachieved. When do you think they got shut out for a fourth time? I wrote it down. Let me go look at it. Here we go. You want to guess, Pete? I know it's the morning and you may be getting your kids ready. If you can't do it, it's totally fine. But if you are available, Hall, if you want to guess when the Mets got shut out for the fourth time in 2025 , all right. I'll tell you anyway. Their 70 second game on June fifteenth. By the way, that was two days after the season was spiraling out of control. June fifteenth, almost the halfway point of the season , the Mets got shut out for a fourth time. This season, it happens in game seventeen on April 13th. Tax Act is here anytime you want to easily file your taxes. TaxAct is here for the early birds who like to knock them out as soon as the season opens. And for the procrastinators who like to wait until the very last minute. TaxAct is also here for the middlers who file right in the middle of tax season. No one ever talks about the middlers, but Tax Act sees you and Tax Act respects you. Tax Act, let's get them over with no one goes to Hank's for his spreadsheets. They go for a darn good pizza. Lately though, the shop's been quiet, so Hank decides to bring back the one dollar slice. He asks co-pilot in Microsoft Excel to look at his sales and costs and help him see if he can afford it. Copilot shows Hank where the money's going and which little extras make the dollar slice work. Now Hank says a line out the door. Hank makes the pizza, co-pilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more at M365 Copilot.comslashwork. Now the Mets ended up collapsing, so one may ask all right, Evan, how many times did the Mets get shut out last season? So their fourth time was on June 15 th. How many did it end up adding up to? Well, much to that math, it happened eight times. So they did it four more times after it happened on June 15th, which feels like an average amount of times. I mean, it actually feels like too much. I don't think you should get shut out in major league baseball when a good offense averages between four point seven and five point two runs per game . But they got shut out eight times last season. They've already been shut out four times. They have been shut out three times in the last four games. And here's what's infuriating: as they get set to take on like really good pitchers in Yamamoto and Otani, they have been shut out by mediocre to non-major league caliber starting pitching and bullpen arms. It's not as if they were shut out by Catfish Hunter and Sandy Colfax. I mean, go through the names. Go through the guys that shut the Mets out . So their offense gave you just an all-time pathetic performance. We also saw like a little bit of a miscue defensively. Let me take you back to that third inning when Paes broke the game open with a three-run home run. The Dodgers had two on and one out, and Freddie Freeman hit a ball up the middle. And I thought that Lindore and Simeon had a chance to turn what would have been a very impressive double play. Lindor got to it, flipped it to Simeon, and Marcus never made a throw, which surprised me when you've got the slow footed Freddie Freeman running up the first baseline. Now, is that as bad of a miscue as Lindor not covering second? Absolutely not, but it's a little thing, and little things matter. Especially when you're not scoring runs. Would it have made a difference? No . I mean , the New York Mets did not get a runner into scoring position last night. We can't even bitch about the lack of a big hit with guys in scoring position because they didn't get any . And I'm such a naive little bastard. I really am. Because on Saturday, when they were down big, I admitted this on the RICO a few days ago. I didn't tweet it, but I at least admitted it. I came clean, that I thought this was going to be the game they come back and win. It's 701 early. Sang is terrible. This will be where the offense breaks out. They're going to come back. They're going to win this game. And they almost did, but they didn't. I honestly thought as this game was going on, they're going to come back. It's going to come out of nowhere. Because sometimes you need those wins that come out of nowhere. And on Monday night in Major League Baseball, I thought there were two teams that had these great victories that maybe kind of spark a huge winning streak. The Yankees had it against the Angels. And even though the Orioles are starting to win games, Pete Alonso had his moment for the Orioles. I'm apologizing to bring that up, but they did come back from seven and one down. So I wasn't even trying to bring up uh the slugging first baseman. I could just bring up Jeremiah Jackson. But my point is, those kinds of comebacks are special and they can spark a season. And this team needs it. The problem is, as much as I can sit here, or you can sit here and say, they need this, they need this signature comeback, they need this great moment. They are showing no signs of providing that. From top to bottom, I look at this lineup on Monday night. Lindor won a very quiet 0 for 4, three ground outs, including the double play that ended the game. Luis Robert Jr. moved up to the two-hole, 0 for 3. Ground out, ground out, fly out. Mark Vientos, 0 for 3. Strikeout, ground out, lineback to the pitcher. Bo Bachet, 0 for 3, 3 ground outs. When he got Rob done. Jorge Polanco won for three. He provided a one-out single in the fifth inning. Let's have a party. Francisco Alvarez one for three, a double play ball that short-circuited that fifth inning rally, and a two-out single in the eighth inning. Tommy Fam, what a waste he's been so far. I know it's only one day. I digress. O for three, strike out, ground out, ground out. Marcus Simeon, who feels washed. I'm sorry. O for three, fly out, pop-up single, and Tyrone Taylor 0 for three, who did have that great at-bat in the third, the 10-pitch at bat, in which he ended up lining out. I mean, just zeros across the board. And so for everybody out there, and I get emails about this saying, oh, Mendy's an idiot with the lineup. There is nothing he can do with this garbage lineup right now. And by garbage, I don't mean all of these players are garbage. I mean they're all playing like garbage, which is fact. There's nothing he can do. So we can sit here and try to come up with the perfect lineup. It is a waste of time until guys perform. If Mark Vientos is going to go hitless in his last, how many at bats are we up to? N nowow it doesn't matter . If Francisco Lindor isn't gonna wake up, it doesn't matter. I would love to tell you, hey, they got to get Lindor out of the leadoff spot . For who ? For what exactly? Like the lineup right now and changing it, which Mendy's done and he's tried, doesn't do anything when guys aren't performing . It does not matter. Craig Kimber looked good last night. That's positive. Joey Ger ber looked pretty good last night. Struck out Andy Paes in a big spot, keeping the game at four. See, I there are your positives. The bullpen pitched pretty well. David Peterson recovered and gave him five innings, but it does not matter when you can't score runs. Now let's get to this manager. Because two things can be true at the same time. Him changing the lineup may not make a difference, and Carlos Mendoza isn't necessarily the person to blame for what this team is going through right now. With that said , that doesn't matter when your team underachieves. That doesn't matter when your team looks lifeless. That doesn't matter when you get off to a start like this and you're coming off a collapse and you're coming off a year in which the team president cut your you know what's off by getting rid of your entire coaching staff. Carlos Mendoza may not survive this. And where I'm standing right now, I said this on Evan and Tiki on Monday. I said, I'm not ready to fire Carlos Mendoza. As we have this discussion and I am recording this Tuesday morning, if you're listening Tuesday afternoon, hopefully you're having a fine summer like afternoon. But here's where I stand today after one more loss . If the clock hitting midnight means I'm done with Mendy, and yesterday was about six o'clock at night, we jumped two hours to eight o'clock . And that doesn't mean I'm suggesting to you that this is Carlos Mendoza's fault, but it wasn't Willie Randolph's fault. It wasn't Jeff Torberg's fault with the Marlins in 2003. It wasn't Davey Johnson's fault when the Mets fired him midseason. It's not about fault. It wasn't Kenny Atkinson's fault when the Brooklyn Nets fired him. This is not about fault or who to blame. It's about when things are bad and you run out of answers, you have to try something. And the reality about the history of this sport, whether we like it or not, or it's fair or not, is firing managers spar ks teams. It almost feels like it happens frequently. Doesn't happen in the NFL. You do it in the NFL, your season is usually going to get worse. See Jeff Olbrick and the New York Jets. See the Giants from last ye ar . But look at our history . When they fired Willie Randolph, deservably or not, on the West Coast at two in the morning, even though the Mets didn't playoffs in 08, had they do under Jerry Manuel? They got sparked. When the Marlins fired Jeff Torburg in 03 and hired the 75-year-old Jack McKeon, had they do, they won the World Series. When the Astros fired Jimmy Williams and promoted Phil Garner in 2004. Had they do? They got to the seventh game of the National League Championship Series. I'm just giving you a few . So before we dive even deeper into the should the manager go conversation, we can all admit two things are true at the same time. The Mets aren't sucking because of Carlos Mendoza. As of right now, they're sucking for two reasons. The players aren't performing, and maybe just maybe David Stearns picked the wrong players. The jury is still out on that, but that first part is true. Players are not performing. And nine out of ten times when a manager is fired, it's not because the manager is necessarily doing something wrong that's causing it. It's that you gotta try something. And considering the Mets got rid of the entire coaching staff and the roster's completely different. So there aren't many similarities to last year's team, yet the results are worse. Fair or not, it's going to fall on Carlos Mendo za. Based on the emails I'm receiving, it feels like many Met fans are at about 11:45 at night. If we're going to use the clock analogy, midnight means you're ready to get rid of them. I got a lot of people saying get rid of them right now, as early as it is in this season . If you told me, and I hate the if you told me game, but I want to play it here and you'll see why, if we played the if you told me game in spring training and said the Mets are going to be seven and ten , would you fire Carlos Mendoza. My first answer would be probably not. Like seven and ten isn't two and fifteen. It's not good, but you're not buried quite frankly. But here's why that's always such a tough game to play. You gotta tell me how you get the seven and ten . The fact that they've lost six in a row, the fact that they've been shut out three times in four games, the fact that your best player is playing with his head up his rear end. And I mentioned this, not necessarily on the Rico. I think it was on Evan and Tiki. After Lindor forgot how many outs there were, it was an opportunity for Carlos Mendoza to send a message to the room by sitting him and pulling a Greg Popovich, where Pop used to say to Tim Duncan, I'm going to rein you in front of everybody, because if I can rein you in front of everybody, that shows the entire locker room that nobody is safe. And Carlos Mendoza missed that opportunity early in the season when Lindor forgot how many outs there were . But when you look at how , not the record, but how we got to seven and ten, I'm sorry, we have to have this discussion. And I get there'll be some people out there saying this is irrational. We're 17 games into a season. Dude, you got to look at the whole picture. And the whole picture includes being shut out, the listless at bats. And yeah, the whole picture includes last season. Willie Randolph was fired in part in 2008 because of what happened at the end of 2007. It was a continuation. 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That's not happening. You're not DFA ing Marcus Simeon when you still owe him God knows how much money over the next three years. You're not doing that. You're not DFA ing Jorge Polanco, you're not making a major trade in April . So all you can do is on the surface moves, which they've done, they made the two bullpen changes, they made the Ronnie Mauricio down for Tommy Fan move . That's all they really can do until they fire the manager . Again, where am I? It's eight o'clock at night. But I jumped two hours based on last night's performance. The thing about the next two days in LA, and I hate to sound like such a loser, is unlike the previous shutouts, like I mentioned, Justin Robleski, Aaron Savali , JT Ginn and the athletics bullpen. Those are the guys that shut them out. If they get shut out tonight, if you're consuming this on Tuesday, that's Yoshinabu Yamamoto. That's actually a good pitcher. I could at least rationalize in my head, all right. They got shut out by a guy who proved last year he may be an all-timer with what he did in the postseason . Now that's not going to make me feel better when I'm sitting there at 1230 in the morning. But I can understand it. But if they continue to lose and this six-game losing streak turns into an eight game losing streak, which almost feels like a fait accompli against the Dodgers and then the Cubbies, who have been flawed this season, beats the Mets two out of three. I am having a very tough time imagining how Carlos is going to survive much more . So let's get to the interesting but unfortunate discussion that we must have. And that is who replaces them. Now, I'm going to frame it this way: to me, there are three internal candidates, and then there's your outside the box very unlikely candidate. Let's start with the inside the box internal likeliest options. Number one, the guy mentioned the most is Kai Korea, who they brought in to be their defensive specialist and their bench coach. And Hoff could tell you this. When we were down in spring training, Kai is a small man. He almost has a childlike look to him, but he has a very big personality. He feels very much like a leader. So I don't know much about Kai. I have not had long discussions with Kai career. But if you just want me to give you like a very brief what the hell do you know about this guy? Just from being down in spring training, that'd be my description. And I don't think that's a negative thing at all. It's actually a compliment. He he came across very leader-like. He was running all the drills and had a big, strong personality. But he just, you look at him, and I know med fans will do this at that first press conference. You're going to say, What is he? 12 But Kai Korea's never managed before. And Kai Korea is very new to this group. And Kai Korea is the bench coach right now, which makes him a likely candidate only because when you look at the history of replacing managers in the middle of seasons, more than often, or more likely than not, it is the bench coach. It was the bench coach with Jerry Manuel. It's been the bench coach many times before. The other option, and I would actually say he's a slight favorite over Kai Korea, despite the bench coach normally getting the job, is Andy Green. Andy Green is the forgotten name. Andy Green managed the San Diego Padres for a few years. He was not good. The team wasn't very good. So I don't know how much I'm going to put it on Andy, but he did not have a lot of win-loss success. But he's managed before and he's in the front office. And I think that gives him an edge because of the connection he currently has to David Stearns on the front office . And it really would be a new voice in terms of someone not currently on the coaching staff. I will tell you this: I think Andy Green is a better option than Kai Korea. And the reason I say that is even though his managerial experience isn't good, I do think it helps to have someone who's done it before. The Mets have hired a lot of first-time managers over the years. Mickey Calloway, first time manager, had that go. Luis Rojas, first time manager, had that go . Obviously, Carlos Mendoza, it's been a mixed bag. Very good in 24, at least the second half of 24, very good in the first half of 25. And then he was the manager over a horrible slow burn collapse of a year ago. And obviously the start that has gotten his feet in very hot water. So those to me are the two realistic likeliest internal options in Kai Korea and Andy Green. I would say Andy Green is the favorite to become the manager over Kai Korea because of that managerial experience and because of his connection that he currently has to the front office . The third option, and quite frankly, I would endorse him. This would be the guy I would go with. I think there are some complications due to some schedules, but I think for a myriad of reasons he'd be the guy, and I think he'd be the guy that would excite the fan base. But it's not even about exciting the fan base. We just want to win. I actually think he'd make the biggest difference in this room. And I think it's obvious. And that's Carlos Beltron. And that is not like a neon lights headline grabbing hire for the reason I say it. I'll say this again because I have a long memory. Beningo has a long memory. We all have long memories. And I'll say this as calmly as I can because I don't want to go on a tirade that has nothing to do with this current team. It was a disgrace that the Will Ponds bowed the knee to Rob Manfred and they fired Carlos Beltron. Carlos Beltron should have been the manager of the New York Mets. They should not have fired him. They should not have removed him. And quite frankly, he's been the biggest hose-jobbed person from the Astros scandal more than anyone else. Because AJ Hinch sat out a year and got a job. Alex Cora sat out a year and came back to the same effing job. And every last Astral player suffered zero consequences. I don't want to get on a tirade. I'm done with that. Let's get to the now . The now is he knows these players. He's been around. He's a part of them at front office as indirectly as his job may be. They respect him. And here's the thing about Carlos Beltron that Mendoza can't do, that Andy Green can't do, that Kai Korea can't do, and that ninety-nine percent of people can't do. He could look at Juan Soto straight in the eye and say, dude, I know what it's like . And oh, by the way, not only do I know what it's like, I have a ring on my finger, even if it wasn't with the Mets, and I'm a hall of famer. And even if Juan Soto may go down as the better all-time player than Carlos Beltron, Carlos Beltron has a gravitas to these players that no one else will have. And unlike, no offense, to a guy like Keith Hernandez, these players don't know Keith Hernandez. They'd have to look him up in a history book. They know Carlos Beltron. They may not have played against Carlos Beltran, but they know him very well. And so I think the respect that he has is immediate. It is swift. And I think that Carlos Beltron, and I I I I apologize for not playing clips of this, but I think we've been so busy with the season. He did a press conference uh the other day with the Mets talking about you know the number retirement and all that you talk about a guy who gets it you talk about a guy who is reflective on what happened in this town and the battles he had in this town and the fact that Met fans didn't fully accept him. He gets it as much as anybody. And I think self-reflection is one of the most important qualities a human being can have in terms of getting better and better. That guy gets it. And that matters because he's dealing with a room that features a lot of Carlos Beltrons, a lot of guys that come here with that pressure and that contract and the booze and everything that goes along with it. And here's the other thing about Carlos Beltron. And I'll bring up the Astros cheating scandal. I don't care. He's really smart . You want to say he orchestrated the scandal? Yeah. He orchestrated it because he knows how to get an edge. And I think unfortunately in Houston, that edge, which was legal, got pushed to illegal territories. And Carlos has apologized for it. But you talk about sealing stealing signs in a legal way and picking up signs in a legal way. Carlos always played that game. And I think Carlos also just knows how to handle players and the strategic stuff. Look, are we gonna sit here on Rico Browns and criticize some of his moves? Of course we will. We'll do that with Miller Huggins if he came back . But he is the guy. The complication is he's going into the Hall of Fame this year. Is Carlos Beltron really going to want to get into managing now as he goes to the Hall of Fame in late July, as he has his number retired? I don't know where he's at. I don't know where his mindset is at. But he'd be the guy. The outside the box. And I mentioned this on Evan and Tiki, uh, I don't think it's gonna happen, but we talked about Joe Girardi as a guy who has managerial experience. Obviously, he's won a World Series. I think the key with Joe to have a serious discussion about him, and no, I don't think the Mets are gonna pluck him out of the yes network booth. But hey, he is a manager who is available who's sitting there waiting. I think Joe Girardi would need to show that he's learned from Philadelphia and learned about the relationship part of baseball. Like when it comes to the binder and it comes to the analytics and it comes to thinking smart and making the right moves, I think Joe is as good as it gets. I thought he was a really good manager with the New York Yankees. I think what did him in was the relationshi ps. And what I am willing to admit when it comes to managers or even players, I would talk about this all the time with Tiki when it came to a guy like Anthony Richardson, is you're allowed to learn and get better. And I wonder , with having three and a half years to sit, reflect on the disaster that was Philly, the success, but the end that was the Bronx. Can he kind of recalibrate and learn how to better connect with the modern player in 2026. So I think Joe Girardi and Carlos Beltron in a lot of ways are the complete opposite. I think Girardi from a strategic standpoint, from a experience standpoint, from a dealing with the media standpoint, dude, I give them an A. Like, there are no issues with that. I think it's about connecting with the players. Because when I go through, and I'm not going to do it today on the Rico, but if I went through all the examples of fired managers and the hiring sparking a team, one of the great examples, unfortunately, involves Joe Girardi. He was fired, Rob Thompson became the guy, and the Phillies went on a great run and obviously got all the way to the World Series . So unfortunately for Joe, he's on the wrong end of this discussion. But I think he's a name worth talking about, as unrealistic as it is, because he's available . He's he's sitting right there. But if the Mets decide to fire Carlos Mendoza, which I think is closer to happening today than it was yesterday, I think the three names to keep an eye on, and I'll rank it in terms of the order of, I guess, realism, would be number one, Andy Green. I think he'd be the guy. Number two, Kai Corrella, and number three, Carlos Beltron. But they got to start winning and they got to start showing a pulse. Because what we are witnessing right now, Met fans, is very, very bad. And we are witnessing a team that looks as if they're dead and it's the middle of April. And I can't say it looks like a team that is no longer listening to the manager, which sometimes happens after just a long period of time, because number one, Mendy's only been here for two years and a couple of weeks. And number two, most of the guys are new. He's not losing Bo Bachet, or at least he shouldn't. He's not losing Marcus Simeon. He's not losing these guys. This is such a new team . So this would be the Mets if they make a managerial move doing something that they almost did during the offseason, but basically saying we have to try something . For every one calling for the head of David Stearns, you are A, not firing a team president in the middle of the season. And B, as frustrating as it is, we actually have to let things play out. But if you're looking for blood, here's what I'll say. And David Stern should know this. We are 17 games into the season, so it's still a small sample size. His remake of the 2026 New York Mets so far, and again , still only 10% of the season, is a colossal failure. And it's an embarrassment . Hopefully it turns. Hopefully, his new additions aren't going to live in Met history, the way signing Vince Coleman to replace Daryl Strawberry Wood, or the Red Sox bringing in Jose Offerman to replace Mo Vaughn, or the Yankees bringing in Jacoby Ellsbury to replace Robin Sinkano . Let's hope it' doesnt live littered in that part of history . But as of right now, David Stearns has to be embarrassed. He has built so far. And I keep using those words because I know baseball can turn, but it is bad so far. And in terms of where my confidence is, I remain steadfast during their struggles of 2025 that they would make the playoffs. I was not rewarded with that. I was wrong. I somehow remained steadfast through the early parts of 2024 that they were better than this, that they would turn their season around. And eventually I was rewarded for that. Even in 2023, there was a level of confidence that they would turn it around, which is why I didn't want them necessarily to sell. I was not rewarded for that. But you can see over the last three years, I've had this level of faith and confidence that the roster was better than the way they were playing . I don't have that same confidence right now . I do not trust the core pieces of this roster . I just don't. I hope I'm wrong. I hope Marcus Simeon has a great year. I hope Bo Bachette has a monster year. And I certainly hope that Juan Soto can come back from his calf injury, not miss a beat, and be a demon. I hope all of that. But in terms of confidence, I don't have it right now. Game two of this series on Tuesday night, Nolan McLean takes them out against Yoshinabu Yamamoto. I think this is a great test for Nolan McLean. He has pitched reasonably well over his first three starts. He's gotten better in each start. He continues to give you belief that he can be that next great pitcher. And tonight's a real challenge. This is a murderous lineup. I mentioned the Dodgers are averaging six runs per game. It's Dodgers Stadium. It's a tough environment. Good luck to Nolan McClain tonight. I think he has a chance to continue to write the story of his young career, but it may not matter if they can't score any runs. I mean, like Freddie Peralta on Sunday, you can go six innings, allow one run and be great. If your offense doesn't do anything, there's nothing you can do about it. But big test for Nolan McClain tonight. Clay Holmes is good to go for Wednesday. The Mets need to find a way to stop the bleeding. And let us hope, let us say a fake baseball prayer to the baseball gods that we will get your typical that's baseb all moment. The Mets can't hit JT Ginn. They can't hit Justin Roblesky. They can't hit Mark Leiter coming out of the bullpen or Elvis Alvarado coming out of the bullpen, but they find a way on a late Tuesday night to pound Yoshinabu Yamamoto . We shall see. We appreciate you downloading and listening to the Rico Brown. You make sure you download it and subscribe because you never know when we're going to pop up and do a RICO. This is our first ever morning after edition of the Rico