Prospect News And Future Outlook

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It's the amazing Rico Bronia Podcast with your host, Evan Roberts. Rico Baronia . The New York Mets won a baseball game. And that is something that we should cherish because for only the tenth time this season, we were able to sit there and watch our favorite baseball team, or our least favorite baseball team, based on your perspective, win a baseball game as they took the opener of the three game series against the Washington N ationals by a score of eight to nothing. What we will do on this episode of the RICO, episode six eighty one, we'll talk a little bit about the game, the positives, even some of the negatives, and also the news and notes that came out of Carlos Mendoza's press conference on Tuesday, injury updates to Luis Robert Jr., Kodai Sangha, Wam Soto , and even some signific ant pros pect news around New York Metsville. So we'll get to all that. But let's start with the fact that they won a game. Let's start with the fact that when the Mets have won games and they have been very rare, the two games against Minnesota, game two and three of that three game series, they were not easy. We stressed over it. A three to two win on Wednesday night, a ten seven win or ten eight win that they held on to for dear life when Devin Williams nearly imploded. And before that, you got to go back a few weeks and they won a four three game in ten and a five two game against the Giants. You've got to go back to April fourth. April fourth. And yesterday was April twenty eighth. So that's twenty four days. That's three and a half weeks. The last time the Mets won a game comfortably, the last time you were actually able to put your feet up and say, I'm just going to enjoy this. And sometimes when you blow a team out over the course of a long season, that may be the kind of game that you check out on, the kind of game where you say, you know what, I got other things to do. Certainly on Wednesday night, or I should say Tuesday night. There were plenty of other things to do . The Yankees and Rangers were involved in a classic, the Grom versus Schlitter. The Knicks were obviously involved in their ass whooping of the Atlanta Hawks. So it would have been easy to just tune out and say, you know what? We're up eight, nothing. This is fun. I don't need to focus on every pitch. But when you go three and a half weeks without a resounding win, three and a half weeks without a comfy rocking chair victory, if you will. Nah, you're gonna cherish every pitch. You are gonna watch every last second of this game. And that's what I did. I soaked it all in as they beat the Nationals eight-nothing. There are some negatives that I will draw from this, and those negatives are not about the actual win, because obviously you win, it's all great. It's the negatives about the host Evan Roberts. Are we gonna do this off? Are we gonna have the intro go on and on again? That happened one Sonorico Brunio a couple years ago, where it kept going and going and I fought through it for like twenty minutes and then finally I was like, I I I don't know if I could do this. Anyhow, hopefully that's one and done. Anyhow, the negatives are more about signs that this team is breaking out of it, signs that maybe they're actually a good team. So we'll get to that in a little bit, but let me start with probably the biggest positive of them all. And that isn't even the offense exploding for the seven runs in the fourth inning. It's Clay Holmes. Because day in and day out, when Clay takes the baseball every five or six days, he continues to be so impressive. And for all the bad that David Stearns has done, and he's done plenty of bad, which we talk about a lot, the decision to sign Clay Holmes and convert him into a starting pitcher . That's a win. That's a that's a resounding win. And you're starting to think and starting to feel that the victory isn't oh clay Holmes is a solid back of the rotation arm. The way he's throwing the baseball and the start he's off to now six starts into the season, you're starting to say to yourself, holy crap, is he a top of the rotation arm? Because that's the way he's pitched to start this year. And remember this about the Washington Nationals. They came into this game averaging five point three eight runs per game. They came into this game having hit thirty-four home runs this season, fourteen more than the Mets had hit coming into the game. This is an offense that's been pretty damn good. You know, it's not like Clay Holmes put together six scoreless innings against a bunch of high schoolers. It's not like he did it against the Mets . And Clay continu es every time he takes the baseball to just be really impressive. We saw it in his start against Minnesota. That was the game that stopped the losing streak when he went seven innings and allowed two runs. Even his performance against the Dodgers, like it wasn't brilliant, but you are facing the Dodgers and he goes out there and he goes five innings, two runs. The game against the A's goes into the sixth inning, only allows a run. The game against the Giants, he goes seven scoreless, so he's been an innings eater . He's been I wouldn't say he's been dominant because I think when you watch him, he's getting a lot of ground balls. You know, he'll put guys on base. He's not overwhelming ly dominant. He's not striking a million guys out. He did have six yesterday, but he's just workmanlike, getting a ton of ground balls, mostly to second base. It feels like he feeds Marcus Simeon all day. And Clay Holmes has been, you know, even above Nolan McClain. As much as we all love Nolan McLean, I'd say through the six starts that we've seen, Clay Holmes has been their best starting pitcher . And you start to believe more and more about what he can do moving forward. Last year was an adjustment year for him, going from the bullpen to the rotation. This year is now year two. It's becoming old hat for him. And he's been great. And so I think headline number one out of that eight nothing victory is that Clay Holmes gave you a brilliant performance. He makes the big pitches when he needs to, and he just continues to marvel . So credit to Clay, and yes, as much as none of us want to do it, a credit to David Stearns. As far as this offense is concerned, there were a couple of really, really good positives. Number one, Bo Bouchette. Bo Bouchette had good at bats in this game. Obviously, he had the tone setter, the very first pitch of the game. He goes opposite field for his second home run of the season. And Zach Lattell, who had a good year last year, at least a decent year last year, has been awful in twenty twenty six. And one of the things that Lattell has been awful at is he's given up a ton of home runs. He came into this game having thrown twenty five innings. This is the amount of innings he had thrown coming into this start He had allowed eleven home runs. Eleven home runs . Even if those are all solo home runs, that's pretty awful . So I was hoping, and I think we all were, can this LD offense actually show up against a pitcher that so far this season has been throwing batting practice? And Bo Bouchette wasted no time . Very first pitch of the game, goes opposite field. He acted as if it was about a 400-foot shot because Bo goes opposite field, which is what he always does, and then poses for a second. So I'm watching this game on TV the way most people are, because God knows there weren't many people in the building. And Bo has that pause where you think this ball's going to be a no doubt about her. It barely got out. But it got out. And that was a real nice tone setter. But the problem is, and it turned out to be true for a few innings, we've seen the Mets hit leadoff home runs, or not leadoff home runs, but first inning home runs. We've seen them take like an early lead. And then the offense goes to sleep. And then as custom to this offense, who came in averaging a just disgusting three point two nine runs per game, we've seen this offense then just get mowed out. And that's exactly what happened. That's why there are some negatives about this offense, despite scoring eight runs, that don't convince you that this is the breakout that's going to lead to the offense explosion, not over a game, but over a couple of weeks. Again, I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong about a lot of things. I'm just being honest. Because after Bachet hits the home run, Zach Lattell and his 7.56 ERA sends the Mets down 1 2 3 after the home run, 1 2 3 in the second, works around a two out walk, and then luckily after that, in which it felt like this is going to be another slog where the Mets are going to have to win a game one nothing or two to one, the offense broke out. And they broke out because of luck. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. It's why I got so upset with Gary Cohn the other day when he said a lot or a part of the Met offensive struggles is bad luck. Which sure that's a part of baseball. There is bad luck. And there's certainly a handful of plays that you can point to that if it goes a foot to the left or a foot to the right, things look different. Mark Vientos lining into a double play, great example. Bo Bich ette getting robbed on a diving play by Tovar over the weekend, great example. But then there are moments where you get lucky. Now I'm not going to say they were lucky with the back to back walks to Beatty and Vientos because I thought those were good at bats. So credit to Vientos, credit to Beatty after the MJ Melendez base hit up the middle, they put together quality at bats against Zach Lattel that set it up with the bases loaded and one out. But with the bases loaded and one out, let's be fully honest about what happened. Marcus Simeon fell behind in the count and hit a ground ball to third base . Now, I don't think that was ever going to be a double play, but it was going to be an out . And the inning was going to be probably short circuited . And instead, Jorbat Vivas, the former Yankee, gave the New York Mets a break that we needed them to see have happen. He let a ground ball go under his gl ove. And I am not throwing it back. I am not complaining. That's a part of baseball. But that's the luck that this offense needed. Now, credit to this offense, because after Vivos makes that error and allows the Mets to take a three-nothing lead, it could have been over right then and there . We've seen that happen before. I've called that out before, where they get a break, they get a defensive miscue from the other side, and then what do they do with it? They do nothing with it. When the stakes rise and the lights get bright, that's when you find out who can really swim. Deep Waters is a new UFC podcast from CBS Sports. Every Monday, myself, Dean Thomas, alongside with legends of the sport, Chris Wideman, Jorge Masvedal, and Dustin Poirier, bring you inside the octagon like no one else can. Deep waters, new episodes every Monday. Watch on YouTube or listen on Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else you get podcasts . This time they came through. And Carson Bench, who I feel even better about, handing the Rico I'm the man right now Star of the Series Award, uh, even though they got swept by the Rockies and it was almost impossible to pick somebody . Carson Bench has been a different player over the last few weeks. It's been plain sight for all of us to see, defensively and even offensively. The numbers don't necessarily jump out at you, but the at bat quality has been better. He's actually gotten hits. He's gotten on base. He's been one of the very few positives in this Met offense. And he hacks at the very first pitch against Lattel and makes the defense and the Nats pay by, I think, bringing the game wide open. The moment I thought, okay, I think this is going to be an easy day, is when Carson Bench line the base it up the middle for a two run single. Turns a three nothing game into a 5-0 game. That's the moment where I said, okay, we're going to have an easy one. Because a 1-0, even at 3-0 after the error that was committed by Vivas, who the hell knows? Knowing this met offense , are they gonna fully take advantage of the error? Are they really gonna make the nationals pay? We've seen so many examples where they don't do that. And they did this time because not only does Carson Bench come up with the two-run single, and he would add a second hit later. Mauricio gets a hit. Beshet makes hard contact for a line drive sacrifice fly. So it's a bad luck at bat for Beshet 'cause he hit the ball really hard and he hit it right at the right fielder, but he hit it deep enough to drive a run in as he came up with a runner on third on less than two outs, a spot where he has not been effective this year. And then Juan Soto puts the Cherry on top. And I think if this was last year, the nitpickers that we are would have looked at the Juoto home run in a six nothing game that made it eight nothing and said, Come on, what does that mean? Unclutch. And if we do that thing we like to do on the RICO, where we rank the home runs. We did that with Pete Alonso two years ago. Uh, we did that with Juan Soto last year where we go through all those home runs and we was this a clutch home run, a non-clutch home run, uh, you know, however we rank it. I think we'll probably look at a two run home run on the fourth inning to make a six nothing game, an eight nothing game as a non-clutch home run. But in this moment, with this team and with Soto still relatively fresh coming off the injured list, I thought it was important. I thought it was important for him. I thought it was important for our psyche. And certainly you hope that that home run gets him red hot . And that's when things went from I feel comfortable to this is going to be a laugher . So great job by the Met offense. Great job by Vientos and Beatty drawing big walks. Great job by Carson Benge ambushing a Zach Lattel pitch for a two run single, Ronnie Mauricio keeping the inning going, Bob Bachet for the sacrifice fly, and obviously for Juan Soto putting the exclamation point on a seven run fourth inning. Now, here's where I'm mixed. Because if this was any other point of any other season, I wouldn't care that much that the offense did nothing in the final four innings, only three base runners and one base hit . I'd say no biggie. Who cares? They had eight runs on the board. The pitching was awesome. They won eight nothing. The only reason it offers a level of concern is that they need this offense to click. And so what worries me going into game two and game three of this series is that the fourth inning on Tuesday just may be an outlier. It just may be an inning in which yeah, they took advantage of bad Washington defense. They took advantage of a pitcher in Zach Lattell who, came in having allowed eleven home runs this season, and now the number is thirteen. I think if they piled on, there'd be more of that. Maybe they're getting out of it . So that may sound like a nitpick. Maybe it is off of a victory in which they win eight-nothing, but a part of this is how this win on Tuesday against Washington needs to lead to bigger and better things. They need a winning streak, they need a really hot stretch. They need to make up for the ground that they caused to bury themselves in over the month of April. They are still nine games under 500. They got a lot of work to do. So a victory against the Nats on a Tuesday is great. I'm happy about it. But you need to see this roll. They need to sweep the Nationals and they need to go out west on this nine-game road trip and do serious damage. Six and three. Normally, I'd say five and four , but you gotta cut in to this deficit you've created, not just being under five hundred, but yeah, even the division. The ten games out. They got work to do . So that's the the nitpick I'd have on the offense that after they explode, they go down one, two, three in the fifth, they do nothing in the sixth, they go down one, two, three in the seventh, they put a couple of guys on base in the eighth, and they do nothing. And look, they go out and they beat Cavalli on Wednesday and they put up another kind of crooked number. Then it's a no-biggie that over the final four innings offensively they did nothing. But we are looking for this offense to build , for this offense to grow, and for this offense to be a hell of a lot better than what it's been over the first 28 games of the season . But Juan Soto goes deep, Carson Bench continues to be trending in the right direction. Bull Bachet's bat looked pretty good. The question is: what about everybody else? You know, is Mark Vientos going to get hot? Is Brett Beatty going to get hot? Francisco Alvarez was batting third took an 0 for . Ronnie Mauricio continues to get his opportunity at shortstop, and he should get a bunch more opportunities because there were two right handers they're about to face in this Nat series. So you figure he's gonna play shortstop every day. Can Marcus Simeon wake up from his 215 slumber ? So there are a lot of questions about this offense moving forward. As far as what happened before the game, because I think there was a lot of significant news and notes we should address from before this game. Number one, David Stern speaks to the media on a somewhat frequent basis. He doesn't hide, but I thought yesterday was an important moment around what's going on with this team, around the talk about the manager's future, even around the fact that the Red Sox and Phillies fired their manager, I thought it was important for David Stearns to open his mouth and answer some questions. He didn't do that. And so I thought that was a bad job by him. He allowed Carlos Mendoza to go to a press conference and be asked, hey, did you talk to your bosses about your job status? And Mendy's like, nah, just normal stuff . I think as a leader, it would have been the right moment and the right time for David to just address it. And if he wants to tell us all, as much as we may disagree, hey, we're sticking the m with the manager . Stop asking questions. Fine, go do it . But I thought it was a disservice to Mendoza and a disservice to us as fans who are pissed off about this that David chose not to meet the media on Tuesday. And again , David meets the media a lot. So I'm not saying he's Leon Rose. I'm not saying he ducks it. I get it. He's around. But I thought this was a moment that Brian Cashman would have met the media. So mistake by David Stearns. Number two, let's get to all these injuries. Let me start with Kodai Senga. So after Sunday's debacle , we listed here on the Rico Brogna the options that the Mets had. One of the non -tionsop was to keep him in the rotation. That was obviously not going to continue. Option number one was to kind of guilt him to go to the minor leagues. They need his permission, so it's not just something they can do. They did that last year, if you recall. He went down to the minor leagues in September. So option number one would have been get him to go to the minor leagues. Option number two would have been send him to the bullpen. The concern about that is what would his role be? Would he follow the Sean Maniah longman role? Would they actually give him high leverage situations to try to get big outs ? How would you use him in the bullpen ? Option number three was to just buy him out would be to DFA him and write a big fat check for probably around twenty five million dollars and say go away. That is expensive. And Senghas still has enough talent where you don't want to fully, fully, fully give up on him. And then the other option, we call it the Billy Epler, is to just stick him on the I.L with some kind of phantom injury. Here's where I hesitate, because ultimately that's what they decided to do. If you get your news from the Rico, I'll give you the news. He's got, and Mendy was very specific, like lumber lumbar soreness with his L four and L5. Like he was very specific about the back issues that Kodai Sang is facing. And he got an epidural and he can't throw for a week . For those who believe that's a fake injury , as somebody who's gotten two epidurals in the last two months and has a back issue, I don't think they're sticking a needle in him for a fake injury. So as much as we all want to assume it's a phantom injury . And again, I was even talking about phantom injuries as a way to stick them on the IL. I just can't imagine this is made up. I don't think they're sticky, unless they're just lying. Everything's made up. There was no epidural, there is no L5 is sues. Unless you just want to call everybody a liar, which I don't think is the case . It's a real injury. But what was odd, because I listened to Mendy's presser, is that he claimed they found out about it in between games of the doubleheader. Well, hold on a second. He started the second game . So if you heard about it between games of the doubleheader, why was Kodai Senga even allowed to start that game? That does not make any sense. And nobody furthered it. It was just like, oh, okay. So what's the deal? What happens now? And what happens now is he's not gonna throw for a week. And I I honestly have no idea when we'll see him, but this is like a weird way to get him to go to the minor leagues because here's what's gonna happen. Or at least my prognostication of what's gonna happen, if I had to guess. He has this back issue. He's not going to throw for a week. Then he's going to start to throw, assuming the the the epidural works, which I guess I'm a witness that epidurals do work. It took me two, but I'm in much better shape. Thank you, epidur als . He's going to start to throw. He's going to start to throw bullpen. And then guess where he goes after that? He goes on a rehab assignment. Well, rehab assignments are going to the minor leagues. It's the same thing, except you're not being embarrassed by being sent down to the minor leagues. You're just pitching in the minor leagues on a rehab assignment, and with pitchers, you get 30 days, so you get a month , which is exactly what you would want to do if you sent him to the real minor leagues. You'd send him down for a month, right? Wouldn't that be the plan? So what the Mets just did, and again, I'm going to assume the injury is real because they're not just sticking a needle in his back or in his ass. I'm trying to remember where the epidural goes. It's like your lower back. At least that's where I got it. I guess it's different, depending on your pain. They're not just sending it in there for no reason , but they are essentially getting him to go to the minor leagues without needing permission for him to go to the minor leagues because he's a thousand percent going to go on a rehab assignment, and you could maximize rehab to like five starts . It's a 30-day period. They do allow you to extend it if the guy's coming off of Tommy John. Clearly, he's not. So it's a 30-day window. And you could squeeze in five starts. Five minor league starts. Whether it's in Brooklyn or it's in Singh Lai or it's in Bingham, wherever it is, it doesn't even matter. So the Mets were able to do IL And I think depending on where the Met rotation is, depending on how Sangle looks in the minor leagues, I guess that will determine if he does get another start in a Met uniform. I said on Sunday, I don't think he'll ever make another start as a New York Met. Card subject to change. Let's see where this team is. Now here's what we know about what's going to happen temporarily. Christian Scott is back, and the reason Christian Scott is even allowed back, is there's a 10-day window usually when you send a guy to the minor leagues is because he's replacing an injured player. So that gave the Mets the out on bring ing Christian Scott back after he started on Thursday against Minnesota. He is scheduled to start on Friday against the Angels. I don't know what to expect from Christian Scott. I'm not opposed to him making another start because if you gave me the options, and they're not great, which is a part of the concern around this team, not just the offense, if you said, all right, who would you like to have be your fifth starter? Even if we're in agreement that David Peterson is re-entering the rotation, which he is, because David Peterson is starting the Wednesday game against the Washington Nationals, whether as a bulk guy or a regular starter. Even if you agree with that. Th'eres still another spot in the rotation . Do you want to go to Sean Mania h? Do you think Jonathan is ready? No. Is Weninger ready? Not based on his last start where he walked five guys. So there isn't any prospect necessarily that's ready. And then you've got Christian Scott, who they gave the opportunity to. It wasn't a full blown implosion because he didn't give up like five or six runs. He was able to make the big pitch when he needed to to get out of that first inning. But he walked five guys. That's not acceptable . But I would probably lean, as much as I don't even think he's ready and they rushed him back, to Scott getting the start over even Mania h Tong Weninger. The other option is Carl, Carl Edwards Jr. Carl Edwards Jr. did a really good job saving Kodai Senge in his last start, but is that really where we want to go? I mean, how depressing would that be? If Carl Ed wards Jr., not to not to rip him because he did a good job in his last start, but any of us really want to see him ? So I'm good with Christian Scott getting another opportunity, but he's got to be more impressive against the Angels. He can't walk five guys in an inning in a third. So the rotation lines up with Peterson and Peralta with the rest of this Washington series, Scott, McClain, and Holmes in the Anaheim series, and then when they go to Colorado, assuming they don't make any more changes, because there are no off days, it would be Peterson, Peralta, and Scott again before they have an off day and they go to Arizona. So that's where the rotation is set up. It is though incredible to think that Sean Mania, as we enter the month of May, has still not made a start . He's been, I define him as blah out of the bullpen. He hasn't been awful, but he hasn't been overly impressive. The velocity is still not fully there. And so I think most of us look at Manai and say, well if you put him in the rotation, wait, what do you think's going to happen? So that's the status of the pitchers. Let's get to the other injuries. Let's get to Luis Robert. Can I can I just ask one quick question about that? Because we've now seen Tobias Myers start a game, Huaska Braz ban start a game , Christian Scott, whatever you call that thing was that he did, that was the start of a game. You're telling me Shom ania is that bad that he can't even generate an opener spot. Well, I don't think you'd want to use him as an opener because he can eat three or four innings and you're keeping him stretched out. So why would you want to use him as an opener? Well, because we've had so many other starting pitchers struggle ? Like, what's the why not give him a shot? Maybe give him an opportunity. You have all these other guys that can go long too. Tobias Myers gives you two, three innings. You got uh Brasban that can give you potentially two innings. You have all these other surplus of pitchers. It just it's I know it's it's just switching the the timing of it, but at this point in time, what is the harm of giving him a shot? That that's what it comes down to. So you would start him over, Christian Scott? I'd give him an opportunity because so far nothing else has really worked. So you well but that's what I'm saying. You'd give him a s you'd start him over Scott or Peterson, because we can include Peterson in that. Yeah. Yeah. Change it up a bit. Let's go let's let's see what happens. You know what I would do? I'm each in the middle on this. I think if Scott struggles again, and I'm talking like bad struggles, not like five and a third innings, three runs, but unpitchable where he's walking guys out of the ballpark and you have to take him out in the second. One option you have is to open with Myers or Brazoban and then go to Shaw Mania h. You could try that, kind of like what they did with David Peterson in the game in Chicago. The thing about Mania is that he is still stretched out where he could pitch four or five innings. Tobias Myers, and he's been great, and he's another guy that you could certainly bring up as a starter. The problem is he's not stretched out. So if you pitch Tobias My ers, kind of like the last time they started him, and he did a great job on Tuesday as well with the two scoreless innings. I thought they were going to give him the cheapo save by giving him the third inning, but he's just not stretched out. That that's kind of the negative with Myers. They may have to send him down to stretch them out before bringing them back if you want to include Myers as an option. No, I get it. I listen, I I'm not sure if I want there's no easy answer, but it seems like there's a surplus of long guys. Yeah. Ga Gary Cohen, who annoyed me a little bit on this broadcast, I get more than that on Evan and Tiki with his Daniel Murphy stuff. But he said something that I've said here on the RICO, and he was very adamant about it and moved on. He thinks the future of pitching is to have 10 starting pitchers where there are guys who share starts and then just two or three relievers out of the bullpen. And I'm like that',s kind of what we talked about with these tag teams, where you can't like a start is two guys. A start is two guys going four or five innings. And we've talked about that. And I don't think he's crazy. The Mets haven't done it this year. They they talked about tag teams. We asked Mendy about it in spring training. They honestly haven't done it. They've done more of the opener bulk thing, which is different in my mind. And they've also done your traditional start. But Gary's right. I don't know when we're going to get there. It may take a while, and it hasn't happened yet with the Mets, but they've got enough arms where they could do that, where they could tag team. Uh, let's put Mania h and Tobias Myers together, right? Let's put David Peterson and even Carl Edwards Jr. together because he's sort of a starter at this point. Uh, those are options. So we shall see. I just want effectiveness. Yes, that's what we all want. We all want. Now, to the offense. Luis Robert Jr. also has an injury he's dealing with, uh a lower back issue, is it what I think Bendy said. Does that surprise anybody? The the concern about Robert Jr. upon coming here is can they stay him on the field? And that can they keep him on the field? And that's why, as annoying as it was when Robert Jr. would sit and then wouldn't be available, this is why they did it. They did it because the guy has been throughout his career a walking injury. And because of that, they have felt forced to have to baby the crap out of him. And even with babying him, he can't stay on the field. And the other problem with Robert Jr. is after the great start, and he got off to a wonderful start, he has been an unplayable mess over the last few weeks . And with MJ Melendez being relatively productive, with Carson Benge looking like he belongs, I I don't know if Luis Roberts Jr. even returns with an everyday job. Like he's got a hit to keep his job. You look at the outfield they used last night of Melendez, Benj, and Beatty, right now, that may be a better outfield option than Luis Robert Jr. unless he shows some of what he showed over the first two weeks of the season. So we'll keep an eye on Robert Jr . if he's going to have to go to the IL, if he's going to be back in the lineup, and then even if he is back in the lineup, is he productive enough to stay in the lineup? The Ju Soto stuff, look, the Mets need Juan Soto. They need Juan Soto healthy. They need him playing. But when you hear about a physical issue, the forearm issue, no longer the calf, that is keeping him from playing the outfield and is forcing him to be exclus ively a designated hitter. Can we all be honest about something? This is preferred. Juan Soto being the designated hitter and not playing the field is not a bad thing. And there's actually more reasons than you realize why it's such a good thing. Countler reasons. You ready for me to start? Number one, he's not great defensively. I think that's the that's the obvious one, right? That's the one we all know. That it's not like the Mets are losing something defensively by having an outfield of Melendez-Benz and Beatty versus Soto taking one of those outfield spots. Melendez is an MJ DH. The other reason, kind of geeky reason why strategically this makes a lot of sense is you're never pinch hitting for Juan Soto. You are never pinch running for Juan Soto. And despite him being an average defender, and I'm being nice by saying that, you're never taking him out for defense. Which means you never have to worry about pinch hitting for your DH or pinch running for your DH because you're never going to do it. Well, if MJ Melendez is your DH and you want to pinch run for him with Tyrone Taylor, well, guess what? Tyrone Taylor can't play the field. Because if he plays the field, he's you lose the DH. You can't pinch it for your DH with a right-handed bat, like let's say Francisco Alvarez, if he's on the bench that day. You can't do that because now if he comes in and plays the field , you lose the DH . You lose a lot of flexibility by having an MJ Melendez or even a Brett Beatty or whoever you want to pick, not name Soto as your DH. So it's not just the obvious. It's not just the, hey, we don't lose anything defensively with Juan. It's that other stuff. And that other stuff matters over the course of a long-ass season where you play weird, close, extra inning games . So what I would tell Juan, and you want to say it's half a lie? Fine, it's half a lie. What I would say to Juan Soto, if I'm Carlos Mendoza, is Juan, you are so important to this team. We cannot afford to lose you , and we can't even have days where we sit you. We just can't. We're not in that luxurious sp spot. So because of that, we're gonna maximize you every day by DHing. You're you're just not gonna play the field until further notice. Does that change in July and August if this team is healthier and if this team is five games above five hundred, dare I say? Sure. But in this moment, as we head to the month of May, Juan, put the glove a way. You're our everyday DH. It benefits you because there's also less risk of injury by not playing the outfield. I'm watching the Yankee game last night, and even though Trent Christian stayed in the game, he's running after a fly ball in left center field, it looked like he tore his leg up. Now, luckily for him, he stayed in the game and he was fine, but there's more risks of injury if you're playing the field. It's just natural . So I would go to Juan's ego and say, we just need you so much. It's not that you're a bad defender, it's not that you're mediocre defensively. It has nothing to do with that. It just has to do with the fact that we need your bat so badly. Now, Hoff brought this up and uh you could certainly pop on and give me your take on this, but there was a lot of talk about Juan Soto and the way he was acting during the game. Uh it was caught on the Nationals broadcast that he was having a conversation with Drew Millis, the the national's catcher, in which he said to Drew, Do you want me to swing three and oh? He didn't. And then said, should I swing three and one? And he didn't. And then said, see, I'll listen to what you want. And they were having a good chuckle, uh, communicating with each other. And you had a problem with that because the Mets suck right now and you don't want anybody smiling. Is that the issue? Yeah, I do have an issue with it because uh it's not about them not having fun because they clearly need it, but this is no time to mess around. Like let him get in a groove. I need to see him uh you know to I need to see this team demolish it every single out bat possible. There can't be a day off right now because they have so much work to do. I don't care if the score is eight nothing. I don't care if the score is twenty nothing. I don't want to see you sitting there and playing around with the catcher when you've basically been on a uh you know you're 10 games under 500. Okay, so here's my defense, and I'm gonna argue with you and I'm gonna argue with my old buddy Craig about this because obviously, I listen to you guys every day, and Craig brought up a point. And I think it's good because I I know a lot of Rico listeners are going to agree with Carton. So before you say I don't want to hear Craig's opinion, trust me, I think he actually is going to represent a lot of Met fans. He didn't like putting on the hat, the helmet hat and the jacket in the midst of a losing streak, saying, Why you guys having dopey celebrations when you're in the midst of losing? Which is I get it, it's a populist opinion. I'm glad he had it. You're basically saying the same thing, which is stop having too much fun while you're struggling. So here's my answer to this . When you play 162 games, you have to have fun. And as much as it bothers me, because Craig comes from a good place when he says that, you come from a good place. Like, dude, we suck. We're spending top dollar. We why are you having fun? I think to get through a season like this, and so far it's been awful, you can't walk around like a mummy. You know what I mean? Like you have to have fun. Like, I guess I'll use our radio station as an example. Very rarely do we ever have bad ratings. But if we had a book where our ratings weren't good, should we not go on the air and try to have fun? You know what I mean? Or well, no, we're sucking lately. We have to be really serious. No, because sometimes the fun and the happiness and the smiling can lead to good things. So it's a slippery slope because I fully understand that there's the perception that you don't care when you're having too much fun when you're losing. But I think in the case of the construction hat off a home run, and in the case of this, I think it's, hey, we're we're trying to have fun, and maybe the fun kind of turns into the winning. So I know this is not a popular opinion, but that would be my defense of Juan Soto and even the Mets from a few days ago in the case of putting the dopey construction hat on. Does that make sense? Yes, but here's my fight to that too. Imagine you took two weeks off uh for whatever reason , and the ratings were like really bad, and like, hey, listen, I want to start the show off with some fun, or how about let's catch up on all the stuff that we missed? I know this is more inside radio stuff. That's where I am with Soto. Soto just took two weeks off because he was hurt. Come on. You know, like let's get back to the game. But he's let's jump on those those balls that are right over the plate. Don't fly out to left field. Okay. Like, hey, when Michael Jordan took the free throw with his eyes closed, he still made the free throw . If you're annoyed that Juan hasn't been productive enough since since coming off the IL, fine. It's a productive production business. He makes forty five million dollars a year. I get it. They need him to carry the offense. That's separate to me. Last year, we all looked at Juan Soto and said, that guy's not having fun and he's effing miserable. Now he's been a different guy this year for whatever reason. Maybe it's the comfort, maybe it's who's gone. You could come up with whatever reason you want. I don't even care. The bottom line is we all agree that Juan Soto seems to be having more fun on the field, and now we're bitching about it for a different reason. Yeah, but we're bitching about it because it's it's more of a team issue right now. It's not even a one soto issue. It's a it's a whole picture right now. This team has no identity. They don't. They still don't. So one sort of is having fun, and the rest of the team is is fucking, you know what? I mean, I have no idea what the construction hats, all that stuff is fine, but the main thing is to win, and they did win yesterday. So I guess in that that sense, it's fine. But I just can't get used to that. I want to play for you what Juan Soto said to the departing crowd last night. It was a very small crowd. They announced 33,000. I think they're going to announce big crowds until June or July because all the tickets have been on sale and people bought them. But last night, very small crowd, Mets win. Everybody's happy. As they're leaving, Juan Soto did the on-field interview with Steve Gelbs, and I caught a small portion of it because you could take this one of two ways. You could say, I love this guy, that's my leader, or you could say, what a delusional b astard. Ladies and gentlemen, and hopefully you hear it clearly. Juan Soto. This is just the beginning. We we start something special right here. We're trying to go all the way. Um this is just a little taste of what it's gonna be at the end. How about that? Did you hear that clearly? A little taste of what it's gonna be. And we're we're going all the way. He said we're going all the way, off . All the way where ? Oh listen, I said the same thing. I don't know if you saw my tweet. It was a little sarcastic, but I said the Mets are winning the series World Series in 2027. And I said that because I'm just I'm very spiteful right now. I'm very upset with this this franchise. And I feel like that would be the kick in the ass is next year when there's a shortened season, somehow they find a way to pull through a good 60-game stretch and win a World Series. And we sit there and celebrate that with a sour taste in our mouth. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's a completely different argument. And that's a Rico that I already have scheduled for January of twenty twenty seven, in which we debate is winning a shortened championship worth it. Let me let me help you out. The answer is yes. Okay. You freaking nobody cares about the eighty one Dodgers or the ninety-five Braves or uh one of the Heatle teams. I think their first title was in a shortened NBA season. Or the Spurs in ninety nine or the Knicks going to the finals in ninety nine. Sp are me. Spare me with the oh that one won't count. No, but here's the thing: is Evan, there was so much built into this season, and so far, again, it's 29 games in. So I get it , but tell to tell me get ready for things to come. I've been waiting for it. I know, but Hoff. What this is again the same thing I said about Ju oto before. And as much as it's easy to be pissed off by things like this, he has to believe. And I'm glad that he does believe. Because if you give me the choice between Juan Soto on the field saying, Hey, this is just the beginning, we plan on going all the way versus ah boy we've sucked and we've created a big hole i'm not sure what's gonna happen i would absolutely take the cocky one soto and the happy one soto because he is clearly having fun on the field, and him having fun on the field should lead to his success, and his success should lead to Met's success. The other very important note from Tuesday is AJ Ewing. He is on the rise. The Mets called up A.J. Ewing to A . We touched on this briefly on the Sunday Rico and had an unbelievable called up to AAA . Let me word that correctly. He was moved from double A to AAA and kicks off his triple AAA career with a triple and three hits. AJ Ewing is coming. He is. Especially with all the questions in the outfield, especially with Luis Robert Jr. struggling, especially with Ju , maybe being forced to be the designated hitter. AJ Ewing's gonna be here. I I'll tell you before June first. I think it's gonna be that quick. I think he's on a very quick rise, and I think the the combination of need and the combination of performance is gonna get this kid here quickly. I was gonna say the all-star break. I don't think that's aggressive enough. I think he's here before June first . So we'll save that and see if I'm right because he's earning it. That's the other thing. When you struggle, it's always, hey, let's call up the kids. The kids have to earn getting here. Jack Weninger hasn't earned it yet. Jonah Tong hasn't earned it yet. Ryan Clifford's been a lot better the last few weeks. I don't know if he's fully earned it yet. He's getting close though. Ryan Clifford's getting close. He's been productive over his last about 45 plate appearances, doing the math on that. But once these kids prove they're ready for that opportunity, the Mets , especially with the performance over the first 29 games, they're ripe for giving them that opportunity . Your thoughts and comments, you could always email us to RicoB at Gmail.com. We will guarantee you a series recap Rico at some point on Thursday. It's an afternoon game. I'm on the air for an hour of it. Hoth obviously has producery work. I got stuff I got to do with my kids. So that's probably going to be a nighttime Rico if you're big on consuming the Rico live on YouTube. If not, you download it wherever you download your podcast. Don't worry. It'll be there. It'll guarantee to be in your podcast stream for your Friday morning commute. But we will have a Thursday series recap coming up at some point on Thursday. Make sure you're subscribed to the WF and YouTube channel and you will not miss it. Thank you very much for checking out a winning edition of Rico Brona . Keep it on you at all times . 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