Reese Kaplan -- Are the Mets Finally Addressing Their Problems?

Sometimes you have to hang your head and apologize when you say or do something wrong.  There's no shame in it as it reflects a concession that you had rushed to inaccurate judgment or took an action that you now regret.

Recently I have loudly and directly bashed the Mets for their do-nothing (or worse than nothing) approach to fixing their roster in the midst of the teams fall from contention and inability to achieve victories.  We went through the various relief pitcher mistakes they made and decisions how banishing the last two men on the roster wasn't going to fix what was ailing in Queens.  

We then catalogued the totally ineffectual DH role that has plagued the team all season and how they felt the bigger-than-life but flailingly bad Luke Voit was the answer.  When were the Mets actually going to do something that made sense to correct what is wrong?

Well, color me red in the face when the Mets have now benched even bigger Daniel Vogelbach for five straight games.  Even more shockingly they played the trio of rookies -- Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty and Mark Vientos against the Yankees in their surprising extra inning victory on Sunday.  Then the word broke that they went out and found a true difference maker to add to the roster.  I was wrong.  

It is all happening despite the recent history.  Hot off the DFA and departure of Stephen Nogosek the Mets swooped in the save the day at the expense of those same Yankees by securing the services of lefty reliever Matt Minnick.  

Who?

Well, this reliever who was signed into the Bronx Bombers system in 2019 as an old addition in 2019 pitched credibly for them, going 1-0 with a 3.18 ERA over 9 games of rookie ball.  He missed all of 2020 like all of the other minor leaguers before returning to show a longer stretch with lesser results in 2021.  He was 5-2 out of the pen exclusively over 30 games but with a higher 4.40 ERA.  About the only thing that stood out was him holding opposing batters to a .221 average.  

Then came 2022 and Minnick really put on a show.  He went 5-3 over 36 games with a much improved 1.96 ERA.  That alone was not the really eye popper.  He put on a better than 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio, held opponents to a .131 batting average against, and finished the year with a minors-leading 0.75 WHIP.  Now 27 years old, while it's likely he's not the next Edwin Diaz, he certainly seemed to be a credible arm for middle relief.  

Ummm, not so fast...in very Mets-like fashion the Yankees cut him loose as they are obviously overflowing with pitching talent at all levels, right?  Right?  Is anyone out there listening?

Obviously Minnick is not the long term answer to the many current Mets problems yet at the same time it is a positive move to make albeit a very minor one with Minnick settling into AA Binghamton, two steps away from the majors where left handed relief is most definitely needed (particularly on a ten-day Smithless bullpen).  

I take back my apology.  

They still continue to do nothing, though perhaps the handwriting is starting  to appear on the wall for Mr. Vogelbach.  Addition by subtraction is a strategy often employed in business.  It could work in baseball as well.