Reese Kaplan -- How Did We Get to This 5-Game Do or Die?

5 games.  1 game lead over the surging Atlanta Braves.  3 must-win games against the Brewers.  A doubleheader scheduled for Monday in Atlanta to determine the playoff contenders unless either the Mets or Braves have a 3-0 or 0-3 weekend.

Some fans are rabidly excited about seeing the Mets move forward to the wild card round.  Others are having bad flashbacks to previous seasons where the club capitulated when it seemed for a long time they were destined to keep playing October.  Neither answer is completely wrong nor completely right.

Today, however, I’m not going to focus on what might be over the the Friday to Monday period and instead want to review what went right and wrong during this first David Stearns/Carlos Mendoza year in charge of acquiring, motivating and jettisoning players in the attempt to play competitive ball. 

Injuries

Wow, where do you begin?

First there was the loss of starting pitcher number one when Kodai Senga turned up with health issues to address in Spring Training.  Then starting pitcher number...your guess is as good as mine...David Peterson was still recovering from his off season surgery.  

That meant the club was starting the year with a rotation including newcomers Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, Adrian Houser (remember him?), plus returning faces Tylor Megill and Jose Quintana.  Even Jose Butto got a few opportunities.

After the season began you had the arrivals of Dedniel Nunez who is down and out.  Ditto Christian Scott who will miss all of 2024 after TJS.  Drew Smith was gone for the year.  Ditto Brooks Raley.  Sean Reid-Foley was doing so well but then had another of his annual injuries. 

Then on the offensive side you had J.D. Martinez unavailable up front due to a late start.  No one was sure how Starling Marte would hold up after his long IL stay in 2023.  

Harrison Bader had a chronic injury history but has held up for a full season.  Francisco Alvarez had missed quite a bit of time due to injury.  Then came Francisco Lindor.  And don’t forget Jeff McNeil. 

Slumps

In the beginning of the year the club was not getting great starting pitching and the bullpen was pretty much useless.  Proven hitters like Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Francisco Lindor, Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, J.D. Martinez, D.J. Stewart and others were all ice cold to start the year.

Changes That Helped

Again, where do you begin?

Luis Torrens was a solid substitute when Francisco Alvarez was unable to play.  Jose Iglesias was and continues to be a remarkable hitter who had to fight for a minor league job after missing all of 2023.  It’s a little soon to draw an absolute conclusion about Luisangel Acuna, but the word “Wow” is on many folks’ lips.

Mark Vientos is obviously the biggest story while he’s going to finish the year close to 30 home runs and close to 70 RBIs after having started late and only getting about 400 ABs.  Who saw that one coming?

On the pitching side the return of David Peterson until this past week was absolutely unforeseen.  Sean Manaea pitched way better than was expected.  Jose Butto’s move to the bullpen was done mostly out of necessity and he’s thrived.  Unheralded Reed Garrett was amazing in the early part of the season.  

Dedniel Nunez is the poster child for the new minor league pitching lab who had always been a fringe player until studying how to improve his game.  Christian Scott was a huge positive in his brief trial until the arm problems affected him and led now to him missing the rest of 2024 and now 2025.

Leadership

Although the Mets did not entertain the cream of the crop in trades and free agency, somehow the moves David Stearns made worked far better than many thought they would.  When something didn’t work, he wasn’t afraid to make changes.  His former Brewer acquisition Adrian Houser is gone.  Ineffectual D.J. Stewart was pushed out.  Catcher Omar Narvaez is gone.  Free agent acquistions Zack Short and Joey Wendle are gone.  Brett Baty is gone.  

They started the year with an eight-man bullpen with only Edwin Diaz and Adam Ottavino still here.  Gone are Brooks Raley, Jake Diekman, Yohan Ramirez, Jorge Lopez, Drew Smith and Michael Tonkin. 

Additions to the roster after Opening Day include Mark Vientos, Jose Iglesias, Luis Torrens, Eddy Alvarez, Luisangel Acuna, Jesse Winker, Huascar Brazoban, Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek, Reed Garrett, Alex Young and Danny Young. 

That’s a whole lot of roster churning for the year, but after the miserable start the Mets find themselves on the verge of making the playoffs.

How much credit should be given to manager Carlos Mendoza?  Well, like any rookie player, rookie skippers have their ups and downs, but it would appear that Mendoza didn’t fall into the favorite-player trap that afflicted previous Mets managers.  He kept juggling to see what would work and what didn’t, playing the hot hands instead of benching them for days on end like others had done in the past. 

Perhaps the most impressive feat this season has been the transition to a stronger pitching staff.  Obviously Jeremy Hefner deserves a lot of credit, but between early hooks for starters and extended inning outings for some relievers, it appeared that things were indeed changing.  

Then there were the unexpected efforts from guys like Garrett, Reid-Foley, Nunez, Butto and the Youngs.  Mendoza has to get some credit for having faith in his pitching mentors in the minors and the majors.

Truth be told, he’s had a better 2024 than Cooperstown-bound 2023 skipper Buck Showalter did.  That’s a hell of a nice start for managerial Rookie of the Year, Carlos Mendoza.