Reese Kaplan -- A Trio of Key Players Needing to Step Up

As I sit here writing on Sunday evening (morning for you folks back on the East coast) contemplating the wisdom of the roster move(s) made to enable Jeff McNeil to return to the 26 men set to face the Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League Championship season, you can imagine my surprise to see that nothing has yet been done.  He’s played his two games as planned, gotten two hits and a walk, seemed to field without issues and looks ready to get his first taste of October baseball since being quickly dispatched home in three games in 2022.

So instead of pondering again today who deserves to be here and who perhaps does not, let’s focus a little bit differently on who has not done particularly well in the quest for the World Series.  Yes, there have been star moments from Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, Mark Vientos, David Peterson, Sean Manaea and Jose Quintana.  Some veteran players kind of get a pass based upon career numbers like J.D. Martinez, Brandon Nimmo, Luis Severino and Starling Marte. 

However, some previously well regarded and most certainly needed players are not performing this month as they have done for the rest of their careers.  The first name who comes up in this regard is slugging catcher Francisco Alvarez.  Now no one is suggesting he should be benched in favor of slumping career minor leaguer Luis Torrens, the fact is that Alvarez has simply looked overmatched in a great many of his plate appearances.  He’s not taking good swings and sometimes you wonder if he’s more centered on how strikes are called on him vs. how they are called for the pitchers he’s catching.  You can’t dispute the great improvements he’s made on the defensive side of the game since first arriving out of injury necessity in 2023, but that bat that was certainly on its way towards a 30 home run season is MIA. 

After the starters get pulled from the game and you’ve worked through Jose Butto, sometimes David Peterson and sometimes Tylor Megill, you then head into the middle ground of relievers who have not always done what was expected.  Phil Maton had been a feather in David Stearns’ Mets cap when he arrived in July but lately he has been more reminiscent of the guys he’s supposed to have replaced when he was added to the roster.  Reed Garrett has been solid and Ryne Stanek though awkward looking has thrown hard enough and accurately enough that you feel pretty confident when either enter the game.  With Adam Ottavino and Danny Young in apparently the witness protection program, that increases the culpability for any remaining reliever to get the opposition out for a minimum of three batters.  Right now antacid and adult beverage sales are escalating unless Maton rediscovers what kept him in the major leagues.

Then there is the 2024 version of closer Edwin Diaz who seemingly can handle the 9th inning closer duties most of the time.  However, when asked to come in during the 8th (or even the 7th) he seems a bit at odds with himself.  Instead of throwing 100 mph strikes he’s walking people and setting up pressure situations that sometimes he can refocus and overcome.  Other times, however, he resembles the ineffective closer who initially arrived from Seattle.  This pattern was fairly frequent during the regular season so it’s not just an October issue.  The club truly needs for him to empty out the stress in his head and just play like the fireman who received one of the wealthiest contract extensions ever given to a major league reliever.

There are others who could be doing more like Harrison Bader and Tyrone Taylor, but their lack of productivity at the plate is not as directly harmful to the club as the lackluster efforts by this big trio.  Luisangel Acuna, we knew you well.  Perhaps in 2025 you’ll actually get to come to the plate but in 2024 I’m still betting he’s the man sent packing when a decision on Jeff McNeil is made.  In the playoffs for a seven game series it’s no time to go shorthanded on pitching just to create a roster spot.