Reese Kaplan -- As Queen Sang It, Another One Bites the Dust

One of the things that’s somewhat difficult for a GM is to figure out the best way to balance a roster when slumps and injuries occur which suggest it is time to make a change.  Recently we’ve all heard the whispers that it’s time to demote Francisco Alvarez to get him out of the spotlight and allow him some time in Syracuse to correct the flaws in his swing.  While that particular move could be argued to have some merit, the fact remains that Hayden Senger who is already on the 40-man roster would hit even worse than the man he’s replacing. 

Other whispers came up about the slumping players who might be in need of time away from The Show.  Although the words have been nice about Jared Young, for example, his three hits as a Met do not suggest he is ready to be a major contributor.  In fact, at age 29 his career batting average in the majors is just .203 and in his limited trial in 2025 he’s at just .176.  There’s an example of a slumping or little used player who could be replaced.

Monday night, however, we got arguably the worst of the roster possibilities when slumping player Mark Vientos crumpled to the field with a major hamstring injury during his second plate appearance at Dodger Stadium.  What they’re saying is that it’s a hamstring problem and to reiterate Carlos Mendoza’s initial assessment before the medical folks do their deep diving into how bad it is, the manager said it looks pretty severe. 

Injuries are nothing new on the offensive side for the Mets this year with Nick Madrigal leading it off with a full season away from the majors, Jose Siri down with a broken bone, Jesse Winker creating that vacancy for Young with his own muscle strain and now the club needs to evaluate how long Vientos may be out of the playing picture based upon what the doctors say on Monday night and Tuesday morning regarding the severity of his hamstring problem.

Ironically I had just finished writing about how little help was available in Syracuse this year for the club’s offense and now the team must dig into their minors to come up with some kind of a solution for at least a 10-day IL stint assuming the initial feedback is accurate. 

Option number one of Hayden Senger exists if the Mets felt they wanted to take a roster spot with a third catcher.  This move doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense with both Torrens and Alvarez not lighting up the RBI totals but not being totally ineffectual either.  Bother are competent behind the plate as well which means Senger’s glove-only role is not really needed.

The next thing the Mets could do is move one of the 10-day IL folks like Jose Siri to the 60-day IL.  This move would of course open up a 40-man roster spot to someone performing well enough to warrant consideration for a promotion to fill in for Vientos.  With the traffic between Jeff McNeil, Luisangel Acuna and Brett Baty all capable of playing the infield it would seem that the team doesn’t necessarily have to do infielder for infielder in substitution.  Someone like Gilberto Celestino is having a fine year with the bat hitting .300 and plays a capable outfield for late inning defensive substitution.

The DH duo right now is the aforementioned Jared Young from the left side and Starling Marte from the right.  A .176 hitter and a .223 hitter are not exactly going to produce a lot of offense, but in Marte’s case he at least brings speed to his part of the game as well as a fine resume from his younger days. 

Now if only there was someone suitable to be a DH who hits from both sides of the plate who could continue his rehab in the majors since he’s only hitting over .500 in the minors with both power and speed...is it FINALLY time to give Ronny Mauricio a chance to play regularly in a non-stressful position of DH for the next 10+ days?  David Stearns has been vocal about not doing so and by the time this piece is published we’ll all know what decision has been made but if ever there was a nearly ideal scenario to see how strong Mauricio’s bat is on a temporary basis it would seem that the loss of a guy who’s become more of a DH than third baseman would be when to try it.