Reese Kaplan -- To Hear the Pitching Party Members Tell It...

Gather a group of Mets fans in a room and if you really want to get the fireworks exploding from the assembled group of disgruntled wannabe GMs ask what the club needs to do first to get the team finally headed in the right direction once again.

On the one side you will have the pitching oriented school of thinking who quite obviously have a strong case to be made.  With the injuries to Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning among the starting pitching candidates you’re left with the newly returned Frankie Montas, the recently highly ineffective David Peterson and Clay Holmes.  After that it includes batting practice pitcher Paul Blackburn and recently promoted former prospect Blade Tidwell.  In other words it gets pretty ugly.  

Even if somehow Blackburn and Tidwell manage to improve to pitch to under 5.00 ERAs you’re looking at Montas somehow pitching to his career norm of 4.09, Peterson pitching like the 2024 and early 2025 pitcher and Clay Holmes continuing his mostly solid pitching as a starting pitcher for 2025.  It’s an easy group in which to become a member.

This contingent is hoping for rapid recoveries for the first three of the injured starting pitchers to improve things dramatically from who takes the mound every fifth day.  As of now Senga appears to be ready to begin rehab games, Manaea is working through his loose elbow body to return to the rehab pitching and Tylor Megill yet to appear in rehab games but expected to begin within the next two weeks.

The more radical among the pitching plurality would advocate the Mets either promote Nolan McLean in place of Blade Tidwell or Paul Blackburn as he is appearing ultra solid in both AA and AAA work thus far this year.  While he’s not the number one starting pitching prospect it would appear without Canning expected back for the remainder of the year with the confirmed rupture of his left Achilles tendon the need is no longer a short term one.  Having seen Tidwell pitch to a Mets ERA over 10.00 and Paul Blackburn pitching like the NY Mets version of Paul Blackburn, some more credible pitching would be most welcome. McLean’s 2.72 ERA in AAA suggests he has the potential to be a vast improvement.

The ultra fringe version would instead look to see the Mets send number one starting pitcher prospect Jonah Tong straight from AA to the majors for the remainder to the year.  For a quick refresher, Tong has been Tom Seaver level brilliant in the minors in 2025.  The 22 year old right hander has a 6-3 record over 14 Binghamton starts with a 1.73 ERA covering 73 innings pitched.  He has fanned 115 batters averaging 14.2 per 9 innings pitched while maintaining a WHIP of 0.918.  Having allowed us 34 hits in 73 innings about the only black mark on his record is a less than desirable 4.1 walks per 9 innings but it sure looks about as dominant as it gets. A somewhat less radical thought would be to have Tong take over in AAA for the promoted McLean.

The other approach would be looking to acquire front line quality pitching in trade now or by the end of July when the trading deadline hits.  The obvious name on this list would be the TJS recovering Miami Marlin Sandy Alcantara who started off quite badly but who has turned it around lately, pitching to under a 3.00 ERA which is more indicative of the kind of hurler who has already been an All Star twice and a 2022 winner of the Cy Young Award.  His contract pays him $17.3 million this year and next with a 2027 option of $21 million or a $2 million buyout.  He’s still just 29 years old, so this acquisition would be not just to help this year but in the near future as well with Canning gone at year’s end and Tylor Megill likely out of options.

There are other pitchers out there who will be floated around the July trading deadline who have either very large contracts to absorb or who are becoming free agents at year’s end.  The latter would be less expensive to acquire as rentals than would be the former.

On Wednesday we will look at the equally vocal dominion of fans who feel that the hitting is the key to the current losing streak and what the club must do to make scoring runs more than a distant memory.  These days it seems only the long ball is working in that regard.