Today is September 1st and the Mets have just this single month remaining of the 2025 regular season to prove whether or not they deserve to keep playing in October. The last few series have been bittersweet with the offense finally showing itself, yet at the same time the pitching which has been less stellar than it has pretty much at any point in the season and has all of sudden gone into hiatus.
Now the club has made some changes for the better. First came the long overdue promotion of Nolan McLean who has shown himself capable of delivering as a starting pitcher now ready for his fourth trial after three very successful starts.
The somewhat more surprising promotion of Jonah Tong at just age 22 suggested that the Mets were indeed anxious to try to win some games rather than have their top minor league talents get more seasoning in AAA. His first start was an odd one but after allowing some unearned runs it appeared as if Tong is as good as had been expected.
The bullpen changes have not been quite as dramatic. After throwing fairly well for the Mets in his time in New York the club decided to demote lefty Jose Castillo and bring back fellow veteran reliever Chris Devenski. While neither of these guys is what you would term a difference maker, it still demonstrates that rippling changes were being made to fortify the final roster prior to injury rehab call-ups.
One player who did not make this final group is somewhat surprising in starting pitcher Brandon Sproat. This young man has been a bit of a mixed bag in terms of his numbers as he hits that will he or won’t he plateau also at age 24 but his recent performance is hard to ignore. Over his last 9 starts he has thrown to a 2.44 ERA and struck out better than one per inning pitched. It makes you wonder why they felt he is better served upstate than in Queens.
For the remainder of the 2025 season it has been announced that the club will indeed deploy a six-man rotation. Given the short starts by Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea and Clay Holmes it would seem a wise thing to do. Everyone hopes this recent disastrous outing by David Peterson is a one-off anomaly but the big lefty’s ERA is now marching upwards at 3.61 and hopefully will get a corrective set of games to push it down closer to the 3.00 level where it has been most of the year.
Going into 2026 the club will have some interesting decisions to make. Sean Manaea is indeed under contract. So too is David Peterson. Ditto Kodai Senga and Clay Holmes. That is where it starts to get very interesting. Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, Brandon Sproat, Trevor Megill and a hopefully healthy Christian Scott are all starting pitchers who would be vying to take one of the named pitching slots every fifth day.
For the rest of the year you’d better grow accustomed to a lot of bullpen innings from Edwin Diaz, Brooks Raley, Gregory Soto, Tyler Rogers, Ryan Helsley, Ryne Stanek and now apparently Chris Devenski. If the relievers perform as they have prior to this season then they’re looking pretty formidable there. Unfortunately, between burnout, pitch tipping and change of scenery struggles they are a great unknown which could make or break the quest for October baseball.
11 comments:
Morning Reese
It's no big secret that Peterson, Senga, and Manaea have been busts since the all-star break. It would be idiotic to stay with all of them with these few games left to play
1. promote Brandon Sproat
2. add Tylor Megill
3. place Senga on IL and have him begin a proper recovery until pitchers/catchers report next season
4. Piggyback Manaea and Peterson for the remaider of the regular season
Not a bad approach though I am not a fan of the highly inconsistent Megill but he's doubtfully any worse.
Megill could give you four decent innings
Piggy him with someone like Waddell
It is Sept 1, and I echo Mack…call up Sproat and Megill. Sproat starts. See what happens next. Senga gets hurt, he’s out for too long, and when he comes back, it takes him months to get right, not a start or two, but months. That sinks seasons. And it is weird.
While the Mets tried to baby their pitchers, here are Mets ERAs over the last 30 days:
STARTERS
Frank M. 9.00
Peterson 7.56
Manure 7.13
K. Senga 6.18
RELIEVERS
Helsley 10.38
Stanek 12.86
That, frankly, is unbelievable.
So, I have ZERO PROBLEM moving Sproat and Megill in, and giving 2 of the horror shows a demotion to the pen (or towards the back of the pen). The season is slipping away. ENTIRELY DO THE MELTED DOWN PITCHING STAFF. Do it, starting today.
I’d be OK with leaving Manure in the rotation, and putting Holmes in the pen, and going with a rotation of Tong, McLean, Sproat, Megill, and Manure.
Roll the friggin’ dice. The entire staff was 4.97 in August. Without the superlative innings of McLean and Tong, was the rest 6.00? Probably. The entire staff, in August, aside from McLean and Tong, was 7-17. While the Mets had one of baseball’s best offenses in August.
Stearns, make the changes I suggest. The season hangs in the balance. The cited veterans have FAILED.
You know who else deserves a call up? RJ Gordon. While only in AA, last night, superlative again. 5 inning, 1 run, 3 hits, 9 Ks. He is 11-2 this year. In August, 4-0, 2.08 in 6 starts. Radical? Yes. But worth considering.
And the team scored the most runs they have EVER scored in August
You so radical Tommy
Stunning….i look at the box scores for last night, and Mike Vasil gets the save in a 3-2 win over the Yanks. Vasil in NINETY INNINGS is 5-3, 2.50 ERA, with 3 saves. What does that say about Mets pitcher development?
Blade Tidwell is doing well in the PCL for the Giants. He will probably replicate Vasil in 2026.
I was pissed at the Tidwell trade. Shame on the Mets squandering their riches.
You both know how high I was on Tidwell AND I wanted Vasil in the pen as a one inning reliever
Such a narrow based man
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