Ben
Nicholson-Smith @bnicholsonsmith
Bo Bichette says he’s not anticipating needing
off-season surgery on his knee.
Anthony Kay
When the
chance came to start fresh in Japan, Kay took it, signing with the Yokohama Bay
Stars. Two seasons later, after setting records with Yokohama (1.74 ERA in 155
innings, NPB-leading 57.8 percent groundball rate) and mastering a new pitch
that changed everything, he’s finally earned another shot at MLB redemption.
Francisco Alvarez
The
injuries are a somewhat budding concern for the young backstop. In 2024, he
lost nearly a month to a left thumb sprain that required surgery. As referenced
above, he broke his hamate bone during batting practice in Spring Training. In
late August, he sprained his UCL in his right thumb sliding into second base,
opted to play through the pain, fractured his pinkie finger on his left hand
from a hit by pitch on his left hand while on a rehab assignment for the
aforementioned right thumb sprain, and played through both injuries through the
final month or so of the season. His hands have been through the ringer these
past few seasons, and the injuries do put the team behind the eight ball, even
if they are not his fault — finding two catchers who can give you quality
offense and defense is nearly impossible in modern baseball (frankly, it is
hard enough to find one catcher who can do it), so constantly having to start a
backup catcher and back him up with a Triple-A catcher is rough on the offense,
especially when the absences have been long. It may behoove the Mets to find a
backup catcher who can be closer to the 1B to Alvarez’s 1A, rather than a
strict backup due to the growing list of injuries, even if that is a very tall
task for the front office. While I would not call him injury prone, especially
because some of these injuries can just be filed under Things That Can Happen,
it is becoming a trend.
Past
The Eye Test Baseball @PastTheEyeTest
The lion
does not concern himself with establishing the fastball, but rather throws his
best pitches instead.
Pitch Profiler @pitchprofiler
This game will forever be known as The Trey Yesavage Game
Forgotten
Ex-2025 Mets
Forgotten
Ex-2025 Mets
Travis Jankowski
Travis
Jankowski reunited with the Mets this year for a very brief encounter. He
appeared in only 4 games, grabbing a bat once. He sacrificed the runners from
second and first up a base in a game versus the Baltimore Orioles in July. It
was the last game he’d appear in with the Mets before being designated for
assignment.
Already a
Mets legend in a weird way, his self-deprecating humor from his stint with the
team in 2022 had fans overjoyed when the team picked him up in 2025 for a
handful of days. Signed on June 10 and released on July 13, he became one of
several players to occupy a roster spot the Mets never seemed to have much of a
clue how to use properly.
Jankowski’s
presence allowed for the Mets to demote Luisangel Acuna to the minors to allow
him to play more regularly. It didn’t seem to make much of a difference as
Acuna failed to do much at all after getting recalled. The veteran outfielder’s
time playing baseball professionally is probably coming to a close. He didn’t
play another game after getting released by the Mets. At 34 with faster and
more intriguing options out there to be the 26th man off the bench for major
league teams, we can probably expect a retirement announcement at some point
this offseason.
Travis
Jankowski reunited with the Mets this year for a very brief encounter. He
appeared in only 4 games, grabbing a bat once. He sacrificed the runners from
second and first up a base in a game versus the Baltimore Orioles in July. It
was the last game he’d appear in with the Mets before being designated for
assignment.
Already a
Mets legend in a weird way, his self-deprecating humor from his stint with the
team in 2022 had fans overjoyed when the team picked him up in 2025 for a
handful of days. Signed on June 10 and released on July 13, he became one of
several players to occupy a roster spot the Mets never seemed to have much of a
clue how to use properly.
Jankowski’s
presence allowed for the Mets to demote Luisangel Acuna to the minors to allow
him to play more regularly. It didn’t seem to make much of a difference as
Acuna failed to do much at all after getting recalled. The veteran outfielder’s
time playing baseball professionally is probably coming to a close. He didn’t
play another game after getting released by the Mets. At 34 with faster and
more intriguing options out there to be the 26th man off the bench for major
league teams, we can probably expect a retirement announcement at some point
this offseason.
Who are
the next young studs for the Mets?
C Chris Suero (No. 15 prospect, Double-A BNG)
2025 MiLB
Totals:
115 G, 475
PA, .233/.379/.407, 88 H, 16 HR, 16 2B, 1 3B, 78 R, 68 RBI, 35 SB, 29.3%-14.7%
K-BB%, .175 ISO, .316 BABIP, .375 wOBA, 141 wRC+
Latest
Scouting Grades:
Hit: 40 Power: Run: 60
Arm: 50 Field: 50
Overall: 45
MLB Comp: Daulton Varsho
Suero’s 35
steals last season reflected a near-doubling of his 2024 output (20), which
itself was a major explosion from the seven he tallied across his 2022-2023
rookie ball campaigns. When you pair that with steady, year-over-year offensive
improvements and legitimate defensive flexibility in the outfield, I don’t
think the growing buzz is at all misplaced.
(Seriously,
when’s the last time this franchise had a catcher who could hit for power,
steal bases, and play the outfield? Have they ever?)
Now, unlike
Reimer and Ewing, Suero’s raw hit tool still needs a bit of work. His 139
strikeouts ranked second-most in his group; his 29.3% K-rate was top of the
class. He likes to swing, and he swings hard — his tendency to swing over
fastballs is documented. He also hits the ball on the ground a lot: Suero had
the worst line-drive rate among his class, alongside the second-most severe
tendency to hit pull-side (55%). That pull power is great if you’re keeping the
ball up, but hitting it on the ground to the same spot repeatedly can turn an
otherwise dangerous hitter into a predictable one very quickly.
Still,
Suero’s ~15% walk rate and 70 walks both ranked seventh in his group, and his
HR/FB ratio ranked sixth, so the untapped power and plate discipline tools are
clearly there. If he can learn to keep the ball in the air and start spreading
it around the field a bit, I have no doubt his already-solid .317 BABIP will
skyrocket.
All told,
Suero is an incredibly promising prospect with excellent defensive skills to
back up a developing bat and quietly freakish athletic tools. Looking at the
numbers, he already seems to be the most complete catching prospect in the
Mets’ system. It feels like we’ve barely started to scratch the surface with
this guy, and I don’t doubt he’ll be sharing the MLB spotlight with Alvy before
we know it.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6757524/2025/10/29/mets-fan-survey-results-2025/
Do you agree
with the Mets’ decision to retain…?
92% Yes David
Stearns
79% Yes Carlos
Mendoza
It’s a fun
dichotomy. More fans blamed Stearns for 2025 than Mendoza, yet fewer wanted
Stearns fired than Mendoza. In both cases, though, the fan base is largely
copacetic with New York’s leadership.
3 SP
doors the NY Mets can refuse to knock on due to their scary second half
Framber Valdez
Framber
Valdez could be considered the best starting pitcher available in free agency.
However, like the Houston Astros, the year didn’t end so well. Valdez was 10-4
with a 2.74 ERA in the first half. After the All-Star Break, he was 3-7 with a
5.20 ERA. His ERA reached 5.64 in August and 6.51 in September. The weak finish
makes it easier to talk ourselves into skipping his house altogether. Sign him
and you're going to miss out on the opportunity to reach all of the best houses
in the neighborhood.
Look I just don't want the crazy SNY trade proposals for everyone from Skubal to Skenes so lets go into next season and let the kids play and grow and go after Skubal when he's a FA. We have to build team to last year after year and we're almost there but to compete the the new Evil Empire who has that pipeline from Japan all to themselves (like are they winning the WS w/o Yamamoto and Ohtani) which really sucks but its the facts of life in baseball so we have to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteJankowski would not be retiring if teams were able to each add two more offensive slots, adding salaries of $2 million or less. As I’ve said before, teams in the 1960s and 1970s had 15 offensive players, but now, just 13. That is 60 fewer slots.
ReplyDeleteWhy sign Framber when you have the equallyineptManaeaalready?
ReplyDeleteTorrens is 1A catcher defensively; if he could just hit a little more with more pop
ReplyDeleteNo catcher will sign with you having to wait for Alvarez to get hurt. Further, for whatever reason, once Alvarez is healthy, he tends to play all the time.
ReplyDelete