Tom Brennan - STREAK! Limping Lindor; 2026 Mets Minor League Teams Fall Short of 2025

“It’s like I told Lieutenant Dan…Stupid is as Stupid Does”

FIRST, THOUGH…A TWO GAME WINNING STREAK FOR THE METS

10-8 win. Game ends on a Devin Williams K after 3 straight hits allowed had the tying runs in scoring position. Game had it all…6-1 early Mets lead, half of the Mets runs coming on a 3 run Baty Blast.

Christian Scott left his control in Syracuse, and his evening was short. 

Bad relief in the 8th, including Brazoban surrendering a game tying grand slam, was followed by 3 runs bottom 8, keyed by Bichette.

Lindor did not play. Why? His Wednesday injury….

LIMPING LINDOR KEPT RIGHT ON RUNNING

I got on former Mets prospect Drew Gilbert a lot in my articles, two years ago, for running and not stopping when he felt his hamstring had strained, and then really pulling it by staying in the game, and missing much of 2024 as a result. 

I wrote then, why would someone not exercise extreme caution to not make an injury worse?  It was only one meaningless April game. STOP RUNNING.

You come out of the game, Drew Gilbert, and maybe you miss just a week instead of missing months of valuable career time. Another example:

Lagares’ acrobatics causing him to be injured more than Evel Knievel. Etc.

So I watched the replay of Lindor, gingerly running from first base on a Mets double and coming around to barely score ahead of the throw. That’s a whole lot of running when your calf is barking, which it clearly was before he even got to second base. 

Then, I read this:

“The Mets don't have a clear timetable yet on Lindor's injury, but they expect him to miss significant time. It's more serious than the calf issue that just cost Soto 15 games.”

And I think to myself, “self, why would someone risk making an injury much more severe, instead of just stopping”? He could’ve stopped running at second base. He could’ve stopped running at third base. 

But like Forrest Gump, he kept right on going. And now he’s right on going to the IL. And he’s going to be there apparently for a long long time. And chances increased that the season probably just went up in smoke because of his decision-making.

What do I call that? I call it - oh, I dunno - dumb. Dumb seems like it.

Or, in Gump parlance, “stupid is as stupid does.”

I’ve seen it too many times. I ask: When are teams going to teach their players that when they feel a leg injury emerging, unless it’s the seventh game of the World Series, to just stop.  It reminds me of the tortoise and the hare. The hare was moving, mighty fast, until it wasn’t. And finally was passed by the uninjured tortoise. To me it’s just inexplicable.

We will probably be told that his continuing to run did not aggravate the injury. I think that it would be both baloney and malarkey. 

Of course, good things could happen. 

Ronny Mauricio could come in and become a gangbuster. But I just think that this injury is the final nail in the 2026 coffin, and we haven’t even gotten to May yet. 

Give Luis Guillorme a call? He’s home. Anyway…

Enough of that depressing garbage. 

On to my prepared topic du jour.

A.J. EWING HAS BEEN HOT

 

Boy, oh boy, last year’s Mets minor-league system was a game-winning machine.

This year, through Wednesday, not nearly so much. A collective 31 wins and 40 losses. Way off the pace of 2025. (Then, on Thursday, the 4 teams lost by a combined score of 34-10. Ouch.

The update below gives you a quick idea as to why.

When it comes to Syracuse, they are playing pretty well at 12–10, but it is a team filled with veterans, so what I like to look at for Syracuse is how are the prospects and near–prospects doing?  How the team does overall is less relevant because of the veterans that are unlikely to be called up.

So looking through the prospect prism, Mauricio has been doing great, Clifford has picked it up quite a bit after an abysmal start, Morabito is doing OK, but he is a better hitter this April than last April, and Lambert, Tong and Wenninger are doing mostly very well.  

Scott was also doing well enough to get chosen for the Mets starting role in Thursday night’s game in Queens. The S-Mets are 15th out of 20 in scoring runs, and hitting .250.

Binghamton? I thought they would be the beast of the franchise. But they are 6-10, and flat out not hitting. 

Jacob Reimer was hitting .122 before he went 4 for 4 Wednesday night. Doing that still only raised his average to .189. (Then he fanned all 4 times up on Thursday!)

Ewing was torrid, but slipped down to .327, and has no home runs. Only Serrano otherwise at .271 is anywhere close to a normal batting average otherwise. 

Sixteen games in, the Ponies are hitting a woeful .195.

Brooklyn is 4-12. Why? Lack of hitting. They sit at .184. 

Yes, Cyclone Park is tough for line up’s whackers, but on the road, they are a brutal .149, and .219 at home. 

They have hit somewhat better, and fanned less, over their last 9 games, so hopefully their upward trajectory continues at the plate.

St. Lucie (9-8) has had fine hitting performances from Pena, Zayas and others, and are hitting a league-leading .253, a league-best .357 OBP, and just one run short of the most runs, averaging 6.1 runs per game. So why are they only 9-8?

The Lucites have by far the league’s worst ERA (6.44), despite 2 shutouts in 17 games!  By comparison, Ft. Myers’ team ERA by comparison is 2.10. Lucie righty Omar Victorino has done the worst so far, allowing 21 runs in 9.1 IP. The entire Ft Myers team has only surrendered 34 earned runs.

Let’s see how all of that sub-mediocrity changes with warmer weather.  

Hopefully, for the much better.  

However, the fact that St. Lucie is hitting well is less relevant than what the other teams are doing at the three higher levels, since hitters that do well at the Florida State league level often struggle as they get to higher levels and face stronger pitching. Their stats are far less indicative of future success.

So my assessment is that the overall state of Mets minor league hitting is frankly poor at this point.  

And that is something that I’ve unfortunately written far too many times during my decade plus as a Mack’s Mets writer.

Pitching has also been less impressive than in 2025.

And that’s my memo. Except, let me add this…

I LIKE LUKE WEAVER MORE ONCE I HEARD HIM SAY THIS AFTER WEDNESDAY’S 3-2 WIN:

Weaver said:

“Look, people smell fear. 

“I'm not the biggest guy in the room, but I ain't scared of nobody. 

“And that's the attitude I try to take, and if I screw up, it's on me, but at the end of the day, I'm gonna sleep at night, and I'm gonna feel good about the effort I put in, and I ain't fearing nobody. 
You remember that.”

Asked “What are the emotions, not just for yourself, but for this team, finally getting over the hump tonight?”

Weaver replied: 

“A little bit of relief. 
Look, this wasn't about attitude. This wasn't about work ethic. This wasn't about a bad demeanor. 
There was none of that. It's about just showing up every day, giving you something to cheer about, and thankfully, today….we freaking did that. 

“All right? 
Thank you. Let's go Mets.”

I REALLY LIKE THAT!