Tom Brennan - Fundamental Questions to be Fiercely Asked

FIERCELY ASK THE QUESTIONS. 

IN ORDER TO GET REAL ANSWERS.

The most fundamental question is this: 

 - Does the Mets organization somehow neuter its upcoming hitting talent?

I ask this because the hitting, both at the major league and the minor league levels in the Mets organization, has frankly been abysmal this year.

I started to think, what hitters in the 2026 minors have wowed us?

Short Ans. Ewing.

And which hitters in the minors have been solid if not a wow?

Short Ans. Nick Morabito.

Anyone else?

Short Ans. NO!

If someone is truly serious about this organization, they have to start deeply asking why.

What about players who left the organization?

Jett Williams? Pistol hot for the Brewers organization in AAA during May. 

Then there is the curious case of the newly minted killer, Carlos Cortes. 

Mack suggests that I move on from the Carlos Cortes topic, because it seems that every team gives up a Carlos Cortes type of prospect.

But then I looked at Carlos, post-Mets, a little more, and I thought it was worth one more meaningful pass. 

Here’s why.

Carlos had his ups and downs in the Mets might system, but rarely did stuff that was impressive with the bat.  

He was decent, but not more. The Mets never called him up.

OK - now - it is Observation/Question time:

One has to seriously ask oneself how much that Cortes mediocrity had to do with playing in horrific Brooklyn, and almost as horrific Binghamton, parks. 

I am not saying I have the answers for that, but those two parks really seem to - well - suck for the home team hitters, to put it bluntly. 

Maybe someone can give Carlos a call and politely ask him about that.

So, Carlos exits the AAA team, and Mets organization, at the end of 2024. 

What has he done in AAA and the major leagues since leaving the Mets organization and going to the A’s organization? 

Plenty. Incredibly plenty. Amazingly plenty. Since he joined the As org.:

He has had 543 AAA and MLB plate appearances and 474 at bats. 

He has had 40 doubles, 25 homers, and 107 RBIs, just 80 strikeouts, and is hitting .325 in that stretch of AAA and major league games, pretty evenly split between the two levels. 

He hit .322 in AAA and .329 in the major leagues.  The highest ranked MLB current career hitter, Luis Arraez, is hitting .317 by comparison!

With a Cortes slugging % much closer to .600 than .500.

Friggin’ WOW. 

Far too much friggin’ WOW to just be dismissed as some short term fluke.

So again, before people just say oh, it’s just one of those things, I think:

If I were Steve Cohen, I would ask my people some really, really tough questions on that one. 

How much of it was due to the crappy, hitter-squelching minor league parks? 

How much it is perhaps due to crappy and/or faulty coaching? 

How much how much of it might just be due to Carlos feeling blocked in a Mets system that perhaps overlooked him, leaving him feeling, perhaps like he would never get a call up, but then going to the A’s organization and having the feeling that he had a brand spanking new lease on life?

Considering how much the Mets pay for free agent hitting talent, and how much they overpay frankly for a lot of that talent, to have a minimum wage guy like Carlos Cortes just absolutely tearing it up as soon as he left the organization really requires tough questions and real answers. 

Because if you just let this sail on by, as if it is just a fluke, the pattern that we’re seeing will just continue, most likely.

This isn’t just a Carlos Cortes fluke. 

Flukes don’t hit .325 over 574 PAs, with power and ribbies galore.

No, there were other flukes:

There was letting Gary Sanchez leave the Mets and go on to hit 40 homers and drive in 106 in 656 post-Mets at bats.

It was letting Travis d’Arnaud leave, and become a solid # 1 catcher thereafter. 83 HRs and 300 RBIs in 1,900 ABs since he departed Queens.

It also was selecting a Parada rather than picking fireballing Misiorowski.

It was Paul Sewald going from devastated Mets reliever, to devastating Seattle reliever, at the simple flip of a switch.

Or Mike Vasil going from a hammered Mets minor league AAA pitcher to 5-3, 2.50 ERA with the major league Chicago White Sox the very next season.

Or Eric Orze getting just two relief outings as a Met, then getting let go, and immediately since then has 50+ MLB outings, with a 3.40 ERA.

Or Jake Mangum, like Cortes, never gets called up by the Mets, but hits .290 in the majors thereafter in 2025-26.

Or Simon Juan, signed as an international “5 tool” player in 2022 for $1.9 million, was hitting in the mid .160s on Sunday in A ball St Lucie, with 50 Ks and 3 walks in 33 games. He may need 5 or more plumbing tools for his soon-coming change of occupations, should he choose to become a plumber. Baseball seems to be above his pay grade.

My gosh, I could keep right on going.

These and so many more such questions that need to be answered objectively about Mets’ organizational chronic underperformance/failures.

But, for today, Steve C’s team geniuses ought to hone it in and do a forensic dive on the failure to foresee, and harvest, a formidable Carlos Cortes AS A MET. 

Come up with real answers.

Or don’t, and just keep making the same season-killing mistakes.