While much of the offseason narrative has been about the roster and the impact David Stearns has had in implementing his so-called transition year plan to get the Mets into a long term competitive direction, the first major change of this fall and winter has kind of fallen off the radar. What will the impact of rookie manager Carlos Mendoza have on the New York Mets?
Going into the decision making people were open to accepting the former Yankee coach as a credible choice to replace the terminated Buck Showalter. By any evaluation Showalter got a bit of a raw deal and took the hit for the injuries and poor performances of several players during the 2023 season. To come from nowhere to win 100 games and hit the postseason in 2022 to fighting to stay out of the cellar in 2023 is a tale of two very different seasons.
Still, we have heard that Showalter wanted to play the individuals who he felt would give the team the best chance of winning but was prohibited from doing so by now deposed General Manager Billy Eppler. So if it was Eppler ultimately calling the shots on, for example, the highly ineffectual Daniel Vogelbach continuing as the primary DH, why did Showalter get the axe?
Anyway, it's water under the bridge for now and the Mets have hooked up with another Bronx veteran. In fact, if you trace the players, coaches and front office personnel that have been involved in the Mets since Steve Cohen took over, you see quite a significant tie to the Yankees. There was Billy Eppler, Buck Showalter, Eric Chavez, Adam Ottavino, David Robertson, Harrison Bader, Luis Severino and now manager Carlos Mendoza. It's not an indictment of the Yankee organization that there has been this much affiliation, but it is somewhat unusual to see such affiliation with one other club on all levels.
So what can be expected from Mendoza? No one is completely clear, but all indications are that he was highly regarded in interviews with other clubs in the past and has sat in the dugout of a mostly winning organization during his managerial apprenticeship in the coaching ranks. Given what we've heard about David Stearns' plans for the future it will be interesting to see how Mendoza fits into the picture.
First of all, other than Severino and Bader, Mendoza has no real connection to the rest of the Mets roster as it's currently constructed. He should know hitting coach Eric Chavez but otherwise most of the names and faces are brand new. He will need to establish a connection for motivation when needed. However, he also has no loyalty to anything that's happened in the past. That same stance applies to his boss Stearns as well.
Right now the 2024 team is one that Mendoza will learn and attempt to use successfully while the club has pretty much stayed away from the top-of-the-list options in free agency and trades. The improved defensive alignment is surely going to help the unknown quality of the pitching staff. What's also unknown is the caliber of the offense that will represent the team on a daily basis. Will Francisco Alvarez continue to evolve? Is Brett Baty for real? Can Mark Vientos become the primary DH? What will happen if Pete Alonso is sent packing midway through the year? What about the up and coming additional Baby Mets working in AA and AAA? Are they an injury or a sizzling hot streak away from making it to Citifield?
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Also of interest to folks who have watched the Mets with some frustration for several years is how Mendoza will address basic fundamentals. Defense is paramount and not something the club has delivered much lately. Baserunning is another lost art as is advancing runners instead of waiting for the magical three-run homer to right all the wrongs.
New managers are nothing unusual for the Mets. They've had Mickey Callaway and Luis Rojas in the recent past after the Carlos Beltran experiment ended before it ever got started. Buck Showalter was a gesture towards bringing in positive and intelligent experience, the polar opposite of the Wilpons' Terry Collins move rewarding a guy who couldn't land a managerial job anywhere and then sitting on him as the team's losingest skipper in club history for an unlucky seven years.
Now we're back once again to a rookie manager getting his shot along with a new POBO and a curtailed spending limit for the upcoming season. There is a lot of uncertainty all the way around.
17 comments:
2023 was a highly unfortunate season, which I was discussing with my brother again yesterday.
Scherzer only made eight starts over the first nine weeks.
Verlander missed the first five weeks., And then had to ramp up.
Quintana missed it all together until July.
Carrasco missed a ton of starts.
Narvaez missed, a couple of months early in the season.
Edwin missed the whole season for the early injuries.
Then, Alonzo had the hit by pitch in early June that messed them up for six weeks.
The problem is, we don’t know how the season is going to happen . If most of those injuries did not happen, they could easily have been at least a dozen games better than they were by late July., We need to remember that the best laid plans can implode due to injuries. With this roster in 2024, it is concerning talent-wise , but if guys stay healthier, which they normally don’t, but if they do, the Mets will have a better record come late July than they did last year. Perhaps significantly better.
I don’t know anything about Carlos Mendoza, but I wasn’t happy that the Mets are getting a rookie manager at this point. In Milwaukee, Stearns inherited Counsel and they worked well. But as we know, Showalter was ousted before Eppler resigned, and Eppler’s experience with Showalter’s push back may have made Stearns amiable to a clean slate. While I don’t blame Showalter for being bitter about Eppler’s stupid ego and interference, I did see a Showalter that at times checked out on this team. The absolutely inexcusable decisions of using all his best relievers together at one time and all his crap relievers together in the next game, hurt the team. He may have done it to thumb his nose at Eppler and his bullpen design, but Showalter did it and it hurt the team.
Too, lineup construction at times was curious. Why is Alonso hitting #3 with his .220ish batting average, and Lindor behind him? Those that scoff at batting average don’t understand its meaning. A higher batting average is usually correlated to higher line drive percentage, and thus a better overall contact based hitter. When McNeil was finally hot and Nimmo was hitting for power, why not move McNeil up to lead off, let Nimmo hit second and then Lindor and Alonso thus strengthening the lineup? Was McNeil really the best power choice for #5? Why not those first four and then Stewart and Alvarez? Too much brain fart was going on in the Mets dugout last season, including putting Marte right into the #2 hitting position when he came back after injury with ANY rehab assignment.
Nail, meet head. TexasGusCC really hammered the points home eloquently and with more than just casual baseball fan evaluation. Thank you.
😀
Wow, thank you Reese! Love your dedication to giving us something to banter about every morning, and thank you also for that.
Something I’m thinking about: what would be the implications of keeping a McGill or Lucasse in the BP as regular multi inning pitchers (think 5-6 or 6-7 inning) guys to keep them somewhat stretched out & also sued as occasional 6th starters or spot starters? This approach would have the benefits of keeping them pitching in the MLB, get them constant game action & give them a chance to build on their craft. It’s a waste to put them in the minors & this approach would give Milb spots to younger players. The approach of using more versatile arms in the BP vs a bunch of scrubs to pitch the 5th & 6th innings almost every night. The bullpen could still hold one more late inning guy (to be signed) & two rotating guys to break them in & provide fresh arms as needed to cover the low impact innings. This approach also seems to align with this year’s priorities as well.
Gus should write for us
Holding out
Must have Nora's as his agent
Another idea would be to piggy the two.... one gets 5 innings. The other 4. Day of rest for both rotation and pen
I like this thinking Mack. In fact, Megill loses velocity after four or five innings.
*Boras
Keeping Luchessi,Megillah and Butto in the BP rather than starting in minors is a much better use of resources.
After watching the finale episode of Reacher last night it reminded me of the big failing of Showalter in my mind. We have to retaliate when HPB! As the episode was winding down there was a part when he just said when asked what they have to do next and his answer was we have to kill a few more people. Well not exactly but you get the point because watching Buck give the other team the stink eye yet doing nothing really sucked and how big a loss was Pete last season among others and I really hope DS and the FO address this. Also the starting pitcher pitching 5 innings and a reliever pitching at least 3 makes so much sense as this 5 relief pitchers a night thing is just plain crazy and that plan certainly has merit.
Gary, I saw that yesterday - and was oddly just thinking about it when I saw your comment. GREAT cast, and Reacher would definitely bat cleanup - muscles on muscles.
In terms of HBP, it is why Austin Adams is a guy I love in the Mets pen - he can fan dudes - 170 in 114 MLB innings - but has hit 31 guys!! One every 3.1 innings! He could retaliate and no one could ever say he did it on purpose. He's a wild man.
Purist Jake, on the other hand, hit ONLY one guy in 295 innings over his past 4 seasons. Were he to hit someone, it would be clear he did it on purpose. He and some other pitchers have not defended the Mets hitters - and the consequences of key players being knocked out of action in 2022 and 2023 by carefree opposing pitchers have been huge.
Mack, you have to suggest to Gus that just because of Texas, the internet works instantly, so his Macks Mets articles will easily post, and he therefore has no excuse :)
Also, this is a transition year, but this is rubber meets road time. The Mets may be hoping prices fall before making a few more buys - and needed Hader to resolve to open the reliever market up. We'll see it they are done - or not - players get hurt, so the only way standing pat will work is if they get through the first half with few and light injuries. That is a big gamble.
No
Approached too many times with no response
We need to keep up this double duty lobby until "someone" reads it
Like the piggyback idea too. Main thing is to play them & not just hold them in AAA.
Gary, here is a link to a compiled video of the 24 guys Adams hit in 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaRIxHu4dY4
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