Tom Brennan: When You’re a Met, You’re a Met All the Way; Benge Ready? Shantz

THE METS PICKED THEMSELVES UP A #63 IN FREDDY P

 

Queens Side Story theme song about its fans:

“When you’re a Met, you’re a Met all the way, 

from your first Bo Bichette to your last Alzolay.”

Mets fans are extremely loyal, and extremely loyal people can tend to overrate their players. But, sometimes, they can underrate them.

An MLB.com article by Jeffry Lutz spells out more objectively(?) which players on each team are in the MLB Top 100. 

Here’s what he wrote about the players on your favorite team, the Mets:

Mets (4): 

Juan Soto (6), Francisco Lindor (11), Bo Bichette (48), Freddy Peralta (63)

New York added a fourth member to this list on Wednesday night after acquiring righty Freddy Peralta from the Brewers. Peralta gives the Mets a steady presence at the top of the rotation, leading the NL with 17 wins in 2025 and accumulating 10 bWAR over the past three seasons

The Mets lost two of last year’s top 100 after trading Brandon Nimmo to the Rangers and losing slugger Pete Alonso to the Orioles in free agency. But they picked one up in Bichette, who will help make up for the loss of Alonso and be part of a revamped infield along with Lindor and fellow offseason pickups Marcus Semien (acquired for Nimmo) and free agent Jorge Polanco.

Regardless of Alonso’s middle-of-the-order presence, once Soto arrived in free agency last offseason, the Mets’ offense began, and will continue, to revolve around him. A slow start in 2025 kept the spotlight away from Soto for a while, but when you looked up in say, June, he was still having a typical Juan Soto season. It ended with an MLB-best 127 walks as Soto led the NL with a .396 on-base percentage. He also, somehow, had an NL-tying 38 stolen bases despite never before stealing more than 12. Oh, and there were the career-high 43 homers.

So, there you have it.

Who is Juan Soto behind? 

Ohtani is #1, Judge is #2, Bobby Witt is #3, Raleigh is #4. 

Makes sense.  So far, so good.

Jose Ramirez is #5? Ahead of Soto? 

That’s a no-no. Soto is better.

If I could only pick one of the two, I’d pick the guy whose name rhymes with photo.

Other players of interest in the top 100?  

Alonso (33), Crow (40), deGrom (50), and Edwin (83).  

No, Nimmo is not in the top 100 any longer.

His favorite disco song, though, remains DO THE HUSTLE.

Who is barking at Soto’s heels? 

Paul Skenes at #7. Loud barks.

Aggressive A’s slugger Brent Rooker is #91.  His more tentative MLB counterpart, Mark Vientos, is nowhere near the top 100. 

Hmmm…

Lastly:

The Dodgers have EIGHT players in the top 100.  SIX in the top 50.

OK, you can SHUDDER now. I just did.

 

“JOHNNY CARSON” BENGE

BENGE READY??

“How could Johnny Carson Benge be ready when he only hit .178 and 103 plate appearances in AAA?”

 “C’mon!!! He ain’t ready!”

That seems to be a reasonable question, and perhaps a reasonable conclusion….until one takes a deeper dive.

In his first 15 AAA plate appearances, Carson got on base six times. That’s a .400 OBP.

In the last of those games, he got hit by a pitch and was out from August 16 through August 27. He had a hit in each of his first two games back. But something was wrong.

Including those first two games back, he went on a five for 29 swoon.

Then it got worse he followed that five for 29 with an 0 for 24 plunge. WATCH OUT BELOW!

Carson and then write the ship by getting on base eight out of his last 25 times over the last 6 games to conclude the season.

I therefore firmly believe that that hit by pitch was nasty and that he didn’t recover from it to 100% for a while.

Another guy that happened to was double-quarter-pounder-with-cheese Pete Alonso back in 2023.

Pete got badly nailed by a boring-in mighty fast fastball in the wrist/hand area. The cognoscenti thought he’d be out 3-4 weeks. He shocked everyone as he missed just 11 days, rushing back if for no other reason than Pete viscerally hates sitting on the bench EVER. He should not have been so RUSSIAN, as it turned out. 

Like Carson, he badly spiraled post-return, going 12 for 88 in his next bunch of games.

So, I am only focusing on the last 6 Benge AAA games.  Those healthy games tell me he is further along that his AAA slash line in August and September would indicate.

Remember, stats need to be drilled down on to get a clear picture.

THE CLEAR PICTURE, TO ME?  “HEEERRE’S CARSON!”

And… I normally do not like signing 35-year-olds. But lefty hitting Mike Tauchman, who is just turning 35, has had a .360 on base percentage his last three seasons, and he had a good fielding year last year.  1.9 WAR in the equivalent of 2/3 of a full season of playing time. 

In 2025:

Player #1: .263/.356/.400. Tauchman.

Player #2: .262/.324/.436.  Nimmo.

Pretty close, huh.  So, signing him to a minor league deal?  Why not.

LAST MAN STANDING

Saw this on FB:

“𝐓𝐡𝐞 "𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐧" 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:  

𝐁𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐲 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐳 

He is the last surviving player from the Philadelphia Athletics and the last living player to have played under legendary manager Connie Mack. He is the final surviving MLB player who debuted in the 1940s, and he is also the oldest (100) living former MVP in Major League Baseball.” 

Born September 26, 2025. He went 24-7 in 1952. Stood just 5’6”.

Sadly, Bill Mazeroski passed away yesterday at age 89. He made the Hall of Fame despite far lighter stats than Keith Hernandez. Career 36.5 WAR. Keith had 60.4 WAR. David Wright had 49.1 WAR in far fewer plate appearances.

Maz only scored 769 runs, while driving in 864, with just 27 steals.

Voting writers are biased. But Maz was a fine player nonetheless.

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