Reese Kaplan -- Managing the Roster over a 162 Game Season

During the more positive than negative start to the 2026 Mets season there have been some visible red flags that the club must be looking how best to address.  Some of them, like injuries, are hard to control and even more difficult to manage as the body needs sufficient time to recover from whatever it was that left the player unable to perform as expected.  Others, however, concern the metrics produced by the players in question and there you have to decide between the conclusion of temporary slumps vs. simply wrong fits for the roster.

While no one was surprised by the move of Juan Soto to the IL so that he would have sufficient time to recover properly from the calf issue that removed him from an active game, it’s still quite a tough nut to swallow.  The isolation from the stress of day to day baseball activity is really what’s needed to let his body acclimate to improvement of his health and this early in the season it’s actually understandable and a shrewd albeit conservative choice.

Where it gets a bit more concerning is the balancing act they’re currently engaged in performing with would be first baseman and now occasional DH Jorge Polanco.  Achilles tendinitis is not something that likely recovers through the stressful action of playing the field in addition to what’s required simply to swing the bat and run the bases.  DH is a less aggressive role for him to play but they soon are going to have to make the IL or no IL decision about him as well.  Older Mets teams would simply keep running out the same guys in the lineup regardless of injury.  Here’s hoping that they make a smarter choice with Polanco.

On the flip side are the players whose contributions to winning are not quite measuring up as expected.  Player number one on this list, of course, is struggling rookie Carson Benge.  Thursday night for the Diamondbacks game it appears that the Mets are finally giving the spring sensation a game off to regroup mentally as his hitting has been horrific.  His track record is way too good in the past after converting to hitting on a full time basis to think that the current lack of productivity is anything more than a slump and self flagellation for not getting things done at the plate.  Hopefully the breather is what he needs to reset.

Far different are the numbers being produced by some of the other ballplayers.  Case in point, let’s look at two-time Met, Dicky Lovelady.  For 2026 it’s pretty ugly.  He’s giving up more than 7 walks per 9 IP.  His WHIP is an unbelievable 2.400.  His ERA is an awful 5.40 but here’s the scary part.  His career ERA for a career that’s spanned his ages 23 to 30 seasons across 8 different teams is 5.35.  In other words, he’s pitching as he’s always pitched.  The fact he is left handed does not compensate for the damage he does when he’s on the mound. 

On the plus side, still recovering lefty AJ Minter has recently gotten into a game in the lower minors as he continues his rehabilitation and conditioning.  While his velocity is down about 1 mph from what he did pre-injury last year, he did well and gives the Mets some glimmer of hope for a more valuable reliever to replace the less effective one tanking games for the team.  How long it will take for this transition to happen is still anyone’s guess but here’s hoping it’s no further away than the start of May.