Centerfield

That doesn’t seem good at all. Maybe he can be a one inning reliever.

He’s got a .440 SLG. He doesn’t hit for enough power to strike out that much.

I guess Young for now, Clifford eventually. Clifford is striking out nearly 40% at AAA. I have little confidence he can stick as a legitimate big leaguer. This may be a question mark for a while. If you look at this upcoming free agent class, there’s nothing there.

If they win another ten straight I’ll care again.

You know how I know apathy has set in? I don’t feel any hint of nervousness.

Question. Is the infield fly rule invoked when the infielder is Vientos?

Bichette is so fucking late.

Yeah. I’m just ok on Tong. I don’t see enough to be an impact starter. Maybe a 4 or 5. Which is fine. I can also see him being a good reliever.

Tong walks too many guys.

Failure to challenge by Torrens turns ball 4 into a groundout.

That should be an error on Bichette.

Avi.

I hope Tong is good. Would be nice to have something good happen to the Mets.

You go back to earlier this season where Lindor was thrown out while on third. First and third, no one out, ground ball to first base. He wandered too far off the bag and was gunned down. No one held him accountable. Mendy tried to argue inexplicably that this was the right play. It clearly wasn’t. And because of that, it happened again later in the season. Carson Benge failed to challenge a close pitch in the ninth inning even though he had two challenges in his pocket. Not challenging was a mistake. Whether right or not, in that situation you have to try. No one said anything. And because of that, he made the same mistake two days later. Last year we wondered how a team this talented could go through such long losing streaks. Seemingly interminable stretches of bad baseball. A refusal to adjust can go a long way to explaining that. You wonder how an entire lineup can underperform expectations, some of them being very modest expectations. How can a $380M team be dead last in OPS. A refusal to change a flawed hitting philosophy can get you there. When you have protracted failure, coupled with a refusal to adjust, you get this.

I really thought 2025 was the worst season to suffer through.

Firing or not firing people is not the problem. If those people took responsibility and said things like “we’ve done a terrible job. We are looking inward at our philosophies and trying to find where we went wrong to make sure it doesn’t continue”. Then yeah. You don’t have to fire them. But no one says that. They refuse to acknowledge fault. Ron was pretty brutal about the lack of coaching today on the failure to backup bases. It’s a symbol of this front office. Refusal to change. If the ppl in charge are failing and refusing to change, firing them is not just the right move. It’s necessary.

Mendoza sent a pinch hitter for Baty but left Melendez in the game. Everything is so stupid.

Yup. I remember that being a big issue in 2025. The final numbers were much better than most of the year because of their insane August. They then reverted back in September. And yes, August counts and the numbers fell where they fell, but there was certainly justification for calling for Chavez to be fired for most of the season. The Chavez situation is interesting in hindsight. He’s spoken openly about there being competing theories with the two hitting coaches and his disdain for David Stearns. Because he’s such an ass I assumed he was the problem. Could it be he was the only thing keeping the 2025 Mets from being the unmitigated disaster that is 2026?

Assuming there is a 2027. All they can do now is assess the talent they have for next year. You figure Peralta will be traded. Raley as well, maybe Minter if healthy. I don’t know what the rules are for trading Clay Holmes, but maybe you hold onto him and offer the QO. Assuming Bo bounces back and performs, he likely opts out and we’re probably stuck with Polanco at DH for next year. The Mets have a great chance to see what Benge and Ewing can do this year. Hopefully they show something and if they do, your OF is set for a while. Hopefully Morabito collects a hit sometime and establishes himself as a bench piece. You have a good opportunity to let Baty, Vientos and Mauricio show what they have for the rest of the year. Barring a big turnaround, I think Vientos has played his way off this team. I think Baty can still be a useful piece, and Mauricio a bench player. That leaves you with first base and second/third base to find your impact bats for next year. Things look pretty bleak, but if they somehow fix their hitting approach, maybe they’re not as far away as they seem right now. 1. Ewing CF. 2. Soto LF. 3. Lindor SS. 4. 5. 6. Benge RF. 7. Polanco DH. 8. Baty 2B/3B 9. Alvarez C As far as pitching, they’ll need McLean to settle in. Christian Scott looks like he could be good. Tong still has promise, and maybe Tobias Myers moves to the rotation. We’ll also have a chance to see what Wenninger/Thornton have as well. That being said, the challenge for next year will be to find frontline pitching to pair with the youth. We’ll need 2-3 starters minimum. Tylor Megill will be back to provide some depth. There will be some dead weight on the 2027 payroll. We’ll have to eat the last two years of the Semien contract. Also Manaea and Senga. Hopefully we get one productive year from Polanco. We’ll hopefully clear the Bichette salary. We will definitely shed Luis Robert, Frankie Montas, David Peterson, and the pay downs of Nimmo and McNeil.

It’s hard to think of any executive who’s had a worse run than Stearns.

Stepped out for a bit. What a disaster. Is McLean not good anymore?

This team does nothing well.

Unfortunately that CS costs the Mets the chance to clear the cleanup hitter.

Sorry. I’m wrong. Tip of the cap to AJ Ewing.

We don’t have one hitter with an OPS over .700