Edgy MD

Bob Nightengale, who is generally nobody's fool, recently wrote that MLB teams still expect Bo Bichette to opt out of his contract at the end of the season. It's really little more than a filler story, but again, Nightengale doesn't tend to pull stuff out of his ass. Bichette, took a VERY big average annual salary in exchange for shorter years than the Phils were offering him. The headline suggests that this would be "bad news" for the Mets but editors write those, and I imagine not a lot of Met-fan folks are seeing the notion that way on June 14. I imagine Bichette has a better rest of the year ahead of him than what is behind him. Still, getting $40 million cut from the payroll by letting a guy with backup-shortstop batting numbers walk has to look like the least of the Mets problems right now.

A post-Atlanta update is in order after Brett Baty had been well careening toward the Ordóñez Line for several weeks before putting in his best game in the series finale. Bo Bichette: .583 .591 .646 Update One: Now at .591 after closing the Seattle series with a 4-for-4 game. Update Two: Six hits in the Atlanta series, including homers in his first two trips to the plate in the set, has bumped him all the way up to .646, and so he hopefully has left The Line behind, and won't have to be included in future updates, but he is still swinging at pitches way upstairs. -------------------------- Ordóñez Line -------------------------- Luis Torrens: .583 .578 .592 Update One: Now at .578 after closing the Seattle series with a 2-for-4 game with a double, but going 0-for-3 in the previous game. Update Two: Has been hitting consistently enough (getting his first homer on the season since the last update) that (along with his hotchamalotcha defense), the team is still finding plenty of PT for him after the return of Francisco Alvarez. Still below water, though. Austin Slater: .586 (and presumably done with the 2026 Mets) Update Two: Austin may be done with the 2026 Mets, but he has a .713 OPS in 15 trips to the plate with Tampa Bay. This still leaves him at .586 (and below the line) for the purposes of our observations, and anyway, his .460 OPS with Miami at the start of the season more than offsets those Tampa numbers, and leaves him even lower overall. Hayden Senger: .539 Update One: Went 0-for-2 in the Seattle series after launching his first career homer in the sweep over Miami. Now at .467. Update Two: Returned to Syracuse at .466. Ronny Mauricio: .532 (and IL-ing it) Jorge Polanco: .532 (and rehabbing with Binghamton) Tyrone Taylor: .530 (and chilling on the IL as well) Vidal Bruján: .347 (and flying out against a position player today) Nick Morabito: .083 (back in Syracuse, acting all embittered and short with his teammates) Tommy Pham: .071 (last seen in the minors with Baltimore, wondering if his tenure on the 2026 Mets even actually happened) Andy Ibáñez: .000 (Syracusing it and dreaming of any kind of second chance) Pretty much the only relevant guy below the line right now, then, is Torrens, so root like hell for him in the Cincy series.

Efficient, sufficient, and prospicient. Clearly outplaying a first-place team. A break or so and this might have been a sweep.

Ozzie Virgil, maybe, tho'.

Dumb error by Albies saves Ewing's ups. Dumb because Bichette wasn't running that hard.

Bichette still swinging at eye-level crap. And no, Gary, Eric Valent did not play in the nineties.

Today is the day of Baty's revival. All across the board.

Sure is nice to see the Mets get their walk tool working today.

They are really going to have to goose this bullpen home.

Pulling Fred here is annoying. These guys put a lot of energy into workload management.

Wow! Harris had that and coughed it up!

Everything the Mets have hit has been hard. It's impressive that Elder is somehow still in.

I'm looking for eight runs this inning.

Keith's declaration that he never had a .400 month is correct, but it just means that he was consistent. But what a run in 1979: March/April: .232 May: .356 June: .373 July: .333 August: .384 September/October: .356 That's a season you don't want to see end.

I like that the Mets have instituted a you-don't-start-if-you-ended-yesterday's-game-by-grounding-into-a-double-play rule.

So yeah, when they pinch-hit Ewing for Brujan, they could have (a) pinch-hit Baty instead, and had him slide in at third, pushing Bichette to short, or (b) pinch-hit Ewing (as they did, of course), and kept him in at center, sent Benge to right, MJ to first, Vientos to third (where he could have been pinch-hit for in the ninth by Baty), and Bichette to short. Or they could have done all of that but pre-emptively inserted Baty at third in the top of the ninth. The point being that Vientos did not have to face Iglesias in the ninth. Baty is slumping just as hard at this point, but at least you get the better matchup and better speed and defense. I think they kind of hate the idea of M.J. in the infield, though, even for one desperate inning.

Well, smoke. Alvy and the double-play.

Raisel up to 14 pitches. If Alvy can lay off the slider, it can go deeper.

And Baty should be up here, right?

Weird, weird call, but a double is as good as a homer from the Mets' point of view.

This is a homer. But they have to reconceive the seating on that deck.

No, apparently Baty is in for Benge, and they left Vientos in.

Baty is in for Vientos now right?

Glad to see Ewing pinch-hitting, but curious how they will rotate him into the lineup as he is replacing Brujan. He goes to the outfield, Melendez to first, Vientos to third, and Bichette to short?