Edgy MD

With 28 games (nine of them wins) under their belts, the 2026 Mets finally face their first division opponent as the Mets take the Acela down the coast to Washington DC host the Washington Nationals up from DC. Tuesdays in April being slow days at the gate, the Nats Mets are celebrating Bark at the Park Night, which should net some extra income, as dogs are crazy about the Ben's Chili Bowl Chiddy’s Cheesesteaks concession in left field by Section 132.

When the dust settled on the Mets doubleheader sweep at the hands of The Colorado Rockies, the heightened emotion of fan frustration and anger was cut by the tension of a morbid watch. Few expected that all the players and coaches that filed into the clubhouse after the debacle would be coming out still employed by the Mets. With a 48-hour turnaround to the next game and the barely warm body of an unsuccessful and unrelateable Mets team laying on something like rock bottom with arms askew, seasoned team-watchers new that this was the sort of environment that changes take place in. Few of those watchers were predicting a Tommy Pham-for-Austin Salter exchange, but baseball is full of surprises. But first, a look back. Transactions, 3/17/2026 COMING Resigned to Minor-League Contract, Assigned to St. Lucie Outfielder Sam Billler L/L DoB: 2002-07-07 High Level: A (2025) UCONN outfielder Sam Biller appeared in only six minor-league games after joining the Mets as an undrafted free agent, so one imagines he was more than a little bitter after getting cashiered last November. So imagine his surprise to wake up on St. Patrick's Day with news from his agent that the Mets wanted him back! No doubt the Mets were moved by Sam's really impressive facial hair density and the testosterone production that implied, but Sam has made the most of his second chance with St. Lucie, putting up a .359 / .457 / .436 // .892 line in his first 46 appearances back with St. Loo. Look for his rich and rough whiskers to be making an appearance with Brooklyn sometime soon Transactions, 3/27/2026 GOING Signed away by WAS to Minor-League Contract Relief Pitcher Jonah Conradt R/R DoB: 2004-11-02 High Level: NECL (2024) Sam Biller was positively overindulged compared to fellow undrafted 2025 signee Jonah Conradt. Jonah, despite his name anagramming to Johan, was signed on August 4, released on November 13, and did not take the mound for the Mets a single time. His results so far for the Nats' system gives a hint perhaps as to why, but still, we wish him the best. Say hi to our old friend Dicky Lovelady while you're bringing it for the Nats, Jonah. Transactions, 4/11/2026 GOING Signed away by MIN to Minor-League Contract Starting Pitchers Aaron Rozek L/L DoB: 1995-08-20 High Level: AAA (2025) Aaron Rozek didn't join affiliated baseball with the Twins until he was 25. He put together a decent enough career for five years there, but didn't get a sniff of an MLB callup before the Mets took him in the minor-league phase of the 2025 Rule V draft. This will hardly surprise you, because it is getting to be a theme, but Adam was released without appearing in a single game, and is now back in the Twins system, of all places. So, we're starting to get the idea that the Mets scouting department and development department aren't always on the same page. Which brings us up to today. Transactions, 4/27/2026 GOING GOING COMING COMING Demoted to Syracuse Designated for Assignment Claimed off Waivers from MIN, Demoted to Syracuse Signed away from MIA Relief Pitchers Outfielders Infielders Outfielders Austin Warren Tommy Pham Eric Wagaman Austin Slater R/R DoB: 1996-02-05 High Level: MLB (2026) R/R DoB: 1988-03-08 High Level: MLB (2026) R/R DoB: 1997-08-14 High Level: MLB (2026) R/R DoB: 1992-12-13 High Level: MLB (2026) As first reported yesterday, but made official, today, the Mets have given Tommy Pham something of a heave-ho following yesterday's double-header. While the theme if not the exact numbers of Pham's 0-for-13 showing in his second go-around with the Mets was predictable for many, one would be advised against placing too much of the blame squarely on Pham. Tommy wasn't signed until March 26 (aka Opening Day) and with no training camp to speak of, got only five games in A-ball to prepare for his season. Thus, it is perhaps a good time to return to Gary Cohen's declaration that Tommy could fall out of bed on January 1 and hit. That proposition has been tested and failed. Mets Roster Central does not see that as a recipe for success, no matter what profile or pedigree a guy brings with him. Maybe Pham smooths out some of his edges in AAA, and gets the spring training he never got back in Florida, or maybe the end of the line has come. The profile of the two new guys joining the organization — one at the big-league level and one in Syracuse — is more J.D. Davis than Tommy Pham. Each are strong righthanded guys who back up at all the corner positions, and in a pinch, can fake it in the middle of the diamond too. Austin (who, yes, rocks the evergreen nickname of AC) has more of J.D.'s punch, and so joins the MLB roster. He had some strong seasons in mixed roles for Giants from 2020-2023, but has been floating from team to team on the DFA train the last two years. Wagaman, well, is probably a great teammate, because while his long minor-league career is marked by consistency, he has yet to reveal a standout skill. He arrives just as fellow six-million-dollar man Austin Warren predictably gets the back of the Mets' hand. While neither Slater nor Wagaman promise to be the answer, MJ Martinez continues to be perhaps the Mets' second-best hitter, so maybe one of these guys falls of on the right side of the turnip truck and — for whatever time we and they are meant to be together — become part of the solution.

Newsday: David Lennon: David Stearns' makeover of the Mets is a big swing and miss early on - Newsday The Daily News: Mets disaster of a season are a result of David Stearns’s decisions (some terrible subject-verb agreement there) The New York Post: How Ste­arns, front office mis­cal­cu­lated — badly

Worth noting that we are just assuming Slater is joining the MLB roster. Largely because of this news being reported around the same time as the Pham news, folks are jumping to the conclusion that one is replacing the other. This is unconfirmed. Also, no human being is shit.

That's a hard back page to top.

The media are not a monolith. You and I posting here are the media, too. And plenty criticize management.

I was wondering if the Players-Only-Clubhouse-Meeting card has been played yet in 2026, and then I realized that there sort of is nobody to call one. With veterans like Nimmo, McNeil, Lindor, Diaz, and Alonso all gone like the dodo, Lindor, the last remaining culturally established vet is hurt and unable to take whatever he has to say out onto the field, sort of like David Wright, whose authority as captain was undermined by his long absences from the field. Plus, there's the whole The-Mets-will-never-have-a-captain statement from ownership sort of unintentionally cutting him off at the knees. So who would call such a meeting? Soto seems both naturally and intentionally aloof, and so, who makes the calls beyond that? Alvarez? Semien? Raley? The team is still such a loose assemblage of Strat-o-Matic cards, there is almost no there there. No flagbearer to rally around.

He may make it to the next game, but if he does, it's a-gonna be a long 48 hours until then.

And Austin Slater to join.

Nobody? Gosh, lucky you.

Semien first-pitch swinging is terrible baseball.

There are two or three ways to read this comment. None of them, I suspect, are wrong.

A three-way manager trade with Cora going to the Phillies, Rob Thomson to the Mets, and Carlos Mendoza to the Sox would have been really cool.

Benge wears a lot of bling.

Hey brother, I read plenty! I just need better scrolling skillz.

I think issues of a third time through a lineup are greatly exaggerated. 1) Give a guy a lead, and he has leverage to work with — a margin for error as the later innings start coming around. 2) Trouble the third time automatically implies success-success-success to that point. 3) Relievers are there to help. Beyond that, the data that goes into third-time-through-the-lineup measurements is queered by its very nature.

One reliever signed away. Another one sent on a rehab assignment. A third one returns to the MLB roster that he never should have banished from. One thing they have in common — apart from being three more bullpenners that the Mets treat with depraved indifference — is that none is an offensive answer for the punchless 2026 Mets. Transactions, 4/21/2026 GOING Signed away by MIN to Minor-League Contract Relief Pitchers Luis Garcia R/R DoB: 1987-01-30 High Level: MLB (2026) The shrubby beard of Luis Garcia was DFA'd — and the rest of him along with it — when adding Joey Gerber. There was no reason to think Garcia was washed up after 14 year of MLB relieving, but he hadn't been pitching that great, and having gone the day before and twice in three days, made him the guy to be thrown overboard. It's a shitty policy — prioritizing fresh arms over good arms, and filling out rosters with day laborers instead of teammates — but it's the way baseball works these days. Garcia wanted no part of Syracuse and rightfully asked for his release. Now he gets to work his way back to MLB status with Minnesota as a St. Paul Saint. Transactions, 4/25/2026 GOING Signed away by MIN to Minor-League Contract Relief Pitchers Joey Gerber R/R DoB: 1997-05-03 High Level: MLB (2026) As noted above, the fresh arm the Mets brought up at the cost of Luis Garcia was fellow MLB vet Joey Gerber. The Mets promptly deployed Gerber with mopup duty at the tail-end of a 4-0 loss to the Dodgers. He did everything you wanted him to do — throwing two scoreless innings, striking out five, and flashing dimples that went on for days. One had every reason to assume the shadow of the DFA dragon would fall on Gerberbaby's locker as soon as the game ended, but either injury or bullshit roster manipulation intervened, and he was instead place on the IL with a finger blister. It probably isn't the first time a guy got a 10-day IL assignment followed by a rehab assignment (blister rehab?) over such an injury, but it sure feels like it. You hate to call out your GM for playing games with the Injured List, but there really isn't enough sand for Mets Roster Central to bury their heads in. Any how, we look forward to Gerber's return with the most pristine of finger tips. Transactions, 4/26/2026 COMING Promoted from Syracuse Relief Pitchers Austin Warren R/R DoB: 1996-02-05 High Level: MLB (2026) Today's double-header invited the Mets to add a 27th player to their roster. Teams invariably add extra pitching in such cases and the Mets brought up Austin (don't call him Adam) Warren. Aussie became a minor sensation earlier in the week when a Devin Williams ninth-inning collapse brought him in to clean up a messy situation with the bases loaded, no outs, and the fans hungry for blood. Of course he struck out the side, turning an angry crowd into chanters of his name. Of course he got a one-way ticket back to Syracuse. Of course he's likely to get into both games of today's double header, taking a hit for pitchers the Mets value more highly. Of course he's likely to be shipped out in short order again. Austin, as Ron Darling put it in the booth today, just gets outs. But because he lacks elite velocity, the Mets don't envision him as a pitcher they can develop into a more weaponizable part of their bullpen for high-leverage situations, so he and his kind get scrap-heaped, whether they are effective or not. Baseball, you make it so hard to love you sometimes.

One reliever signed away. Another one sent on a rehab assignment. A third one returns to the MLB roster that he never should have banished from. One thing they have in common — apart from being three more bullpenners that the Mets treat with depraved indifference — is that none is an offensive answer for the punchless 2026 Mets. Transactions, 4/21/2026 GOING Signed away by MIN to Minor-League Contract Relief Pitchers Luis Garcia R/R DoB: 1987-01-30 High Level: MLB (2026) The shrubby beard of Luis Garcia was DFA'd — and the rest of him along with it — when adding Joey Gerber. There was no reason to think Garcia was washed up after 14 year of MLB relieving, but he hadn't been pitching that great, and having gone the day before and twice in three days, made him the guy to be thrown overboard. It's a shitty policy — prioritizing fresh arms over good arms, and filling out rosters with day laborers instead of teammates — but it's the way baseball works these days. Garcia wanted no part of Syracuse and rightfully asked for his release. Now he gets to work his way back to MLB status with Minnesota as a St. Paul Saint. Transactions, 4/25/2026 GOING Signed away by MIN to Minor-League Contract Relief Pitchers Joey Gerber R/R DoB: 1997-05-03 High Level: MLB (2026) As noted above, the fresh arm the Mets brought up at the cost of Luis Garcia was fellow MLB vet Joey Gerber. The Mets promptly deployed Gerber with mopup duty at the tail-end of a 4-0 loss to the Dodgers. He did everything you wanted him to do — throwing two scoreless innings, striking out five, and flashing dimples that went on for days. One had every reason to assume the shadow of the DFA dragon would fall on Gerberbaby's locker as soon as the game ended, but either injury or bullshit roster manipulation intervened, and he was instead place on the IL with a finger blister. It probably isn't the first time a guy got a 10-day IL assignment followed by a rehab assignment (blister rehab?) over such an injury, but it sure feels like it. You hate to call out your GM for playing games with the Injured List, but there really isn't enough sand for Mets Roster Central to bury their heads in. Any how, we look forward to Gerber's return with the most pristine of finger tips. Transactions, 4/26/2026 COMING Promoted from Syracuse Relief Pitchers Austin Warren R/R DoB: 1996-02-05 High Level: MLB (2026) Today's double-header invited the Mets to add a 27th player to their roster. Teams invariably add extra pitching in such cases and the Mets brought up Austin (don't call him Adam) Warren. Aussie became a minor sensation earlier in the week when a Devin Williams ninth-inning collapse brought him in to clean up a messy situation with the bases loaded, no outs, and the fans hungry for blood. Of course he struck out the side, turning an angry crowd into chanters of his name. Of course he got a one-way ticket back to Syracuse. Of course he's likely to get into both games of today's double header, taking a hit for pitchers the Mets value more highly. Of course he's likely to be shipped out in short order again. Austin, as Ron Darling put it in the booth today, just gets outs. But because he lacks elite velocity, the Mets don't envision him as a pitcher they can develop into a more weaponizable part of their bullpen for high-leverage situations, so he and his kind get scrap-heaped, whether they are effective or not. Baseball, you make it so hard to love you sometimes. Your 2026 New York Mets Starting Pitchers Relief Pitchers Clay Holmes Nolan McLean Freddy Peralta David Peterson Kodai Senga Huascar Brazobán R/R DoB: 1993-03-27 R/R DoB: 2001-07-24 R/R DoB: 2996-06-04 L/L DoB: 1995-09-03 L/R DoB: 1993-01-30 R/R DoB: 1989-10-15 Relief Pitchers Carl Edwards, Jr. Craig Kimbrel Sean Manaea Tobias Myers Brooks Raley Austin Warren Luke Weaver R/R DoB: 33484 R/R DoB: 32291 R/L DoB: 1992-02-01 R/R DoB: 1998-08-05 L/L DoB: 1988-06-29 R/R DoB: 1996-02-05 R/R DoB: 1993-08-21 Relief Pitchers Catchers Infielders Infielders Devin Williams Francisco Alvarez Luís Torrens Brett Baty Bo Bichette Ronny Mauricio MJ Melendez R/R DoB: 1994-09-21 R/R DoB: 2001-11-01 R/R DoB: 1996-05-02 L/R DoB: 1999-11-13 R/R DoB: 1998-03-05 S/R DoB: 2001-04-04 L/R DoB: 1993-11-29 Infielders Outfielders Marcus Semien Mark Vientos Carson Benge Tommy Pham Luis Robert, Jr. Juan Soto Tyrone Taylor R/R DoB: 1990-09-17 R/R DoB: 1993-12-11 L/R DoB: 2003-01-20 R/R DoB: 32210 R/R DoB: 1997-08-03 L/L DoB: 1998-10-25 R/R DoB: 34356 Also on 40-Player Roster Starting Pitchers Relief Pitchers Tylor Megill Christian Scott Jonah Tong Alex Carrillo Reed Garrett Joey Gerber Justin Hagenman R/R DoB: 1995-07-28 R/R DoB: 1999-06-15 R/R DoB: 2003-06-19 R/R DoB: 1997-06-06 R/R DoB: 1993-01-02 R/R DoB: 1997-05-03 R/R DoB: 1996-10-07 On 60-Day Injured List with torn right UCL. With Syracuse With Syracuse On 60-Day Injured List — right UCL surgery and nerve relocation surgery. With St. Lucie on Rehab Assignment On 60 Day Injured List with fractured rib. Relief Pitchers Catchers Infielders A.J. Minter Dedniel Núñez Jonathan Pintaro Dylan Ross Hayden Senger Francisco Lindor Jorge Polanco L/L DoB: 1993-09-02 R/R DoB: 1996-06-05 R/R DoB: 1997-11-07 R/R DoB: 2000-09-01 R/R DoB: 1997-04-03 S/R DoB: 1993-11-14 S/R DoB: 1999-11-13 With Syracuse on Rehab Assignment On 60-Day Injured List — right UCL surgery. With Syracuse With Syracuse, on Seven-Day IL With Syracuse On 10-Day Injured List with Strained Left Calf On 10-Day Injured List with right wrist contusion. Outfielders Outfielders Nick Morabito Jared Young R/R DoB: 2003-05-07 L/R DoB: 1995-07-09 With Syracuse On 10-Day Injured List with torn left meniscus. Your Mets Coaching Staff Manager Bench Coach Pitching Coach Hitting Coordinator Third Base Coach First Base Coach Bullpen Coach Ass't Pitching Coach Carlos Mendoza Kai Correa Justin Willard Jeff Albert Tim Leiper Gilbert Gomez José Rosado Dan McKinney DoB: 1979-11-27 DoB: 1989-07-14 DoB: 1990-09-09 DoB: 1992-08-16 DoB: 1996-07-19 DoB: 1992-03-08 DoB: 1974-11-09 DoB: 1989-06-06 Hitting Coach Strategy Coach Catching Coach Coaching Assistant Bat'g Practice Pitcher Equipment Manager Bullpen Catchers Bullpen Catchers Troy Snitker Danny Barnes J.P. Arencibia Rafael Fernandez Kevin Mahoney Kevin Kierst Eric Langill Dave Racaniello DoB: 1988-12-05 DoB: 1989-10021 DoB: 1986-01-05 DoB: 1988-08-03 DoB: 1987-05-11 DoB: 1964-07-09 DoB: 1979-04-09 DoB: 1978-06-03 Your Mets Training Staff Director of Player Health Head Athletic Trainer Assistant Athletic Trainer Reconditioning Coordinator Reconditioning Therapist Head Performance Coach Assistant Performance Coach Performance Coordinator Soft Tissue Specialist Brian Chicklo Joseph Golia Bryan Baca Sean Bardanett Josh Bickel Dustin Clarke Tanner Miracle Jeremy Chiang Hiroto Kawamura DoB: 1972-07-17 DoB: 1978-??-?? DoB: Circa 1980 DoB: 1988-06-23 DoB: 1996-??-?? DoB: 1987-??-?? DoB: 1991-??-?? DoB: ????-??-?? DoB: 22846 View full article

I realize that he almost lost his skull, but a terrible at-bat by Semien.

I'm tempted to use Melendez for Robert here. I'm probably wrong but maybe not.

I have no problem with the Mets on the pitching side. Batting-wise, they are philosophically misguided.

Strike three to Baty was more off the plate than most of the calls overturned today.

Vientos playing as if one run is all his team will score, fuggs up going for the DP when one out should have been enuff. Pressure is the enemy.

Well, Tyrone Taylor will tell you that scoring has been known to happen.