Edgy MD

Orioles and Tigers are each 2 1/2 games out of the Wild Card race, and each watching their management fold the tent around them. Pirates, however, are 3 1/2 games out and making their play.

Gave a full-range of outcomes. Good enough for an MLB reserve outfielder on a winning team in 2024. Not good enough for an MLB reserve outfielder on a winning team in 2025. Really good for an MLB reserve outfielder on a winning team in 2026. That last one kind of guaranteed he was going to be traded to a winning team. It was, like, The Three Faces of Tommy Pham, except he wasn't Tommy Pham. The most indelible memory is that he slammed a homer in what should have been his last game*, and the blast went so far that it felt like he was going to be traded before the ball landed, or at least before he crossed home plate. A solid pro. Brought a positive but professional demeanor to the park whether he was going good or going poorly. I'm not an Instagram user, but his is all full of shots of him interacting with his daughter and it's adorbs. Part of a rapidly diminishing club of Mets veterans of the 2024 post-season. Probably saw more time in that run than was good for the team, but his strong September helped get them there. * He pinch ran in the ninth inning last night, in a situation that was so non-competitive that I'm not sure the booth noted his appearance.

Some of the guys we're going to see down the stretch will be guys we already know, but have been hurt all year — like Dedniel Núñez and the like. Other bullpenners will be be guys that have been on the shuttle but maybe will get a longer looksee. But yeah, I look forward to some prospecty prospects.

As much as the kids from Poverty Valley hated me and the kids from Working Class Gardens, God, we all hated the kids from Rich Hill.

Jacob deGrom and Pete Alonso have entered the chat.

Holy fuckinfrass. It's like that pocket-universe episode of Star Trek: TNG. Guys are disappearing every time you turn around.

That Rutschman deal is still pretty much a kick in the head. I guess it kind of puts a target on Francisco Alvarez' back also.

And the solitary guy sent in return for him.

It's been rough pretty much all season, and a third of the second half is gone. I think it's probably likely that they'll improve — due to, if nothing else, the low, low bar that is set against.

wOw!!

I don't like the Nats and Yankees dealing with each other. Those are two of my adversaries I prefer to keep separate.

So, not one of the very pop-uppiest, but meaningfully pop-uppier than the average bear. I'll take it. Go, Chayce McDermott!

It's just not fair. But Chayce is an experienced, big league dude! The Mets did this a couple years ago with Texas — trading a largely forgotten catcher stashed at AAA, that a contending team wanted as emergency insurance and getting value where few knew value could be had. That one took place after the trade deadline, iffin I correctly recall. A little googling suggests the guy I'm thinking of is Nevin Ashley.

He had two last names and not a lot of speed, but a soft sweeper set up by an up-and-in fastball got folks to chase over and over and over. Really strong down the stretch in 2025, when not a lot of people in Mets uniforms could say the same. It was a brief appearance, but he saved the season a week before the team lost it, when he came on with the bases loaded against Atlanta and got Eli White to ground out to second. That was that crazy period when there were no roles and they were just throwing pitchers out there like they were spilling out of a piñata. I suspect he'll pitch until he's 44.

I imagine most are ready to pitch, no matter what the role. It's just that they are loathe to change roles until they get to the fourth or fifth guy on the totem pole. He was that guy. To his credit, he prospered. If they hadn't pitched him yesterday, he could have gone out a winner, taking the victory as he did in his previous outing, throwing a perfect seventh against the Braves in Game One of the doubleheader — getting Riley, Yastrzemski, and Bart on three consecutive pop-ups. I'd bet he was one of the pop-uppiest guys in the league.

Right you are. I don't know what I was thinking. Oh, right. Cionel Perez was the second Cuban on the team.

Spikerman was not one of Jack Kirby's finest hours.

Great name, great slider. Was a Met for three seasons and got better each year. Joined the team at the trade deadline in 2024. It wasn't immediate help he had to offer, but help he did, and it makes for some symmetry that he should leave at the trade deadline. The player the Mets sent to Miami was at high A, and is still there now, so this looks like a trade the Mets are winning well. I'm disappointed the Mets never sent him out for a save — he was generally the one good reliever they had available on the days they were resting Raley, Weaver, and Williams — but I'm generally disappointed how stubbornly the 2026 Mets (and most teams, by extension) have stuck with one designated guy for ninth-inning save situations. Really cool locks. Focused, business-like demeanor. Ends our rare run of having a two-Cuban team, and in fact leaves Mexican Daniel Duarte as the only Latin American-born pitcher on the staff.

For an opening day starter, he didn't leave much of a mark. His personality — at least the one that came across — wasn't much stronger than his stat line. And a guy named Freddy with really impressive teeth should not lack for personality. He should have showed up to camp driving The Mystery Machine. The Mets always seemed to think handling him a little different would lead to a profound turning of the corner. That seven inning start against Miami back in May sticks with me. He struck out seven, but the Mets just kept falling further and further behind, and Miami was off to the races, turning their season around, while the Mets were jumping from the frying pan into the fire. He had shiny Jeri Curl-type locks when he was in Milwaukee. Maybe he should have stuck with that look. Maybe it's a Sampson kind of deal.

They are building for the present as well as the future.

If you think that's embarrassing, I keep getting DFA'd, but returning after nobody claims me on waivers.

Besides Carter, Frank Cashen, Davey Johnson, Mel Stottlemyer, and Buddy Harrelson have passed since the last major reunion. Bill Robinson and Vern Hoscheit both passed back in 2007, which I guess leaves bullpen coach/assistant pitching coach Greg Pavlick the last surviving official member of Johnson's staff.

And that's what I'm saying.

Great, and I didn't advocate sending him.

This I like. Gwreck and smg are on opposite sides. It makes it more interesting if they both get dealt.