Archive for Who Is This Guy

Amazin’ Again

I can tell you, it was an Amazin’ Day. Went grocery shopping, took a nap and went to the gym. Then I came back and heard the reports from what was going on at CitiField.

New unis! New numbers!

Let’s start with the alternate blue away jersey. The amazin’ thing about this isn’t the resurrection of the 1987-style script or the black-home style outlined numerals (that will be hard to see) but that it’s a pullover. Same style and silly neckline as the Nationals’ alts. This would appear to supplant the blue away jersey they had been using, but infrequently. I preferred the version with the grey letters.

Will they pair this with grey pants? Blue? Orange?!? I’d like to see the latter.

Now to numbers. Brett Baty whose 22 went to Juan Soto, revealed he’d be wearing No. 7 this year. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see that number in circulation again — although 8 would better. Seven had been unissued since Marcus Stroman took it upon himself to shelve it in 2019.

Other numbers for new guys on the 40-man roster: Jose Siri wearing 19, which I believe is pulling even with 6 as the most-issued number in team history (I’ll check on that). Infielder Jared Young (who?) in 29; and Jose Azocar in 30.

The newly arriving pitchers: A.J. Minter 33; Clay Holmes 35; Frankie Montas 47 and Griffin Canning 55. Then there’s the fringey waiver claims and surprise bullpen candidates I don’t know well yet–Dylan Covey in 54; Justin Hagenman in 51; Kevin Herget in 57; and Austin Warren in 44.

That’s all for now. Have an amazin’ day!

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Yes We Can

Griffin Canning is the newest Met. He was signed to a 1-year deal the other day and will be given a chance to make the starting rotation, which is what he’s been given in Anaheim thus far in his career but really hasn’t run with it consistently.

But the same could be said about some of the other palookas we saw last year. Look at it this way–he’s got a 1-year deal, he needs to turn his career around in order to make big money, he’s 28 and had success before. I don’t think it’s a bad risk.

Canning actually started this offseason with the Angels and was traded in the Jorge Soler deal to Atlanta, only to have the Braves release him. Canning has worn No. 47 throughout his career but looks like Frankie Montas has the inside track to that.

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Winter is Coming

As long as the Mets are determined to transform into an international superbrand they’re going to go hard after the big free agents, which is why Juan Soto might be more attractive to them than most. I actually feel like he’s going to sign here, be given No. 22 and play right field until he inevitably moves to first base. Brett Baty, should be avoid being traded for a pitcher, shows up in a new number and it all works out. Baty needs a change of scenery.

I hope Pete Alonso is back. I like him! I know he’s limited–he basically does one thing well and he didn’t do that as well as he should have last year. Who knows what will happen.

Let’s catch up on the news. Eric Orze, a young starting pitcher they had up briefly this season was traded to Tampa Bay for speedy outfielder Jose Siri, who like Baty and Soto, prefers No. 22.

New to the 40-man roster are Justin Hagenman, a minor league reliever signed to a big-league deal; Kevin Herget, a journeyman reliever most recently with Milwaukee; Luis de los Santos, a power-hitting reserve third baseman claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays; and outfielder Jose Azocar, claimed by the Mets back in September from the Padres.

There are also several invite-to-spring-training types we’ll get another time.

Finally I am bailing on Twitter after some 10 or 15 years. It was fun for a while there, dangerous today. If I get back into the habit its springer66.bsky.social on Blue Sky and @jon.springer on Instagram.

 

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Undercover Angel

And not a California Angel.

No instead it’s Luisangel Acuna getting the call (and the start!) today, playing shortstop instead of Francisco Lindor whose consecutive-game streak is ending. I don’t believe Acuna is here for injury but to pinch run. Given he OPSed all of .654 in triple A its not the bat you want out there.

Acuna gets the No. 2 worn most recently by released catcher Omar Narvaez. DJ Stewart is going down.

As we know Eddy Alvarez was acquired from Boston and took the spot of Pablo Reyes in a hot second, tearing the No. 26 off his back on the way. Reyes is among a long list of guys who probably won’t be getting World Series rings.

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All Aboard

As I’d mentioned often before, 10 games over .500 is the level I need my team to be at before I start getting excited about their possibilities. And unless the circumstances are exceedingly weird, that’s a minimum. Ideally a playoff team demonstrates this is a possibility in May or June on their way to 20 games up. That of course hasn’t happened for the 2024 Mets but something stranger and more powerful has. After plateauing at the ~4-games-under and ~7 games over marks they’ve blown past 10 on their way to 13, and perhaps more if they can keep this hot streak going.

And who’s to say they can’t? Mark Vientos, whom I’d once dismissed as a discount-store Giancarlo Stanton, is hitting for average and power; Francisco Lindor is having an MVP year and the role-players and reserves are all doing their jobs. The scrap-heap starting rotation has also been good and the bullpen after a few turns of the soil has also come through most nights. And don’t look now but Carlos Mendoza is a manager of the year candidate even after that awful start.

I don’t have to tell you this; just that it’s OK to believe.

Pablo Reyes was the only new callup when rosters expanded (they don’t expand like they used to). He was issued No. 26.

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Reinvention

So the trade deadline passed without any major moves for the Mets, just a lot of stitching up the corners. Will the new guys make a difference? Sure, as long as the other 22 guys already on the team continue doing what they can do well.

Until he broke out with three hits last night, I was worried about Nimmo who wasn’t even sprinting to first on walks with the same gusto. And if you stayed up late last night you also saw Paul Blackburn make his debut, wearing No. 58 and ringing up his WHIP score with guys on base every inning. He persevered though, with the help of a couple DPs and generally wasn’t hit hard.

The other night it was Huascar Brazoban making his Mets debut, wearing R.A. Dickey’s former 43. Tyler Zuber has been assigned No. 54 but is still in the minors.

One way the Mets made room for the new guys was cashing out Jake Diekman and Adrian Houser, trading Josh Walker to Pittsburgh and Cole Sulser to Tampa Bay and releasing Ty Adcock. Will Adam Ottavino survive the pending return of Sean Reid-Foley and Reed Garrett?

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Trade Winds

I wouldn’t have guessed two months ago the Mets would be in a position to buy and not sell at the trade deadline, or that they stood any chance of reeling in the Braves in the standings, or any of that and here we are. It’s important not to forget this Mets team has also demonstrated it is capable of awful of stretches of baseball so I’m keeping my expectations in check. Next goal: 10 games over .500.

The first new arrival is shaggy reliever Ryne Stanek of Seattle, acquired for a minor-league outfielder, Rhylan Thomas. Stanek (yes he’s named after Ryne Sandberg) looks like a hunting-and-fishing type who should get along well with Jake Deikman. It’s easy to find highlights of him fist-pumping out there, and could be an exciting reliever, which is always fun to have, and necessary with Dedneil Nunez joining Reed Garrett and Sean Reid-Foley on the injured list.

Stanek has worn 45, 55 and 35 in his career. I saw a mockup of him in 65 with the Mets. That’s available, but so is 55, 85, 95 and 35, now that Adrian Houser has been kicked off the 40. That move came as Kodai Senga returned, however briefly collapsing in a heap near the mound like he was Ike Davis or something.

You wonder if that means a trade for a starting pitching might also be in the offing before Tuesday at 6.

One more note from the Twitter, where I don’t hang out very much anymore, but to be young again!

 

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The Road to SHaMbala

I found it a little presumptuous at first for Phil Maton to walk in, take 88 off the back of coach Mike Sarbaugh, then go out there and be the first guy ever to wear 88 in a game in Mets history. Then I found out Maton has a demonstrated fondness for 88 since having it issued to him as a Padre, and that he was friendly with Sarbaugh from their time together in the Indians’ organization. Sarbaugh by the way is now suited up in 86.

There’s only 14 never-issued-to-a-player numbers left and that’s before we give anything to Alex Young, the lefty bullpenner waivered away from the Giants and assigned to Syracuse (for now). 69, 78, 79. 80, 82, 83, 84, 90, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97 and 98.

Who knows with the bullpen but I’m glad we’re making some choices beyond the Tyler Jay, Ty Adcock, Danny Young and Matt Festa rotation. Also, great to see Jose Butto doing his thing only now in relief. He’s got some bulldog in him. The other guy to look out for (perhaps) is Shintaro Fujinami, who struck a buncha guys out wearing 19 in Spring Training. He might come back with Kodai Senga, who knows.

It’s all pretty positive for the Mets lately but we also know what they’re capable of. There are 67 games remaining. If the SHaMs (Second HAlf Mets) play .600 ball (that’s less than their .650-ish June-July pace) they’ll go 40-27 and finish with 89 wins. That would mean we’d be going to the playoffs. But 55% would probably do it as well.

For now it might be fun just to catch the Braves and see where it goes.

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Half and Half

So I was out there on Friday, watching the team in the black jerseys that are unreadable from the stands, and felt the magic. People were going crazy, the Grimace was there, people watched the comeback and walked out chanting LGM, giving one another high fives and the only thing that worried me was the realization: This team is one game over .500. And now, after losing the last two games of the series to the Astros due to their complete lack of pitching depth, the team sits 40-41, exactly half the season gone, and “on pace” for 80-82. It’s been a great month anyway.

Lots of new Mets to meet.

On the mound there’s Ty Adcock, who was given No. 52. Tyler Jay (74) is back and we were unfortunate enough to make acquaintances with Matt Festa, who stunk it up wearing No. 73 tonight. Gone are Edwin Diaz, popped for a stupid sticky-stuff violation that is hurting the entire team. Sean-Reid Foley has been out since June 22 with shoulder trouble, and Drew Smith out  since June 24 with elbow issues.

Smith’s issues appear to be serious enough to warrant season-ending surgery. That’s too bad because he will become a free agent in the offseason.

I wanted a long time for Smith to be the closer I thought he could be, and reward for the trade of one of my favorite all-time Mets, Lucas Duda. He was all over the places though. He wore 62 then 40 then 33 (he’s pretty much still a 62 to me). He had long hair for awhile, remember that? For a time it was easy to confuse him in print for Dominic Smith. If boxscores still existed, it’d be DrSmith and DmSmith.

Now he’s gone, and so is Tomas Nido, a forgotten man in the catcher scrum until resurfacing briefly this year. Here’s a fun piece of trivia you might have forgotten in the seven years that Nido’s been a Met: He started off his career wearing No. 77, in September of 2017.

For a moment we saw Joe Hudson as a Met, wearing 57 like he was Eric Valent out there, and now there’s Ben Gamel, wearing 21 like he’d Duda or something.

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Wicked Gravity

I forgot how tiresome it is to be cycling in 3 new guys every week onto the roster, only to see them disappear in a few days. This is life on the butt-end of the Mets bullpen, especially in this era of 5-inning starts.

This week as you know we welcomed in Julio Teheran, who gave us what little he had and was summarily cashiered for Dedniel Nunez, who pitched pretty well but still found himself on a plane back to Syracuse so that Tyler Jay can get a shot, until he goes a few innings or we need a starter again. Cole Sulser is so far defying gravity.

I seriously never of Tyler Jay before a hour ago. I looked it up to discover he was once a 1st round pick, but more recently spotted slinging in independent ball. He’ll be the guy in the 74 jersey–only the second since Chris Mazza and those socks. Nunez wore 72. Teheran, who’s been DFA’ed, may or may not return in No. 49.

We’re rained out in Atlanta tonight. I like how we played in this series so far. Not scared. Maybe this team has a comeback bug.

 

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