☀️ Good Morning:
A question I’m sure many of you have fielded from friends and family members over the past few months: What’s wrong with the Mets? Are they really this bad?
As I’ve written in the newsletter, my answer is always, No, they aren’t this bad. They might not be good. But they are better than a 60-win team, which is how they were playing for a large portion of the season.
We are finally starting to see signs of that after a dramatic walk-off win on Thursday gave them their eighth victory in the past 12 games. They have won six of eight and are undefeated in the Grimace era.
As of this morning, FanGraphs projects them to win 78 games, which would require the Amazins to go 48–47 the rest of the way. The team’s approach to the trade deadline — a topic we covered in our latest podcast — will have something to say about that.
For now, on this mid-June morning, the diehard fans who kept with the game last night, trying to avoid spoilers in the chat while watching on delayed TVs, have what has turned into a fun baseball team over the past few weeks.
“No one's expecting us to do anything anymore,” last night’s hero J.D. Martinez said after the game. “Let's just go out there and enjoy it and have fun.”
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose (and some headphones) of Mets Fix!
🎧 Mets Fix Podcast
Just released: Blake and JB offer their thoughts on the Mets’ recent roster moves, Carlos Mendoza’s job so far, and dip into some early trade deadline talk.
Make sure you’re subscribed to the Mets Fix Podcast on your favorite platform (Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud).
❶ Walk it off!
It took 5 1/3 innings for the Mets to record a hit off rookie Roddery Muñoz.
And it took 321 career home runs for J.D. Martinez to finally register one of the walk-off variety.
“Everyone always jokes about that with me,” Martinez told reporters of his first walk-off homer. “My friends and family and stuff. No I’m going to get in my chat here and talk some crap.”
The veteran slugger last delivered a walk-off double on April 6, 2021 in Boston. Believe it or not, this was his first walk-off homer.
Coming together: “Kind of just going back to that meeting — it was one of the better meetings I feel like I've ever been in in my career,” J.D. Martinez said on Thursday, via Newsday. “I've been in a lot of meetings where you kind of leave and it's just, ‘We’ve got to be better at this, this and that.’ But it was one of those meetings where you left and everyone was positive and excited to come back to the field.”
❷ I hear trumpets
Edwin Díaz returned from the IL on Thursday and made sure the radar gun knew about it. His velocity was up nearly two ticks, hitting 100 mph on one adrenaline-fueled pitch.
The former All-Star threw his slider eight times, inducing six swings and two whiffs in a 1–2–3 top of the ninth inning.
What changed? A rival evaluator told Andy Martino he thinks Díaz’s mechanics have been off in response to his right knee injury: Diaz has been “all arm, like he’s trying to protect the knee,” the evaluator said. When Martino asked the Mets’ closer about this theory, he responded, “I think it was more being down a year. In spring training I ramped up quick. Maybe my shoulder was a little tired. I think it was.”
After spending nearly 20 days away from the big-league club, Díaz looked much sharper in his return. Perhaps rest has something to do with it. The Mets will surely monitor his workload as they ease him back into the fold.
❸ Luis, Luis
Luis Severino clearly likes pitching at Citi Field where he improved his ERA to 2.47 after tossing six innings of one-run ball on Thursday. He didn’t have his best stuff, he allowed seven hits and struck out only two, but he did his job in keeping the Marlins from racking up runs.
Different approach: “This is one of those days that you have to pitch for contact,” Severino said of his approach, via the NY Post. “In the offseason, I worked on developing new pitches. If I go out there and my slider isn’t working, I have my sweeper. If my changeup isn’t working, I have my cutter and my sinker. I have more options I can go with if some pitchers are not working.”
Severino upped his slider usage last night, throwing it 12 times in response to a sweeper that he had trouble commanding and only induced one whiff on nine swings.
The Marlins put 21 balls in play, seven of them classified as “hard hit,” while also walking three, but Severino kept working out of trouble.
He benefited from a nice throw by Luis Torrens to catch a baserunner in the second, got Tim Anderson to bounce into an inning-ending double play to escape a bases-loaded jam in the fourth, and kept Miami off the scoreboard in the third and fifth after they put multiple runners on.
Severino is considered the Mets’ most valuable trade chip, “by far,” according to rival executives and evaluators surveyed by Andy Martino. If he keeps pitching like he has over his first 13 starts, it’s easy to see why.
⚾️ MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: The Mets nearly lost this game because they only plated one run in the seventh when they loaded the bases with nobody out. The first hit of the night by either club with runners in scoring position was J.D. Martinez’s homer.
2️⃣nd BASE: Brett Baty started his first game at second base for Triple-A Syracuse on Thursday and went 3-for-5 at the plate, continuing his torrid stretch of hitting .458 with three homers and nine RBI since being demoted.
Top prospect Luisangel Acuña also had a big night, finishing 4-for-5 with four RBIs and a walk.
📝 ROSTER MOVES: As we discussed yesterday, the Mets optioned Danny Young in order to activate Edwin Díaz from the IL.
🗓️ UP NEXT: A team with a winning record! The second-place Padres (37–35) come to Citi Field as one of the few teams on the upcoming schedule that is above .500. San Diego is riding back-to-back walk-off wins against Oakland, and they have won five of six.
Sean Manaea (3–3, 4.30) will face off against right-hander Matt Waldron (4–5, 3.76).
◾️ The Royals lost a no-hitter in the seventh, coughed up a lead in the eighth, but still stunned the Yankees with a rally in the ninth.
◾️ On Prince Day at Target Field, almost-Met Carlos Correa donned a purple vest and hat and grabbed an inflatable purple guitar to play homage to the rock hero after hitting a two-run homer in the seventh.
🔗 Bobby Valentine, Orel Hershiser, the Mets and a hilarious disguise 25 years ago, by Jason Jones, The Athletic ($): “That disguise is now a fun topic for Valentine and Orel Hershiser, who played a key role in the attempt to hide Valentine. And 25 years later, it’s still something that many laugh at — young and old — and something that has helped to make Valentine a fan favorite. The mustache? Valentine said he found eye black stickers from the training room and put them on upside down under his nose.”
🔗 Second thoughts on what Mets can do with Jeff McNeil and Brett Baty, by David Lennon, Newsday ($): “Sticking Baty at second just seemed bonkers for a career third baseman who dabbled some in leftfield and has been trying to get his mind right all season. So not only did Baty lose his starting major-league gig to Mark Vientos, but now he’s become a guinea pig at an entirely new spot requiring a different skillset.”
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Great podcast !!! It’s my go to now
JB, good suggestion in podcast re: roster moves and the idea of convincing a serviceable player to go to the minors (listen to the podcast for the specifics). That is a possibility, especially if the organization is candid and keeps their word. It seems to me the Mets keep their word now. I mean, Atlanta does not get its youngins' to sign early based upon wishin' and hopin'. Hopefully the Mets can create that type of trust in their own way.