☀️ Good Morning:
Growing up in central Connecticut, I pretty much had to accept the Mets were the third and often forgotten team in the area.
That meant the local news shows would show highlights of the Yankees and Red Sox, while only reading the final score for the Mets. That meant local sports shops would carry every possible version of a Derek Jeter or David Ortiz t-shirt, with any signs of Wright on the back of a shirt hidden and buried in the rack.
Taking my daughter to get a new softball glove this weekend, it’s amazing how much that reality has changed. The MLB section in Dick’s Sporting Goods is covered in Juan Soto gear across the entire wall. You can get a Soto jersey for yourself, your best friend, your toddler, or your 9-year-old daughter.
It feels good to be a Mets fan right now.
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
Jose Siri had one of the lowest batting averages in all of baseball last season. In fact, only Mitch Garver (.172) batted lower among the 207 players who stepped to the plate at least 400 times.
Add a 37.9% strikeout rate, which was the highest in all of baseball, and you get a player who needs to catch the ball really, really well, and send it over the fence occasionally at the plate to make him a worthwhile investment.
We have seen both of those things in spades early this spring. On Saturday, Siri made a diving catch that precipitated an immaculate inning from one of the Mets’ young pitching prospects (which we will talk about next); and on Sunday, he flashed the power that makes fans jump out of their seats.
Put simply, Siri doesn’t make contact with the ball often, but when he does, he makes it count.
🔥 Hot Start: Siri has three hits in his first 10 Grapefruit League at-bats, all home runs. While he has struck out three times, he has also walked three times, giving him a 50% on-base percentage.
“For him, I think understanding the role that he has on this team offensively — meaning there’s a good chance he’s going to have some really good hitters behind him,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Siri, via the NY Post. “Getting on base, controlling the strike zone, swinging at good pitches, and he’s doing that right now.”
If the 29-year-old center fielder can trade just a few strikeouts for walks, while driving the ball the way he has over the past two weeks, the defense will be there, and David Stearns will have himself a nice outfield piece between Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto.
When you can make national news in a spring training game, you know you’ve done something special. Such was the case for Blade Tidwell after throwing an immaculate inning against a legitimate Tampa Bay lineup on Saturday.
After receiving an initial jolt from a diving catch by Juan Siri to retire Yandy Díaz for the first out, Tidwell activated into Domination Mode, retiring the next five batters via strikeout.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Mets Fix to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.