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Morning Dose: Friday, July 4

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Jeffrey Bellone
Jul 04, 2025
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🇺🇸 GOOD AFTERNOON:

It’s July 4th, the sun is shining, we got Mets x Yankees, and three afternoon games this weekend to boot, what’s better than this?!

Thanks to everyone who sent kind wishes for my wife. I am reminded how lucky we are to have this amazing community. It puts things in perspective. Family comes first, but baseball always does its job in providing a useful distraction.

🙈 WHO’S WORSE? A series that we thought not too long ago would be a battle for both baseball and New York supremacy has turned into a meeting of the wounded. The Bombers arrive to Citi after a four-game sweep by the Blue Jays, who sit atop the AL East for the first time since 2016. As the Mets lose what seems like a pitcher a day to injury, Clark Schmidt left Thursday’s Yankee game with right forearm tightness.

SPEAKING OF INJURY, we learned on Thursday both Paul Blackburn and Dedniel Núñez will be sidelined for a while. Blackburn has a minor right shoulder impingement. More devastating, Núñez could need a second Tommy John surgery.

“This one’s a little bit gut-wrenching, because this is a guy that’s worked incredibly hard to get back to this point,” David Stearns said of Núñez. “For him to feel what he did [Wednesday] and have to go through this again, it’s tough.”

🔺 REINFORCEMENTS? The dream of calling up Nolan McLean to save the rotation was quickly lost when he took the mound for Binghamton in Hartford on Thursday. The young phenom struck out 10 batters in five innings of work, allowing two runs on seven hits.

Stearns told reporters his “preference” was not to call up a top prospect, like McLean or Brandon Sproat, for a spot start. Sproat is scheduled to pitch for Syracuse today.

Who starts today? The Mets will use Justin Hagenman as a regular starter (not an opener). He will oppose old acquaintance Marcus Stroman. The Amazins have Frankie Montas lined up for Saturday and it seems will throw Brandon Waddell on Sunday.

New faces: While Stearns has been “active” in trying to jump the trade-deadline market, the team signed right-hander Zach Pop to a major-league contract. The 28-year-old started the year on the Blue Jays’ roster, but was designated for assignment after battling some elbow soreness. He ended up with the Mariners, where he made only four big-league appearances, his last, on June 26, a disaster in which he served up seven earned runs. Pop is out of minor-league options and can elect free agency (as he just did to find a deal with the Mets) instead of accepting a minor-league assignment.

😎 GOOD NEWS: There is some positive news in all of this, beyond the Mets taking the series from Milwaukee with a strong performance by David Peterson, an important stabilizing factor in the rotation.

Sean Manaea is scheduled to make one more rehab start on Tuesday, stretching out to 75 pitches, before returning to the team to possibly pitch the last game before the All-Star break on July 13.

Kodai Senga might not be far behind him. The hope is for him to make a rehab start this weekend and possibly return to the team by the All-Star break as well.

☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!


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🤕 WALKING WOUNDED

Another day, another injury, or so it seems.

The Mets have a few players close to returning to the major-league roster, but with Paul Blackburn and Dedniel Núñez joining the IL ranks, the Mets are now tied with the Astros for the most players currently on the IL (15).

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