The Metropolitan: Cold air, cold bats
A brisk loss in Chicago. Plus: A big dilemma looms for the front office
Good Morning,
The Mets continue their search for offense, losing to the Cubs 3-1 on Tuesday, despite a big opportunity in the 9th. We’ll preview tonight’s game featuring David Peterson on the hill, and discuss a looming decision facing the front office regarding Marcus Stroman and Noah Syndergaard.
But first, let’s recap last night’s action.
⚾️ IN SHORT: Right-hander Taijuan Walker struggled with his command, the Mets’ bats remain as cold as the Chicago weather, the defense cost them a run (as J.D. Davis committed two throwing errors), and the Cubs beat the Mets 3-1 in the first game of a three-game set at Wrigley. [Box Score]
🔑 KEY MOMENT: Facing Cubs closer Craig Kimbrel in the 9th, both Jeff McNeil and James McCann walked and Luis Guillorme sliced a single to left field (the first hit Kimbrel has allowed this season) after battling back from an 0-2 count, loading the bases with 2 outs for Francisco Lindor. Before Mets fans could dream of the superstar shortstop creating his first magical moment in blue & orange, he rolled over a first pitch curveball and weakly grounded out to first base to end the game.
3 TAKEAWAYS
❶ ICE COLD: The Mets were able to win 2 of 3 in Colorado despite only scoring 8 runs in the series. While their team batting average ranks 8th best in baseball (.246), they are 28th in slugging (.353), and continue to struggle with runners in scoring position. Last night was no different. They had 6 hits overall, going 1-6 with RISP, and leaving 10 men on base. Even Brandon Nimmo struggled, striking out three times and ending his 24-game on-base streak. The Mets’ lone run was the product of a J.D. Davis long ball in the 5th inning.
❷ WALK AWAY: Starter Taijuan Walker had his worst start of the season, walking 6 batters before he was pulled in the 4th inning and ejected for arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire John Libka (Luis Rojas was also later ejected). After walking the pitcher and the lead-off hitter, Walker had two borderline strikes called balls, leading him to walk in a run and end his night prematurely.
NO ARGUMENT: While Walker was squeezed on a few pitches last night, as you can see in the graphic below, most of his pitches were well outside of the strike zone. On a night when you walk six batters in 3.2 innings, it’s hard to blame all of it on the ump.
❸ SEARCHING FOR POSITIVES: Pulling Walker in the 4th inning set up a long night for the bullpen, which turned out to be the one positive from this game. Robert Gsellman escaped a bases loaded jam by striking out Anthony Rizzo in the 4th. Jacob Barnes pitched two scoreless frames, and both Jeurys Familia and Trevor May put up a zero in their respective innings. Overall, that’s 4.1 scoreless for the back of the bullpen.
🧑🏫 SOUND SMART: While the N.L. East was largely expected to be among the toughest in baseball, the uneven Mets are the only team in the division above .500. The 7-5 Amazins lead the second-place Phillies (8-9), Marlins (7-9), Braves (7-10) and Nationals (6-9).
⏭ NEXT UP: David Peterson will look to build off his impressive bounce-back start against the Phillies last week, taking the ball tonight against right-hander Zach Davies. Meanwhile, Jacob deGrom asked for an extra day of rest, so Joey Lucchesi will start on Thursday, and deGrom will pitch at home on Friday against the Nationals.
🥷 CAUGHT STEALING: Catcher James McCann had a great quote yesterday, telling reporters, “I take it personally when guys steal bases.”
IMPROVEMENT: McCann has gunned down three runners already this season, helping the Mets rank 3rd in the National League with a 33% caught stealing rate. Last year, they ranked 13th, only catching 16% of opponents on the run.
⚾️ VERSATILITY: Utility man Luis Guillorme took throws at first base before yesterday’s game. Manager Luis Rojas told reporters the team doesn’t plan on using him there, but “he’d be open to it” and added, “By the way, he's been open to being an emergency catcher. Him and I had this conversation. He one time threw to the bases — you know how quick he is with his hands — he was actually pretty quick.”
⚖️ JUSTICE: After a jury found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd, the Mets released a statement, calling the verdict “bigger than baseball,” and adding, “Let us honor the memory of George Floyd by continuing to work toward reconciliation and healing by ensuring there is justice for all.”
🪦RIP: Tom Robson, former Mets hitting coach and major league player, passed away at 75, Bobby Valentine reported.
The looming Stro/Thor dilemma
🧑🦱 by Blake Zeff
This off-season, the Mets approached extending potential free agents like someone who prefers to eat only one thing on their plate at a time, before moving onto the next item. Rather than eat some salad, some soup, a bite of potato and a piece of bread, the Mets focused entirely on finishing their Francisco Lindor salad first. By the time they finished that part of the meal, and moved onto the Michael Conforto soup, the season had started (in this tortured metaphor, that's the equivalent to the server putting the bill on your table).
All of this means that the Conforto soup, Noah Syndergaard potato and Marcus Stroman bread never got touched. Which is where we are now: Lindor is signed for a decade, but the three others remain on the board.
So what happens next? When the front office backed away from signing outfielder George Springer, you kind of got the feeling it was saving its resources for Conforto. And there still should be time to get that done.
But the question that really got pushed to the side was what to do with the free agent pitchers, Syndergaard and Stroman. There's good reason for this. First, the Mets already have four starters (and potentially five, depending on your view of Joey Lucchesi) under team control through next season: Jacob deGrom, Carlos Carrasco, Taijuan Walker and David Peterson. So the need to lock down another starter did not seem imminent or imperative.
Another reason to hold off on this decision (beyond the usual wisdom of proceeding with caution when it comes to pitching) was the specific circumstances of Noah and Stro. The former is coming off of major surgery and hasn't pitched since 2019. And the latter opted out last year due to COVID-19, and had just surprised the franchise by accepting its qualifying offer.
For those who did discuss extending a pitcher, the conversation seemed to default to Syndergaard. He's been with the organization since 2012, pitched for the big-league club as far back as 2015, gotten its only World Series win in two decades, and started on Opening Day in 2018, to name a few highlights. For his part, Stroman showed some modest reasons for optimism in limited action in 2019, but had very little history with the team.
But now it's fair to wonder: Should this conversation be shifting?
You never want to get too excited over a small sample. But here's where we are now: Syndergaard is still more than a month away from throwing a pitch in a game. And Stroman has dazzled. Again, it's only three starts plus an impressive spring training, so let's not go crazy. But something you have to like about the Long Island native -- that isn't ephemeral or subject to regression -- is his commitment to improve.
As we've previously discussed, Stroman worked during his hiatus to develop a new pitch, a split-change he worked on with Robert Gsellman last summer. The right-hander explained to Rob Friedman of Pitching Ninja that he learned to grip it by using pressure from his ring finger upon release to create movement. The pitch now enables him to include three plus offerings that can be used in all counts.
He's also worked with a mental skills coach, speaking often about his work on mental preparation and focus.
None of this is to disparage Syndergaard, who could dominate when he returns mid-season. He's been a stopper when healthy, a fan favorite who clearly loves New York. He's also two years younger than Stroman (though he’s shown himself to be more injury prone).
Ultimately, you'd love to have them both. But with an impressive amount of starting rotation depth, it's hard to see the club springing for two new large contracts for starters when it already has a number of them under control. Even Steve Cohen has his limits.
Which means the Mets could also choose to part ways with both. If they wanted to shop for quality in free agency (without having to guarantee long term contracts), there will be plenty of older starters out there including former Cy Young winners Zack Greinke, Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, and Max Scherzer, who might be signable to shorter term deals.
But if the front office does want to re-sign one of the current Mets starters, an interesting decision will face it over the coming months: As it arranges its 2022 meal, does it want potato, or bread?
It likely won’t be both.
⚾️ Former Met Neil Walker announced his retirement from baseball yesterday.
⚾️ Speaking of former Mets, Matt Harvey got his first win in almost two years, pitching 5 innings, while giving up 3 runs on 8 hits, 4 strikeouts, and 0 walks, as the Orioles beat the Rays, 7-5. “To be honest, I didn’t know if it was ever going to happen again,” Matt said after the game.
⚾️ Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes struck out 10 and walked none, to set an MLB record by starting the season with 40 strikeouts and 0 walks. His ERA: 0.37.
⚾️ Leaders from Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association met on Tuesday to begin negotiations ahead of the collective bargaining agreement that is set to expire in December, according to ESPN.
🔗 Analyzing Francisco Lindor’s offensive performance so far for 2021 Mets, by Andy Martino, SNY: “All I can tell you is, our scouts think he’s awesome,” said one rival GM. “If we could fit him in our payroll we would have been all over him.” Another veteran evaluator offered a less rosy view. “If you look at his offensive trends,” the evaluator said, “you wonder if there was a peak about two years ago.”
🔗 How Mets catcher James McCann has built trust with Jacob deGrom and a new pitching staff, by Tim Britton, The Athletic ($): “In Chicago, McCann forged a tight relationship with Lucas Giolito as the ace broke out in 2019 and into 2020. He caught Giolito’s no-hitter last summer, and the two were so close that the pitcher’s mother, an artist, gave the catcher a painting of the pair. That task was not simple for McCann after he joined the Mets this winter. Camp protocols limited the time players could spend together at and away from the ballpark throughout spring.”
🔗 Jays’ Matz benefiting from change, by Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic ($): “Matz credits Pete Walker, the Jays’ pitching coach since 2012, for recognizing on video that at times he overthrew his curveball and changeup, trying to make those pitches too perfect. Walker told the Jays’ beat reporters Matz is establishing his fastball and locating it well while using his changeup effectively and remaining unpredictable in counts.”
And… watch Luis Rojas get ejected for the first time in his young managerial career:
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Not sure ‘rotation depth’ should necessarily include Walker(3.2, 4.1; and 6 innings pitched) and Lucchesi(although you do say depending on your view), but if Cohen is going to use his Billions he should use them on Thor and Stro, assuming Stro (native NYer) continues to pitch ‘close’ to the way he has and Thor like his prior TJ self. Perhaps the new CB will open things up more, but personally I’d probably go for the pitchers over extending Conforto (although I’m a huge fan), especially if Boras is looking for ridiculous $$.
George Foster, Bobby Bonilla, Jason Bay, and ta da Fraky Lindor -