The Mets are free-falling. They are falling HARD.
Last night’s defeat now marks 6 straight losses, and it should be known that they have scored 9 total runs during this streak. Six of those runs were scored in one game. I am no math major, but if you do some quick math here, you’ll see that this is very bad. The Mets have now been shutout in 3 of their last 4 games.
Typically, you should score some runs if you have a desire to win some ballgames, but what do I know? Carlos Mendoza should be left behind in LA, Willie Randolph style. The guy cannot manage a bullpen and make a consistent lineup if his life depended on it.
Juan Soto was injured on April 3rd, and Mendoza has leaned heavily on Jared Young to fill the void. I will say that again…Mendoza has leaned heavily on JARED FRICKING YOUNG TO REPLACE JUAN SOTO. On a team with tons of young talent at his disposal, he turns to Young to do some heavy lifting in replacing his superstar. Ronny Mauricio still exists by the way, and everyone knows this except Carlos Mendoza.
Mauricio is overflowing with potential and the only issue with him is that he does not get a fair amount of consistent playing time. He came up last week and hit a 107-mph line drive to walk off the Diamondbacks. Surely he earned his way into the starting lineup the next day, right? Nope. And they lost.
Well, he definitely started the day after that, right? Well, no. Carlos Mendoza actually threw out a 2-catcher lineup in a game against the D-backs hottest pitcher. And then decided to use Jared Young off the bench instead of Mauricio as well. I know what you are thinking…surely the Mets won this game, right? You would think so, but no they did not.
Nolan McLean tossed a gem. He actually had a no hitter entering the 7th inning and was throwing mind-bending pitches that would even seem ridiculous in a cartoon. He was untouchable until the 7th inning in which he walked the leadoff batter, struck out the next with insane stuff, and gave up the first hit of the game in a tough at bat to a rookie, Jose Fernandez, who is red hot. It was a good at bat and you tip the cap in situations like this, but in no world was Nolan McLean “struggling” in this inning. Mendoza saw this little single and saw the pitch count hit the forbidden number of 100. He pulled his ace who was still throwing pitches that were breaking over TWO FEET in the inning and Luke Weaver promptly came in and gave up 4 runs.
They went on to lose, obviously, and it marred a damn near perfect outing for your young ace, which was even worse to me. If you want a young pitcher to develop into a threat and a consistent producer, you have to trust them. There is a perfect balance between letting a pitcher’s ego extend their outing and an analytics team cutting it short. Mendoza can not seem to grasp this and bullpen management, in general. He will never hesitate to pull a starter after the 5th inning if there is the smallest inkling of adversity, but also leaves relievers in to die for an extra inning or two on a daily basis. He has been gift wrapped a competent bullpen this year and still chose to use Dicky Lovelady in 6 games (mostly high leverage situations too) while Sean Manaea has only been used 4 times.
Dicky Lovelady barely made the roster and has already been DFA’d, yet he was trusted in high leverage situations, including a 10th inning against Pittsburgh and the last two innings of what was a 2-0 game in St. Louis. He is bad enough to be the last man to make the team and the first one off the team, but Mendoza trusted him more than Brooks Raley and Huascar Brazoban.
Now we find ourselves playing against the terrifying Dodgers, following a sweep from the Athletics and ahead of this series in LA, Ronny Mauricio was sent down to AAA and, in turn, we called up Tommy Pham.
*Matty Wheelz throws phone, punches wall and leaves his desk*
Okay, 5 hours have now passed since I wrote that last line and I am still FUMING. Tommy Pham?!?!? The 38 year old journeyman who has not been relevant in 6 years and was also a member of one of the most embarrassing Mets rosters in my lifetime (2023)?! That Tommy Pham?! Oh yea, he is FOR SURE better than Ronny Mauricio who probably just hit a ball 122 mph while I am typing this out.
So now we are going against the big bad Dodgers, and we have boosted our arsenal with a fresh Tommy Pham. The first game is against Justin Wrobleski and the following two are against Yoshi Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, so surely we will treat this as a must-win, right? Let’s keep Tommy ready to roll on the bench in case he is needed late in the game-Wait, he started?! AGAINST THE DODGERS?!
*Matty Wheelz throws another phone, punches a different wall and breaks his desk*
Another 5 hours have passed, and I think I am now prepared to finally bring this blog to the finish line. Tommy Pham started against the Dodgers and this lineup did exactly what you think they would do. Only 28 batters (literally just one more than the minimum) came to bat against the Dodgers, who were propelled by 8 shutout innings courtesy of Justin Wrobleski, a David Peterson implosion, and an Andy Pages 3-run jack in the third inning.
One of the worst games you could ever watch as a fan, since it was never in our control from the jump and we almost got perfect-gamed by Justin Wrobleski. This team is not just struggling right now, they are dead.
The season is far from over and I think they could very likely bounce back into relevancy with a roster like this, but I have to be the one that leads this charge. Carlos Mendoza MUST BE FIRED if we want a chance at being competitive. I am sure he is a great guy, but the lack of managerial prowess is blatantly obvious and quite painful to watch. This bullpen is too good to waste, and with names like Ryan Lambert and Dylan Ross waiting in the wings, it could only get better. This offense will have to wake up eventually, and Lindor will almost certainly finish the season with at least 1 RBI. The rotation is shaky but we have actually seen much worse before this.
The foundation is there, but there is a glaring discrepancy in coaching quality between us and the actual good teams in this league. With names like Carlos Beltran and J.D. Martinez now in the organization, there is a chance to promote from within, give this team a mental boost ahead of this long season, and re-write this terrible script we are mired in right now. Not saying it has to be one of these guys, but they should get a fair look while also considering any other candidates from the outside.
It is bleak right now, but we have shockingly seen worse before this. The beauty of loving this team is the adversity that comes with it. It will never be easy. When we suck, we suck. When we win 100 games, the Braves win 101. But we build character and harvest loyalty no matter the result.
I will leave you with three words that have haunted me in the darkest days, but also carried me through the best days…
YA GOTTA BELIEVE.