The Mets’ matinee Thursday served as a primer on their topsy-turvy, are they good/are they bad season to date.
They didn’t play very well in any phase. There were five more steals against (so that is 41 out of 42 successes on the year) and Jeff McNeil tripped over second base trying to cover on one. Joey Wendle, starting at shortstop for Francisco Lindor, had another poor judgment play on defense. McNeil and Starling Marte did not catch a pop-up between them. DJ Stewart was doubled off first not sliding back into the bag. Pete Alonso dropped a pop-up and went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts to drop to 1-for-his-last-26. Reed Garrett botched a grounder. Adrian Houser again could not find the strike zone consistently.
Yet, they did enough to win 7-6 over the Cubs in 11 innings thanks largely to Marte throwing out two runners at the plate in extra innings, ably assisted on those two assists by Omar Narvaez catch and tags. And because Lindor, who the night before pulled himself from the game worried about throwing up or “going No. 2” while playing shortstop, came out of sick bay and off the bench to deliver not one, but two two-run doubles — the last of which walked off Chicago.
It split this series two games each. It made the Mets 16-15 in a season in which they opened 0-5, followed 10-3 and now are 4-7. They are good and bad, often within individual games. The 16-15 actually tied them with the Reds for the final NL wild card. Which doesn’t matter in early May except to emphasize that behind the Dodgers, Braves, Phillies and whichever team emerges to win the NL Central there is going to be a traffic jam for the final two wild cards. Thus, squeezing out wins, especially against a team that could be in the way such as the Cubs, is vital. Imperfect wins beat the alternative.
It also accentuates just how important it is going to be to maximize the roster. Which, again fitting so far for these 2024 Mets, provided worrisome and upbeat news Thursday.
Carlos Mendoza announced before the game that Brooks Raley was not going to be activated from the IL when eligible in the next few days, as was initially hoped. Mendoza said more testing was necessary, but did not go into deep detail. But I was told by multiple sources that there is real concern with what is causing Raley’s elbow inflammation and wonder if he can rehab and pitch through what he is enduring or whether a more significant step such as surgery — perhaps season-ending — might be needed.
Raley and the Mets were gathering more information as Raley wants to come to peace with whether he will blow out his elbow completely if he tries to pitch with what he has and also by the fact he turns 37 next month and has to determine what a procedure this late in his career could mean.
On the opposite end career-wise, Mendoza confirmed after the victory that the Mets are summoning Christian Scott to start Saturday against the Rays. The Mets manager said he did not want to discuss using a six-man rotation beyond this one time through. But I was told the Mets are committed to at least a second start, against the Braves at home next week, and that Scott’s performance will dictate how they proceed.
This is all part of a bigger picture that I will call Project 87 — or you can make it 86 or 88 or whatever you perceive to be the win total necessary to nab a wild card. The Mets have played a month and that was enough time to begin a more significant tinker with the roster.
Tylor Megill, David Peterson and Kodai Senga are coming into view as far as staff options. But in the short run, the Mets have issues.
Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, on the podcast “The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman” had said that they thought some issues were unlocked in fixing Houser, but he also cautioned it was key for the veteran righty to lower his walk rate. Instead, Houser walked four in five innings against two strikeouts and has 20 walks and 16 strikeouts on the season. His four runs allowed left his ERA at 8.16. Mendoza still was talking about working with Houser, but the arrival of Scott and the dwindling injury-rehab days for the others will lessen just how much rope Houser has.
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Because the Mets need more quality innings from their rotation. The pen is being burned — and Raley is questionable to help again in 2024. Mendoza basically ruled Jorge Lopez, Adam Ottavino and Sean Reid-Foley unavailable Thursday after each pitched the previous two games. Mendoza fretted he was going to run out of pitchers in extra innings, turning to Danny Young to make his Mets debut in the 11th with the game on the line.
The Mets have used a MLB-high 23 pitchers already this year and Young and/or Dedniel Nunez are likely to be optioned to restock again before the series against the Rays.
The Mets believe they have internal options like Scott to begin to fix the pitching. Mendoza continues to insist they will clean up their shortcomings, including opponents’ stolen bases. It is all part of Project 87 as the Mets try to figure out how to stop being half bad.