RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesCLEVELAND — Now that the trade deadline is over, what comes next for the moribund Mets?
“Play winning baseball,” said interim manager Andy Green.
The Mets did that Tuesday at Progressive Field, beating the Cleveland Guardians, 6-2, in the first game of a three-game series. Catcher Luis Torrens, who garnered a lot of interest from other teams over the last few weeks, went 3 for 3 with a home run and four RBIs, Carson Benge and Bo Bichette each homered, left-hander Sean Manaea held the Guardians to two earned runs over six innings, and left-hander Nate Lavender made his big league debut in a feel-good moment.
The final scores matter little for the Mets at this point in a season that has been over for them for months. Answering the question of what comes next beyond 2026 is made even more challenging by the impending lockout. Will there even be a 2027 season?
In all likelihood, yes, though it will probably be a shortened season. The Mets, and just about every other team in the league, have to operate as if there will be a season next year. With that being the case, winning still matters.
The priority for the rest of the season is developing their crop of rookies. The intention is to be competitive again next season, which means the Mets need these kids to be winners. They can’t learn to accept losing, and they can’t afford to pick up bad habits that are often formed in losing environments.
So far, the Mets haven’t seen that from rookies like A.J. Ewing, Carson Benge, Nolan McLean and Zac Thornton. They still seem to approach each game with the same drive and enthusiasm as they have all season. A few of them might be too inexperienced to even understand the pressure they’ve been under — which isn’t a bad thing.
Right-handed starter Christian Scott was a part of the 2024 team, so he understands what it’s like to be in a strong clubhouse.
“We’ve talked about it before — the ability to chunk a season down and show up to play with belief that you’re going to win that day, and hang on to that belief and expectation throughout the entire game,” Green said. “So then, it’s actually a part of your identity and not just like fake optimism.”
Beyond that, the Mets need to see what they can get out of veterans like Kodai Senga, Luis Robert Jr. and Jorge Polanco, especially since they will all likely be in Queens again next season.
The plan for Senga is to see if he can handle high-leverage relief situations. This would require him to simplify his pitch mix to capitalize on his best offerings. The Mets see a pitcher who has the stuff to pitch in late innings; now it’s about seeing if he can make the necessary strategic adjustments, and the mental adjustments, the latter of which he hasn’t always been able to do effectively.
Having traded away nearly the entire back-end of the bullpen, there is room for Senga to step into that role. The right-hander held a four-run lead in the ninth inning in the win over the Guardians.
“We’re aware of his traditional workload as well, the starter’s workload, so I don’t think you can expect him to pitch three out of four at this point in time,” Green said. “But I do think that in his right arm is 100 miles an hour and a nasty forkball. That profile plays for a late-inning reliever.”
Robert, a center fielder, should have been a top trade candidate as a right-handed hitter, but between his injury history and his reputation as someone who doesn’t always want to play every day, the Mets weren’t able to move him. President of baseball operations David Stearns said there is “excitement” around him staying for the next two months, and he noted Robert’s club option for 2027. If exercised, the Mets will pay him $20 million next year.
The Mets have to allocate more playing time to Benge and Ewing, and Robert is also blocking Triple-A outfielder Nick Morabito at the moment. But since it was mostly pitchers the Mets traded, outfield playing time isn’t too much of an issue at the moment, even with Robert.
“The way we’re built right now, our young guys from a position player grouping, they’re going to play pretty consistently,” Green said. “A day off here and there, as we talked about, to make sure they get through their first full Major League season. That’s still going to happen, but we didn’t really change our position player grouping very much at all.”
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