Andy Martino, SNY.tv | Twitter |
Following an embarrassing weekend in Miami, when the historically bad Marlins swept a Mets team that lacked any signs of life, the Mets front office knew it had only two choices: Fire manager Mickey Callaway immediately or say publicly that his job was safe.
GM Brodie Van Wagenen chose to do that latter, of course, even though it's very clear that the Mets do not view Callaway as their manager of the future, or particularly effective at his job. In a year-plus, Callaway has improved somewhat as a tactician and communicator, but clearly lacks the necessary presence or expertise.
The Mets (22-25, 5.5 GB in the NL East) rallied late to beat the Nationals on Tuesday night at Citi Field as they won their second straight game. They host the Nats again on Wednesday night at 7:10.
Here's what went down on Tuesday, in case you missed it:
In the Mets' win over the Nats, Pete Alonso hit a mammoth game-tying homer in the eighth inning before Amed Rosario walked it off in the ninth with an infield single >> Read more
The Mets topped the Nationals in dramatic fashion Tuesday night at Citi Field with a 6-5 walk-off win courtesy of Amed Rosario's hustle.
The shortstop hit a chopper to short but out-ran the throw to score Adeiny Hecchavaria from third base to win the game.
"It was an incredible feeling," Rosario said through a translator after the game. "How emotional I was just because it was my first walk-off and it's our second game in a row that we won after a bad stretch."
J.D. Davis and Pete Alonso each hit dramatic late-inning home runs, and Amed Rosario delivered a walkoff single in Tuesday's 6-5 win over Washington. >> Box score
1) After a back-and-forth final few innings, Amed Rosario hustled out an infield single to give the Mets a walkoff 6-5 victory on Tuesday night at Citi Field. Nats' reliever Tanner Rainey walked two batters in the bottom of the ninth, and Rosario delivered with a high-hopping infield single off of Kyle Barraclough to give the Mets the win.
Brandon Nimmo was penciled in to leadoff and man center field for the Mets on Tuesday night, but then he was scratched as the team announced neck stiffness sat him down.
After Tuesday's dramatic 6-5 victory, Nimmo said that he'll have an MRI on Wednesday and that his neck stiffness from earlier this season never totally went away.
"I'm a little bit concerned about it, but we're hoping that we'll find some answers tomorrow," Nimmo said. "It's been going off and on since really Philadelphia.
Mets third baseman Todd Frazier and Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton found themselves in the center of a feud this week, which apparently stems back to 2016 when they were teammates with the White Sox.
Frazier alluded to a locker room incident that season prior to Tuesday's game when he fired back at Eaton for calling the Mets third baseman "childish" for jawing at him on the field.
"There are 23 of those guys, they know what happened," Frazier said.
The feud between Mets 3B Todd Frazier and Nationals OF Adam Eaton had another player jump in the argument. Well, former player.
Ozzie Guillen, the longtime White Sox player and manager, gave his take on the Frazier-Eaton beef that has come to light this past couple of days. Though he may not have been in the Chicago clubhouse when Frazier and Eaton were teammates, Guillen said he knows well that Eaton was not the most-liked player on that team.
In fact, he wasn't afraid to say it to Eaton himself...
The Nationals pulled away with a 3-1 lead in this one, but J.D. Davis once again showed off his pinch-hitting magic.
With two runners on, Davis went with a pitch to right field and put it over the fence to give the Mets their first lead of the game...
Mets prospect Anthony Kay, whose dominance so far in 2019 has put him in the conversation to jump to the majors this season, is becoming impossible to ignore. And along with his on-field success comes a demeanor that seems built for the place he grew up.
"He's one of my favorites, if not my favorite," UConn pitching coach Josh MacDonald told SNY Tuesday about where Kay falls among the many players he's coached during his career.
MacDonald -- who said he has been texting with Kay "two-to-three times a night" as he has dominated in Double-A Binghamton -- coached Kay during his time at UConn, after which the Mets selected the Long Island native in the 2016 MLB Draft.
The Mets (21-25, 6.5 GB in NL East) will look to keep it going Tuesday at 7:10 p.m. at Citi Field after taking the first game of the series Monday.
The Mets snapped a five-game losing streak on Monday and enter Tuesday's game winners of their last four games at Citi Field. ... Pete Alonso hit his 15th home run on Monday, which tied a Mets rookie record with Ron Swoboda for home runs before the All-Star break. Alonso leads all MLB rookies in home runs, RBI and slugging percentage. ... Todd Frazier has found his groove again over his last six games, hitting .400 with a run, double, tirple, RBI, twoo walks and a 1.071 OPS in that span.
Pay off your mortgage.
That's what Todd Frazier thinks Adam Eaton should do, as the beef between the former White Sox teammates took new life between Monday night and pregame Tuesday.
Frazier and Eaton were seen jawing at each other during the Mets' 5-3 win over the Nationals on Monday, with the benches nearly clearing. After the game, Eaton called Frazier's behavior "childish" and said "I'm a 30-year-old man with two kids. Got a mortgage and everything and he wants to loud-talk as he's running off the field."
The Mets are four games below .500 and six losses back of first place. Yet, based on GM Brodie Van Wagenen's comments Monday, he and his team remain committed to getting to the postseason.
In addition, Van Wagenen said that manager Mickey Callaway has the support of the clubhouse, front office and ownership. Van Wagenen has no choice but to stick with his manager or risk losing credibility with his on-field talent.
The point is, despite the microscope of New York and a frustrated fanbase, the Mets are locked in to at least fighting their way through the NL East. However, what are the chances Van Wagenen and Company rise to the top of a playoff race and play in October?
For a little while on Monday -- with the Mets and Double-A Binghamton both listing their starters as 'TBA' -- it seemed that LHP prospect Anthony Kay could be hours away from making his big league debut. That didn't happen, but it didn't stop Kay from making news anyway.
Kay, the 24-year-old who has been one of the best pitchers in all of minor league baseball this season, fired 7.0 no-hit innings for Binghamton on Monday night before being removed at just 88 pitches due to his pitch-count being managed.
During the outing, Kay walked one and struck out eight, lowering his ERA to 1.07 and WHIP to 0.77.
As the Mets were beating the Nationals on Monday night at Citi Field, the MASN camera caught something -- Todd Frazier of the Mets and Adam Eaton of the Nationals having to be separated between innings.
During the incident, some of the Nationals started spilling out of the dugout in preparation for a potential brawl.
So what happened?
The Mets (21-25, 6.5 GB in the NL East) snapped a five game losing streak Monday and will face the Nationals at Citi Field again Tuesday at 7:10 p.m. on SNY.
Here's what went down on Monday, in case you missed it:
Mets prospects Ronny Mauricio and Mark Vientos are playing well for Class A Columbia. Find out how the rest of the Mets' big-name Minor Leaguers are doing in Top Prospect Watch. >> Read More
Mets rookie first baseman Pete Alonso voiced his support for manager Mickey Callaway after hitting a historic home run in Monday's 5-3 win over the Nationals.
"He's a great leader and all of us love playing for him," Alonso said. "He's a great manager. It would be devastating if his job was in jeopardy or he wasn't the skipper anymore. I think he deserves to be our manager. He's a great leader and we all love playing for him."
Amid the Mets' five-game losing streak that dropped them to 20-25, including a sweep at the hands of the last-place Marlins, GM Brodie Van Wagenen said earlier Monday how he envisions Callaway being the manager for the "foreseeable future."
A day after not running out a ground ball, Mets second baseman Robinson Cano hit a pinch-hit double in the eighth inning, getting to second base in 8.43 seconds, his fastest time since 2016, according to MLB.com's Andrew Simon.
Mets manager Mickey Callaway took notice.
"I think he got the hint," Callaway said after Monday's 5-3 win over the Nationals, a game in which Cano was not in the starting lineup.
Amed Rosario and Pete Alonso both hit home runs and the Mets' bullpen hang on to beat the Nationals 5-3 on Monday at Citi Field. >> Box score
1) Rosario and Alonso both hit solo homers off Patrick Corbin in the first inning. Rosario hit an 0-2 fastball to center field to make it 1-0, and two batters later Alonso hit a 1-2 fastball to left-center for his 15th home run of the season.
Andy Martino, SNY.tv | Twitter |
In light of what Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen called a "non-baseball" injury in which Yoenis Cespedes fell into a hole on his ranch and fractured an ankle, can the Mets get out of the remainder of his contract?
The answer, according to agents and executives not connected to Cespedes or the Mets, is that it depends on the specifics of how he was injured, and whether they violate certain contract language.
Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen met with the media on Monday at Citi Field and threw his support behind embattled manager Mickey Callaway. But that support came with an asterisk.
"We called a meeting today with the coaching staff and with the players," Van Wagenen said after arriving late to the press conference due to the aforementioned meeting. "The puirpose of this meeting had many different aspects to it. First and foremost, to make clear to the coaches make clear to Mickey, and make sure that the players understood that I, the front office, and the entire ownership group has support of Mickey Callaway as our manager. Mickey is our manager now, Mickey is our manager going forward," Callaway said.
After adding that there is confidence among the players, Van Wagenen explained why he thinks Callaway remains the right man for the job.
When Carlos Gomez first came up with the Mets, they still played at Shea Stadium.
Twelve years later, Gomez recorded his first hit at Citi Field as a member of the Mets, and it was a big one.
Yoenis Cespedes was involved in a "violent fall" at his ranch in Port St. Lucie over the weekend and sustained right "ankle fractures," according to Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen.
Van Wagenen said that Cespedes is being evaluated at a hospital in New York and they will need more information on doctors before fully understanding the severity of the injury.
The GM added that Cespedes did not fall off a horse, but did fall and step in a hole in which he "twisted and put his leg and foot" in a bad position.
Even though the Mets have struggled to a 20-25 record through late May, GM Brodie Van Wagenen still believes his current group of players has what it takes to be contenders.
"I don't have regrets from this offseason," Van Wagenen said at a press conference Monday. "When I said publicly and privately that I believed that we could create a contending team, I believed that wholeheartedly. I believed it then and I believe that there is still enough talent in this room to get back in contention this year."
The day after his second inexcusable transgression on the bases, Robinson Cano is not in the Mets' lineup Monday night as they open a series against the Nationals at Citi Field.
Instead, Jeff McNeil gets the start at second base while J.D. Davis starts in left field.
Asked why Cano is out of the lineup, manager Mickey Callaway -- the day after making excuses for Cano -- listed three reasons.
Amidst a tornado of bad news on Monday, the Mets got some good news on Michael Conforto, who has been symptom-free for the last three days after being diagnosed with a concussion.
GM Brodie Van Wagenen said that the team is awaiting the results of tests to determine what type of activities Conforto is cleared to begin.
Conforto was placed on the 7-day concussion DL on Friday after leaving Thursday's game against the Nationals in the bottom of the fifth inning after getting hit in the face by Robinson Cano's shoulder while both of them were trying to field a fly ball.
The Mets (20-25, 6.5 GB in NL East) will look to end their five-game losing streak against with a matchup against the Washington Nationals on Monday at 7:10 p.m. at Citi Field.
The Mets have lost five games in a row and are looking to get back on track against the Nationals at Citi Field where they are 9-8 this season and have won their last three games. ... The Mets have gone 19 innings without scoring a run, which last came in the eighth inning on Friday. ... Carlos Gomez is playing his first game in Citi Field as a Met, where he owns a .417/.509/1.071 slash line with four doubles, a home run and six RBI.
The Mets were dealt another blow on Monday when they announced that reliever Seth Lugo was placed on the 10-day injured list with right shoulder tendinitis.
Left-hand pitcher Hector Santiago was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse to replace Lugo on the roster.
Lugo, 29, has been effective out of the bullpen this season, pitching to a 2-0 record with a 3.12 ERA,1.00 WHIP and 34 strikeouts in 26 innings pitched this season. He began to feel discomfort in his shoulder during his outing on Sunday, in which he allowed a solo home run to Curtis Granderson in an inning of work, and will be shut down for a few days before being re-evaluated.
After considering Drew Gagnon as their spot-starter for Monday night's series opener against the Nationals at Citi Field, the Mets have instead chosen Wilmer Font.
Font, who pitched relatively well in his first start with the Mets (allowing two runs in 4.0 innings), got shellacked by the Nationals in his second start, allowing five runs on six hits while walking two and striking out two in 2.1 innings.
While Gagnon has pitched very well out of the bullpen for the Mets lately, tossing 5.2 scoreless innings over his last five appearances, he hasn't thrown more than 26 pitches in any of them.
Doug Williams and Andy Martino drop a Monday podcast after a rough weekend for the Mets. They sort through the uncertainty surrounding manager Mickey Callaway, as the speculation grows about his status with the team. They also dive into the Robinson Cano controversy, and how his "running" issues are playing out in relation to Mickey and the struggles of the squad.
Click below to listen...
Every Monday, we'll be taking a look at how the Mets' top prospects (their MLB.com Mets Top 10 rankings are in parenthesis) are faring.
The 20-year-old Gimenez -- who is the Mets' No. 1 prospect now that Pete Alonso's prospect status has expired -- is viewed by most minor league experts as one of the best 50 or so prospects in baseball.
The Mets (20-25, 6.5 GB in the NL East) return home after a nightmare trip to face the Nationals at Citi Field on Monday at 7:10 p.m. on SNY.
Here's what went down on Sunday, in case you missed it:
As the Mets were swept by the Marlins, they managed just two hits -- making Sunday the first time since 1967 that they were held to two hits or fewer in consecutive games >> Read more
A little more than a week ago, we heard that Mickey Callaway's job was safe -- and word on Sunday evening, following an embarrassing sweep in Miami, was that nothing had changed yet.
Make no mistake, the subject of Callaway's job security won't go away unless the team starts to win, and quickly. But after Sunday's game, Mets higher-ups had not reached the point of firing their manager.
Having said that, the team believes that its roster is severely underperforming...
If this story seems familiar, it's because it is.
One day after Mets manager Mickey Callaway explained why he didn't bench Robinson Cano for failing to run out a ground ball double play (something Cano blamed on the scoreboard operator), Callaway had to explain why he didn't pull Cano from Sunday's game after failing to run at all on another double play ground ball.
And Callaway seemed to be making excuses for his second baseman.
It's not all bad in Mets land.
While the big league team continues its troubling ways, Tim Tebow finally hit his first homer of the season in the Minors. Batting eighth and playing left field for Syracuse, Tebow followed David Thompson's solo shot with one of his own off Columbus' Asher Wojciechowski.
Tebow jumped on the first pitch and drove it over the right-field wall.
For all of the speculation regarding Mickey Callaway's job status, one prominent locker room voice expressed his displeasure in the "will-they-won't-they" dance.
Noah Syndergaard went so far as to call rumors regarding Callaway's insecure job status "bulls---" after the Mets were shut out by the Marlins, 3-0, and swept by the last-place team.
"I respect the hell out of Mickey," said Syndegaard, who took the loss Sunday despite pitching well. "Mickey has tremendous leadership values. It's kind of bullshit what's going on right now with this speculation that there could be a change, because we're so early in the season."
After the Mets were blanked by the Marlins for the second-straight day as Miami completed a three-game sweep, manager Mickey Callaway spoke as questions about his job security continued to swirl.
And while GM Brodie Van Wagenen was in Miami on Friday and Saturday, he was not there after Sunday's game -- with Callaway saying Van Wagenen was "never scheduled" to be in Miami Sunday.
Callaway, who said he expected to talk with -- as he usually does -- Van Wagenen and ownership ("we always touch base") before the team opens a homestand on Monday, said he doesn't think the weekend sweep will cost him.
The Mets fell to a season-worst five games under .500 with their offense close to a total no-show as the Marlins completed a three-game sweep. After getting one hit on Saturday, the Mets managed just two hits -- making Sunday the first time since 1967 that they were held to two or fewer hits in back-to-back games. >> Box score
1) With manager Mickey Callaway's job potentially on the line, the Mets' offense reached a new low -- with Marlins RHP Sandy Alcantara reaching the eighth inning having thrown just 62 pitches. Yes, 62 pitches. Alcantara faltered a bit in the eighth, but came back out for the ninth with only 78 pitches under his belt and retired the side in order to complete the shutout. It took him 89 total pitches. The game took one hour and 59 minutes.
Two days after not running hard on a 1-6-3 double play and using the excuse that he thought there were two outs instead of one, Mets second baseman Robinson Cano didn't move at all on another double play he hit into.
This time, Cano hit a ball right in front of the plate and stared directly at it while not running at all.
The play happened in the top of the fourth inning with J.D. Davis on first base and one out. Cano swung and tapped the ball, with it winding up right in front of the plate and rolling slightly down the first base line. While Cano was staring at the ball and not moving, the Marlins turned an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play.
The Mets have reshaped their roster over the last year and change, saying goodbye to some familiar faces (some beloved, some not) in the process. Every week, we'll take a look at how some of those former Mets are performing with their new teams...
The 19-year-old Kelenic, the prized prospect the Mets included in the Diaz/Cano deal, has cooled off over the last two weeks as his triple slash has dropped from a ridiculously good .340/.441/.630 to a still-impressive .314/.397/.529.
In 39 games this season for Seattle's Low-A affiliate, Kelenic has six homers, 13 doubles, one triple, and seven stolen bases.
The Mets (20-24, 5.5 GB in NL East) will look to avoid a sweep at the hands of the MLB-worst Marlins on Sunday at 1:10 p.m.
The Mets have lost four games in a row and are looking to prevent their first five-game losing streak since June of 2018. ... The Mets haven't been swept in a three-game series by the Marlins since September of 2017. ... The Mets have been outscored 8-0 in the first inning over their last four games. ... After winning seven of their first eight road games this season, the Mets have gone 4-15 away from Citi Field.
The Mets (20-24, 5.5 GB in the NL East) look to avoid what would be a pathetic sweep at the hands of the Marlins on Sunday afternoon in Miami at 1:10.
Here's what went down on Saturday, in case you missed it:
A listless Mets squad managed just one hit as they were shut out by the Marlins, losing their fourth-consecutive game to fall four games under .500 for the first time this season >> Read more
Baseball people know a dead team when they see one -- and here's a sampling of words offered via text from several veteran evaluators, executives and former players during Saturday's 2-0 loss to the historically bad Miami Marlins:
"Listless."
"No energy."
The Mets lost their fourth-straight game on Saturday, and this loss was a special kind of awful: They were one-hit by the MLB-worst Marlins a day after being shellacked by the same Marlins.
With Mickey Callaway's job potentially at risk and those questions not going away even if the Mets win on Sunday to save face, the manager was asked by SNY's Steve Gelbs after Saturday's loss if the team was playing with the requisite amount of urgency.
"I don't think the results have been there," Callaway said. "I think they come to play every day, I truly do. I think that tonight we didn't score any runs. Heck, we could hardly get a hit. We led off the game with a hit and then they just kind of shut us down."
Following the Mets' fourth-straight defeat, a 2-0 loss to Miami in which they mustered just one hit, players in the locker room weighed in on the team's recent struggles and gave their thoughts on Mickey Callaway's performance.
"I think he's doing a great job," Todd Frazier said. "He can't go up there and hit. He makes the lineup, he puts the guys in at the right time, and we're not producing. At the end of the day, he makes the lineup, he does his job, he's a great manager, and our focus is on winning games and we're not doing that for him ... If we're not producing, it's kind of on us.
"We've just got to step up, that's the bottom line, as hitters, as a collective group ... Let's get our focus on what we're good at and hopefully that gets us going."
The Mets fell to a season-worst four games under .500 after failing to muster any offense or fight on Saturday in Miami. >> Box score
1) With manager Mickey Callaway's job status potentially in a precarious spot, the Mets gave an absolutely listless performance as they managed just one hit while losing their second-straight game to the MLB-worst Marlins. It was their fourth-straight loss overall. After Jeff McNeil led the game off by doubling off Marlins starter Pablo Lopez, 14 consecutive Mets were set down as he settled into a groove. This was the same Pablo Lopez the Mets scored 10 runs against last week.
After not running hard to first base in the seventh inning Friday night during an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play, Robinson Cano was not benched Saturday for the transgression.
And before Saturday's game, Mets manger Mickey Callaway simply said that he doesn't bench players to send a message.
"We talked about it and he understands that can't happen again," Callaway explained. You don't just reprimand people to send a message to the rest of the team."
The Mets (20-23, 4.5 GB in NL East) will try to even up the series with the Marlins (11-31, 13 GB) on Saturday at Marlins Park at 4:10 p.m. on SNY.
The Mets have dropped three games in a row and are now 11-16 on the road this season ... Steven Matz, who was placed on the IL with left forearm irritation on May 5th, makes his return to the mound for the Mets ... Matz has been dominant at Marlins Park, posting a 3-0 record with a 0.93 ERA in five career starts in South Florida... Pete Alonso's 14 home runs through his first 43 career games is tied for the seventh-most in MLB history dating back to 1908.
Yoenis Cespedes was with the Mets Friday in Miami as he met the team while he continues to work his way back from dual heel surgeries. And he just took a big step.
Cespedes has started running, Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen said, though he added that he's not yet doing any "explosive" running. Cespedes also took batting practice with the team Friday.
However, while Cespedes is making progress, Van Wagenen said "time will tell" whether Cespedes would play this season.
John Harper, SNY.tv | Twitter | : Benching Robinson Cano against the Marlins on Saturday wouldn't be a cure for everything that is wrong with the Mets these days, not even close.
But for a manager whose neck is on the line it might be the only way he can make a statement that he's going to demand better from one of his so-called leaders. At the very least it would be an indication Callaway is willing to make his players accountable rather than always telling them everything will be all right.
Above all, it would be an acknowledgement that these Mets are at a crisis point in this season already, and he's not going to just sit around waiting to get fired.
