LOOK WHO’S NO. 6
OK, maybe that message isn’t inspiring enough to make a September scoreboard in Queens, but it’s true: At this writing the Mets are a game ahead of the Braves for the third National League wild card, which is a fancy way of saying sixth in a league that now grants playoff spots to its top six teams. Moreover, they’re just a half-game behind the Diamondbacks for the second wild card (less fancy: fifth) and two games behind the Padres for the first wild card, AKA fourth.
Nine-game winning streaks will do a lot.
Saturday’s game against the Reds was one of those contests that might not be particularly interesting in the details but still says a fair amount about the mindset of team and fans. The Mets couldn’t scratch against Jakob Junis, who’d apparently gotten a deal on sliders at Costco; they hit ball after ball that looked mildly interesting off the bat but settled into an outfielder’s glove. They didn’t have a base runner until Mark Vientos walked in the fourth and lacked a hit until Jose Iglesias doubled in the fifth, all Junis gave up in five innings of work.
Meanwhile, Jose Quintana was mixing up his pitches and hitting his spots in his bid for a 100th career win, and he was helped out by some remarkable defense, with Iglesias starting a 4-6-3 double play to erase a leadoff walk in the second and Francisco Lindor initiating a twin killing in the third. The first of those looked like a magic trick: Iglesias smothered a Ty France grounder moving to his left, pivoting on his knees to wind up in perfect throwing position, and then Lindor caught his feed low and to the outfield side of second, continuing his motion to throw to Pete Alonso for the second out. The second was nearly as good, with Lindor snagging a Jonathan India grounder to deep short on the backhand and somehow pivoting smoothly to hit Iglesias at second, with his double-play partner wasting not so much as a nanosecond on the pivot to nip India on the back end.
Both plays started with a combination of perfect instincts and muscle memory — Iglesias rolling just so to be able to hit Lindor at second, Lindor converting his momentum heading into the hole into the energy needed to throw — and were completed thanks to economy of motion against a pitilessly ticking clock. The Mets will miss Jeff McNeil‘s versatility, and I’ll miss McNeil’s perpetual outrage at the slightest misfortune, but those two plays were reassurance that the Mets should be just fine up the middle.
With Junis excused further duty, the Mets wasted no time against Sam Moll: Harrison Bader broke a oil-well-deep slump with a solo homer, followed by a walk from Lindor (extending his on-base streak to 35, which is a new single-season Mets record, though his hitting streak was stopped at 16) and a Brandon Nimmo HBP. Exit Moll and enter Carson Spiers, who I perhaps once knew is long-ago Met Bill Spiers‘ nephew. Spiers the Younger was greeted rudely, with RBI singles by Alonso and a two-run double from J.D. Martinez.
That was the ballgame, pretty much: Adam Ottavino got the last out of the seventh, Danny Young turned in a spotless eighth and Edwin Diaz wobbled a bit but found himself to secure the ninth. Being sixth-best never felt so good.
I like it when someone gets a career milestone with us even if most of their career was elsewhere. Figure eventually it’ll make up for Seaver getting his 300th in an elseplace.
For a lot of the year it didn’t look like Quintana would get there. Good for him. Solid pro.
Last 3 starts: 18 innings, 1 earned run.
Gary Sheffield’s 500th homer was one of the sole bright spots in an otherwise bleak season. And the fact that Seaver got #300 against the Yankees helped make up for his getting it in a White Sox uniform.
If the White Sox beat the 1962 Mets record, it’ll be karma for taking Seaver from the Mets in 1983.
Except that McNeil played almost every day, and I’m not convinced Iglesias is an every day player — but we’ll see.
He was in 2022 and batted .290.
I don’t want Iglesias to open the 2025 season as the Mets starting 2B. But for now, we’re down to a small sample size amount of season left, so I’m not worried about it. Iglesias has been a regular more often than not over his career, and good at it. He’s on the older side at 34 but hasn’t played so much this season that we should fear he’ll wear out with the increased playing time. And there are well-spaced off-days the rest of the way.
It was windy at Citi and the ball was not carrying when Junis (who generally looked good) was pitching. Of greater significance, is this the end for McNeil? The main issue is will the Mets be able to deal him without eating a chunk of his salary. His histrionics have run its course, and it is time for the Squirrel to collect his nuts elsewhere. I would be willing to find out if Iglesias is exposed with more playing time, and the thought of Luis Angel Acuna being added (as opposed to the wrong Reyes) is intruiging. Iglesias appears to be mentally tough and may be at the stage where he has figured it out while still being physically able to perform at age 34. He brings to the table an outstanding set of hands, a reliable arm, and aggressiveness at the plate.
Iglesias has been Guillorme on defense, plus the contact ability Guillorme sometimes had, plus speed, which Guillorme does not have.
I want McNeil back as the starting 2B. He’s homegrown and still productive. But in the big picture, his time with the Mets is close to running its course. The top Mets prospects include Acuna, Baty, Mauricio, and Jett Williams, who all to some degree are being trained to replace McNeil. McNeil is 32 and his production has dropped off since he won his batting title. He needs to rediscover his .320 hitter to be more than a bridge to his replacement. His versatility on defense isn’t valuable enough if he doesn’t hit. I’d give him another year to find it.
As a short-term placeholder at 2B, if not McNeil, the Mets could do worse than Iglesias.
“The Mets will miss Jeff McNeil‘s versatility”
McNeil’s ability to switch seamlessly between 2B, LF, and RF has been a key cog of Mendoza’s late-game offense-defense switches. I’m interested to see how losing McNeil and starting Iglesias changes Mendoza’s substitution strategy. For example, it’s one thing to take out Vientos for Iglesias or McNeil. But for Reyes?
The Mets learned their lesson from the last time they caught up to the Braves. Also, tied with the Diamondbacks and 1 behind the Padres in the loss column with the tie-breaker on both, and 1 of them is guaranteed 2 losses in their season-ending series. The Cubs have dropped back 6, joining the Cardinals, and the Mets own the tie-breaker on them, too.
7 behind the Phillies, 7 to play against the Phillies, 20 games left. The Mets need to win those games anyway for the wildcard race, so they may as well aim for the division too.
Lindor might be cooling off, which is a concern with McNeil’s injury and that other cold Mets bats haven’t heated up. But in the current stretch across a full range of opponents, from the Orioles, Padres, and Diamondbacks, to the Red Sox, to the Reds, down to the White Sox, the Mets, cold hitters and all, are finding ways to score enough for some very good pitching to win games. Besides the blown saves by Butto and Diaz against the Padres and Diamondbacks, when was the last time that the bullpen lost a game?
Answer: Today. Maton. Mendoza shouldn’t have used Diaz with a 4-run lead yesterday. I suspect that there’s a throwing schedule for Diaz to make sure he gets enough work and control the gaps between the games he pitches.
Confirmed: Lindor is cooling off. Mets bats have gone comatose before this season with McNeil, but the dead offense is more unnerving today than it otherwise would be because it coincided with McNeil’s 1st game out. That McNeil’s replacement, Stewart, struck out to end the game doesn’t help. However, Iglesias was part of the bit of offensive life that the Mets did show today. I want the Mets to score a bunch of runs against the Blue Jays to dispel the irrational fear that losing McNeil was a harbinger.
Just what I was thinking. When Maton was blowing it (no knock on Maton – he’s been great, this was bound to happen eventually), my first thought was, shoot, it would have been nice to have had Diaz available. On the other hand, maybe Diaz comes in, shuts them down, then the Mets don’t score and Maton just blows it an inning later. It’s hard to Monday-morning quarterback after the end of a nine game winning streak, but we all do it.
Just peeked at the box score, and was momentarily confused to see an “S – Diaz” at the end. Then I remembered. Wrong Diaz. Dernit.
This: “OMG, everybody, Iglesias has brought so much to the Mets this season beyond just that catchy song. He deserves this chance, even if he didn’t start the season in the majors. He entered Sunday batting .316 with an .806 OPS in 65 games for the Mets, including a .386 average with runners in scoring position.”
https://sny.tv/articles/mets-decision-call-up-dj-stewart-instead-of-luisangel-acuna