This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Anthony held an “Ask Me Anything” this week on Reddit with Mets fans at r/NewYorkMets. This newsletter features excerpted questions and answers from that event (some lightly edited for clarity). The full AMA is available to read here.
Do you think David Stearns and Steve Cohen underrated Pete Alonso? They obviously have not been able to replace his production this year. But it also feels like there’s an intangible factor at play here where they changed too much about the team/coaching staff in the offseason. To me, Alonso leaving was one of the biggest changes, if not the biggest change.
No, I don’t think they underrated Pete Alonso. They knew exactly what type of player Alonso is, so it can come as no surprise that Alonso is having a pretty typical season for himself down in Baltimore. His end of things was predictable.
The Mets’ mistake was believing they could effectively replace Alonso with Jorge Polanco. If they had pursued, say, Willson Contreras instead, the conversation would be different.
As much as I always liked Alonso as a player, I agreed at the time with Stearns’ decision to break up a core that, frankly, didn’t do much winning over seven years together. I won’t backtrack on that take now, given the benefit of hindsight. But Stearns’ plan had two parts, and Part 2 was simply not effective.
Assuming Andy Green doesn’t come back next year as [manager], and we don’t get Alex Cora, who are likely options for [managers] for next year’s squad?
I wouldn’t necessarily assume Andy Green will be gone, despite what he and Stearns have said. That’s not coming from a place of reporting. I’m just not willing to rule out the possibility that he or the Mets will change their minds.
Outside of the two names you mentioned, I think Carlos Beltrán has to top any list of candidates. The Mets did, after all, hire him once before, albeit under different ownership and a different front office. Still, Beltrán has worked with this group for several years now and knows the organization well. I’d find it difficult to see the team hiring, say, Albert Pujols, when a similar candidate in Beltrán already works here.
That said, if Green doesn’t return, I’d envision the Mets casting a wide net. Plenty of qualified folks were out of jobs this year, including Rocco Baldelli, David Ross and quite a few others. Having prior ties to the Mets is hardly a prerequisite for the job.
Do you think the Mets have a decent chance to land Tarik Skubal (if they pursue him at all), or do you think it’s a foregone conclusion he stays a Dodger?
If the Mets want him, they’ll have a chance, as Cohen’s billions will always give them a chance. A better question is will the Mets want him? Much may depend upon how Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, Zac Thornton and Sean Manaea finish the year, as well as how prospects like Jonathan Santucci and Jack Wenninger fare.
If you’re asking my opinion, the Mets should push hard to acquire Skubal in hopes of making this one of the league’s most dynamic rotations. But Stearns has essentially zero history of handing out long-term contracts to starting pitchers, and the one biggish deal he did do recently, Manaea’s three-year, $75 million pact, aged poorly. So I won’t be convinced he’ll pursue Skubal until it actually happens.
How concerned is the organization about Jonah Tong's struggles in the Minors this season? Obviously his stats are disappointing, but are they caused by poor pitching, or more so because he is trying hard to develop new pitches during games?
When I asked Green about Tong [on Tuesday], he indicated that the right-hander's pitch metrics -- his fastball shape in particular, but also his curveball and other offerings -- are just as important as his on-field results. Those haven’t been where Mets officials have wanted them for most of this season, in part because Tong’s arm slot has fallen markedly from his former over-the-top delivery. It's been harder for him to shape his pitches effectively from the lower slot.
Here’s the rest of Green’s response, when I asked what Tong needs to show before a potential late-season callup:
“We want to see ingredients that we believe will succeed on the field here. We want to put him in a place where he’s going to be successful when he comes back. It’s always hard in the Major Leagues. We think he has the stuff to pitch here and to pitch well here. We want to see stuff more on the back side, like, ‘That'll play.’ And when we feel that way, we’ll be excited when he comes.”
Any thoughts on which of these current relievers might be here for the long run, and who’s just viewed as more of a placeholder?
Well, Devin Williams will be here for better or for worse. No one else on the current roster will enter Spring Training with a guaranteed job, but that’s why August and September figure to be so important for guys like Nate Lavender, Jefry Yan, etc. Mets officials tend to put more weight on in-season performances/metrics than they do on a small spring sample. So what happens down the stretch matters, even if the game results don’t.