Also, good morning to any Knicks fans out there!

A good Wednesday for the guys in blue started in Arizona where the Mets took the rubber match against the Arizona Diamondbacks by a score of 7-1. Despite having some control issues early on, Kodai Senga found the range and went six innings of shutout ball, lowering his ERA to 1.16 on the season. Along with that, Juan Soto had his second multi-homer game of the season, going 2-for-4 with two long balls and three RBIs. Click here for a full game recap!

The Mets have an off day on Thursday and will start a three-game set against the Chicago Cubs on Friday at Citi Field. The projected starters are Clay Holmes, Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning. 

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Latest Mets News

The Mets signed veteran left-handed reliever Colin Poche to a minor-league contract and he will report to Syracuse. Click here for more on the signing. 

Padres’ Jose Iglesias was ‘totally shocked’ he didn’t receive contract offer from Mets in the offseason, per Anthony Rieber of Newsday.

Latest MLB News

The Baltimore Orioles acquired RHP Luis F. Castillo (not the All-Star) from the Seattle Mariners for cash considerations. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Evan Phillips is on the IL with right forearm discomfort, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.

Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino announced he will be playing for Team Italy in the 2026 WBC, per his X page.

Former Mets relief pitcher Stephen Nogosek signed a contract with the Kansas City Royals, per player agent John Shinn.

Alex Bregman launched his 200th career home run over the Green Monster on Wednesday night.

Breggy Bomb No. 200 💥 pic.twitter.com/E0QPmJ47lE

— MLB (@MLB) May 7, 2025

Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters that Kris Bryant is undergoing an ablation procedure on his lower back on Thursday.

The Cincinnati Reds placed on the 10-day injured list IF Noelvi Marte, retroactive to May 5th, with a left oblique strain. 

The Chicago White Sox placed outfielder Andrew Benintendi on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 5th, with a left calf strain.

Latest On MMO

The Mets sign a veteran lefty reliever.

Soto goes deep twice in the Mets’ win.

Mets have three players in Baseball America’s updated top 100. 

On This Date In Mets History

2010: Henry Blanco hits a walk-off home run to beat the Giants.

1961: New York’s National League expansion team announces that they will be known as the “Mets.” 

Born on This Date: Sean Gilmartin (1990), Adrián González (1982), John Maine (1981).

The post Morning Briefing: Mets Grab Rubber Match Over Arizona appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

The San Diego Padres continued to rebuild their bullpen. With a number of their top relievers in free agency, San Diego is close to adding South Korean reliever Woo Suk Go, who could serve as the teams closer. The deal was first reported by Jon Heyman of the New York Post. 

The 25-year-old has pitched in parts of seven seasons with the Korean Baseball Organization. He has operated as the closer for the LG Twins for the past five seasons. In four of those five seasons, Go has had an ERA below 4.00. 

Go had a record of 3-8, an ERA of 3.68, 15 saves, and 59 strikeouts in 44 innings last season. 

Latest Mets News 

The Mets removed the white shadow on the logo of their black hats. See the change here. 

Darryl Strawberry opened up in a podcast interview with baseball writer Erik Sherman.

Latest MLB News

The Arizona Diamondbacks are signing free agent catcher Tucker Barnhart to a minor league contract, which includes an invite to spring training, per Robert Murray of Fansided.

The Cincinnati Reds announced the contract of Frankie Montas and the decision to designate catcher Austin Wynns for assignment. 

Fernando Tatis Jr. became at least the 2nd player since 2006 to homer in a Dominican League game on his birthday, per Sarah Langs of mlb.com. 

Latest on MMO 

The Metsmerized team gave its Mets New Year’s resolutions in our latest roundtable. 

Brian Wright makes the case for Adrian Gonzalez to be enshrined in Cooperstown.

Patrick Glynn profiles both Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin as trade candidates. 

The Mets Madness recap of the 2022 and 1999 Mets from Jack Ramsey.

At Mets Minors, they talked about the best starting pitchers from the 2023 season.

On this Date in Mets History

2000: The Mets officially released Bobby Bonilla on this day 24 years ago. With his release came decades of deferred payments, which will not stop until 2035. 

Birthdays: Mark Dewey (59), Luis Rivera (60), Jim Dwyer (74), John Sullivan (83)

The post Morning Briefing: Padres Close to Signing Woo Suk Go appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

There are players we refer to as Mets legends legitimately. There are players we jokingly call “Mets legends.” With all the respect given to Adrian González‘s career, one that is very respectable and includes five All-Star appearances, four Gold Gloves, and two Silver Sluggers, he is a “Mets legend.”

After a 2017 season that was plagued by a back injury, the 35-year-old made an attempt to extend his career by joining the Mets on the last year of his existing contract.

Starting at first base on Opening Day, he went 2-for-3 with a pair of walks and an RBI in a victory over the Cardinals. On April 8, he hit a grand slam in Washington. On April 29 against his former team, he went 3-for-6 and drove in five at Petco Park. González served the role of “veteran presence” and a placeholder for incoming youngsters on a club not yet ready for contention. On a personal note, he was able to reach the 2,000-hit milestone.

June 10 was the last time he played as a Met and, as it turned out, the last time he played in the major leagues. A day later, he was released.

Back in 2006, González was a San Deigo Padre and slashed .304/.362/.500 with 24 home runs and 82 RBIs in 156 games. Over the next four years, he would have three seasons of at least 30 homers, 100 RBIs, and an OPS+ above 126. The only season when that didn’t happen was 2009…when he had 99 RBIs.

He followed that stretch with arguably his best year. In 2011, his first season with the Boston Red Sox, González slashed .338/.410/.548 with 27 home runs and a league-leading 213 hits, driving in 117. It was one of seven times in which he hit at least 25 home runs. He also won his third Gold Glove and finished seventh in the MVP voting. His best result in the balloting was fourth the year before.

When at his best, González was a consistent and dependable first baseman. In 14-plus seasons, his slash line was .288/.358/.488 with 311 homers, 2,010 hits, 432 doubles, and 1,176 RBIs.

The Case For

There was a seven-year stretch (from 2008-14) when he was among the best at his position—able to hit for power, average, get on base, and field solidly.

It was during this span that he averaged 29 homers, 108 RBIs, and had an OPS+ of 138. He also made three of his All-Star appearances, collected all his Gold Gloves, and won both his Silver Slugger Awards.

One way to figure out if a player has a path to the Hall is to find a comparable player who’s already been enshrined. In González’s case, it might be Tony Perez.

Through their age-36 season (when Gonzalez retired), the numbers for Adrian come out favorable. Perez had a slash line of .284/.346/.477 with four fewer hits and 14 fewer home runs. Gonzalez also has the edge in walks (767 to 676), doubles (432 to 345), and total bases (3,399 to 3,301).

The Case Against

The comparison with Perez ends when you take into account that the former Cincinnati Red played an additional eight seasons. Longevity is one reason, among many, that significantly hurts González’s chances.

Other comparable careers include Derek Lee, who was off the Hall of Fame ballot after one try, and Tino Martinez, who got six votes in his lone turn.

González’s 317 homers rank 41st among first basemen. his 43.5 career WAR is 43rd-highest. Another metric to consider is JAWS, which measures a player’s Hall of Fame worthiness by averaging the player’s offensive or pitching WAR over a seven-year peak. The average JAWS metric of first basemen elected to the Hall of Fame is 53.4. Gonzalez is at 39.1.

Postseason performance is an opportunity to enhance a resume. Unfortunately, the numbers for González aren’t impressive: a slash line of .266/.329/.453 with seven home runs and 21 RBIs over 189 plate appearances.

Final Thoughts

Adrián González is a classic “Hall of Very Good” player. For about eight years, his level of play was worthy of All-Star recognition. But for him to be elevated to Cooperstown-level status, he needed to either sustain his best level longer or have more production in those eight years. He should remain on the ballot, but he is not a Hall of Fame player.

As of publishing, he doesn’t have a single vote for the Hall among publicly available ballots.

The post Hall of Fame Case: Adrián González appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Of the 12 players appearing for the first time on the ballot, former Mets include David Wright, Bartolo Colon, Adrián González, José Reyes, and José Bautista.

Of the 14 holdovers remaining from last year’s ballot, former Mets include Billy Wagner, Gary Sheffield, Carlos Beltrán, Bobby Abreu, and Francisco Rodríguez.

David Wright’s first-time candidacy is sure to excite the Mets fanbase. But with only five All-Star caliber seasons, he may not garner enough votes, at least during his first appearance on the HOF ballot. 

The other seven players eligible for the first time include Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer, Chase Utley, Matt Holliday, Victor Martinez, James Shields, and Brandon Phillips.

The other nine holdovers include Todd Helton, Andruw Jones, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Omar Vizquel, Andy Pettitte, Jimmy Rollins, Mark Buehrle, and Torii Hunter.

To be eligible, a player must be retired for a minimum of five calendar years. 

Nominees must appear on at least 75 percent of the HOF voter ballots to win election. The HOF voting committee is comprised of past and present members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

The 2024 inductees will be announced on January 23 and inducted on July 21 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, NY.

Players who do not receive at least 75 percent support from the HOF voting committee are permitted to remain on the ballot for a maximum of 10 years, provided they receive a minimum of 5 percent of the vote each year.

The post David Wright Among First Time Hall of Fame Nominees appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Adrian Hernandez/Photo by Ed Delany, MMO

Adrian Hernandez

Position: CF Bats/Throws: R/R Age: February 8, 2001 (18)
Acquired: Signed as an International Free Agent from the Dominican Republic on 7/2/17 ($1.5 million bonus)
Previous Ranking: 20
Stats (DSL): .261/.351/.386, 12 2B, 2 3B, 5 HR, 34 RBI, 9 SB, 5 CS

Back in 2017, Hernandez was regarded as one of the top international free agents available. For example, Baseball America rated him as the 16th best player and seventh best outfielder in that class. The reason for that is his highly projectable and promising skill set.

Offensively, Hernandez is a player with natural power and bat speed, which is a strong indicator of future power potential. This is natural in the purest sense of the word as Hernandez never so much as lifted weights prior to his being signed by the Mets organization. There is also the consideration that with his 5’9″, 210 lb frame, he has room to mature physically.

When you look at Hernandez’s below average slugging percentage and ISO (.124), you may come away with the belief that his power did not translate well in the Dominican Summer League. However, that would overlook his good 7.1 percent HR/FB ratio. With him having a solid 18.2 percent strikeout rate, it is clear he has good contact skills. The key for him going forward is learning to hit the ball more in the air than on the ground (41.4 percent).

Other adjustments Hernandez will need to make at the plate are better pitch recognition and plate discipline. With that plus his physical maturation, we could see Hernandez hit for more power when he comes stateside next season. With that respect, there are three important factors which will help him make those adjustments.

First, Hernandez will be working with better coaches stateside. Second, Hernandez is already viewed as a hard worker willing to put in the time to improve all the aspects of his game. Finally and perhaps most importantly, he is talented. As a result, he has a good talent base to improve. That talent base extends beyond just his ability to hit.

In addition to his power, the next part of his game which stands out is his speed. With his speed, Hernandez has the ability to cover ground in center. It also gives him the ability to run the basepaths, potentially leading to more extra base hits and stolen bases.

However, it should be noted while he has speed, he does not quite have “game speed.” He was only successful 64 percent of the time in his stolen base attempts. Additionally, while he has the ability to use his speed to cover ground in center, he does not quite have the instincts out there to get the most out of his ability. Again, with his work ethic and better coaching, he should make improvements and learn how to better utilize his speed.

The one concern from that standpoint is as Hernandez matures he may lose some of that speed. Ultimately, it should push him out of center field, but it should not prevent him from being a quality defender. In fact, John Sickels recently said on Twitter that Hernandez is a prototypical right fielder with a strong arm with good range and speed.

Overall, the best way to describe Hernandez is raw. He has all the tools to be a terrific player, but he does not quite have the experience and coaching to get the most out of those tools. With his solid work ethic, we can anticipate him making strides forward next year.

Previous Rankings

50-46 Led by Michael Paez
45-41 Led by Ranfy Adon
40-36 Led by Anthony Dirocie
35-31 Led by Ryley Gilliam
30-26 Led by Chris Viall
25 Carlos Cortes
24 Ali Sanchez
23 Eric Hanhold
22 Luis Carpio
21 Freddy Valdez
20 Walker Lockett
19 Junior Santos
18 Gavin Cecchini
17 Jordan Humphreys
16 Christian James
15 Tony Dibrell
14 Francisco Alvarez
13 Will Toffey

The post MMO Top 25 Prospects: No. 12 Adrian Hernandez, CF appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Photo by Ed Delany

In the top of the seventh inning of last night’s contest against the Phillies, Mickey Callaway brought Dominic Smith in to pinch hit for Amed Rosario.

Smith waltzed towards the plate for an at-bat that, considering his prospect status when he was first promoted last year, felt way overdue. Of course, when you hit .198/.262/.391 and post a dWAR of -1.0 as Smith did in his first 49 games the season prior, no roster spot is going to be handed to you.

What’s more, when you’re subsequently docked from your lone spring training appearance for showing up late and spend the next month nursing a strained quad, people may even forget you once checked in as the team’s second-best prospect.

The meteoric rise of first base prospect Peter Alonso, who is currently hitting .357/.471/.652 with eight homers and 26 RBI in Double-A Binghamton, has also put somewhat of a damper on Smith’s current value.

Nonetheless, there are still plenty of signs pointing to a rebound for Smith, who despite criticism from the organization and fans, has made substantial changes. Most notably, Smith, who ended the 2017 season at 250 pounds, currently stands in at a trimmer 215, per Tim Healey. He ended his spring at 222, for what it’s worth.

Not even injuries have stopped the 22-year old who, for all the flak he’s caught about his disappointing stint last year, still had a 54 at-bat stretch where he hit .315/.383/.630 with four homers and 14 RBI. As Adrian Gonzalez‘s numbers have tailed, no less, Smith, who has posted a .390 OBP in Triple-A (69 points higher than that of A-Gon), is comfortably easing himself back into the discussion.

Granted, Smith’s .807 OPS is a stark drop-off from his more powerful .905 display the season prior, and Jay Bruce‘s imminent return from the paternity list may spell an unfortunate end to his weekend in terms of his place on the active roster. It’s still important to consider that Smith is playing in a body he has never played in before and is clearly trying to figure out:

“I’m just trying to get used to my body and get comfortable,” Smith admitted before his debut last night. “I missed all of spring, so going down [to Vegas] and playing every day is definitely very different from the whole spring training environment of working your way into game-like at-bats.”

The changes, for Smith, have been anything but overnight. He still has some ways to go before he can solidify his name as a force in the lineup, but his path is still drawn out, and the work he has put in to make the necessary adjustments should not go unnoticed. Smith has a lot to prove, but little to be frustrated with looking ahead. His window is still very much open.

The post Don’t Give Up On Dominic Smith Just Yet appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

The New York Mets were likely cautiously optimistic once Jay Bruce finally started swinging the bat better a couple of weeks ago.

On April 20, Bruce, 31, was hitting just .190/.288/.328 with one home run, seven runs batted in, five doubles, just two walks, and a whopping 14 strikeouts in just 58 at-bats.

Since then, the Mets’ (usual) right fielder is slashing .320/.382/.500 with two homers, seven RBI, five walks and just eight strikeouts in 50 at-bats.

Now that he seems to be fairly locked in and playing without any ill-effects of the plantar fasciitis that was plaguing him early on (and that he is likely still playing with, admirably at that), it gives this Mets team another intriguing wrinkle to their on-again, off-again offense.

The team used Bruce at first base on Friday night, to a box-score-wise perfect performance. He had a shaky moment when a pop fly dropped in between him and Brandon Nimmo (and Asdrubal Cabrera) early in the game, but otherwise, he was solid.

With him at first, it gives the New York Mets a ton of other options when trying to piece together their day-to-day lineups. Manager Mickey Callaway clearly likes the idea of using Brandon Nimmo more, or else he wouldn’t be playing Bruce at a position that he’s only played 16 games at in his 1,414-game career.

With Adrian Gonzalez now slowly finding his way (.283/.333/.565 with four home runs and 10 RBI since April 18; 46 at-bats), it muddies the situation a bit more, as far as the decision-making process, but in a good way.

If Callaway can take advantage of the daily matchups effectively, as he did last night taking Gonzo’s career numbers against Homer Bailey into play and bringing his plan to fruition, it could have astounding effects on this team.

The mix-and-match approach, with current performance and prior success as the determining factors (which admittedly has had mixed results whenever it’s been employed thus far this season), could end up working out pretty well if everyone is doing their respective jobs.

It seems as if all of the Mets’ moving parts are working up to snuff, the machine that Sandy Alderson has pieced together will perform as its intended to.

If the New York Mets are firing on all cylinders, as they’ve shown they most certainly can do at times, that’s an exciting notion for us as fans, a motivating one for the team themselves, and a terribly frightening one for opposing pitchers.

The post Bruce and Gonzalez Improving Opens Up Doors for Mets appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Not much is going right for the Mets of late, but one of the reasons they’ve lost 14 of their last 20 games is that they simply are not hitting left-handed pitching.

As a team, the Mets have just a 61 wRC+ against southpaws, the worst in the Major Leagues, hitting .205/.280/.288 (.568 OPS) with three home runs in 278 at-bats against them.

After Zack Wheeler who is batting .500 (2-for-4) against lefties, the Mets best hitter against them has been Asdrubal Cabrera who is hitting .333 (11-for-33), picking up where he left off after hitting .392 (49-for-125) against them last season. Next is Amed Rosario at .308 (8-for-26), then Juan Lagares at .292 (7-for-24), and Tomas Nido at .286 (2-for-7). Then it starts to get ugly with nobody else topping .200, so let’s just “rip off the bandaid” so to speak.

Jay Bruce (.194), Michael Conforto (.176), Adrian Gonzalez (.167), Jose Reyes (.167), Wilmer Flores (.161), Todd Frazier (.154), Jose Lobaton (.154), Yoenis Cespedes (.138), and Brandon Nimmo (.000). Zack Wheeler has more hits against lefties than Gonzalez, Reyes, and Nimmo.

The most surprising name on that list of shame is obviously Wilmer Flores, someone who is known for mashing lefties. When looking deeper into the numbers, he of all people is primed to turn it around. In his 31 at-bats, he has struck out just three times. His exceptionally low .179 BABIP and his 32.1% line drive rate suggest he’s still making solid contact, but a symptom arises here: He is not driving the ball in the air.

His 35.7% ground ball rate against lefties is right on par with his career average (34.3%), but his 32.1% fly ball rate is much lower than his 43.5% mark. The alarming statistic is his exceptionally high 22.2% infield fly ball rate. For comparison sake, the league-average IFFB% has been between 9.5-9.7% each season since 2013.

His career average before this season was 9.2% and was steadily improving, as his marks in 2016 and 2017 were 6.3% and 5.6% respectively. It is obviously still early in the season, and while these numbers should absolutely not be ignored, he could very well turn it around and destroy left-handed pitching as per usual. He seems to be a minute adjustment away from driving the balls he is currently just getting under. If Maxwell Smart were a scout, he’d say Wilmer was missing it by that much.

As for the rest of the Mets hitters that aren’t connecting against southpaws, there are various reasons for that. The lefties like Bruce, Gonzalez, and Conforto have never been particularly effective against them, and Reyes isn’t hitting right-handers either. Another explanation, and Frazier would probably fit under this umbrella, is that they are all just struggling overall right now.

It stands to reason that once the Mets start hitting better overall, especially against righties, they will start to find their stroke against lefties as well.

The post Mets, Including Wilmer Flores, Are Not Hitting Left-Handers appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

In a move that a large portion of the New York Mets fanbase has been calling for since Dominic Smith got injured and Adrian Gonzalez struggled in Spring Training is finally here.

Jay Bruce is playing first base on Friday night against the Colorado Rockies.

It’s the first appearance of the 2018 season for Bruce at first after playing there 12 games last season. In 91 innings at the position last season Bruce posted 0 DRS and -0.4 UZR.

The move allows Brandon Nimmo and his .294/.478/.529 batting line to be in the Mets lineup. Nimmo is leading off and playing right field.

While the decision gives the Mets less experience at first base with Adrian Gonzalez going to the bench they get a boost in defense in the outfield, Nimmo in a lineup that has struggled and Bruce plays over Gonzalez.

Gonzalez (92 wRC+) has slightly outperformed Bruce (89 wRC+) offensively to this point but given recent trends that is unlikely to continue.

The post Jay Bruce Finally Playing First Base appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Peter Alonso, as has been well detailed thus far, has been tremendous with the Binghamton Mets early on this season.

He has a .400/.500/.788 slash line with eight homers and 22 RBI to go along with only 17 strikeouts and 16 walks in 80 at-bats this season.

Alonso’s production has apparently opened some eyes in the organization as Sandy Alderson admitted in yesterday’s press conference.

“He’s been great the first month of the season. Not only has he hit well, but his defense has apparently improved quite a bit. He’s certainly put himself on the map.”

The Mets director of player development, Ian Levin, believes in the slugger as well, as detailed by Anthony Dicomo of MLB.com during the offseason.

“He’s got a chance to be a prototypical slugging first baseman. He has elite raw power and has shown consistent ability to use it in games, and his overall ability to hit should allow him to continue to progress.”

Meanwhile, Ben Badler of Baseball America wrote this about the first baseman earlier this week on his Prospect Hot Sheet.

“Alonso’s plus raw power has long been his carrying tool. He hit well last year in the high-Class A Florida State League, but he’s showing signs of becoming an even more complete hitter in 2018. He doesn’t strike out excessively and he’s displaying more plate patience than he did a year ago.”

Keith Law also thinks highly of the first baseman, so much so that he says that if he could do his top-100 prospect list over again, the 23-year old would be among them.

“Alonso would be a top 100 prospect now (given some graduations and new looks at him) and I think he’s an above-average regular at least.”

However, despite his success so far, that allowed him to win Eastern League Player of the Week, the Mets find themselves in an interesting predicament.

That is the result of their former top first prospect, Dominic Smith, who is currently hitting .282/.402/.412 with two homers and seven RBI in 85 at-bats at Triple-A Las Vegas.

Smith would be in the majors right now had he not struggled last season in his cup-of-coffee with the team in which he hit a mere .198/.262/.395 with nine homers and 26 RBI in 167 at-bats.

Now, the team currently employs Adrian Gonzalez at the position who has not fared well early on with a .232/.321/.391 slash line with three home runs and 17 RBI in 69 at-bats.

If the big-league team were to remain the same, though, Smith would be theoretically blocking Alonso from advancing past the Double-A level.

When asked by Michael Mayer of MMO/MMN which of the two between Smith and Alonso he would choose, a scout said this: “I like Alonso.”

For now, Alonso will continue to try and rake at the Binghamton until he hears otherwise.

The post Alonso Has Opened The Organization’s Eyes appeared first on Metsmerized Online.