3 Up, 3 Down: Mets Wake Up

3 UP

Catching Up

When Tomás Nido hit his first homer of the season, he was predictably met with the silent treatment from the Mets dugout. While he got the silent treatment, Mets catchers bats have been anything but of late.

As noted by MMO‘s Michael Mayer, Mets catchers have been the best in baseball in September. Nido and James McCann have combined for an MLB best 206 wRC+ and 0.8 fWAR (which includes framing).

Entering September, Mets catchers were easily the worst at the plate in baseball. Getting anything from them was a bonus. If they’re actually hitting like Major League caliber hitters, the Mets will be a far more formidable team in October.

Needed Bouncebacks

Eduardo Escobar has continued his hot streak. In this series, he was 6-for-13 with a walk, two doubles, a homer, and three RBI.

In September, he has an astounding 1.414 OPS. To put that in perspective, that’s a higher OPS than his first two previous best OPS months combined. In sum, he’s taken back his third base job.

Escobar isn’t the only one who has been putting previous struggles behind him.

As oft noted, Taijuan Walker was repeating his second half struggles of last year. Entering this start against the Marlins, he had a 5.57 ERA.

He lowered his second half ERA by over a full half-run after shutting out the Marlins over seven innings. To make the performance all the more impressive, he tied a season high with 10 strikeouts.

Carlos Carrasco rebounded from a tough first start off the IL with a strong six inning start allowing one run on four hits while striking out six.

Wake Up Call

After losing the first game of this series, the Mets dropped out of first place for the first time since the fifth game of the season.

We heard excuses from players like Francisco Lindor about the Mets being tired. Well, dropping to second forced this team to collectively wake up.

The Mets best players had a good two games. Notably, Lindor, who spoke about the fatigue, homered. He wasn’t the only one.

That doesn’t just include the Mets. It also includes Julio Rodriguez and Eugenio Suarez. Their ninth inning homers shocked the Braves helping the Mariners take the series and help expand the Mets NL East lead to 1.5 games.

3 DOWN

Showalter Hasn’t Changed

To this day, the biggest managerial decision Buck Showalter ever made was leaving Zack Britton in the bullpen. Showalter apparently hasn’t learned from the moment.

We saw it in the first game of the series. It was a close game, and Edwin Díaz was well rested. In fact, he needed work having not pitched in a week.

Instead, he went with Joely Rodriguez, who predictably faltered. It was just the latest decision in what has been a month of just baffling bullpen decisions.

It wasn’t just not using Diaz. Adam Ottavino and Seth Lugo were well rested. Instead, he treated a deficit in a close game as a non-high leverage situation.

The Mets lost, and they lost using their worst. For a moment, it cost them first place. If Showalter doesn’t finally adapt, who knows what it will cost the Mets next?

Gauche

As noted above, Rodriguez was bad again. He has a 74 ERA+ on the season. Left-handed batters have a .349 OBP against him. Under no circumstances can the Mets carry him on the postseason roster.

His replacement seems like it could be David Peterson. That may not be the solution the Mets may believe it could be.

Put aside his poor start against the Marlins. That’s a blip on an otherwise strong season. The bigger issue is he’s struggled in his admittedly brief bullpen work.

Overall, it looks like the Mets are putting all their eggs in the Joey Lucchesi basket. Lucchesi has looked good, but we’ve also seen Tommy John rehabs go unexpectedly south.

Marte IL

Starling Marte has been great all season for the Mets. He’s also shown toughness not only playing through injuries but also being very productive playing through those injuries.

If he can’t play through this fracture, you know it’s bad. The only hope the Mets have is the rest not only helps heal his finger, but it will also give Marte’s legs the rest it truly needs.