Good morning, Mets fans! Happy 58th birthday to No. 31!

David Stearns was spotted in Japan watching Teruaki Sato of the Hanshin Tigers and he must have been impressed. The 27-year-old, left-handed hitting third baseman/outfielder homered twice to bring his season total to 34 in 120 games. He entered Thursday with a 1.022 OPS. He is expected to be posted this winter. The Mets, Yankees, Dodgers and Phillies are all reportedly interested.

Teruaki Sato

With the day off Thursday, I took a peek at the lotto standings. The Mets enter Friday with the fifth-best odds (8.75%) at securing the top pick in the draft and a 63.6% shot at a top-six selection, per Tankathon. The draft lottery is in December.

The Mets have picked first overall five times: RHP Paul Wilson (1994), OF Shawn Abner (1984), OF Darryl Strawberry (1980), SS Tim Foli (1968) and C Steven Chilcott (1966).

Nolan McLean (10-8, 3.06 ERA) has not allowed an earned run over his last 17 innings. He will try to keep that and his late push for Rookie of the Year going when the Mets (63-77) host the Giants Friday at 7:10 p.m. ET. Rookie LHP Matt Wilkinson (0-2, 4.63 ERA) goes for San Francisco.

Latest Mets News

High-A Brooklyn first baseman Ronald Hernandez went 5-for-5 with two homers and six RBIs in a 12-5 win over Frederick Thursday.

Émilien Pitre, 23, acquired from Tampa Bay in the Freddy Peralta trade, was named the second baseman on MLB Pipeline’s 2026 All-Breakout Team. See the whole team here.

Pitre was hitting .315/.430/.437 with five homers, 21 doubles and five triples in 107 games entering Thursday from High-A to Triple-A. He had stolen 34 bases in 47 tries. “He’s not a slugger or a speedster, but he has some gap power and base-stealing savvy,” wrote MLB.com’s Jim Callis.

Triple-A Syracuse placed third baseman Billy Amick on the temporary inactive list, which is usually done due to a personal matter.

The Mets claimed RHP Cameron Weston off waivers from the Orioles and optioned him to Syracuse. Weston, 26, has pitched to a 7.89 ERA in 51 1/3 innings at Triple-A Norfolk this season. Catcher Shawn Ross was designated for assignment.

Howie Rose, who will retire after the Mets’ home finale on Sept. 20, spent an hour on the Awful Announcing podcast.

Latest MLB News

Home runs are up 38% from last year and runs are at historic levels overall in the minor leagues and JJ Cooper of Baseball America looked into why. Better hitting? Worse pitching? Cooper said the “most eye-opening data point I found” is that Triple-A uses the MLB baseball and all other levels use a minor-league ball. A telling chart is here.

MLB announced August award winners for each league. Players of the Month were Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) and Jac Caglianone (KC). Pitchers of the Month were Jesús Luzardo (PHI) and Noah Cameron (KC). Rookies of the Month were Sal Stewart (CIN) and Tristan Peters (CWS). Relievers of the Month were Trevor Megill (MIL) and Josh Hader (HOU).

Shohei Ohtani, who hasn’t pitched since July and has battled knee inflammation and right biceps pain for months, was out of the starting lineup on Thursday.

Pirates rookie SS Konnor Griffin is hoping to be activated from the 60-day injured list on Friday.

Latest on MMO

Andrew Steele-Davis reviews the good (Nick Morabito) and the bad (Sean Manaea) of the series with the Rays in 3 Up, 3 Down.

MMO’s Jorge Eckardt selected a Player and Pitcher of the Month for each minor-league level. Jonah Tong, Jefferson Rojas and Yonatan Henriquez were among his picks.

Jordan Baron wrote more about Morabito’s big night.

Satchel Pena-Rivero recapped Wednesday’s minor-league action, which included five scoreless innings for Noah Hall at Double-A Binghamton and a Sammy Stafura double for Brooklyn.

On This Date in Mets History

1985: A day after hitting three homers in an 8-3 win over Padres, Gary Carter belts two more in a 9-2 victory at Jack Murphy Stadium. He becomes the 11th player in MLB history to hit five homers in two games.

1972: The Mets split a doubleheader with the Cubs. In Game 1, future Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins (four-hit shutout) outduels soon-to-be Rookie of the Year Jon Matlack (eight innings, nine strikeouts, two runs) in a 2-0 Cubs win. In Game 2, Gary Gentry throws eight innings of one-run ball and strikes out seven in a 7-2 New York triumph. Tommie Agee doubled and Bud Harrelson had three hits.

On This Date in 1986 Mets

The Mets beat the Red Sox 7-3 in a charity exhibition game attended by 33,057 at Fenway Park that was planned 19 months ago and turned out to be a World Series preview.

(When the Mets dropped the first two games of the World Series at home, my dad was distraught. No team had ever come back to win the WS after losing the first two at home except for the 1985 Royals and he thought the odds of it happening two years in a row were remote. But 12-year-old me was confident the Mets could win in Fenway because a month prior I watched them do it in a meaningless game.)

When the teams played another exhibition game the following May at Shea Stadium, Bill Buckner said to Mookie Wilson, “Mookie, what do you say you hit me some ground balls?”

Born on This Date: Andrés Giménez (1998), Chris Beck (1990), Joe DePastino (1973), Luis López (1970), Mike Piazza (1968).