Musings
On May 18, Max Scherzer removed himself from his start, and he would be placed on the IL. Combined with injuries to Jacob deGrom and Tylor Megill, this made Chris Bassitt the de facto ace of this New York Mets pitching staff. He has been anything but that.
Since May 18, Bassitt is 0-1 with a 6.35 ERA and a 6.40 FIP. Opposing batters are hitting .261/.327/.544 against him. He has seen his strikeouts go from 9.8 per nine to 8.7 while his walks went from 2.5 per nine to 3.6.
The loss to the San Diego Padres was a new low from Bassitt. He was knocked out of the game after allowing seven runs (six earned) over 3 1/3 innings. After the game, Bassitt said, “I’m beyond embarrassed. It’s something that literally I’ve never gone through. To say it’s frustrating would be a big-time understatement.”
Looking at Bassitt, he doesn’t appear injured. Per Baseball Savant, he has had fairly consistent velocity on his fastball. The spin on his pitches, which was never outstanding, remains the same. Looking at it that way, it is hard to ascertain why he is struggling. Digging deeper, you see some of the issues Bassitt is having.
One big problem for Bassitt right now is left-handed batters. So far, this season, left-handed batters are hitting .246/.333/.483 off of Bassitt with a .363 wOBA. In contrast, right-handed batters only hitting .206/.266/.321 with a .271 wOBA.
Case in point, look at the game against the Padres. Jurickson Profar, Jake Cronenworth, Nomar Mazara, Trent Grisham, and Sergio Alcantara combined to go 4-for-8 with a double, 4 RBI, two walks, and three strikeouts. He was knocked out of the game when Cronenworth hit his RBI double. He was knocked out of the game by the Padres’ left-handed batters.
Now, it should be noted this is a fairly recent phenomenon. He started the season off well against left-handed batters, and Bassitt has been fairly platoon neutral over his career. To wit, before Scherzer hit the IL, left-handed batters only had a .273 wOBA against Bassitt. This begs the question as to what exactly has happened to Bassitt.
Well, the biggest change might’ve been the loss of James McCann. There is the caveat of each of these being small sample sizes, but here is how Bassitt has fared with each catcher behind the plate:
- James McCann 2.61 ERA, .193/.265/.303
- Tomas Nido 6.45 ERA, .281/.330/.583
- Patrick Mazeika 1.54 ERA, .175/.313/.200
Again, this is a very small sample size, but it is important to note that Bassitt is a very difficult pitcher for a catcher to call. He is a pitcher who throws six different pitches. With his velocity and spin, he mostly gets batters out by changing eye levels, living on the shadow zone, and pitch sequencing. This is where he strived with McCann and to a certain extent Mazeika.
Notably, in Bassitt’s first start with Mazeika, they were very clearly not on the same page. Mazeika took some ownership for that saying, “There might be three or four right pitches for him for that situation. Trying to figure out what he wants to do is always a unique challenge.” Indeed, Bassitt is an extraordinarily difficult pitcher to learn and get on the same page with on the fly.
Notably, Nido has struggled with framing the high strike this season, which puts Bassitt in a difficult spot. Also, he is not framing those inside pitches against left-handed batters well. This has Bassitt throwing more pitches and having to come in the zone more. With Bassitt having to throw his fastball/sinker more in the zone against left-handed batters it has become much more hittable.
Overall, there is nothing wrong with Bassitt per se, at least not health-wise. This is more trying to get back on the drawing board and work with Jeremy Hefner and his catchers on how to better attack left-handed batters. Once they get back on the same page, we should once against see the Bassitt we saw over the first month-and-a-half of the season and the pitcher the Mets were eager to acquire from the Oakland Athletics.
Editor’s Note: This was first published on MMO.
The New York Mets are going to lose games, and they are especially going to lose games where the starting pitcher is great. That was the case with Yu Darvish, who had no-hit stuff. Mark Canha got a hit in the sixth, and it was one of two total from the Mets, so there’s that.
Really, at the end of the day, no one should care about losing this game. It’s going to happen. It will happen many times this season. That said, there was something very troubling during that game.
Both Starling Marte and Pete Alonso left the game with injury.
Marte seemed to injure his leg on a stolen base attempt. First, he was thrown out, and then after he tried to give it a go, he was out of the game. Later in the game, Alonso was hit on the hand with a pitch, and he had trouble with his grip
Both had imaging, and the early results were negative. While initial good news, we have seen through the years how quads and hand injuries can linger. That is even if subsequent MRIs prove to be negative.
Now, we can argue the Mets could handle the absence of either for a prolonged period of time. After all, the Mets are in first place without Jacob deGrom throwing a pitch, and they are 13-6 (.684) with both deGrom and Scherzer out of the rotation. Keep in mind, Tylor Megill was also out of the rotation.
Certainly, the Mets could navigate losing Marte even with how good he has been. Jeff McNeil can shift to left with Canha going to right. Of course, this is dependent on Luis Guillorme playing like an everyday player, which he has even with his latest slump. The Mets also have the option of playing Nick Plummer everyday in right, which he has showed he may be capable of doing right now.
With Alonso is where things get dicey. You could shift Canha to first with McNeil and Plummer in the outfield, but Canha isn’t ready to play first everyday. As noted by Buck Showalter, J.D. Davis neither has the footwork nor the instincts, but he sure has the arm. Considering that was the Mets failed talking point about Davis playing left and third, that’s an indication Davis can’t handle the position long term.
In many times, that means the balance of the season could rest with Dominic Smith.
On the bright side, Smith has responded well to the demotion going 4-for-14 with a double, homer, and three RBI over three games. If he can carry that forward, the Mets are not going to miss a beat. There are a few caveats there.
First and foremost, the Mets have to want to bring him back up to take over at first. The team really hasn’t shown a willingness to do that even when Smith had his good moments this season. They seem more comfortable giving Davis a run because we are all pretending his hot streak of hitting .286/.360/.381 over seven games means he can justify playing first or DH.
The other caveat here is Smith has to do it. He just hasn’t this year. For him, it is very possible the Mets are going to desperately need him to do it now. In reality, Smith desperately needs to as well because if he doesn’t, it just may mean the end of his Mets career.
So, in the end, this 7-0 loss went from bad loss to existential crisis. We’ll see if this moves to panic as the MRI results come back.
The New York Mets are in first place in what appears to be a very weak National League East. They’re an astounding 26-12 against under .500 teams. Make no mistake, the Mets are where they are because they are absolutely demolishing bad teams.
If nothing else, this proves the Mets are a great team with nothing to prove.
Look, you can only play the teams on your schedule, and you have to beat the teams on your schedule. So far for the Mets, that schedule has them at 35-17 this season. They have more wins than any team in baseball, and they have the best winning percentage in the National League. This is what good teams do, and the great teams do it while battling adversity.
Jacob deGrom has not thrown an inning this season. Tylor Megill and Max Scherzer hitting the IL have the Mets stretching out Trevor Williams, who has answered the call. The Mets are also without their starting catcher James McCann. Trevor May, a key reliever, has been injured all season long.
Going deeper, the team had the mess of the Robinson Cano situation to start the season. That helped lead to J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith having slow starts. Between the slow start and pitching injuries, this led to Smith’s demotion to Triple-A.
On the converse, players like Luis Guillorme have emerged. We have also seen Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil return to form. It also helps the Mets had far more pitching depth than anyone anticipated entering the season. After all, who expected Colin Holderman and Stephen Nogosek to have this much of an impact?
Really, everyone has had an impact this season. On that note, look no further than Nick Plummer. Plummer had a game tying homer in the ninth in his first ever start. He then homered in his next start. Remember, this was a guy once labeled a bust while in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
Every time you see the Mets, they are winning. They are doing it in all different ways. Their schedule is their schedule, and they are taking care of business. As an aside, that includes against teams with a winning record as the Mets are 9-5 against those teams.
Digging deeper, the Dodgers only have played seven games against teams with a winning record, and they have the second best winning percentage in the NL. To be fair here, their recent history suggests they have nothing to prove.
That said, the San Diego Padres are ten games over .500 (30-20) despite being 6-9 against teams with a winning record. Moreover, the Los Angeles Angels are in second place in the NL West despite having a 5-10 record against teams with a winning record.
Are we really supposed to believe this 10 game stretch out west is a litmus test for this Mets team? This is somehow their third trip out West. They’re playing with a depleted pitching rotation. Somehow, people want to take these next 10 games to determine if the Mets are good or not?
If that’s what they need, they just haven’t paying attention. The Mets are a very good team who is going to be better as they get healthier. This may be a chance to make another statement, but nothing they have done this season is by accident. They are doing what good teams do. If you need to see more it is because you refuse to acknowledge how good this Mets team is.
Ultimately, that is a you problem and not a Mets problem. The Mets have a chance to make a statement, but they will not be defined by this stretch. In the end, they will be defined by winning the NL East and going on to winning a World Series with deGrom and Scherzer leading the way.
Let’s start with the obvious. Dallas Keuchel looks like he’s got nothing left. That’s a massive reason why the Chicago White Sox designated him for assignment.
You don’t just give $18 million to someone not to play for you unless he can’t give you anything. From a New York Mets perspective, think Robinson Canó.
In terms of Canó, the San Diego Padres took a flier once he cleared waivers. For the league minimum, nearly anyone is worth the risk.
This season, Keuchel has made eight starts and has averaged 4.0 innings per start. He has a 7.88 ERA, 49 ERA+, 6.20 FIP, and a -1.1 WAR.
This came off of what was his worst ever season in 2021. He was actually fine in the first half last year, but it all seemed to fall apart in the second half.
There could be many reasons for this including the crackdown on pitching substances like Spidertack. Whatever the case, he just seems to get worse and worse.
On that point, the Mets just started Thomas Szapucki, who was not ready to make that start. That was readily apparent when he allowed nine earned over 1.1 innings against the San Francisco Giants.
That’s not as bad as Keuchel’s April 20 start where he allowed 10 earned over an inning. That said, even with Keuchel being terribly leading to the DFA, he’s been better than what Szapucki showed.
That’s all the Mets would need him to be right now, especially since they don’t seem to be inclined to stretch out Trevor Williams. Perhaps, Keuchel and Williams can piggyback starts.
It’s at least worth a shot right now. The Mets are still missing Jacob deGrom, Tylor Megill, and Max Scherzer. They may not get any of them back for at least a month.
At this point of the year, teams aren’t making trades. That leaves you taking flyers on players like Keuchel. It’s also why you have a pitching coach in Jeremy Hefner. He could have the mechanics tweak or sequencing change to get something, anything out of Keuchel.
Maybe in the long run, Keuchel can only be effective for 1-2 innings. That would be fine for the Mets with Chasen Shreve and Joely Rodriguez not pitching all that well.
And maybe, Keuchel has nothing. Here’s the thing – the Mets have nothing right now. As a result, take the flyer on him. If it works, great. If not, just designate him for assignment until the next arm is available or a pitcher returns off the IL.
The tragedy of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas is just too much to bear. Just another senseless tragedy leaving us wondering how we ever get to this point.
When tragedies like this happen, we see a lot of political theatre. People need to rush to tell you both how they think they need to stop it, and really, just how much they truly care.
Enter the New York Yankees.
Before their game against the Tampa Bay Rays, both teams agreed in lieu of highlights, they’d tweet out and share facts about gun violence. Both sides felt with the tragedy that was far more important than seeing a highlight.
Again, this is theatre. This is so the teams get congratulated, and we’re led to believe they care. For example, here was this tweet from the Yankees.
Back in 2015, the Los Angeles Dodgers had a trade in place to acquire Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds. They pulled out when details of Chapman’s domestic violence incident.
Chapman was alleged to have choked his girlfriend. He then shot eight rounds in his garage which was, at minimum, meant to intimidate.
This was enough for the Dodgers to pass on the trade. The Yankees were more than happy to take the Dodgers place. They said they did their due diligence only for Chapman to be the first ever player suspended under the DV policy.
When the Yankees were out of postseason contention, they traded Chapman to the Chicago Cubs. Chapman was an impending free agent who could go anywhere after the 2016 season.
Naturally, the Yankees paid up big time to bring him back. When his opt out came up, the Yankees were happy to work out a deal to keep Chapman around and happy.
When you think of what the Yankees organization thinks of domestic violence and gun violence, they’ve already told you. It doesn’t matter to them if they think you can help them win their 28th World Series.
So, good for the Yankees for tweeting those facts. Many fell for the act. That’s even the case when the Yankees tweeted out facts which show they know what they were signing up for when they traded for Chapman and agreed to two subsequent deals with him.
Really, Yankees, well done with the political theater and hypocrisy. Congratulations on fooling everyone into thinking you care.
In the series finale against the San Francisco Giants, the New York Mets sent Thomas Szapucki to the mound. Before he threw a pitch, it was a move which made zero sense.
Szapucki was once a top prospect who has seen his stock plummet. That’s largely due to injuries. That’s why the decision to start him was extremely counter productive.
Last year, Szapucki’s season was cut short as he underwent ulnar transposition surgery. While Szapucki’s surgery was a success, and he’s fully healed, Szapucki is not all the way back. Not yet.
In seven starts in Triple-A, he reached five innings once. He had not thrown more than 71 pitches in a game. His velocity has been building but not all the way there.
This is all another way of saying this was not a pitcher ready to make his first ever big league start.
But, that’s what the Mets did. They sent an unready pitcher to the mound against a good San Francisco Giants team. The results were catastrophic.
Over 1.1 innings, he allowed nine earned (NINE!) on seven hits and three walks. That included two homers from Evan Longoria. It was the first two homers of the year from a player who entered the game batting .194.
This is what happens when you take a pitcher who is not ready and push him into a spot like this. Maybe it’s not nine runs, but bad things will happen.
Now, the counter argument is what do you expect the Mets to do? Jacob deGrom, Tylor Megill, and Max Scherzer on the IL. The obvious retort is not this. Never this.
The other retort is Trevor Williams. What makes that option all the more maddening is Williams was actually available.
After Szapucki was knocked out, Williams pitched 3.2 scoreless throwing 53 pitches. That’s really impressive and all the more so given he pitched on short rest.
Williams has had success as a starter, and there were signs this was coming. However, instead of planning on him entering the rotation and pitching every fifth day, they jumped the gun with Szapucki.
It cost the Mets this game. Who knows what the other ramifications could be. That includes Szapucki’s future. Who knows how this will effect him and his future. In the end, it was not worth it.
The most promising sign we have seen from Edwin Diaz this year was how he reacted to the no-hitter. He knew what was happening, and what he needed to do. That would be the best we’ve ever seen of him.
Really, this year is the best we’ve seen of him. He’s having his first All-Star caliber season with the New York Mets, and there is a real and justified discussion about the need to extend him.
Diaz has been very, very good this year. However, as we saw in San Francisco, he’s just not quite elite. Not yet.
The Mets were down 8-4 entering the top of the eighth when they exploded for seven runs. They took an 11-8 lead.
Drew Smith, who has struggled lately, gave that lead right back. The Giants tied the score at 11-11 before he recorded an out. Fortunately, he was bailed out by Joely Rodriguez.
The Mets offense picked the team off the mat again. After knocking in the first run of that eighth inning rally, Dominic Smith came up huge again leading off the top of the ninth with a triple. Travis Jankowski pinch ran, and he’d score on a Brandon Nimmo sacrifice fly.
The Mets had a 12-11 lead, and they brought Diaz into the game.
Obviously, you need your closer to lock down every game he pitches. That said, these are the games you REALLY need. The Mets fought to get back into the game, and then, they fought back again.
After a double play, all Diaz needed was one more out. He didn’t get it, and the trouble started with a walk to Mike Yastrzemski.
From there, three straight singles from Darin Ruf, Joc Pederson, and Brandon Crawford turned an exhilarating 12-11 victory to a devastating 13-12 defeat.
You’ll note this damage mostly cane from left-handed batters. There’s something there with Diaz.
Yes, by and large, he’s platoon neutral. That said, he’s always walked left-handed batters at a higher clip than right-handed batters. Those walks lead to trouble, and they did here.
This marked the third blown save in 13 chances for Diaz. Those three saves are the second most in all of baseball this season. We can pretend otherwise, but even when Diaz is at his best, blown saves have been an issue for him.
It’s not just the blown saves but the moments. While there were a number of mitigating factors, you can certainly recall how he wilted in his one and only pennant race in 2019.
Overall, you’re better with Diaz than not. We’ve seen him able to rise to the occasion. You can win games and potentially World Series with him.
However, he’s just not elite. He’s not there quite yet. Elite closers lock down that game. He didn’t. We don’t need to over dwell on it because he will be fine in the long run. That still doesn’t mean we have to pretend he’s something he isn’t.