Things didn’t exactly go according to plan for the Mets as they began the 2024 season under new leadership. 2023 All-Star and National League Rookie of the Year finalist Kodai Senga went down with a shoulder injury in spring training that would go on to sideline him for the entirety of the first half. Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor got off to terrible and worse-than-terrible starts, respectively, before ultimately settling in. Edwin Díaz blew four saves over a three-week span in May during his return from a torn patellar tendon before getting suspended in June.
In the midst of this, with the Mets trudging through a 9-19 May, president of baseball operations David Stearns remained optimistic and expressed his confidence in the team’s ability as the sky appeared to be falling around them.
“I think we’re a good team,” Stearns said. “I think we have a talented group that has a run in it and we probably haven’t played our best baseball yet.”
His words may have rang hollow then, but they look prophetic now as the team opens the second half with a 49-46 record and sole possession of the third and final Wild Card spot in the National League.
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The Mets’ offseason moves weren’t too buzzworthy, at least not in comparison to years prior, but they have mostly paid off. Luis Severino (6-3, 3.78 ERA, 1.19 WHIP), Sean Manaea (6-3, 3.46 ERA, 1.21 WHIP), Harrison Bader (eight homers, 13 steals) and J.D. Martinez (10 homers, 38 RBIs) have all been solid contributors and played significant roles in the club’s turnaround. During the season, he brought up Mark Vientos, Christian Scott and Jose Iglesias while trading for Luis Torrens (extra points for stealing him from the Yankees) and finding an answer for the team’s deficiency at the backup catcher position.
Hitting on those moves was necessary, however, because he swung and missed with Adrian Houser and Joey Wendle while entrusting the likes of Brett Baty, Omar Narváez and Tomás Nido with sizable roles during the opening months. Still, many executives likely would not have been as quick to pull all those plugs.
The bullpen has been erratic, but he may have found something with Dedniel Núñez (2.35 ERA and 39 Ks in 30 2/3 innings) and Reed Garrett (3.64 ERA in 42 innings) while Jose Buttó’s move to the ‘pen has also paid off thus far. He also traded for reliever Phil Maton on July 9, a move that can’t be judged yet but again shows a willingness to act. That same sort of intuition came into play when he designated Jorge Lopez for assignment on May 30 after he tossed his glove in the crowd following his ejection against the Los Angeles Dodgers a day prior. The Mets have gone 27-13 since.
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Mendoza seems to have the clubhouse on his side, which is a ringing endorsement of the rookie manager. Bader spoke to reporters about Mendoza’s decision to allow Manaea to pitch the seventh inning last Friday against the Colorado Rockies and the ways in which those sort of decisions can endear a manager to a clubhouse.
“I love that Mendy confidently kept him in there,” Bader said. “I know in Pittsburgh I think I remember in the dugout hearing that (Manaea) wanted to stay in there for another inning. Mendy is awesome because listen, he listens to his players and he has confidence in his players and he took him out in that Pittsburgh outing. But I think he kind of stored that info for next time and, you know, let him go out there and do his thing.”
Manaea gave up a 400-foot home run to start that frame, so that wasn’t Mendoza’s best work at the onset, but the left-hander recovered to get the next three batters in order.
Mendoza’s most productive move may have been moving Lindor to the leadoff spot, where he has hit .299/.380/.526 in 211 at-bats. On the flip side, in 54 at-bats hitting second, Lindor hit .093/.197/.222 and in 115 at-bats in the three hole he slashed .235/.288/.409.
He has experimented with a number of different batting orders while also mixing and matching with the bullpen. Like Stearns, Mendoza has shown the courage to switch things up in an effort to get better results, even if the changes potentially open him up to criticism.
Mendoza never lost faith in his team either, stating that he knew it was only a matter of time before they finally got going.
“I just know we’re a good team,” Mendoza said. “I’ve been saying it since day one. We believe that. Even when it was hard for us, you know, we knew at some point we were going to come out of it. And thankfully we have put ourself in a better position. But when teams look at our lineup, when teams look at our roster, I don’t know that anybody be surprised. So we see it as we got a good team and we got to continue to play well.”
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