After J.D. Martinez hit a grand slam in the seventh inning on Saturday, it looked like the Mets were set to win another series.
Then the bullpen got in the way.
Host Ryan Finkelstein recaps the game and talks about the Mets' options to pitch at the end of games as they continue to look for answers.
Also, Brandon Sproat has been promoted to Triple-A. Could this call-up be to prime him for his big-league debut soon?
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It's the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. New faces, but similar results. The Mets bullpen continues to cost them games this season. Is there an answer coming? Can the Mets figure out those late innings? Talk about that more on today's show. You are locked on Mets, your daily New York Mets podcast, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Hello to all you amazing Mets fans, you're listening to locked on Mets, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Thank you for making locked on Mets, your first listen every day locked on Mets is free and available on all platforms, including YouTube. From today's show, a Mets loss to discuss, I'll break down what happened on Saturday night as there was another bullpen meltdown in segment one segment. Today, we're just going to do a two segment show. I want to talk about Brandon Sprok getting promoted to triple A and what options the Mets have as late inning relievers to bridge the gap to Edwin Diaz could spropey on his way with this promotion. I'll break down my latest theory on that as well. Before we get to any of it though, I'm your host Ryan Finkelstein. If you want to find any of my work, follow me on X at Finkelstein Ryan. You'll also find some of my writing at just baseball.com where I work as the managing editor. That was a frustrating game on Saturday as the New York Mets had a lot of opportunities to beat the Angels and they just couldn't get the job done. You do have to credit the Angels for playing a really good game and it started in the first inning as Kevin Polar made an unbelievable full extension diving catch on Francisco Lindor, which would have been a lead off double later in that same inning. JD Martinez got a base hit so the Mets should have had a run in that first inning. They don't because of Polar and then Polar gets them back in the bottom of the first inning by driving in the first run of the game. Now I got to say, what's going on Perry Minasian? Come on. This series should have been so much easier for the Mets because in what world does it make sense to have Kevin Polar still on that roster? The guy's going to retire after this season. You could have sent him to a number of contenders. You think the Braves didn't call about getting Kevin Polar back. They probably wanted him for nothing, but still a lottery ticket nothing is better than absolutely nothing at all. I can't believe the Angels just didn't trade any of these guys and it's frustrating when some of them end up beating the Mets in these spots. Taylor Ward shouldn't be on that team. Tyler Anderson shouldn't be on that team, but I digress on that one. The Mets were trailing one nothing early and then they had a lot of opportunities to get some runs on the board and they just couldn't cash him in third inning Brandon Nemo. It's a two out double. Jenny Martinez reaches on catcher's interference. Pete Alonso comes up with a couple runners on. He strikes out fifth inning. Jeff McNeil gets thrown out at second base trying to stretch a single into a double. Now when you look at the replay review because the Mets challenged it, it did look like McNeil sort of avoided the tag to beat the throw it and beat the throw the throw beat him, but he avoided the tag initially. But as he gets tagged in the chest coming around with that weird swim move slide, he got pushed off the bag and then it appeared like the glove might have caught his leg as there was just sort of a yard sale of limbs trying to get back to the bag. And so I get why the call wasn't overturned. It was a call that stood, you know, they say call stands if they don't have overwhelming evidence. Otherwise, it's a call confirmed. So that was a spot where the Mets get a little bit unlucky, but Jeff McNeil trying to push that when I get it at the same time, you better get there and a couple of batters later, Francisco and door singled. So had he gotten in and had he been called safe, well, the Mets may be score in that inning, but instead they come up empty and the angel scored in the bottom half of the fifth. Now the sixth inning, again, the Mets get a couple of runners on. Penalon's a singles, there's a four sat where Jessica Winker replaces him on the bases, Mark Viento straw to walk. But again, they couldn't score seventh inning. The New York Mets finally broke through Jeff McNeil with a lead off walk. This is once the Mets finally got into that angels bullpen, Francisco Lindor hit one off the ground. Basically, I don't know how he got a bat on that ball, but he loops it and gets a base hit. Brandon Emo draws a walk below the bases and here comes JD Martinez who put together a great at bat against Hunter Strickland, didn't swing in any of these bad pitches out of the zone. Got himself into a hitter's count. Finally Strickland came to him through a fastball, JD Martinez did not miss it. It's a huge grand slam that flips the game and it felt like the Mets had momentum to finally win. David Peterson did a great job keeping the Mets in it all night long. Like I said, gave up a run on the first, gave up a run on the fifth, but overall goes six innings, allows just those two runs on five hits, one walk, four strikeouts. He was only sitting at 82 pitches and this is the first of some gripes I have with Carlos Mendoza in this game. I would have liked to see Peterson get that seventh inning granted. I understand that it's important to protect these starting pitchers. The Mets are rolling with a five man rotation right now, not a six man. There's no off days. So Peterson's going to have to go the next time on this road trip on four days rest. So I understand it and the bullpen was, there is, you know, pretty fresh right now. Still I thought Peterson was cruising. I don't like to see him get just one more inning because I still don't trust this bullpen. Instead they go to Wasgar Brazaban and Brazaban, I thought he looked shaky from the beginning. He did strike out the first two batters, but Joe Adele hit one that was a bomb that a left field line that just hooked foul and I just didn't feel like he looked confident or comfortable on the mound, that was just my read on it. And when he gives up a base hit, I was wondering, is there anybody up in the bullpen? We weren't seeing that Ryan Stanik eventually gets up as this Alex Young. He walks to the next batter after the base hit and I really would have liked to see them pull Brazaban at that point. That's what I was thinking at least was I'm watching granted. This is me managing from the couch, Carlos Mendoza has to do the best he can. And look, Brazaban was brought in to be a late in the reliever for this team. He's one of the guys, they're sort of auditioning in that role right now. And so this was a big spot to get a couple of outs and hey, if he gets Zack Netto, Mendoza looks fine and maybe the match win the game. But unfortunately, Zack Netto has a great at bat and this is again another opportunity where you had to look at the Angels and tip your cap. They got a great start from Soriano, Kevin Polar made some big plays, Zack Netto in the second baseman, after two should shout out. He made some nice plays. I can't remember his name up the top of my head. The non Guiorme second baseman, he got that hit that extended that inning and started that rally in the bottom of the seventh, but Netto ends up coming through at very long at bat. It's a three run home and granted, Brazaban has only allowed one home run all year. So again, if you're playing with the dad and look, Mendoza looked very, you know, he wasn't at ease with his decision. He was definitely thinking about it. He was definitely contemplating it when he kept him in there. But you're going by the numbers. This is a guy that's kept the ball in the yard, so you trust him to do that. And unfortunately, he gets up a three run home or that cost you the game. So really frustrating loss because the bullpen again, coughs went up. Marc Fientos hits a lead off double in the eighth and there was a glimmer of hope, but Louise Torens couldn't get him over. In that spot, I really wanted to see Francisco Alvarez hit. I wanted to see somebody come off of that bench, but they stuck with Torens and Torens grounds out to the shortstop that keeps, actually, Glaseous on second because the Glaseous pinch ran. Honestly, that was another thought that came into my mind too at the time. I kind of wanted to Glaseous to hit for Torens, get subbed in for defense, stay in the game, and then see Alvarez come in for defense. But regardless, I mean, you can only play hindsight so much in these games. Jeff McNeil does get the runner over, but with one out, doesn't really matter as much. And then Ben Joyce comes on, the flamethrower, and you can't blame the Mets for not scoring on him. The dude was absolutely lights out. He finishes the game, striking out J.D. Martinez on 105 mile per fastball, where everybody in the building knows the fastball is coming, including J.D. Martinez, and he just couldn't catch up to it, just Joyce blows him away. So a frustrating one for the Mets. You're sitting here at 58 and 52 after this game. They had a chance to gain one on even the Phillies who lost and walk off fashion. Carlos Ostevas, the new reliever, walked in a run in extra innings tonight. The Mets want to move to six games back on the Phillies. Just something to throw out there. And obviously, every game matters in this wildcard race. I feel like this is a wide open national league right now, but you got to capitalize every opportunity you get to get a win. There's 52 games left on the season. Are the Mets going to figure out a bullpen that works for them that they can trust throughout the month of August and throughout September? I want to talk about their options next year. First, though, a word from our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time, the fastest and easiest way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. Game Time is the only ticketing app that gives you complete peace of mind with your purchase. You can see your seat before you buy your tickets, so you know exactly what your view lines are going to be of the game. 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That means with Discover you could turn $150 cash back to $300. That's right, you could put it towards some memorabilia you've had your eye on or treat yourself to a premium sports network. You earn and discover doubles. Key terms at discover.com/creditcard. Key. Step to date with all the latest in the world of sports by checking out locked on sports today is streaming 24/7 on YouTube. All right, so the bullpen. Well an issue shockingly enough after all the deadline moves. We've seen all of the additions the Mets made at this point make you know some mistakes here. Phil Maiton has not been perfect, although he has been the best edition, the one the Mets got earliest in the month. Ryan Stanek had a rough debut in a Mets uniform. Wasgar Brazaban looked good in his debut. Now he just blew a game. There's just still no clear answers for the Mets in that bullpen, especially with Danielle Nunez, Reid Garrett, and Sean Reid Foley on the IL. The good news, both Sean Reid Foley and Reid Garrett on rehab, Reid Garrett joins Sean Reid Foley in Binghamton today. Their game got rained out, but I'm sure we'll see Garrett pitch on Sunday. Hopefully the Mets can get him back soon because he's clearly a guy that they trusted in leverage and I think if they don't overuse him, he's going to be really effective again. So I really do believe that Garrett's going to be one of the solutions to the problem. I'm not as confident in Sean Reid Foley, partially because it's been hurt multiple times this year. Also, I think there's been three rehab outings so far and two of them have been bad. So I don't know how much I can take from it. You know, Shantara Fujinami had a good outing the other day. I think it might have been tonight two innings, I believe, where he was pretty flawless if I'm not mistaken. Regardless, though, this team right now, it's Edwin Diaz and Jose Budo that you trust. Still made on close enough to being a trusted reliever. You have Brozabon, Stanik and Adam Adavino in the pen right now and the thought was that Brozabon would be a trusted arm and I think he's going to stay in that bullpen, although there is options. So if he has another rough outing, you never know, Stanik I have some high hopes for, but again, you're still sort of waiting to see what that's going to look like. So there's just a lot of question marks and then Alex and Danny Young have both actually been throwing the ball pretty well from the left side. So that does give the Mets that component to their pen that they have been lacking throughout this season. Ever since Brooks really went down, Jake Deakman officially released today after being DFA last week. So we're not going to see him back this year and that is a very good sign. But the Mets still need to figure out that back end of the bullpen and it could be as simple as Nunez coming back as Garrett coming back with Budo in place that might be fine. But I can't ignore what's going on, Brandon Sproke. This is probably the third show in a row where I've talked about this. And look, here's why you kind of locked on Mets because I was talking about Brandon Sproke in the bullpen for large portions of this season. I feel like I mentioned it in passing in early months, but I was going through the show logs today. And definitively, I talked about this on July 5th in a show titled could two top prospects put the New York Mets over the top. And I was discussing the idea of a kunya being a bench player and Sproke joining the bullpen. So now you see everyone talking about this idea of Sproke joining the big league club at some point, a month after you've been hearing on locked on Mets. And I continue to want to speak this into existence because I think there is a chance that this guy could be absolutely disgusting in a bullpen role. He just struck out 11 consecutive batters in double A. Tim Healy for Newsday wrote a great piece talking to the double A pitching coach just about how great spurt has been down there and he's always watching the game from the first step of the dugout when he's not pitching. Whenever he compares notes with Sproke, Sproke's always on top of it just a guy that seems to be really honing in on his craft. His walk rate has just plummeted since he got the double A. He's really controlling the strike zone. And now he got the call up to triple A. So what's the plan for Brandon Sproke throughout the rest of this season? I think it is interesting that they decided to promote him to triple A now and I'm very curious what role he has on that team because they have Tyler McGill in their rotation. You want to keep him stretched out, he's going to keep making starts. Mike Vassel is pitching very well in triple A right now. He still is someone that they want to have making starts. Blade Tidwell, very important prospect for the Mets. He's going to keep making starts you would imagine. Dom Hamill, another top prospect that you would think the Mets would want to keep making starts. So that's four spots in the rotation and Joe Lucas, he's down there as well, still making starts. You have was a Jordan Gerber who I've seen make some starts. They still have Justin Jarvis who could make starts although he hasn't lately. The bottom line is there's a lot of options to make starts. Could the New York Mets have Brandon Sproke picky back one of those starting pitchers on let's just say Thursday next week? Come in the game out of the bullpen and let's just say it is, I don't know what the order would be. Let's say it's Blade Tidwell throws the first five innings and then Sproke comes on and those three innings out of the pen before they turn it over to somebody else to close out the game. Okay. Let's say he goes three innings 50 pitches. Then he has Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday off, Monday is always off in triple A. Tuesdays their next game and all of a sudden Sproke's going to pitch and he's going to piggyback Tyler McGill. Maybe goes two innings in that outing and then maybe he pitches again on Saturday on three days rest. So four days rest for his second relief appearance, three days rest for his third relief appearance. You could see a world where the Mets start to convert this guy into a reliever right now in triple A facing more MLB type hitters. If you want to know the difference between double A and triple A, double A is the place where you're going to see most high end prospects, right? That's, that's, so I know there's some people that see a promotion they think, well, what's the point? The competition is not that much better in triple A, but here's the thing. You have much more mature hitters in triple A, guys that have been in the big leagues that are down, guys that can game plan against you. There's a lot more of that of game planning against, you know, strengths and weaknesses on each side. That's the difference in triple A or in double A, everyone's sort of just trying to play to their game on the hitter front and on the pitcher front, right? So there is like an extra layer of the mental side of the game that you're going to see in triple A. Now this could just be to get Brandon Sprode starts in triple X, he's not getting challenged in double A and it's definitely a much harder level to pitch and he could be slid into that rotation and he might make starts throughout the rest of the month of August in that rotation and Syracuse and not make any appearances out of the bullpen. I'm just talking a little bit of a conspiracy theory here that I think could actually come to fruition. If he's pitching out of the bullpen, he makes one piggy back outing that's disguised that way next week and then to the following week. You can see a world where he's in the Mets bullpen and they would have waited past that August 17th date that I talked about on yesterday's show, but those of you who missed it, check that out, I discussed why made sense for the Mets to hold off on promoting Sprode to the big leagues for two more weeks because of being able to get a draft pick if he ends up as a rookie of the year winner next year or a Cy Young finisher in the next three years. Again, I talked about a length on yesterday's show so you can check that out, but and also, by the way, if you're watching on YouTube, I posted a video of just that talking about Sprode so you can find that as well. According to how he'd fit for this Mets team, let's say it is two weeks, maybe three weeks in the bullpen and Syracuse and he's ready to go. You call him up at the end of August, Jose Budo has typically been pitching on either two days rest or three days rest. There was an outing I saw on one day's rest, but typically it's all right, let him go every four days has been the primary way they've utilized him. If you have two guys doing that and you're staggering them, it's a way to save your bullpen because those guys could be bulk relievers giving you two, three innings and high leverage really strong innings. We've seen the effect of this of Jose Budo coming into the game in the seventh inning and if it leads long enough, maybe closing it out or bridging the gap to Edwin Diaz, I think Sprode could do the exact same thing. Corbin Burns did this for the Brewers, I'll continue to point this out back in 2018. David Stern's has used this strategy in the past and if he's trying to find some answers to help the back end of his bullpen, don't be shocked if this happens. So this promotion to AAA is very interesting to me. I think there is a good chance that we see Sprode pitching out of the bullpen in Syracuse, leading up to what could be an MLB promotion in a couple of weeks. We'll see if I'm right, maybe he's just starting, but very interesting promotion that the Mets made on Saturday and I can't wait to see where it goes. Anyway, that's going to be all for today's edition of Lockdown Match just did a two-segment show today on tomorrow's show. We'll break down the final game of this series against the Angels, we'll talk about the weird one gamer against the Cardinals this week, the rest of this road trip that lies ahead and I still want to talk about Marc Fientos, so we'll see if I can get that in on tomorrow's show. Thank you all for tuning in, make sure if you're on the audio side, you follow rate review wherever you get your podcasts, if you're watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button trying to get to 10,000 subscribers by the end of the season, so I appreciate all of you who subscribe. You can follow me on next at Ficklestein Ryan, follow the show at Lockdown Mets. Thank you for making Lockdown Mets. Your first listener, your first watch every day, that for your second watch, head over to YouTube and check out the first ever 24/7 streaming channel that covers everything the world of sports, talking about Lockdown sports today with your local experts from each team, League Wide Experts from each League, by Lockdown sports today streaming 24/7 on YouTube. [MUSIC PLAYING]
