The New York Mets bullpen blew another game on Wednesday night, as Jake Diekman was at the center of another meltdown.
Is it time for the Mets to move on from Diekman?
Host Ryan Finkelstein breaks down the significance of the loss and the Mets' position with their bullpen.
Could Shintaro Fujinami, Joey Lucceshi, or Bryce Montes De Oca help the Mets ailing pen?
Also, Kodai Senga made his return with his first rehab start.
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(upbeat music) - It's the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. - Okay, I've seen enough. Jake Deakman's gotta go. - You are locked on meth. You're daily New York Mets podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. - Hello to all you amazing Mets fans. You're listening to Lockdown. That's part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. Thank you for making Lockdown Metro first listen every day. Lockdown Mets is free and available on all platforms including YouTube. Another game, another bullpen meltdown. I will talk about the Mets loss in the first segment today. Then in the second segment, when do the Mets cut ties with Jake Deakman? 'Cause he has not pitched well. We'll go through that and just the overall problem in this Mets bullpen. Then in the final segment, we'll talk Kodai Senga. He made his return to the mound in an actual game and he looked very good. So I'll talk about what his return can mean to the Mets down the stretch and if they will consider trading from their wealth of starting pitching depth to get some prospects in the system, regardless of their position in the wild card race. Before we get to any of that though, I'm Aaron with Ryan Fickelstein. If you want to find any of my work, follow me on X at Fickelstein Ryan. I'll also find some of my writing at JustBaseball.com where I work as the managing editor. This episode of Lockdown Mets has brought you by Booking.com. Booking.Yeah, the right stake can make you a fan of any city, even your rivals. Check out Booking.com for your stay today. Through the first five innings of the Mets game against the Nationals, it felt like they were never gonna lose to this team all season. They were well on their way to their six straight victory against the Nationals. Another serious win. They had a great performance by the offense. Hyron Taylor, Mark Vientos, Francisco Lindor, all three of them hit home runs. Or Vientos and Lindor, each of them were two run shots. So the Mets jumped back to a five-nothing lead. Christian Scott is back from Syracuse, making his first start for the Mets in over a month. And he was dialed early. The pitch count was low. He was attacking the zone, getting a lot of weak contact. He carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning with two outs before he finally gave up a hit to Jesse Winker, but stranded him, got through the fifth inning and could have really given up a ton of runs but was able to navigate through it. He walked the lead off man, gave up a couple of hits which scored a run, but gets a huge double play ball. And then he strikes out CJ Abrams to get out of the jam. At that point, the Mets are up five to one and you're through five. So you feel really good about their chances. You get the final 12 outs and end up with a series victory with one more to play and a chance to get the rare four-game series sweep. Then things start to break down. And this is one of those games where it didn't work so you can criticize Carl Mendoza. I felt like he made all the wrong decisions with managing the end of that game. Granted, there's been other games where he makes all the right decisions. So I'm not trying to be grudging as the manager. I'm not trying to say that there's some problem there with Mendoza or he doesn't know how to manage his bullpen. But there were some curious calls that I didn't like and they all blew up in his face. The first one was even pitching Christian Scott in the sixth inning. He had been on a lower pitch count in the minor leagues and they did say he was full bore. He was ready to go. He could give them 95 pitches. So in some respects, I get sending them back out there, but that was a really tough fifth inning to get through. And Adrian Houser should have been good to go. So I would have liked to see them just go to Houser, have him shorten the game, maybe get you through the sixth, the seventh, potentially the eighth, and then hand it off to a regare it maybe and just get a dodge with the win. Obviously, you never know. Houser could have come in and he could have looked terrible and everyone's saying, "Why did you pull Christian Scott with 82 pitches?" But I'll tell you, I was surprised that Scott went back out there for the sixth inning. And first pitch, he gets an ounce here. All right, maybe this is gonna work out. Then he gives up a pair of hits and they have a mound visit, but Jeremy Heffner going out there. They really were committed to letting Scott work his way through that inning. I think part of that is sort of a new way that they're trying to get through these games, knowing how light they are in that bullpen and just trying to get as much length as possible from your starters. But this is a kid who is making his first start in the big leagues in a month. The adrenaline level that he probably experienced in the energy that he expended in those five innings compared to what he'd been doing down in Syracuse, which was just basically low intensity, four inning spurts, keep your pitch count up, but you're just sort of buying time down there. Felt like a lot. So they have him go back out and try to get through that jam after the mound visit and he does get an out, but even then I thought, all right, maybe you pull him, maybe you go and you get an atom out of Vino up to, or an atom out of Vino was up. If you grab out of Vino to get the final out, they try to get him through that sixth and Christian Scott hangs a sweeper to Luis Garcia, who it's a three run homer, and that marks the end of the day for Scott and all of a sudden the game got a lot closer. With all of that said, I don't think that was the worst decision that Mendoza made. To me that came the following of you. Okay, so in the sixth, atom out of Vino got the final out. Seventh inning comes around and out of Vino gets the first two outs with ease. So at this point he'd gotten three outs on 13 pitches. He threw nine strikes. CJ Abrams was coming up and he is the one guy that scares you, especially in a one run game. He is their best player. So I understand you worry about Abrams and the fact that he might hit a homerun and tie the game, but atom out of Vino was rolling and the guy that he grabs is Jake Deakman. Jake Deakman is the lefty in the bullpen, the lone one right now. So I understand why that's the guy that you were looking at, but when you look at the stats behind this decision, it was brutal, brutal, because CJ Abrams this year has been better against lefties and righties, marginally better, but better nonetheless. He's got a 330 average versus lefties, 914 OPS. The OPS versus righties 826 and the batting average is 263. He's hit more homeruns against righties than lefties, but the slug has been better against lefties because he's hitting 330. So you could make the argument. All right, CJ Abrams has a better chance to go yard against a righty than a lefty. Fine, fine, okay. But can't atom out of Vino pitch carefully to CJ Abrams? And then you have Lane Thomas on deck. By putting in Jake Deakman versus Abrams, you set him up to have to face Thomas. Why does that matter? Because there's drastic splits with Thomas against left-handed pitching. He has a 919 OPS. That is a all-star level player against lefties. Against righties, he's got a 613 OPS. So righties against the right-handed Thomas, he's a well below average player. And you put yourself in a position where Jake Deakman is gonna face Thomas if he can't get Abrams out. Here's the other issue. CJ Abrams, not an easy strikeout, Jake Deakman walks the world. So what happens, 10 pitch at bat, Deakman walks Abrams. Here comes Lane Thomas, who is looking at Deakman like barbecue chicken because any left-handed pitcher to him is that he rips a double, all of a sudden, James Tied. James Wood comes up, and that would have been the time to get Deakman if you had scripted it out the right way originally. It would have Deakman ready for the James Wood at bat. Now, James Wood got a hit against him. But at least with James Wood, he struggles against lefties. He feasts against righties. I would have understood that move there. But again, you look at the numbers behind the decision. That's where the Mets lost the game moves right there. Now, you can also just point it to player. Jake Deakman's gotta be better. And he has killed the Mets time and time again. He's sporting an ERA that's getting dangerously close to five. And he has been particularly awful since June. The guy has struggled to get any strikeouts. And he barely gets in the outs when he goes out there. It's what, six and two thirds that he's pitched in June in 11 appearances. He has been brutal. Now, you have a one-run game, and it's close to where you can send it to extras again and win it. That's the hope. They send Ty Agcock out for the eighth, and I'm not gonna begrudge that decision. But just a further evidence of how much this bullpen is struggling, he gives up a home run to Luis Garcia, who also hit that home run against Christian Scott. So Garcia had himself a day against the Mets, all of a sudden, it's a two-run lead. Kyle Finnegan comes on, the Nationals closer, and he's too good. He's too good. He gets the final couple outs there, and the Mets end up losing the game to the Nationals. And now all of a sudden, you're in a precarious spot because they have the disadvantage in the pitching match up on Thursday. Jake Ervin, you can make an argument. He has been the best pitcher for the Nationals this year. It's either been him or Mackenzie Gore. Trevor Williams was up there, but he's been injured for a little bit now. And the Mets got Jose Quintana going. Now, Quintana has been better as of late, but still was, the ER is still north of five? I think it might be. So it's gonna be interesting to see how this series finishes out because you really want to make sure you win this series and keep the good momentum rolling. And now they're in a dangerous position after being in the driver's seat in the third straight game here, but they let one get away. And now you really got to make sure you bounce back from this and win a series on Thursday. Question is, how much longer will Jake Deacon be called on to pitch in these situations? I want to talk about him a little bit more and just the continued problems with this Mets bullpen. The one major thing that's holding this team back, we'll get to that in just a minute. First though, a word from our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by Ibada. 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Just go to the App Store or Google Play Store and download the free Ibada app to start earning cashback and use the code lockfundmlb. That's Ibada I-B-O-T-T-A in the Google Play App Store. Use the code lockfundmlb. You know we love talking stats here at locked on Rockies. Here's one that's super simple to remember. Discover automatically doubles the cashback you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cashback match. That means with Discover, you could turn $150 cashback 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. See terms at discover.com/creditcard. (upbeat music) - If you're an everyday listener to the show, make sure you become a locked on-net insider. This is our texting service for good updates from me. Anytime some news breaks on the mat, you can ask me questions anytime. You also get our starting lineup graphics sent to your phone each day. So you know who's in the lineup without having to go on social media. If you want to be a locked on-net insider, find the link in the episode description. We're going to subtext.com/lockon-nets. Now Jake Deakman has been horrible this year. Let's just call a spade to spade. He's been bad. He has a 473 ERA, an April at a 432 ERA, but he did have 12 strikeouts and eight and a third innings pitch. He walked six. May he was pretty good. Two, eight, nine ERA, 13 strikeouts to eight walks. June, six, seven, five ERA and six and two thirds with four strikeouts to six walks. Four strikeouts in 11 appearances. It's crazy. What's wrong here? What's the problem? Because the funny thing is, if you go to his baseball savant page, baseball savant, tells you all the data behind a guy, right? The expected batting average against Jake Deakdeep gets one of the best in baseball. He misses barrels, doesn't get hit hard. All those things are good. He's not the pitcher that is going to get teed off on. What's the problem? He's not getting any chase. So he actually mentioned this after the game today, non-competitive misses outside of the zone. He's not getting guys to bite and racking up the strikeouts. When he's rolling and that sweeper looks as good as it can be, guys are swinging through it and he's getting those strikeouts. And this year, no one's hitting the sweeper. He's got a 0-4-3 batting average against that pitch. No one's really hitting the fastball either, 164 batting average. But he's walking the world and no one's chasing. And that's the problem with Jake Deakdeep. Now, Adam Adavino looked awful a week ago, maybe two weeks ago, where it was game to the point you thought, maybe they should get rid of Adavino. And now he has settled in. There is something to be said about a veteran. And this is not the time tomorrow to DFA Jake Deakdeep. But if you're looking for areas for this bullpen to get better, Deakdeep is a guy you had to look at squarely and it continues to be put in leverage situations because he's the lone lefty. And he's been awful. And so at some point you gotta stop throwing him out there, why is that the card you're trying to go to? In the seventh inning. That's what I don't get. You have two outs. You have Adavino throwing the ball well. And I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here when it comes to Mendoza's decision making. But I don't get it. I don't get why you're trying to force him in there. I understand there was a lot of lefties in the lineup. They stacked a bunch of them with Christian Scott in the mound. But Jake Deakdeep is just not a net positive for you. I'd rather see Adrian Houser go up there and throw some sinker system lefties and get some ground balls. And when you look at this bullpen right now, when they get MND is back, I think that's going to settle a lot of these issues because everyone falls back in line. Garrett Nunez, they no longer have to worry about closing out games. They're just your set up men. Adavino has pitched better. So I feel a little bit better about that about him being able to be at least a solid middle reliever for the rest of this season. Adrian Houser's been unbelievable. Houser buto looked really good. So right there, that is a group of six. And if they go to a six man rotation, which appears to be coming very soon, you're looking to have one more arm. That arm can't be Jake Deakman down the stretch. Unless Jake Deakman goes back to the guy he was last year with the Rays where he unlocked something and he was as dominant as any reliever. I mean, he got to a point where he was striking out the world. The walks weren't killing him nearly as much and he just looked on hitable. And there was stretches, if I remember when the Mets signed him, when there was multiple appearances in a row where he was not giving up any hits. And again, he's not getting hit hard. He's walking too many batters and he's not putting them away. So that's got to change or you have to make a move. The problem, what do you do? You know, tie adcock gave out the whole run. Yeah, you could option him down and grab a lefty. Who are you grabbing? Danny Young can't come back for a while. I think he has looked the best of any Mets left-hander throughout this season outside of Brooks Rayleigh who, man, how much of the Mets missing him? Because the had Brooks Rayleigh, I think this team probably has at least three more wins, at least, conservatively. 'Cause that's how good Rayleigh was. And man, it would have been great to still had him instead of seeing him go down at the time of John. Drew Smith's out. So you look at your options. You have Josh Walker and Danny Young. Josh Walker hasn't gotten an opportunity in a while. He just pitched again in Syracuse tonight. He hadn't gone for a little bit. I don't know if he was a little banged up, but now he got back on the mound, pitched a scoreless appearance. I think he got five outs tonight. Didn't get any strikeouts, but a solid outing. Danny Young, like I said, there was moments where he looked really good, but he came back recently, had three shared appearances where he gave up two runs. None of these guys really looked like the answer as they left-hander reliever. And that's a real area of concern with the Mets. Might have to make a move at the deadline. I mean, Tanner Scott would be the dream. It's just how much does it cost to acquire a closer, and a rental closer nonetheless when you have a team here too that how much are you buying into them? How much are you giving them in prospect capital to invest in this roster? If they're right there with the Braves atop the wildcard heap, all right, maybe you're more convinced, but if the bullpen blows four more games this month that are in hand, you might not be in position to add. So it's this weird catch 22. To me, the left that I'd call up right now is Joe Lukasey. Okay, I'm at the point with this Mets team. You have nine guys when everyone's healthy that are big league caliber starters. So to me, I put the other four in the bullpen and just go with Diaz, Nunez, and Garrett for all I care. Honestly, there were the other three in the bullpen and I guess you keep out of, you know, two if the six man rotation regardless. Like to me, even the Jose Budo could be a really nice answer for this rotation. I feel like he's what with this current team, he's the reliever you trust third or fourth most when Diaz comes back, maybe that's fifth, but I trust he's going to go out there, throw strikes and get outs. Just how Adrian Houser has been doing it. I'd want to see Tyler McGill in that bullpen potentially. And Joe Lukasey, maybe he's the lefty. Got good splits, lefties do not see him very well. Maybe that fastball plays up even more with the churved when he's coming out of the pen. Fastball churved, that's all you need as a reliever. And I think he could actually be pretty dominant potentially. But at least I'd hope you would throw strikes which Deakman has not. Now, there are some other options that have been kicked around. So here are the names that the Mets are sort of talking about as guys that could help solidify this bullpen. You have Eric Orrs. Now, he was great in Syracuse in the month of June. 1-6-9 ERA, 17 strikeouts and 10-2-3rd innings pitched. Guy that was drafted in the fifth round in 2020, worked his way through the Mets system. He might be the next diamond in the rough, you hope. So maybe we see Orrs, that one could happen tomorrow. If they want to, adcock goes down, Orrs comes up, that might be the move. Beyond that, you have two pitchers that are rehabbing. Bryce Montez Deoka, who gave up two runs in his first appearance in Triple-A after carving up hitters prior to getting up to Triple-A. And Tim Healy did a really good piece about the Mets bullpen. And he had quotes in there from Heffner and Carl Mendoza just talking about the pitching that's in the minor leagues. And it sounded like from a quote that Mendoza said, "It's a little bit of a longer road for Montez Deoka to get back," which makes sense. He's coming off Tommy John. Chantaro Fujinami, it could be a little bit sooner than you might think. He is maybe in this mode of getting a appearance at each stop throughout the Mets farm system, had won in the Florida Complex League, had won in low way with Port St. Lucie. And now he had won in Bighamton, so he did skip Brooklyn. And his appearance in Bighamton was great. I think it was eight pitches, two strikeouts, perfect inning. He has not allowed a hit in his rehab appearances so far. We're walked about. Remember, Chantaro Fujinami is a guy that can throw 102 miles per hour. So maybe he is an answer. We were all thrilled when the Mets signed him and that he just couldn't throw a strike. They've been working with him on not being so tied up in his mechanics because apparently he got in his head about, okay, I need my leg to do this. And if you're thinking about how you're throwing the base ball, if you're thinking about your mechanics when you're out there, you're doomed, okay? Working on your mechanics, that's for bullpen on the side in between addings. That's when you focus on that stuff. That's for your throwing program. When you're in the game, you just gotta grip and rip. You gotta throw the baseball and you gotta not be thinking about that stuff. That seems to be something they're working on. And early results have been very good. So Chantaro Fujinami has the stuff where all of a sudden you can see the Mets just internally build out a really good bullpen. If it's Diaz clicking, Nunez, Garrett, Fujinami, Houser, Budo, Adavino, that's not a bad pen. Now, you also have Sean Reed Foley, but he's hurt, won't be back until after the all-star break. And then there, of course, there's the trade route. So how aggressive will the Mets be on the market? We still don't know. Well, something happened now, don't count on it. Because how stupid are the Mets gonna look if they trade significant prospects or a significant prospect for Tanner Scott or Carlos Estebes, the two closer types that are clearly on the market, Estebes with the angel Scott with the Marlins. And for whatever reason, even with that reliever, the Mets have a terrible two weeks and they fall out of the race by the deadline and now they're selling. You're gonna really regret making that trade. So don't expect the deal to happen now as much as people, you know, I've seen others out there screaming for it, clamoring for it. You gotta make a move now. It's just not gonna happen. So in the short term, maybe look for wars to come up and Fuji-Nami hopefully in short order. And those two guys might breathe a little bit of fresh air into that bullpen. And you just count on the days for Eiwendy as to come back here. Okay, you have one more in Washington and then the first game in Pittsburgh, Saturday he can come back into this bullpen. And hopefully that quiets the waters and everything else goes back to normal. But that was a big missed opportunity in the game tonight. And you just hope it doesn't come back to bite 'em on Thursday. Now, another big thing that happened tonight is Kodai Senga made his return to a live game. So let's talk about Senga in just a minute, first though, a word from our sponsors. Today's episode of "All I Met" is brought to you by Booking.com. 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Kodai Senga hit a mound on Wednesday night in a live game, face batters, got the adrenaline pumping, and he looked very good. He touched 98 with the fastball, seemed to be living in the 96 to 98 range, had his cutter curve ball, goes for everything working. He struck out six in two and two third innings pitched, did not walk a batter, did not give up a hit, and of course did not give up a run. Just a perfect rehab appearance for Kodai Senga, who threw 35 pitches, 25 of them were strikes. So so far, so good with Senga, he's gonna have multiple rehab starts before he's ready to return. Talked about it on yesterday's show, if I'm not mistaken, I think I pinpointed what was it. July 27th, I believe, would be his fifth starters, fifth turn from this one, where he might join a big league rotation, and that would be a Saturday game against the Atlanta Braves. That's what I have circled, where Kodai Senga can maybe come back into the fold here. But if you really think about what he means to this team, it's gonna take you to a whole nother level, to have a pitcher of his caliber, who can pitch deep into games, rack up a lot of strikeouts, just be the ace. And maybe a co-ease, 'cause Severino has done a great job filling that void with Senga out. You look at a rotation that could have those two, and Christian Scott, as well as David Peterson, Shamanaya, maybe Jose Quintana, could be a really good six-mid rotation. Christian Scott's an interesting one, because it doesn't sound like there's any sort of limitations on him, particularly tonight. I mean, he threw almost 100 pitches, but it sounds like the Mets are very comfortable with keeping Scott in the rotation, and there's not an innings limit on him. They're gonna monitor his workload. Of course, they're gonna see how he's recovering, but it doesn't seem like they're setting a line in the sand once he hits 120 innings, he's out. And Christian Scott even said to the media when he first came back, that he completely trusts the Mets with his body. Whatever they tell him to do, he's on board. That's why he has been such a great prospect for them, 'cause he really has bought in from day one. He has just been a good learner, has taken everything that they've told him, and he's put it to practice. That's why he's developed so well. Now, it seems like it might just be. All right, Christian Scott had his one month where he's out of the rotation. Now he's part of this club for the rest of the year, and that's going to result in some wins. I know you could look at the stats and say, man, he's got, what is it, a four, three, two ER right now? He's only two has yet to win a game, but you watch the kid pitch, and he's just more talented than most of the guys in the Mets rotation right now, and I think it's eventually going to translate the some victories for the Mets. And really, if you got to a playoff situation where you're in a log cart round, and it was Senga, Severino, and Scott as your guys, I feel like the Mets can win that series and can potentially make a run. So I really like the fact that this rotation is about to get another jolt with Kodai Senga, and they just got one with Christian Scott. And you have Jose Budo sitting there that you can always plug into the rotation as well, which has led a lot of speculation towards the Mets pitching depth. Mike Puma has been sending out reports that teams are interested in the Mets pitching, and they have to make a decision on what they're going to do with all that pitching. Obviously, if they wanted to just focus on prospects, they would trade Luis Severino. He's a rental, he's pitch great. He would fetch you a haul at this deadline. I mean, maybe not three or four prospects, but he might get you a prospect as good as some of those guys you got last year, you could get an Akuna type for Luis Severino if the right team viewed him as their final missing piece. And that's tempting. That's six years of control of a big leaguer, potentially, for half a season of Severino when there's not even a guaranteed chance you're going to make the playoffs. With that said, the Mets can draft in the fourth round next year when Severino hits the open market. They can draft somebody that is as good as that prospect that they get if they trade them. And you look at the market next year, you might want to bring Severino back. There's not, I mean, as much as we touted this as a free agent class that's full of pitching, Shane Bieber went down. Okay, so that's one off the board. Walker Bueller has not come off Tommy John looking like the guy he was pre-Tommy John. It's early. You still expect that he's going to be really good. But is he a nine figure contract guy? Probably not. Corbin Burns is amazing. Is he going to leave Baltimore though? That's the guy that you want, but what's going to happen there? So a lot of these pitchers have sort of fallen off a little bit. Max Freed maybe is the other one that looks great, but is he going to sign up with the Mets? So Severino might be your best option for agency too. You trade him. Are you going to be able to get him to come back? As much as it's a great idea on paper to say, hey, you just take the same team that you got, you plug, saying in a Severino spot, the team shouldn't take a step back and you'll roll. David Sturds made that mistake before. With the Brewers, trading Josh Hader, thinking that Devin Williams was good enough to slide into that closer roll, and they wouldn't skip a beat. And that trade in retrospect has worked out very well for the Brewers. It ended up in a long winding road and adding them to William Contreras, who did he get the all-star game? No, I'm not positive on that one. But regardless, William Contreras for Hader, through again a series of moves, 'cause it was Escher Rodriguez, who was traded for Contreras. And Perez came back in the Hader deal. Yeah, it worked out, but you also were in the driver's sitting here division that year in 2022, I believe. And they blew it after trading Hader. So if you want this team to go anywhere this year, you gotta keep Severino. So all these reports out there that the match trading their pitching, I don't think it's Severino. I don't think it's Sean Manaya. I don't even necessarily think it's Jose Quintana if they are in playoff position or right there at the deadline. I think they're gonna keep all those guys. The name I would look at honestly is Tyler McGill. The other one is Joey Lukasey. And you'd say, what value do those guys really have? Tyler McGill just got option to AAA. Aaron Savali was just traded for a prospect. He was on the raise. He got dealt to the Brewers. Savali has an era over five this year. Now he's got more of a track record than McGill, but stretched out major league caliber pitching is going to net prospects at this deadline, 'cause so many teams need it. So the Mets can take number nine and 10 on the depth chart potentially and flip them at the deadline and get some value while still having enough pitching to get through this year. With that said, if you're in the raise trading any pitching, it's still a dangerous game 'cause all of a sudden couple guys go down and you're regretting making that move. We'll see. Last note I had on the show today before, I will let you all go and then, you know, depending on when you're listening to this, you got a game right around the corner. Happy fourth of July, everybody. And 11 o'clock start, weird one today. Luis Inelacunya talked about him a lot on yesterday's show and threw out the idea that maybe he was going to get called up. Now the reason why I was speculating on that is because he was pulled from a game when, yes, it was a blowout game, the Syracuse Mets were losing 16 to four, but you don't pull prospects from games just to protect their legs. He's 22 years old. It was the ninth inning. It was one at that. There had to be a call that was made to Syracuse to say get a queen out of that game or there was some injury thing. Maybe he had a cramp, dehydrator, whatever it is. Here's what I will say after I had some more time to think about it and chew on it. Why I believe he was pulled from that game is 'cause Harrison Bader crashed into the wall. And the Mets at that point probably weren't sure what was going to happen. And if Bader had to go on the I.L. who was going to be the guy that was going to get called up to play center field? I think it was going to be a kunya. So what that tells me is if you get to a point where you have a need on the big league roster, they're comfortable promoting Luis and Hella kunya. Now Bader seems to be fine. J.D. Martinez is back in the lineup. There's no need for him at this current juncture. But if second base continues to be a black hole whenever McNeil's on the field and the glacier's cools off, which it's hard for him not to, to be honest, because of how hot he's been. It's just bound to come back down to earth a little bit. But kunya could still join this team. And as I went through on yesterday's show, if you didn't listen to it, you can check it out. There is a clear roster fit for a kunya right now where I think he'd make this team better. I don't necessarily believe they're going to make that move right now. But the next time there's a need on the big league roster, don't be surprised if it's a kunya that gets the call depending on the position of me. Anyway, that's going to be all for today's edition locked on Mets. As I mentioned, July 4th, early game. Hope you all enjoy it. I'll be back for a show tomorrow, breaking down whatever happened to close out this series against the Nationals and preview the lads ahead against the Pittsburgh Pirates. We also might talk a little bit of prospects for a Friday farm report. So make sure you check out that show. If you're listening on the audio side, follow rate and review, wherever you get your podcasts. If you're watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button or trying to make a push to 9,000 subs. We are now within 100. And the goal is to get there by the all-star break. So I really appreciate all of you who continue to subscribe and get us closer to that goal. You want to be locked on Mets Insider, find the link in the episode description, go to subtext.com/blockdown-matts. Thank you for making lockdown match. You're first listening to your first watch every day. 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