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Locked On Mets - Daily Podcast On The New York Mets

The New York Mets May Need to Make Some Roster Moves Soon

Duration:
33m
Broadcast on:
23 Jun 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

Tylor Megill had his worst start of the season on Saturday, putting the Mets in a hole they couldn't climb out of. Could Megill's spot in the rotation be up for grabs soon?

Host Ryan Finkelstein breaks down the Mets' rotation options with Jose Butto and Christian Scott, if they look to send Megill down.  

Also, Starling Marte's knee continues to ail him and will keep him out of the lineup until he takes an MRI in New York on Monday. If he needs to go on the IL, who will take his place?

Finally, a farm report on the top pitching prospects in the Mets farm system.  

 

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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Between a lingering knee issue with Starling Marte and another rough start by Tyler or McGill, could we see some changes to the Mets roster soon? I'll talk about it 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. On this show today, we have a Mets loss to discuss, and particularly the performance of Tyler or McGill and whether he has pitched himself out of the Mets rotation. I'll talk about that a little bit in the first segment as well as how Huzebudo has been doing in Triple A, and of course, I'll round out the rest of the game recap. Then in the second segment, we're going to talk about Starling Marte. He's got a knee issue that's been plugging in for a while. He got pulled from the game on Saturday. Could he be heading to the IEL and who would take his place? We'll also talk about some other roster maneuvering that could happen this upcoming week as well. Finally, in the last segment, I'm going to give you your farm report on the pitching side touching on all the top pitching prospects in this system. Before we attend even though, I'm your host Ryan Fickelstein, if you want to find any of my work, follow me on X at Fickelstein-Ryan, you can also find some of my writing at JustBaseball.com where I work as the managing editor. Has Tyler or McGill pitched himself out of the Mets rotation? This is not something I was expecting to talk about, but man, it was a brutal start. McGill in the first inning, he walks two of the first three batters that he faced, and then he gives up a base hit to scores one, a ground out score is another, so now it's two nothing cubs, and he had a chance. If he gets a third out there, he can escape, and maybe it's your typical Tyler McGill start from this year, where he gets through five innings, gives up two or three earned runs, and you don't look at it as some horrible start. McGill did not get out of the first inning, he then gives up a two out single, that scored a third run, then two out double, that scored a fourth run, then a triple, that scored a fifth run. So, five nothing cubs before the game even really gets going, and then he also hung a sweeper to Christopher Morrell for a sixth run allowed. He had some strikeouts mixed in, there's six strikeouts in three innings pitch, but three innings pitch. So, a really bad start for McGill, his worst of the year, and now you look at his stats on the season, he's got a 4-8-1 ERA through seven starts, obviously this one where you only go three and you give up six, that's going to inflate your ERA by a large margin, but if you look at his career stats, Tyler McGill has a 4-7-3 ERA, you look at his whip right now, it's at 1.43, that is walks and hits over innings pitched, his career whip, 1.42. So, now you got a seven start sample size, and Tyler McGill is sitting right at his career numbers basically. Now, I will acknowledge, she has more strikeouts this year, as far as a strikeout rate, than he ever has before. This stuff does look better in spurts, but he's not putting it all together. Which is why there's still part of me that thinks, man, could Tyler McGill just be an elite reliever? Could that end up being the thing where instead of throwing 95, 96 in the rotation, now he's pumping 97, 98, and he's still getting swinging a miss, and he's actually more effective? I don't really know what the direction is, but who's a Buddha was removed from this rotation for doing less? I mean, he was removed because he was walking, guys, and also it was at just a point where you were, if I remember correctly, what was that when McGill came back or when Scott came into the full? I can't remember exactly what sent Buddha down, but it was something along the lines of the mess needed another arm, and Buddha was sort of the casualty because he had just a pitch, and he had the optionality. So now you look at Buddha's seven-starred appearance with the mess of this year, seven-starred stint compared to McGill's, Jose Buddha had a 3.08 ERA and a 1.13 whip. That's significantly better than what the Mets have gotten out of Tyler McGill. Jose Buddha gave the Mets six innings in three of his seven-starred and made it through at least five in six of his seven-starreds. Tyler McGill has one start where he actually went seven, and other than that, he's failed to go through five in three different appearances out of his seven-starreds. Jose Buddha was since going to Triple A, he had one really bad start, we got tagged for like seven runs. His other five-starreds, he has allowed just four runs across the other five-starreds. That's in 28 and two-third innings pitch. So across a five-starred span, 1.26 ERA. Now, that's throwing out the clunker. So let's put that clunker back in there for his ERA since being set down. His ERA through six-starreds in Triple A, since his seven-starreds in the big leagues, is at 3.06. So 3.06 ERA in Triple A, 3.08 ERA in the bigs, and it's tough to pitch in that league in Triple A. A lot of inflated ERA's down there. So I think Jose Buddha was pretty legit, and at this point, it's hard to justify keeping McGill in this rotation when he has options. He has two more option years left. So you can send him down, let him work on some stuff in Triple A, have him just be an arm in waiting, and you could put Buddha right in that spot in the rotation. I think they should make that move. Now, getting back to this game, because we're going to talk a little bit more about the roster in the next segment, Tyler McGill is pulled at the throwing 78 pitches because the heart of the lineup is due up. And at the time, the game was still close enough where Carlos Mendoza wasn't willing to throw on a way. When your lineup has, you know, been putting up double-digit performances lately and six runs didn't seem too daunting. So they go to Danny Young, Danny Young, who returned to the team because Sean Reed Foley hit the IEL. We'll talk about that a little bit more in the next segment. But Danny Young does what Danny Young does is a reason why I was so upset when this guy got sent down. He's four batters, retired four batters, and then Adrian Houser got to give him a lot of credit. In the mop up duty, he spared the rest of the bullpen. So nobody else had to pitch three and two thirds out of him. So now in this series, if I believe correctly, because it's been too blowouts, we have not seen that when Diaz, we have not seen Reed Garrett, we have not seen Danielle Nunez, then that's three best pitchers. So with Luis Severino on the mound on Sunday, those guys all rested. You have a pretty good recipe to win a ball game. If you pitch well, get some runs on the board, the match should be able to handle business and take a serious victory in Chicago. Otherwise, pretty disappointing end to what started off as such a promising road trip. So we'll see what that last game brings. Offensively, it just wasn't a good day for the Mets. Francisco Alvarez provided the only run of solo homer his second straight day with the home run. James Centayo looked really good for the Cubs. He scattered six hits. He did not walk anyone. He struck out 10. So it was a really nice start out of him. And the Cubs bullpen was able to hold up in a lopsided game. But again, Severino going up against Javier Assad on Sunday, gonna be a really interesting game. It's Sunday night baseball. So that'd be a lot of fun to talk about on Monday to see what happened there. But also another note from this game, Sterling Marte exited in the second inning with Nissanis. So what's the latest there? If Marte goes on the aisle, who's going to replace him? I'm going to talk about that. I'll touch on the rotation a little bit more with McGill, as well as Sean Reed, Foley's injury. We're talking Ross to move his next first though, a word from our sponsors today's episode is brought to you by supply house. 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Miller Thomas of Lockdown Dyebacks here, and I love these pistachios because each one-ounce serving has six grams of protein giving you over 10% of your daily value. So whether your pistachio purist who loves cracking open every night or you prefer the convenience of no-show pistachios, wonderful pistachios has got you covered. Grab wonderful pistachios and elevate your snacking game today, visit wonderful pistachios.com to learn more. If you're an everyday listener of the show, make sure you become a lot on Met Insider. This is our texting service where you get updates from me anytime some news breaks on the Met. You can ask me questions anytime. You get the line of graphics sent to your phone each day so you know who's going to be in the Met's starting lineup. If you want to be locked on Met Insider, find the link in the episode description. You're going to subtext.com/lockdownmetz. So strolling Marte was removed from the game on Saturday with Nisornis. This is the same thing that has come up throughout at least the past month now where we've seen Marte. Okay, he's resting today. Why? Oh, some Nisornis. From the lineup. Why? Some Nisornis. So now they're going to get this thing checked out. On Monday, he will get an MRI when the Met's are back in New York. I mean, they're going to play a man down on Sunday. I imagine DJ Stewart gets out there in right field and I think that is what is going to be the short-term answer as far as who's the Met's starting right fielder with starting Marte down. It'll be some type of a platoon where DJ Stewart is starting against right-handed pitching in right field. I think that's what we're going to see. And honestly, the crazy thing about it is Marte has been so bad defensively that Stewart is not even a step back when it comes to the defense. He doesn't have the arm that is going to really be scaring people out in right field, but he might get in on some balls that Marte hasn't been. It's still a huge loss though because starting Marte has been great for this team offensively. He's been one of their top four or five hitters this year. So losing him for any period of time is going to hurt, but this is sort of the reality that you're in with this guy in his mid-30s. We knew going into the season that there was going to be some give and take here as far as how much you could play. And having the DH spot really early, I think helped him a ton because they were able to get him off his feet, put him in the DH spot a couple times a week. Now that JD Martinez is in there every single day at DH, well that just puts more strain on Marte's body to have to get out there and play a right field. I think we could see an IELST in here even if there is nothing glaring on the MRI. If the MRI just shows whatever, some inflammation, some scarring, whatever it is, but it's still been an issue, I can say all right, why don't you rest it for a whole week or a week and a half, 10 day IELST in and see what happens and the longer you're resting it, the all start break will get on you kind of quick. And so I'm not saying for sure, hey, we're not going to see Sean and Marte until the all start break, he might be in the starting lineup on Tuesday for all we know. But I can see a world where the Mets look at their road ahead and they just decide best to shut him down for a little bit, get him healthy. And then on the other side of the break, hopefully you can get at that point two and a half months of really good starting Marte to close out your season and then maybe he can still help you if you're able to find your way into the playoffs. So I, again, I'm not saying that's for sure what's going to happen, but I wouldn't be surprised at all. If that is the case, what is the plan? DJ Stewart and Tyrone Taylor will likely platoon in right, but Taylor has not hit well against left handed pitching. He's in 216 with a 231 on base, 275 slug. He's got a 506 OPS first lefties this year. He's been far better facing right handed pitching. Stewart's office is not going to start every day. He's not good against lefties. So who can come up from Triple A? Well, you got Trace Thompson, who is their righty, that's 16 home runs, but he's extremely streaky and throughout his career, he has had reverse splits. I just checked and he also has reverse splits this season where he hits right handed pitching better than left. So he doesn't fit as an ideal partner to Stewart. If DJ Stewart wasn't getting the job done, I could see Thompson coming up, but I don't see Thompson getting a shot over Stewart, even acknowledging Stewart's recent slump, he hasn't gotten playing time. So I don't think it's Trace Thompson, Ben Gamel has been good lately. I haven't checked his splits. He is a left handed hitter though. So doesn't really make sense for him to come up, although he has been the best outfielder in Syracuse this year based on his production, his slash line. So we'll see. He also was hurt recently, just came back not too long ago. You have Rylan Thomas, who's in Triple A, but he just got up to Triple A, was promoted from Double A. I don't see that. Here are the guys that make some sense. There's Luke Ritter, who isn't a right fielder, more of an infielder, but can play some left. But what I actually see is Jeff McNeil being an outfielder, while Sterling Martes down, where Jeff McNeil is getting his starts in right field. And you can even start Jeff McNeil against lefties. It's been pretty much the same left first right this year for McNeil. It's been bad either way. But you could actually platoon Stuart and McNeil, where McNeil plays against all of the lefties in right field. The Glaziest is starting in second base. I'm sure McNeil would still get some starts at second, but that could be the most realistic outcome. And Luke Ritter can then fit in at various spots. Second, third, first. Guy has 16 home runs in 66 games in Triple A this year with 53 RBIs. But he has a ton of strikeout strike. I really close to 30%, again, doesn't play the right field and has no big league experience. So there's some doubt in my mind as to if the Mets would actually go to Ritter. The other option, Duke Ellis, they just claimed him, a speedster who's on the 40-man roster that plays the outfield, but I don't think he's going to give you much offensively. So I would hope the Mets don't go there. I think the most likely outcome is Sterling Martes hits the IL is Brett Beatty comes back up. He's the guy that has got the most MLB run this year. He could help your team in multiple ways. You would see him, you know, grab some time in third base again, of course. Mark Vientos does have some splits where he has crushed left-handed pitching, has him in quite as good against Rites. I still think you need Vientos in the lineup more days than not. I don't want to see him on the bench against all right-handed pitching for Brett Beatty. And I don't think he would. Instead, I think Brett Beatty would steal some starts at third. I think they would actually start him at second base a little bit. He would simply tune him and Iglesias at second. Jeff McNeil is going to write more. I think that's the move. Brett Beatty would be the first bat off the bench in games that he doesn't start. It makes the most sense for Brett Beatty to come back because he's probably the best player that could come back. And I think that's the way the Mets would ultimately lean knowing that they have enough outfield depth with Tyrone Taylor and DJ Stewart being able to fill the void from Marte and with Jeff McNeil being able to slide out to the outfield a lot more. Now the one roster that was already made, Sean Reed Foley hit the IL with a shoulder issue. Same one that was at the end of spring training that had him out and on the IL to start the season. He's been great this year so hopefully he's back pretty soon. But for now he's going to get a little bit of a respite here and Danny Young is back up. If Danny Young continues to pitch as well as he has and again today, phase four batters retired them all. When Sean Reed Foley is ready, I think we could finally see the Mets make a tough DFA whether that's Drew Smith, Jake Deakman or Adam Adavino. I think that could be in the cars because Danny Young might be the lefty that the Mets really need to get the tough lefty out when you're facing the Phillies or the Braves. You need someone to get out Bryce Harper, Matt Olson, whatever it is. I think that might be where you would see Danny Young have a really, really crucial role for the Mets down the stretch of the season. So we'll see what happens. I am glad to see Young up but losing Sean Reed Foley out to the team got better. I think they've probably stayed close to the same because I really do think Danny Young is going to be that effective. Now getting back to the rotation with Tyler McGill, I just want to talk about where the Mets are at with their schedule. So Luis Severino as I already mentioned will be starting on Sunday. David Peterson and Sean Manai will start the two game series against the Yankees and you have off days that are sandwiching that series. So off day on Monday, off day on Thursday, that means that Jose Quintana is going to start on Friday. I would assume although that lines up three lefties in a row in your rotation, but I think they probably go Quintana then again if they wanted to, you have Severino pitching on Sunday. You could turn them right back around and start them on Friday if you really wanted to on regular rest. Food for thought, but you'll see some combination of Severino Quintana and then probably Peter Anderson in that series against the Astros. And you could just actually option McGill if you wanted to tomorrow or Sunday and add another reliever to your bullpen and go without a fifth starter for the rest of this month. You really could do that. You won't need a fifth starter until July 2nd. You could go with these two guys that are going to start in the Subway series and they could pitch again after Quintana or Quintana. That's the combination of Quintana and Severino. So after Quintana, you could go with, you know, Peterson and Manaya and you would not need a starter until July 2nd. That could be Tyler McGill or if you option him, you have another reliever for a week and then you could go to Jose Budo or Christian Scott. The Mets had said for the longest time that it was going to be a short stint in AAA for Christian Scott. He's definitely the best pitcher of that group because he has just the ceiling that's more than Jose Budo. So you could see Scott come back. I predicted from the beginning that we wouldn't see Christian Scott until July. It's certainly looking like that's going to be the case here. If he does come back into the rotation though, you have a stretch that begins with the series against the Astros on Friday of 17 games and 17 days. This Christian Scott ready to start in a five man rotation in the big leagues after being rested for the most part for this past month where he's been on a limited pitch count. I just don't see it. So, are you going to hold Scott out for the rest of the time until the All-Star break? Because you need a six man rotation and it's hard to manage that with your bullpen. And so that would just say, all right, put Jose Budo in there. That is an option. Or are you going to go to a six man rotation that includes Scott in Budo or is McGill just going to stay in the rotation and Christian Scott is going to come into the fold. Those are all the options that the Mets have here. But one that I think could happen if the Mets really want to get creative with this. They could essentially have a five man rotation with Christian Scott and then rely on spot starters where if Adrian Houser has not been used for a period of time, you go to an Adrian Houser bullpen game where maybe you have an opener and the Houser comes in if you want to or you just give Houser a spot start here and there and that could get you through that stretch or the other thing the Mets could do is they could call on, let's just say Scott goes into the rotation on July 2nd. They could call Jose Budo whenever you need that six starter to make a start option, whoever it is down, if it's Danny Young has that optionality. So whatever it is, and then you go back and you end up optioning Budo back down and you cycle and then the next time that six starter comes up, you can bring up Joe Lucas potentially. There are ways the Mets can get around it. I'm very curious what happens and I think if McGill is going to get bounced from this rotation, we won't find out on Sunday, but we'll find out on Tuesday and the Mets will add an arm to the bullpen or we'll just see them make us a straight flip and Christian Scott will come up or Jose Budo will come up and we'll just know. We'll see exactly what the Mets decide to do, but there's a lot of roster maneuvering that I think will take place when the Mets get back to New York, they're gonna have to make some decisions on Starling Marte and potentially on their rotation as they face the Yankees and then a stretch against some bad teams, but still a grueling stretch nonetheless of 17 games in 17 days before the all-star break and those 17 games will probably decide the Mets fate at the deadline. So a lot in store. Now before we close the show today, I promised a farm report, so I'm going to touch on all of the top pitching prospects in the system in just a minute. First though, a word from our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by Tax Network USA. Here with locked on Mets, we pride ourselves on giving you your daily coverage all year round. Just because tax season is over, doesn't mean the IRS will stop coming after you for unfiled taxes. 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There will be a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup finals if you want to be up to date on all the latest in the world of sports. Make sure you check out locked on sports today streaming 24/7 on YouTube. Now let's go through all the different levels of the met system and talk about some pitchers. The top pitching prospects in this system, Blake Tidwell. I imagine he starts on Sunday because we haven't seen him since last Sunday, June 16th. He went four innings, allowed three runs. His second start with that line, ERA I think has gone north of five now in Triple A. It's tough to pitch there. It really is. Unless you're Christian Scott who has had no problem in Triple A, you see Blake Tidwell, Tom Hamill, Mike Vassel, they've all struggled in Triple A after having great success in Double A. Tidwell is obviously the best of those three pitching prospects and he did have early success. Now he's going through a little bit, but I think he's in the right place for the rest of the season. I don't think we'll see Blake Tidwell this year, but next year, Blake Tidwell certainly could be an impact pitcher from the Mets and he is gagging the development he needs against some really tough competition in Triple A right now. Meanwhile, Tom Hamill had another clunker, so he's still struggling, ERA north of six. Mike Vassel has been better as of late, but still not great. He allowed two runs in his start this week over five innings pitch, but gave up eight hits in those five innings. Now the depth that the Mets have right now in Triple A, my opinion, for this season, it's Christian Scott, Jose Budo, and Joey Luccese. Those are the guys. I also will note that Mike Puma reported that the New York Mets could consider trading some of their starters at the deadline while still trying to contend. Why would they do that? What would that mean? Well, because they have Scott Budo and Luccese, as well as Kodai Senga, who's going to face live batters this week, I can't remember the day, I think it might be Wednesday, regardless who's going to have an ending of live BP. That goes well. I imagine he might get a rehab assignment at some point soon. I still don't expect to see him until probably August, but he could be ready right around the deadline where you feel confident on all right, Kodai Senga has a clean bill of health. He's going to be our ace. He's going to be our big addition, and I know people hate that. It's very will-pond thinking, "Oh, the guy that's injured is the big trade-down acquisition," but sometimes that proves to be the case. We'll see what happens with Senga, but because of that depth the Mets have, they could trade a Chamanaya or a Jose Quintana backfill in with a Budo and be fine or a Budo and Luccese. The one guy, if you're actually contenting that I don't think you trade is Severino. That Severino would probably get you the best package, but if the Mets are in the mix, you need Luis Severino in your rotation because if you want any shot at being that surprise team with the Diamondbacks last year, that is the just everything clicked at the right time team, you need Severino as part of your playoff rotation. If you're fortunate enough to get that far and you always can tag him with a qualifying offer, which if he accepted, fine, good pitcher on a one-year deal, and if he keeps this up throughout the rest of the season, he probably wouldn't accept it and then you get some draft pick competition when he signs all-swear. I think that's probably the guy that would be off limits if the Mets were in that weird buy-sell situation. Now, let's move back to the prospects, AA, big injury return to talk about Bryce Montez de Aca, one inning pitch tonight, I believe, two strike outs, 12 pitches, nine strikes. If you remember Montez de Aca, got Tommy John's surgery. He was very close to the big leagues when he did that was at the time touching 101-102 with a heavy, heavy sinker. So we'll see. We'll see if Montez de Aca is what he was. I'm sure we're going to see plenty of mild league appearances before he could come up this year. But that is a name to keep in your back pocket that could have a big impact down the stretch of this season. If everything goes right as he is still building himself back up after Tommy John. Also in double-edged, the starting pitchers, you got Joanda Suarez at a great start this week. Seven innings, pitch, one-run run, he had been struggling a little bit lately, so his season area is 4.39, so good to see him get back on track, Tyler Stewart, five innings pitch, two-run runs as a 4.89 year in the season. So he has not been quite what he was last year. Definitely at the level he should be getting challenged a lot. We'll see if he can turn things around a little bit as the season continues to wear on in Bighamton. Noel McLean had a brutal start this week, two and a third gave up five runs. McLean is the two-way player the Mets have talked about him on yesterday's show when I was doing the farm report for the position player side where he's hit two home runs and is 29 at bats lately, whatever was the camera that I think was the last two weeks. So he hasn't been great hitting and a bad start. He's got a 6.93 ERA in six starts in double-a. He is a very raw pitcher, has a lot to work on to go from being a two-way player in college. So it's more of a reliever to actually stretch down and being a starting pitcher that can do it once a week. So he is a project, but a project was really good stuff. Hopefully he can figure it out. Meanwhile, Brendan Sprote, who is clearly the Mets top pitching prospect right now, not named Christian Scott, he had a bad start this week, four earned runs, but he did get through six, struck out just two. That was only a second start all season where he allowed more than one earned run and the other one he allowed three. So he's had two lackluster starts, a lot of really good ones. I would not be worried at all about Brendan Sprote. All right. Haye, Jonah Tong had a good start, five innings pitch, one hit allowed, walk three, struck out, seven. His ERA is 368 in nine starts in Haye. If you remember Jonah Tong set the world on fire, important to Lucy this year, he did not allow a run and struck out like two batters per inning. I exaggerated that maybe a touch, but not much. I mean, it was an insane strikeout rate now at a level that is a lot more challenging. He still was 20 years old, I think, 19 or 20, but he is starting to figure some things out. And it's good that he had some struggles. He's actually 21 years old. I was making him a little bit younger there. He turned 21, I just turned 21 this past week, man, did Jonah Tong light that the city on fire in Brooklyn? I wonder what he did. Who knows? These guys are so crazy about baseball, probably not, but hey, happy 21st birthday to Jonah Tong. It was on Wednesday, 19th. All right. Now we got Kate Morris to talk about also in Haye had a quality start, six innings pitch, allowed two runs on three hits, two walks, four strikeouts. Really good start for him. He has struggled a bit since getting promoted from St. Lucie to Brooklyn has a 485 ERA so far. That's after his good start, but those are the two arms to really watch in Haye right now. Beyond that, there aren't really a lot of names that are going to jump out too much. You have Joelle Diaz who had a decent start in St. Lucie this week, but overall we'll talk about these guys as they continue to establish themselves. For now, if you look at the top pitching prospects in this farm system, it is basically Christian Scott Brandon Sprott. Scott's going to graduate from that list soon, Blade Tidwell, Jonah Tong, then you still have Dom Hamill, Mike Vassel, and then you get to that group of Kate Morris, Tyler Stewart, Joanda Suarez, all these other guys who are starters. Justin Jarvis has pitched well, of course, I should mention that. I think this week, he was nine innings pitch and a couple of earned runs. That was in Bigham, 10. He had one start, that was pretty good, and then a relief appearance where he went three scoreless. A lot of pitching in this system that we will continue to monitor throughout this season. I appreciate all of you who have tuned in to today's show. I'll be back, of course, for your Monday episode of Lockdown Met, where we will talk about whatever happened in this Cub series and start to get ready for Yankees coming up here, Subway series. A lot of fun ahead, appreciate all of you who continue to tune in. If you're listening on the audio side, follow the written review, we'll get your podcast. 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