The New York Mets got back on track on Friday night, beating up on the Miami Marlins in a 7-3 victory. Also, President of Baseball Operations David Stearns spoke with the media and shared some interesting insight on top prospect Brandon Sproat, as well as Mark Vientos and Brett Baty, amongst others.
Host Ryan Finkelstein recaps the game and then dives into his biggest takeaways from Stearns' comments on Friday.
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Card has no cash access and expires in six months at ctmobile.com. You are locked on Mets, your daily New York Mets podcast. Part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hello to all you Mays and Mets fans. You are 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's friend available on all platforms, including YouTube. If you're watching on YouTube today, it is audio only for the next two days. I'm out of town. And actually, also I should mention, if there's any audio issues as well, I apologize. I'm recording this on my phone. I think it'll sound OK. I bring my mic when I go on the road. But today, for whatever reason, or on this trip, I forgot the cord that makes my mic attached to my laptop. So I'm already doing things a little bit differently. But I wanted to get a show out today because a lot went down on Friday. First things first, we'll talk about the first segment. It's the Mets being the Marlins doing what you're supposed to do against a bad team. But also, David Stern has met with the media prior to the game. And he got into a lot of interesting stuff that I wanted to discuss. The health of Kodai Senga and Christian Scott. Weather will see Brendan Sprout this year, talked a little bit about Brett Beatty and Marc Vientos. I'll cover all of that in the final two segments today. Before we get into any of it, though, I'm your host, Ryan Fickelstein. Want to find any of my work? Follow me on X at Fickelstein. Ryan will also find some of my writing at justbaseball.com, where I work as the managing editor. All right, so let's open things up talking about the Mets game because they did what you're supposed to do. And it was a beautiful thing. You go up against the Marlins and you face Roger E. Munoz, you've got to score runs. And if you're Sean and I, you've got to pinch deep into the game. And both of those things happen. Exactly what you wanted coming in. The Mets delivered on all fronts. Even Jose Budo with two scoreless things out of the bullpen. So this was a pitch-perfect game against a bad team. Now, the Mets got on the board early in the first inning. Thanks to an error by the Marlins. When another team makes a mistake, he capitalized on it. The Mets went with a different lineup today. Francisco Lindore batting lead off. Marc Vientos batting second. Brandon Nemo, I talked about dropping him all the way to ninth on yesterday's show. They went to just dropping him from the two hole to the three hole, which originally I didn't love. Nemo made me like it a little bit more later in the game. But in that first inning, Nemo hits a dribbler to the pitcher. Pitcher makes a bad throw. Munoz throws it away. That allows Nemo to get to second base. Now there's two outs. Runner on second. JD Martinez, whose band cleanup comes up. Take advantage of those spots. He gets a base hit to score Nemo. And the Mets get on the board first. Now Sean and I was pitching well early. But in the fourth inning, he gives up that lead. Gives up a pair of doubles that ultimately result in two runs. Although the second run, not entirely his fault. He got what could have been an inning ending double play. Peter Lonzo, not able to keep his foot on the bag. That allows the second run to score. So for a fleeting moment, we were all worried. Oh gosh, here we go again. Mets against a bad team. They're losing. The bats aren't going through the first three innings. Really the only run the Mets got was because the Marlins made a mistake. And I don't know about you guys, but I was getting a little bit worried. I mean, come on. How could you not? It's the Marlins. And for some reason, they're not as easy to beat as they should be. But today, the Mets got the job done thanks to a huge fourth inning. And it all started with Jeff McNeil. Francisco Alvarez got on with a walk. And Jeff McNeil cashed him in with a two run homer. The seventh since the All-Star break, 12 from the season. The way Jeff McNeil said no one runs, he might get to 20 this year. Who even knows it is unbelievable the terror that Jeff has been on. And he broke that ice for the Mets. They take the lead back and then they just make it a lopsided game quickly, which was awesome to see. Harrison Bader drew a walk. He scored on an RBI triple for Francisco Lindor. Mark Fantos got hit by a pitch. And as I said, I like Nimmo Batten third a little bit more after this game because Nimmo ends up hitting a three run homer. That's all the runs that Sean and I needed. He did give up another run on a homer to Jake Berger. It doesn't matter. He ends up going seven, which was huge for the Mets. And Jose Budo gets the job done, pitching the final two innings. Mets end up getting a huge, much needed victory. Now for this to actually be a victory that we can look back on and say, oh, yeah, great job, Mets. You got to back it up. Okay. Just winning one against the Marlins and dropping Saturday's game and erases all the goodwill that you built by taking care of business in this first game. I said it on yesterday's show through a lot of emotions as I recorded fresh after that frustrating game against the athletics and that loss of a series where the Mets should have won it. I said it then. I'll say it now. You got to sweep this series. You've got to beat up on this Marlins team for the last chance this season to play the Marlins. Make the most of it. I'm glad for at least this day the Mets did exactly that and making things even more sweet when it comes to this victory. The Atlanta Braves lost to the Angels. So the Mets creep a little bit closer. Had they beaten the athletics on Thursday, maybe even with the Braves right now. But we'll take a game back. Nice little advancement from the Mets here to get a little bit closer. Hopefully the Braves who looked for half of a second there when they took the first three games of that series against the Giants like they were going to be back to being the same old Braves. They now lost two games in a row and the hope is that losing might continue this weekend. The Angels were frisky against the Mets. Can they continue to grab at least one more even against the Braves? That would be a really big thing for this Mets team where maybe we'll wake it up on Monday and the Mets are even with the Braves in this division. But at least for the night, no complaints about what happened on the field for the Mets. They did what they're supposed to do. Now we'll see if Luis Severino going up against a top pitching prospect in Max Meyer. We'll see if Sevi can get the best out of Meyer in that matchup. I talked about Meyer on yesterday's show, a guy who started off this season and was fantastic. He has struggled since coming back up to the big leagues. Hopefully those struggles continue, but this is a guy that could lock in. It should be a very fun game and the onus is on Sevi to pitch deep into this game and for this Mets lineup to find a way to score off Meyer and beyond that, get him out of the game early and beat up on the Marlins bullpen. You got to feel good about their chances considering what they did today, but even with that, it was one big inning. I'd like to see the Mets put it together, inning over inning and really just make a statement this weekend beating up a bad team and just getting themselves feeling confident and right before the Orioles come into town because that test is going to be much, much tougher. Now, to close out the show, like I mentioned, David Stern said a lot today, I want to break that all down, so we'll talk about it in just a minute. First though, quick word from our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by Liquid IV. 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Now David Stern's met with the media today and I felt like we got a lot of really interesting tidbits. I don't know if it was just the time of year that he spoke because other times he has had these media sessions and I haven't felt like we've learned much. Maybe it was just the questions that the reporters asked today. But I came away really interested in a lot of the different things that he said and there's a lot of talking points that we can go off of based on some of his comments and the main one is Brandon Sprode. I think Brandon Sprode was sort of the story of the presser today. If those of you who weren't aware, Brandon Sprode is the top prospect in the Mets system. I know at just baseball we have him ranked at number 18 in our top 100. So that shows you how highly valued this prospect is as the fourth best pitching prospect in all of baseball and the highest met on the top 100. I think MLB pipeline as Brandon Sprode at number one as well. So this guy is really exciting. He has gone from high A this year all the way up to triple A. And obviously there's a lot of intrigue. I've been talking about Brandon Sprode potentially making his debut this season for months now. Okay. So this has been a story that I've been covering and a lot of outlets have. So I was excited to see the reporter sort of put David Sterns for the test here ask him a lot of questions about Sprode and we got some good answers. So here is the big thing that he said. He says, I think he has had about Sprode about as good of a minor league season as you could possibly have. I think he's thrown more strikes. He's rounded as Arsenal. He's improved his change up. He's competed at very high level very consistently. He's bounced back from the occasional rough outing. So we've been really pleased with how he has developed this year. He then talked about the fact that Sprode needs experience. He said he's a very new player to professional baseball since he has moved quickly through the Matt system and he has earned that. He said he deserves that. But I think we need to make sure he dominates the level he is at now before we talk about what he does next. Now the reporters didn't stop asking them Sprode questions and I loved it. They pressed him on it again and this is where Davis Cerns basically sort of put a kabosh on all of these Sprode questions. He said he's a triple A player. When he's not a triple A player, he'll be happy to take questions about him. And that was in relation to the constant questions about if or when we could see Brandon Sprode this season. One of the questions is about the fact that Brandon Sprode does not need to be added to the 40-man roster this off season. He was drafted just last year. How would that weigh into the Matt's decision here whether or not to promote Sprode? I think if you look at what David Stearns has said throughout his entire time being the GM of the Matt's as we've gone to know or the president of the Matt's. He has said that when it comes to promoting a player, it comes down to two things. Team need and where a player is at in his development. I think that David Stearns really in this presser, he made it clear how much the Matt's value Brandon Sprode. He made sure to acknowledge that there's still development that he needs to undergo in the minor leagues and he also dodged the question about whether the Matt's would call him up. He was also asked, we'll talk about this a little bit as it relates to Bret Beatty and Luis and Hella Cunha as well as others in the next segment about the September call-ups. And he said that those positions since it's now just two, you get basically one pitcher and one hitter added to the roster that those positions will be very fluid. You could see a lot of guys maybe go up and down in those spots. Essentially, it's an extension of the MLB taxi squad, if it were, especially on the pitching side of things. Now, when it comes to Kong Sprode up by saying he's a AAA player, when he's not a AAA player, we'll talk about it, to me, that's still without intending it leaves the door cracked, right? Like, you never know what's going to happen. I think that the Mets in an ideal world would not go to Brandon Sprode this year, not my ideal world, and David Stern's ideal world. They would stay away from promoting Brandon Sprode because the bullpen with the internal options they already have outside of Sprode that are on the 40-man roster, that they'll be able to solidify things and they won't need them. And the same thing can be said about the starting rotation that ultimately they would probably prefer to keep him in AAA, have him dominate that level to close out the year, then go into the offseason, keep him off the floor to keep that roster flexibility, and next year he has a chance to potentially win a job in spring training. That would be the most ideal outcome from a roster building perspective. But if the Mets need an arm, don't be surprised if they still call him Sprode, and then David Stern's will stand in front of the media, answer the questions again, and he'll explain why MLB need plus what this guy can do has necessitated that call up if and when that ever takes place. But again, a lot of really interesting stuff on Brandon Sprode, and it's clear that he is the crown jewel of this farm system right now. Now, on the pitching front, there were some other things to discuss, there was a lot talked about when it came to the walks we see him from the Mets this year, I didn't really learn anything new there, that didn't really jump out into something that needs to be discussed. He said that it's been something that they are cognizant of, they're working on, Steve Gels was really asking those questions and others followed, but I don't really take much from it. He was also asked about the durability of the curtain starters, particularly Paul Blackburn coming off the long injury, David Peterson coming off the hip surgery, and potentially seeing his innings climbing, climbing, climbing to a place that they haven't been before. And David Stern has basically said that to stay the rotation right now, they're in a good shape, like on the medical side of things, how these guys are bouncing back from starts, what the trainers think, they believe that their rotation as presently constructed is in good standing to make it through this season, and obviously, there is still some depth beyond Brandon Sprode. So, if the Mets needed a starting pitcher, I think Tylor McGill would still be the first guy up. You also have Mike Massell, who is pitching well in AAA, maybe he would come up, and you also have two injured pitchers, which is where we're going to go next here, Christian Scott and Kodai Senga. David Stern's answer questions on both of those guys, we'll start with Senga. He said that the Mets are still going through their initial, or that Kodai Senga is going through his initial phases of recovery right now, and the good news is because this is a lower body injury, he is able to keep his arm movement, he's able to throw, but throw immobilized. And he said the first big step that the Mets need to see is Kodai Senga get upright and throw. So, right now, I don't know exactly if he's playing catch, if he's got a folding chair on a mound and he's thrown to a catcher, but Kodai Senga is throwing in a seated position clearly, keeping that arm going so hopefully if and when he's cleared for throwing upright and then eventually to actually pitch, you know, bullpen, lad BP's, all that stuff, hopefully the ramp up is not as long as it was the last time when he was coming off of a long shoulder injury. So, that is a good sign and another big aspect of this is they asked when we might see Kodai Senga or when he might get upright and that big step will take place and David Stern said hopefully within the next seven to ten days. So, let's just say it is ten days from now, we'll say it's August 27th and Kodai Senga's upright and throwing and his arm, you know, checks out, there's no issues there, his legs are all good to go, the calf strain, apologies, I'm recording this late at night and I don't have internet in my car so I can't look it up quickly, it was a calf, right, I believe it was a calf strain, regardless, the hope is that, you know, when he starts to get upright and throwing, it can start moving along his process, I don't expect Kodai Senga to pitch at any point in the next, I don't know, three, four weeks for sure, but is there a world where Kodai Senga is ready to go for the end of September and then maybe the playoffs, I still think that that is a timetable that could come through for the Mets but really it's just on this team, just like it was in the first half of the season, to hold down the fort and then hopefully Kodai Senga can take the Mets somewhere once he comes back. So that's the big wild card, if you get Kodai Senga back healthy, ready to go for the playoffs and you actually make it, your chances get significantly better come October, so we'll see how that develops, the last one is on Christian Scott and there's not really any big news, all you said is that he's still throwing his playing catch and that has been going well but they have not gone to the point where he is throwing off the slope, where he's throwing bullpens, live batters, all that stuff, still waiting to see how his arm, I guess, adjusts to playing catch on whatever regular basis they haven't doing that on and so for now there's no news on Christian Scott, those two guys could be huge pieces in late September, I feel like, I mean Christian Scott's ahead of Senga but I also think that they're going to be, I don't know if I'd say more cautious because they don't want to hurt Senga as well but Senga's not coming off an arm injury, it's a leg injury, Christian Scott was your top pitching prospect before he graduated this year and is a big big piece of that 2025 rotation and he had a sprained UCL, so they're not going to do anything to jeopardize Christian Scott's season next year, for now it is wait and see mode on both Senga and Scott but there is a world where both of them are available to the Mets down the stretch and that would be a very, very welcome addition. In the final segment today we're going to talk about Brett Beatty, Mark Vientos, little Louis and Hella Cunha, just what could we see down the stretch when it comes to either Beatty or a Cunha taking that spot as a September call up and for Vientos what's the long-term view of him at third base from David Stern's perspective, I'll get to all that in just a minute, first though another word from our sponsors. 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As I already mentioned when it comes to the September call ups, David Stern said that the guy that gets called up or the guys that get called up on September 1st very well could be rotated and called up and down throughout the month of September as rosters are not locked once you get to September they just expand to 28 and you have a limit of 14 pictures. So first and foremost, the Mets are going to add an extra arm to their bullpen, that's almost a sure thing. I doubt that we're going to see a six man rotation until Kodai Senka or Christian Scott is ready to return and even then that's not going to happen on September 1st. Now it might happen midway through the month and that extra roster spot could be very beneficial to the Mets when that happens but just look at it as a nine man bullpen and that's probably the taxi squad reliever that's just you know turn style, they're going to be just flipping names throughout the final month which is a nice benefit to have for a team that's going to have to win as many games as possible in September. When it comes to the position player spot though, I don't think we're going to see as much of that turnover as Stern's is suggesting. Could we see a couple different guys in September absolutely but in my opinion it's going to be Brett Beatty. I think Brett Beatty is going to come up Luis and Helikunya while he's on the 40. He has not hit for a month now in triple A. I have to dive back into the numbers to make sure I'm right about that but he had what was it a great, it's been so long and I can't even remember if it was a great mayor or a great June. I believe it was a great June and it wasn't even necessarily great. It was a really good June and then I was wondering is he going to keep it up in July and he didn't and he has really struggled since then. So Akuna makes sense as a piece off your bench when it comes to his ability to steal bases and play defense and that might be something that gets him on the roster this year. Is that the first card that they decide to play on September 1st? I don't believe so. I think they're going to go with the best possible player and that's Brett Beatty and Brett Beatty is getting hot at the right time. He's now homered four times in his last seven games in triple A and when asked about Brett Beatty and his defense in second base he said David Sterns did. That Brett Beatty has worked really hard over there and essentially said that he looks good now at second and pretty much alluded to the fact that he can play that position and that gives him extra roster flexibility so now you can start Brett Beatty and Mark Vientos in the same lineup with Peter Lonzo if you so chose. So I think that has been a really good development for Beatty. He now has that ability to play second to play third and currently he's pretty far down in the depth chart when it comes to being a starting player on the Mets. Mark Vientos has clearly passed him up and going into next year Brett Beatty does not have a long runway to just be the starting third base, second base, whatever. Now we'll see what roster construction, what position the construction of the roster puts the Mets when that time comes. If Peter Lonzo walks they don't sign another infielder, yeah maybe there's a world where the Mets are going into opening day and it's a competition at third base between Brett Beatty, Ryan Mauricio, I don't know even Luis de Hellucunia and Mark Vientos has slid over to first base but we're not going to know that for a long time and Beatty at this point in his career is going to have to earn every single thing he's not going to just be given a wide open runway to be the starting player like he was this year. Now he did earn the job in spring training, he had a good sprint but the Mets were going to give him every opportunity to earn that job. I think that has changed with that said going down there working hard to become a second baseman that's not easy, he deserves credit for that and now like I said over the past week and change here he's starting to figure it out with the bat which is a really good thing because I think the Mets would love to have him come up be part of their stretch run, get that final bit of development at the big league level to help him hopefully be a bigger piece next year and he does give you a left handed theoretical power about the bench who could play second and third so I think we're going to see Brett Beatty, I really do, now the alternative argument would be Louisa and Hela Koona could thrive more in a bit role than Brett Beatty could but I'm not sure if the Mets want to bring a Koona up to just be a bit player instead of getting to play every single day in Syracuse to close out this season and learning as much as they can about a Koona heading into next year when it comes to how he can make adjustments, how he handles playing every day, playing short style playing center field all of those things, I think it's important for them to keep a Koona on that every day schedule more than Brett Beatty where he has already come up to the big leagues and he's trying to find his footing, I think it'll be Beatty not a Koona. Now the other notes that we have about the position players are particularly on Mark Vientos and when David Stearns was very complimentary of Vientos talking about the adjustments that he's made from adjusting to be able to play a third base to the adjustments he's had to make as the league has adjusted to him and he has proven that he's a big leaguer. When asked about the future for Mark Vientos he said that this has been a very good year for Vientos to solidify himself as a major league player. He said that he's improved defensively where they are running them out there a third base pretty much every day and as a testament to all the work that Mark Vientos has put in. Now long term, does Mark Vientos fit better on the Mets than third base or first base? It really just depends on what happens to Pete Alonso and the one thing I'll say about this for all of you who love Mark Vientos right now and right flew so, who think the right move is to move on from Pete because you have Vientos waiting in the wings to be your everyday first baseman for the foreseeable future. What I would say is yes, you are right about that. Having Vientos as the starting first baseman makes a lot of sense and that is the best thing for him long term as much as he is improved defensively at third base. I still think his best position is probably first base. With all of that set, Mark Vientos and Pete Alonso are a better combination of players next year and for years into the future, the Mark Vientos and Brett Beatty. So if the market does not develop for the Mets on getting a Juan Soto and the market does not develop for Pete Alonso on getting that lucrative contract that he wants and the two sides can have a reunion and meet somewhere in the middle on each of their demands and sign a team friendly deal, the best Mets team next year still probably has Pete Alonso at first and Mark Vientos at third and Beatty being blocked a little bit while he forces way into playing time. But I just don't think the Mets are ready to commit to that. David Stern basically said that just saying that right now the focus is on this season and next year they're going to consider their options. So we'll see exactly what happens with Vientos beyond 2024 but for now, he's their starting with their basement, he's batting in the two hole, pretty crazy stuff for a guy that did not make the roster but really exciting all the same. Anyway, that's going to be all for today's edition of Lockdown Mets. I appreciate all of you who tuned into the show and now I got to get back inside, get on the Wi-Fi and try to piece this whole thing together. I hope it all comes out good and you guys get your typical morning release and I will be back for another show tomorrow, breaking out whatever happens in Saturday's game against the Marlins. So make sure you tune into that as always. Thank you for listening. Make sure you follow, rate and review, wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe if you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and get to 10,000 subs by the end of the season. So I appreciate all of you who continue to subscribe there. You're following me on X. I think Willstein Ryan, follow the show at Lockdown Mets. Thank you for making Lockdown Mets. You first listen to your first watch every day and after your second watch, head over to YouTube and check out the first ever 24/7 streaming channel. 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