Mets players probably have a few weeks — let’s call it a month — to prove to the front office that they can launch themselves into the Wild Card race. Otherwise, that front office will be forced to enter July preparing to again be trade deadline sellers.
It’s not what the organization wants to do, and they are still hoping to avoid it. But these are the hard facts of what is, at least for now, a bad situation.
Say this for the team’s new leadership group, headed by manager Carlos Mendoza and president of baseball operations David Stearns: they are not going down without a fight. And wherever they fall in the standings this year, they are in lockstep about turning up the organizational intensity.
Tuesday’s quick decision to cut Jorge Lopez after the reliever’s glove toss and postgame comments — whether or not one agrees with the way the Mets dealt with a complex situation — provided a window into Stearns and Mendoza’s collaboration, which is still in its infancy.
The upshot is that they are willing to be aggressive, keep players on their toes, and send a message that a big league roster spot has to be earned on a daily basis.
Anyone in the Yankees organization can tell you that Mendoza brings a proactive demeanor and belief system. As Aaron Boone’s bench coach, he was unafraid to be assertive with players and push back on front office ideas with which he did not agree.
As a rookie manager across town, he appeared with a fully formed in-game style that made clear he was unafraid to execute aggressive pitching changes or go off script if his eyes and experience told him that the moment called for it.
In Stearns, he has found a boss supportive of this style, and willing to approve fast roster moves. On Tuesday night, when Mendoza considered Lopez’s behavior unacceptable and counter to the culture that he was trying to create, he and Stearns decided to cut the reliever that night.
As one league official who knows and deeply respects both Mendoza and former Mets manager Luis Rojas noted, Rojas would likely have taken more time to think through the Lopez decision, and might or might not have cut him. Mendoza acted immediately.
That is not a criticism of Rojas, who was severely underrated as the Mets’ manager and got a raw deal taking the fall after a bad year for the entire organization. But it’s an instructive observation about the difference between two good baseball men.
On Friday, the Mets traded for Yankees catcher Luis Torrens and designated Omar Narvaez for assignment. They didn’t have to do anything at catcher until Francisco Alvarez returned from the injured list.
But in Torrens, they saw a player who Mendoza knew from the Yankees organization, and who Mets executives had identified because of his progression as a defender, especially his framing numbers.
Torrens is out of minor league options, according to a source, meaning that his time with the Mets might be very short. But that’s the point: Why not raise the floor of the roster for a few weeks — especially when those weeks will determine if the Mets sell at the deadline?
The team also swapped out Brett Baty for Jose Iglesias, giving the one-time top prospect less rope than he received last season.
These moves could represent marginal improvements on the field. I asked Mendoza if they were also intended to send a message to the clubhouse.
“Yeah,” he said. “Competition is always healthy. It’s always important.”
In other words: Losing is unacceptable, complacency worse. The organization will not bide its time and do nothing while the team struggles.
It’s not like Narvaez or Baty were the primary reasons for those struggles. The Mets will go nowhere if stars Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz don’t carry them there.
But the impact of aggressive moves on the margins stretches beyond win probabilities. Mendoza and Stearns are trying to change the entire tone around the Mets; call it less talk about process and more action around results.
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