New York Mets Are Down To Final Four Games Of 2025 – Rico Brogna Episode 556

New York Mets Are Down To Final Four Games Of 2025 – Rico Brogna Episode 556

It’s the Amazing Rico Bron podcast with your host Evan Roberts. Rico Bron episode number 556. The Mets showed us all their warts. They showed every issue this team has in one giant ass whooping on a Wednesday night against the Chicago Cubs as they lose 10 to three. I believe we saw it all. We saw terrible starting pitching. We saw atrocious defense. We saw questionable managing. And we really saw an LD offense do nothing except hit a couple of home runs that was not nearly enough. the two-run shot by Francisco Alvarez and Juan Solo with a specialty in the eighth inning down 10-2 to make it 10 to3. It was a disaster. It was a disaster on all accounts. And I wish I could say I was surprised. I think that most of us watching this team all year can’t be surprised. They have done such an awful job of building off of any potential momentum all year long. And this is another example of it. They had a win on Tuesday. We did a very excited Rico Bron 24 hours ago in which I don’t regret anything I said because as excited as I was, I did warn you. I don’t feel good. Like I’m not confident. It’s not like it’s going to change how I feel about this team. But it was a great win. And you’re hoping, even if you don’t believe it, you’re hoping that a win like that, what I like to call a DVD kind of win, a win you put on the championship video or DVD or YouTube or whatever we do these days, you would hope a win like that coming from all those runs down, getting a sixout save from Edwin Diaz, having all different players, whether it was bullpen arms or offensive players, step up, you would hope that would lead to something. But there is a saying in baseball, and I think this saying turned out to be really true in this game, momentum is as good as the next day’s starting pitcher. And unfortunately, Jonah Tong is reminding us, and I think this is very obvious now through the five starts that he’s made, that he’s not ready. Doesn’t mean he can’t be successful someday. doesn’t mean he can’t be in the rotation next year, but it is clear through these five starts in which two of them have been disasters, two of them have been okay and one of them was really good that he’s just not ready. You know, we hear so much about the Vulcan change up. It was getting pounded in this game. We hear so much about how deceptive his fastball is. It was getting pounded in this game. And I think what we see from a young pitcher like Jonah Tong, and we’ve seen it through these five starts, and I even thought we saw it in this game despite a final line of two innings, five runs, is you see the good. You see why he’s highly regarded. You see why the Mets are in love, and you even see some poise. like how he got through the first inning, which we’ll get to in a minute, showed a lot of poise, much like how he battled in his last start after he overcame not only a rocky first inning, but also overcoming what had happened in his previous start of getting knocked out in the first inning against the Texas Rangers in the Deg Grom return game. So, we’ve seen some moxy from the kid. We see the stuff, but he’s raw as hell and he’s not ready. And I argued with Tiki about this about a month ago or a couple of weeks ago that they weren’t rushing Nolan Mlan. They weren’t rushing Brandon Sprro. And I stand by that. Not that they’re perfect, but I don’t think they were rushed. I think both guys clearly proved they were ready. Jonah Tong was rushed. And he was rushed for two reasons. Number one, they’re desperate. And that has been clear as day with the state of this Mets rotation. But also because he was dominant. Like it isn’t like Jonah Tong wasn’t pitching well in double A and in his two starts in AAA. He was pitching really well. But there is a reason as much as we scream and yell, there is a reason why you need seasoning. There’s a reason why you need to take your bumps and your successes at the minor league level. And unfortunately the Mets are in a spot David Stern’s fault. No question. Want to put some of it on Jeremy Hefner? Sure, why not? But the Mets are in a position while they’re in a pennet race to just have so many questions in their rotation that one of their best options is to throw a kid who made two major league starts at Triple A. I thought Jonah Tong in the first inning and he got very unlucky and lucky at the same time. When you go back and look at this first inning, he gives up the leadoff double to Michael Bush and then he strikes out Nicoer on a two- two pitch that for whatever reason the homeplayed umpire DJ Rabber just flat out missed. And look, ESPN has the strike zone box. Carl Ravage is quoting it like it’s the Bible, but it’s right there in front of us. And it seemed pretty clear that Jonah Tong struck him out. And there’s a big difference between a runner on second, one out, and first and second, nobody out. And you could feel how big of a moment that was. I am not a fan of ABS. We’ll spend a lot more time of that during the off season, but I understand that ABS will fix bad calls. It would have fixed that call and it could have changed the trajectory of that inning. That’s the bad luck that he faced. The good luck that he faced was obviously Tyrone Taylor because after he strikes out Ian Hap, he gives up the base hit to uh how do you pronounce his name? Balistaros, the young designated hitter, the young catcher who dhes sometimes for Chicago and will probably go on the bench once Kyle Tucker is ready. He gives up the base hit. And yes, we’re all thinking the same thing. Thank you, Tyrone Taylor. You know, Tyrone, you’re a 215 hitter. You don’t give us much offensively, but you’re different than the now departed Jose Siri and Cedric Mullins in that you can help us win occasionally. You may not put up big numbers, but you’re a very good defensive center fielder from what we’ve seen, better than those other two steps, and he’ll accidentally run into a big hit. And so it was very nice to see Tyrone Taylor playing the dead zone known as center field for the New York Mets making that kind of play because that kind of play backed up by Tong getting a big out against Suzuki made that first inning feel like whoa it’s going to be like the first inning against San Diego where Tong gets a little bit of help got the help from Manny Machado’s base running last week that this can now kind of help Buoie Tong into a solid start and I thought it does. He comes out in the second inning. He pitches a one, two, three inning. He’s matching zeros against a tough customer like Matthew Boyd. And it felt like the Taylor play and the moxy that Tong showed cuz he deserves some credit for this. Like he struck out Ian Hap on a huge 3-2. I think it was a change up, a 3-2 change up with two and nobody out. We were a pitch away from seeing bases loaded, nobody out, and the game getting well out of hand. Well, really two innings before it ended up getting well out of hand. So, Tong showed you something and the third inning was just I mean it was a disaster. Like what was the worst part about it? You know, was it giving up a base hit to Matt Shaw in the Gary Cohen revenge game? Was it walking Michael Bush? Was it Nico her who was such a pain in the ass in this series and he is making a push for that batting title and he’s right there now with Trey Turner who I think he’s like three or four points behind and I was doing the math this morning like it is conceivable that Nicoer is going to win the batting title. Was it the double to Ian Hap right down the right field line? Was it the RBI single to Baliseros a batter later on the ground ball to third base in which I don’t know where they were positioning Mark Ventos? Was it the double to Saiiah Suzuki? You take your pick. And I can’t even rip Mendy for keeping him in too long. Now I did with David Peterson the other day, but here’s why I can’t even do it with Jonah. I didn’t know where he was going. They didn’t make any roster moves, you know, and I kind of get why the more you think about it. Like Brazaban would have been the obvious guy to send out. They like Brazaban. He’s pitched well. You want him on the team and if you send him out, he’s done for the regular season. You can’t bring him back two days later unless there’s an injury. So I think what David Sterns is thinking and it’s tough to argue is as much as I want to win this game. They got four others and Hascar Brazaban is probably going to be asked to make some big pitches and get some big outs in some of those games. So they didn’t bring in any backup plans. And I’m sitting there, I’m looking down at my scorecard where I list bullpen arms and I’m like, I don’t know where the hell they can go. Especially if you go to somebody and they eventually did go to Dicky Love Lady. You go to Dicky Love Lady and you keep it close. Eventually, even if it is a close game and your offense actually show some fight and get you back into this, where are you going to get the 27 outs? Where you going? I did not know that he was going to make Shawn Mania and Klay Holmes available. And we’ll get to that in a few minutes and my thoughts on it. I didn’t think that. I’m looking at the bullpen trying to figure out, all right, where the hell is he getting these outs from? So, as Tong gave up the four consecutive base hits. Now, look, eventually you got to get him out of the game. Eventually, you have to say, all right, you can’t wear it. You do want to give yourself some semblance of a chance. I got to get him out. But I’m not going to lie to you, like I wasn’t thinking it when Ian Hap got gave up the got the double. I wasn’t ready to take him out at that point. I wasn’t ready to take him out a batter later. But obviously once Suzuki gets the hit and there’s still nobody out and they’re second and third, what are you going to do? You’re going to go to Dicky Love Lady. Sure, he’s fresh. Let him eat up a couple of innings, but then what are you going to do? So, I didn’t honestly have an issue with his handling of Jonah Tong. And I don’t blame Carlos Mendoza for Jonah Tong. the blame is going to fall and a lot of this once this script is written and it’s being written in a very negative way right now it’s going to be about David Sterns it’s going to be fair first and second guesses look maybe I didn’t love Matthew Boyd but Matthew Boyd could have been had Mets didn’t sign him so it’s fair game when we reanalyze all the starting pitchers the Mets could have had during the off season to go through a guy like that because here they are in a position where they have to rely on three rookies. One of which in Jonah Tong who’s clearly not ready. It’s on the architect. It’s not on the manager. At least in this case, it’s just not. I mean, Jonah Tong should have started this game or I don’t even know if it was this game because I suggested moving him up actually a day and doing other things with the rotation. Either way, he was going to start like you were going to need Jonah Tong to make a start. when you look at the state of this rotation and he was atrocious. He was absolutely atrocious as far as this offense is concerned. Yes, the starting pitching was bad. And yes, when you get two plus innings, seven hits, five runs from your starter. It is very difficult to win a game. No question about it. You can win a game as we saw on Tuesday when they came back after David Peterson imploded, but it makes things very difficult. It would have been nice to see this offense show something against Matthew Boyd in the first four innings of this game. It would have been nice to see the top of the order do anything. The top four hitters in this lineup, which in this case against Boyd was Lindor, Sodto, Alonzo, and Marte went a combined one for 16 with a meaningless Juan Solo in the eighth inning. And I take nothing away from Juan. Look, you you come up in the eighth inning, you’re obviously going to try to get a base hit. It’s not like he should give up the appat. So, I don’t begrudge him for hitting a home run, but it is fair to point out that when we talk about how the top of the order did nothing, it did nothing when the game was close. in the top of the first inning when you could take the pressure off of Jonah Tong a little bit. They went down one, two, three with a runner on base and two outs in the third inning in a scoreless game. Lindor grounded out in the fourth inning, which was the most important inning of the game. I say I have said this a million times when it comes to being down by a lot of runs and the formula for coming back. One of the ways you come back is you respond immediately. Not necessarily with every run. I’m not asking the Mets to respond with a five run four thing, but you got to put one on the board. You got to start to chip away. And the Mets had the right guys to do it. They had Sodto, Alonzo, and Marte. They had two, three, four. And what happened? Juan Sodto hit a little blooper to shortstop. Pete grounded out the third and Starling Marte swung at the first pitch and flyed out to left field. The offense did absolutely nothing in this game. And then when it finally shows a sign of life with Francisco Lindor, uh Francisco Alvarez, I should say, hitting the two-run bomb in the fifth inning, what needs to now happen again. The formula for coming back is, okay, great. It’s a six-2 game. You got to keep it right there. And that is not what happened. And it’s not what happened in the most disgusting way humanly possible. So, we’ve hit on the bad starting pitching. Check. Sign of the Mets problems over the second half of the year. We’ve hit a little bit on the LD offense doing very little in this game. Check. Now, let’s get to the defense because this team is now routinely giving us innings that need to be sent to little league facilities all around this country as how not to play baseball. They did this against Washington. They did this on Tuesday, even in victory. It was a great win on Tuesday. But as we talked about on the Rico last night or this morning or whatever the hell you consumed it two days ago at this point, they played horribly. They played badly. And what we witnessed in the fifth inning of this game was an embarrassment. Where do you want to start? Let’s start with Mark Ventos. Mark Vientos actually made a really impressive diving play against Nicoer in the fourth inning. Great. And every once in a while, Mark Ventos does that. He makes a really good defensive play. It’s in him. Like I think Mark Ventos, this is for the future, has a chance to actually become a good defensive player. He has shown you signs of it. The biggest problem with Mark Vientos is the reliability on the relatively routine play. After Dicky Love walked the lead off hitter, Carlos Mendoza shockingly went to Klay Holmes. I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t know about it. But that doesn’t mean it was wrong, which I’ll get into in a few minutes. Like, I actually understand the Holmes mania stuff. A lot of people in the email did not. I’ll give you my reason why I didn’t hate it. But Klay Holmes comes in and he gets a ground out. Great. Typical Klay Holmes. He gets another ground out. Oh my goodness. Klay Holmes has a chance to at least deliver a a shutdown inning and keep it six-2. Now, I’m not confident they’re going to come back, but the only way to find out is to keep it close. And so, after he gets two ground outs in a row, he gets a third. He gets Pete Crow Armstrong to the ground ball to Mark Ventos. And you could just feel it. You could feel it as Vientos fielded the baseball knowing how fast PCA can be. And he rushes the throw. Pete Alonzo cannot scoop it. I love Pete Alonzo as a scooper. It would have been nice to see Pete Alonzo scoop that. I’m just being honest. It wasn’t easy. But you know who scoops that? Rico Bron. And and I know a lot of people listening are like, “Who the hell is Rico Bron?” We just know it’s a podcast name. A gifted, incredibly hardworking first baseman who played for the Mets and would scoop that in his sleep. So I put a little bit of it on Pete. A little bit. But Mark Ventos cannot make that play. It cannot happen. It can’t happen in that moment. It cannot happen. And it starts to make me think about why was he playing to begin with? Like why wasn’t Brett Batty playing third base? Why wasn’t Mark Ventos, dare I say, dhing? Why not? Like defense matters to a degree. It’s got to matter to a degree. And I don’t trust Mark Ventos. None of us can. That was such a horrible error in a big spot. But that’s not all. If that was it, I’d say my piece and we’d move on. But the fifth inning needed something special. Needed something extra. And then you’ve got, which is again another image of the 2025 Mets. Klay Holmes throws a wild pitch. It happens. Not the easiest ball in the world to block by Francisco Alvarez. We know Francisco’s been hitting lately, but he ain’t gonna remind you of Luis Den back there. We know that. Fine. He throws a wild pitch with two outs. Alvarez gets to the baseball and you could hear it on the TV. Here comes PCA rounding third. He wants to score from second on a wild pitch. And then you see Klay Holmes, who is it fair to say he was daydreaming? Is it fair to say that he wasn’t paying attention? He wasn’t thinking about this possibility. Klay Holmes throws a wild pitch. What’s he doing? Just standing there. He is so late to cover home that Francisco Alvarez makes the throw and it doesn’t even matter. And the Mets hand the Chicago Cubs a second run. Hand it to him. Like the way they handed a run to the Cubs the night before when Jeff McNeel made two miscues and Pete Allonzo couldn’t field a not great throw. Same thing. Hand them runs. You are not good enough to hand anybody runs. This offense isn’t consistent enough to erase the runs that you hand them. But in the fifth inning, we see the combination of Mark Ventos not being able to throw to first base, Klay Holmes not covering, Alvarez not blocking the ball in the dirt, and the Mets handing the Chicago Cubs two runs. This is why with four games to go, I don’t know how one has confidence. I don’t know how you have it. You watch this team on a nightly basis. They are not good. Now, I am still hoping, I mean, aren’t we all? We’re still hoping that the Mets are going to find their way into this tournament. And I don’t know what the hell’s going to happen there. Something miraculous happens in the tournament. But what cannot happen over the final four games, though it probably will. And what cannot happen if they’re lucky enough, and the key word is lucky, to get into the MLB playoffs is they can’t make the kinds of mistakes that they have made for the last week. This kind of defensive BS has got to stop. And I don’t know if Carlos Mendoza is going to scream at people. Doesn’t seem like one to do it, but I get it. You don’t scream at people for not hitting. Guys are trying. But the defensive mistakes, the mental mistakes, there’s no excuse for that. You want to excuse the fact that they rushed a young pitcher like Jonah Tong to make his fifth major league start in such a huge moment? Fine. But the defensive and the mental mistakes need to stop. That was abysmal. And then after that, it’s like the offense. I use the keyword like cuz I think everyone tries. I think guys are trying. I don’t think Mark Ventos is purposely striking out in the seventh inning. Francisco Alvarez purposely striking out in the seventh inning as well. I don’t think that. So, I’m going to say it looked as if they gave up. Not that they actually gave up, but sometimes this team plays like it’s over. And that’s the way the last three innings felt. I’m sitting there. I’m distracted by the Pirates game, which I want to get to in a second, but the Mets were dead. The Mets were dead. And this is the status of us as Met fans on a Wednesday night. And I’m not sure how many people were doing what I was doing on this Wednesday, which is trying to watch as much of Pirates Reds as I possibly could, like glued to every pitch of it. You know, I said this last night on the Rico. I usually watch Met games in my bedroom. My wife is there. Maybe one of my kids are there. But for this week, I’ve told her, “Hey, I’m going into the TV room. I’m setting up all these TVs. I’m watching all the games. I’m locked into everything.” And she’s very supportive. She says, “You got it, baby. I know the Mets are going to be done in five days anyway.” She hasn’t said that, but I’m sure she’s thinking that. So, I’m watching the last three innings of this Mets game, but I am fully drawn in by Pirates Reds, and I know it’s pathetic. Like, I know that the bottom of the National League right now, like the last wildcard team, it is sad. It’s a sad state of affairs. It’s sad that we’re glued to Pirates Reds. It’s sad that as while we do this podcast, I actually have in the corner, I’ll show you. You see what’s on my screen right there? Right now, you see an umpire if you’re watching on YouTube, but if you look closer, you see Blake Snell and his fat face because I’m glued to Dodgers Diamondbacks because that’s where we are as Met fans. We can’t trust our own team to make the playoffs. We can’t trust our own team to get the job done. So, we need to watch other big double play by Blake Snell. We need to watch other National League games hoping we get help. I need help. We all need help that we’re sitting here relying on the freaking Pittsburgh Pirates. But I’m glued to this Pirates game. Glued to it. When O’Neal Cruz basically breaks himself in half on the inside the park home run in the eighth inning. I feel bad for O’Neal Cruz, but I feel worse for us because I’m like, damn it, it’s two to one. Are we gonna be able to hold on? And when Tyler Stevenson with one out in the ninth against Dennis Santana, Dennis Santana, I feel like every crappy reliever has at one point pitched for the New York Mets. And then they go somewhere else and they become good. Like Dennis Santana, great example. When he gives up the home run to Tyler Stevenson, it hurt my stomach. I’m not even kidding you. more than anything that happened in the Met game. And I think I know why. I think I watched this Met game and knew they were going to get their ass kicked. Like from the third inning on, you knew. And so yeah, the thing that pained me the most over the course of my TV watching time was when Tyler Stevenson, who went like five for five in this game, five for six in this game, he was a maniac, hit a game tying home run. And now I’m glued to Pirates Reds like it’s everything. Like I mean this is everything. And so Pirates score a run in the tenth. The Reds come back and tie it on a sack fly. Miguel Andar is involved in like this insanely long at bat. At the end of the 10th inning with a chance to win it for Cincinnati, like an 11 pitch at bat. He strikes out. I’m like, “Oh, here we go. Now we go to the 11th.” I watch the Pirates immediately take the lead. I watch McCutchen line into a double play and it’s a one-run lead going into the bottom of the 11th inning. And then I see who’s trying to close it out for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Now Met fans, when I say the name, you may say, “This means nothing to me. Evan, can you elaborate?” Oh, I will. We are relying on Johan Ramirez to close out the Cincinnati Reds. Hoff quick, assuming you didn’t Google it, do you remember why Johan Ramirez has any significance with the New York Mets? Was he the one who beaned somebody, got suspended, and then we DFA him? That is my guyhoff. That is good work. That’s good work. Who did he Who did he hit again? Reese Hoskins. Oh my god. That’s right. That was last year. Last year, we forget. Last year when the Mets were playing the Brewers to open the season, it feels like an eternity ago. It actually feels I know it was a year ago. It feels like two seasons ago. It actually feels like three seasons ago because you have the second half 25 Mets, they suck. The first half 25 Mets, ooh, we’re good. The second half 24 Mets amazing. And of course, the disastrous first half 24 Mets. So, it’s four seasons ago. It was opening day. You had the Jeff McNeel, Reese Hoskins situation and Johan RmIrez was the one guy who said, “You know what? I’m going to drill somebody.” And he got suspended, ended up getting TFAD, but then they brought him back. He came back like three teams later. Uh, so when I’m look because at first I’m like, is that the same Yan Ramirez? I’m like, is that the same guy? And look, man, he he had a battle. He had a battle. He walked somebody to load the bases with a one-run lead, one-run lead in two outs. And then finally, he got Marte, Nolli Marte, to ground out the third base. And man, when he got that last out, I was off my feet cheering. And I got to give it to the Pirates. They managed this game to win. They did. I’m going to tell you something, Crazy, Hoff. I’m listening to the game as I’m driving back from work and I think it was the Red’s announcers at this point and the announcers said, you know, it’s possible Paul schemes those three scoreless and they take him out to keep an erra under two. And I’m like, are you freaking kidding me? Are you me? They going to take this stud guy out after three innings to preserve an erra under two? Luckily, that didn’t happen. Skies delivered. six scoreless innings and then the aggressiveness with the way that game was managed. Thank you, Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Pirates right now have more guts than the New York Mets. Thank you very much. Can I just say I I welcome Paul Sk already already and I’ll present him in Met uniform. He’s already pitched better than any Met pitcher has for I mean he basically went six innings today to help us try to win a game to try to get He was unbel and and Livy Dunn, she was very supportive of her husband. So I I appreciate the two of them. Yes, they’re both amazing and we love them in New York. I mean, honestly, just tell us what you want. Yeah, it would be seriously basically be the key. I’ll give you I’ll give you everybody but Sodto, but I got to hand it to Don Kelly who is the interim manager. I don’t even think he’s like the full manager. He was very aggressive in trying to win that game. And it’s sad. I admit this. I it is sad that we are so reliant on Don Kelly and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Like it is sad. It is sad that we’re living and dying on Dennis Santana trying to not blow a save in the ninth inning or Johan Ramirez trying to get the last few outs. It’s it is a sad state of affairs. But that’s where we are. And it hit me while watching this game. And I’m going to say it to you guys right now. I think you’ll all agree this is not any kind of breaking news. The more you watch the Reds, the more you watch even the Diamondbacks, the more you realize that the New York Mets missing the playoffs would be such a disgrace. like 2007 and and I don’t think anyone’s actually putting up a fight that 2007 would be worse than this, but in 2007, the Philadelphia Phillies took it. Like, yeah, the Mets collapsed. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to sugarcoat the collapse, but the Phillies were a good team that took it. The Cincinnati Reds, and who knows, they could still win their last four games. It’s entirely possible, but in the midst of trying to take it from the Mets, they got swept by the A’s in Sacramento and they’ve lost the first two games to the Pittsburgh Pirates. If the Mets can’t take advantage of just that, just that, then shame on them, honestly, shame on them. And I think it makes it worse. Payroll expectations, their record on June 13th. Like, yes, you could add all of that up to why this would be so disgraceful, why this would be the biggest collapse or whatever you want to define it as in the history of the franchise. It would it would be the biggest debacle in the history of the franchise. It really would be. I know the 92 Mets were a debacle and the 93 Mets were a debacle and even a decade later, the 0203 Mets were debacles. Trust me, I get I’ve seen debacles, but to have this kind of payroll, to have this kind of record to collapse and then have these National League teams, one of which in Arizona, who sold off their players and also are playing like the most ridiculously difficult schedule to have that be around you, the Reds, who while I admire their starting pitching, like their starting pitching is legit. Hunter Green is legit. Nick Ledo is legit. Andrew Abbott legit. Brady Singer as a fourth starter. Totally fine. Like I put their rotation up against a lot of teams in baseball. But their lineup is average. Their bullpen is average. They’re average. They just lost back-to-back games in their own building against the Pittsburgh Pirates. And what have the Mets done about that? So yeah, that’s how I feel. Like it will be if we’re doing a Rico Saturday, Sunday or Monday talking about how they missed the playoffs, the New York Mets missed the playoffs. I’m telling you, it’s one of the most pathetic things you’ll ever see. Let’s read some of your emails, the Ricogmail.com, and a few other things I want to address, including the one positive that I’m actually going to take out of this game, and we’ll go deeper into the decision to use Klay Holmes and Shawn Mania. Anthony writes, “Evan, I totally get the José Siri hate, but I’m a little confused why they cut him versus sending down Ronnie Mauricio. What role does Ronnie have on this team? The Mets already have Vientos, Batty, Akunia, Mcneel to play the infield, and only Taylor and Mullins for center field. It’s probably splitting hairs a bit as neither will have much of a role, but Siri can be dynamic as a pinch runner, as Akuna, which seems like it brings a little more value. In any case, I doubt it makes much, but was curious your take. Uh, yeah. No, they made the right decision. I understand your point, but look at the roster. Look at the roster. Yes. In a game like today or Wednesday, you had Brett Batty off the bench, but let’s go back to the previous day. Let’s go back to Tuesday. Mark Vientos is dhing. And he’s going to dh a lot. He does dh a lot. Mark Viento’s dhing basically eliminates that backup third baseman being him because once you move him out of DH, you’ve lost your DH. So number one, just from based on the way the roster is set, I don’t think they need another center fielder when you already have Tyrone Taylor, Cedric Mullins, and either McNeel or NMO capable of playing the position even if they’re a defensive downgrade. So disagree. I I think from a a roster structure, it’s better to have Mauricio. And I’ll throw one other thing at you, and we saw this the other night against the Nationals, even if it didn’t work. There will be situations, especially when you’re aggressive and pinch running and pinch hitting where Ronnie Mauricio may get a late game at bat. And despite how little he’s played recently, I would much rather see the bat in the hands of Ronnie Mauricio than José Siri. Jose Siri needed to go. The one compliment I’ll give David Sterns for now since he’s had such a rough off season and trade deadline is that he is not afraid to cut his losses and he’ll get rid of guys once it’s obvious they stink. Joey Wendell was a great example of that last year and I think Jose Siri is another example of that. Will writes, “It felt like the ESPN broadcast was trolling us with the Red’s ninth inning announcement.” Or maybe I’m just bitter and pissed. He’s right. ESPN said, quote, “Could it get worse for the Mets?” The answer is yes. And they showed the Tyler Stevenson home run. I I think it’s not a Met thing, and I I’ll show you my fairness. I don’t like the Knicks. I hate the Knicks. I’m a Knicks hater, but I I try to call it like it is. The Knicks get such unfair treatment from the national media because there is this want to hate the Knicks, hate the Mets, hate the Jets. Like, we are the LOL teams of New York. And while the Jets have earned it, and the Mets are certainly earning it right now, I feel like sometimes ESPN, Fox, they play right into it. They love to just kind of throw shots at the LOL New York teams. Chris writes, “I need someone to talk me through why your second best starting pitcher is pitching in a 6-2 game. Mendoza is brain dead.” All right, here’s my thinking. All right, this is my thinking. I have not heard from Carlos Mendoza after the game. I don’t know how much detail he got into. Hoff, you let me know what he has to say. I w I I have it, but I want to hear if you’re on. Okay. So, I’m gonna tell you blindly why I was okay with it. To me, this is a throw day situation. It’s a, hey, this is their throw day. They’re going to be available on Saturday and Sunday. Neither guy pitched a lot. Like, think about it. Klay Holmes came in, he threw an inning. Shaniah came in and threw an inning. And I’ve always actually been a proponent of this that you should go to a six-man rotation. This is my long-term idea besides tag teams, which we’ll get into. six-man rotation and then have one of your starters on their throw day be available out of the bullpen which would help you make up for the fact that you’re carrying one less bullpen arm. So, I didn’t hate it. I was surprised by it just cuz Mendy hasn’t done it all year. Uh I know it’s it’s it’s gut-wrench like this is the time if you’re going to whip it out, you may as well whip it out now, but my thought was it’s a throw spot. I’m good with it. They only pitched an inning and it’s not going to affect their availability on Saturday and Sunday. Am I on the same page as Mendy with that? Yes, but you’re missing one detail. It came from Maniah and Holmes themselves. They offered to do it. They said, “It makes sense. They’re going to throw anyway. We should be available.” So, that’s what he said. Yeah. Well, that that’s it. And that’s why I don’t have a problem with it. I mean, honestly, I I would love to see this more often during the course of a season. I think we clearly saw mixed results. I mean, Klay Holmes was great. Honestly, I know he ended up giving up a run, but we know why he gave up a run. He he gave up a run because Mark Vientos can’t make a throw. And look, he was a part of the second run scoring. I don’t want to exonerate him. He threw the wild pitch. He didn’t cover home plate. So, it’s on him. But in terms of the way he pitched, he pitched well. Shawn Maniah, that’s a different story. I mean, obviously Maniah was, you know, he comes in and what does he immediately do? He gives up a base hit to Matt Shaw in the Gary Coner revenge game and gives up a bomb to Michael Bush. So, Maniah was not good. He ended up getting the next three guys out. So, it was clearly mixed results, but it’s actually what should happen. Guys being available on their throw day to pitch out of the bullpen. It’s great that Klay Holmes and Shawn Maniah suggested it. I think that that that’s great team first moves, but I I didn’t hate it the way a lot of our emailers hated it. Maybe because they think it’s going to affect their availability. It’s not like if Klay Holmes stayed in the game and ate up four innings, different story, but clearly this was going to be steal an inning from us and they were able to get two innings to just be eliminated by using Klay Holmes and Shawn Mania, right? Mendoza made a point of that. He said they they were they’re going to be available Saturday or Sunday, whatever you need. So, it’s it’s not affecting anything. The only thing is you just wish that they were more effective because I mean that’s that’s the key like in these crunch time situations like I mean I know the game was probably out of hand anyway. I mean are you going to really come back from a six run deficit two days in a row? No. Maybe. Who knows? But you just don’t want to add more fuel, you know, fuel to the fire. But but keep this in mind and I’m glad David Comb pointed this out and I like this. It’s it’s negatively affecting the Mets, but I like this from baseball. We no longer have absurd rosters in September. We used to we used to have absurd rosters and this wouldn’t be an issue. The Mets would have 14 guys out of their bullpen and it would be all the cavalcade of up down guys from this season almost like the series finale of a of a TV show. Like they’d all be there like, “Ah, it’s Chris Stinsky. what’s going on, man? Like all the clowns that we watched over the course of the over the course of the season. It’s the final part to the fireworks that just starts exploding everywhere like, “All right, cool. We’ll throw up everything.” But they don’t do that anymore. And I I appreciate that. We have 27man roster. So, you’re in a spot where you don’t have the ability to just have so many arms out of your bullpen. So, you had a choice. You had a choice tonight. If you didn’t use Holmes and Maniah to eat up those two innings, you were going to either have to use Brooksley, which would eliminate him from being available on Thursday, Gregory Sodto, which would probably eliminate him from being available on Thursday, Ryan Stannic, who it probably would eliminate him from being available on Thursday, and Tyler Rogers, who apparently Mendoza said was not even available in this game to begin with. So, if you didn’t use Shawn Maniah and you didn’t use Klay Holmes, you were going to use relievers. Now, I’m not saying we love all those guys, but you were going to have to use relievers that you may need the next day in a game in which you were down by a lot of runs. By using Mania and Holmes, it had zero negative impact on anything. Like, and by the way, if those guys suck on Saturday, don’t tell me it’s because they threw on Wednesday. That’s crap. They’re gonna suck on Saturday because they suck. Like that’s why they’ll be bad. It won’t be because oh my god, Carlos Mendoza used them on Wednesday night. So I support it, but here’s what I’m actually I I can’t believe I’m saying this. I am very encouraged by Ryan Hley. I am. And I’ll tell you something. before uh my show, my regular radio show ended with Tiki, I asked a question in the last 3 minutes. Okay, I said, Tikki, if the Mets have a one-run lead, who’s the closer? Edwin Diaz is clearly not going to be available. Who would you go to close the game? And he’s like, oh, that’s a that’s a tough one. He had no answer. So, I said, you know what, T, let me go first because I do have an answer. And I apologize for not saying this on the Rico last night. this was a WFN exclusive. The answer was Ryan Hley. And the answer was Ryan Hley because a even though at the moment I wasn’t encouraged as much as I am now about the way he’s pitched, I thought it would be like a last stand. You know, he’s used to the ninth inning. He is a closer. The Mets haven’t really asked him to do that other than I think one game earlier this season where he was in a safe situ. Was it the Giant game? I can’t remember. Maybe it wasn’t. um he’s familiar with the opponent being a member of the National League Central. And so I looked at him as having the perfect makeup to come in in a one-run game. And look, if it failed, we’d never see him again. So he was my pick to close this game out if the Mets were fortunate enough to be in that situation. They weren’t. And so Ryan Hley pitched the seventh and eighth inning. And damn, it was good. And I know it was a blowout, but we’ve asked this. We’ve said, “Hey, they got to use Ryan Hley in lowle lever situations to get his confidence back.” Well, let’s see how Ryan Hley has done. In this game, he goes two scoreless innings. In his last appearance before this on September 20th, the Saturday game against the Nationals, a scoreless inning. Okay. His last appearance before that was the night before when they went to him in a close game, a scoreless inning. His last performance before that was the middle game against San Diego, a scoreless inning. And his last performance before that in the Jacob Deg Grom return game, a scoreless inning. He has now pitched six consecutive scoreless innings. Five appearances without allowing a run. You know how many hits he’s allowed during that time? Two. He’s been good. like it is okay even though he has destroyed us before to admit that Ryan Helley has pitched really well in his last five appearances. That’s not an opinion. That’s a fact. He has. And so with a bullpen that doesn’t exactly feature a lot of arms you trust, I I am now ready to dip my toe back into the Ryan Hley game. partially because they don’t really have much of a choice at this point. Well, the only other guy that I would think that I’d go to is Brooks Raleigh. I think that he’s the one guy that I feel as m he’s been just as reliable as Hell’s. I don’t think he’s had I know he’s given up a couple runs here and there, but for the most part, he’s been solid. He has. I think Brooksley is the absolute other option. Look, I think who was coming up in the inning would have made a lot of sense. That would have been a determining factor. It turned out not to matter, but Ryan Hley’s pitched well. We have to admit that. I mean, we just have to give him a little bit of credit for that. So, um, should we think about bringing him back next year? I never said that. Oh, okay. I didn’t say bring him back. I’m talking about the last four games of the season. Hey, hey, man. Edwin Diaz, Ryan Hley, one two punch. End of the game. Let’s go. Eight, nine inning. Let’s do it. Eric B writes, “I just shot my TV. I was really enjoying watching a little league game tonight with endless bad throws and pitchers who still haven’t learned how to cover bases. It was so cute to watch. It was only when I put my glasses on that I realized it was the Mets, a supposedly major league team. I was so disgusted I shot my TV. I have no idea how this game will end. I assume it won’t end well as the night before. Enjoy listening to the pod, Dan. Well, Dan, if you’re listening to the pod right now, I got news for you. It didn’t work out. They lost the other Dan writes, and this is uh a man once known as negative Dan. I I now like to call him realistic Dan. Dan writes, “The only consistent thing they’ve done all year is flush momentum like a turd.” Do they think that every time they win a game, they have figured it out? Like they’re just going to come out the next day, throw their gloves on the field, and win. I just can’t comprehend how after yesterday at this point in the year you can possibly come out that way they have again. This is four straight games like they’ve come out like absolute crap and got lucky Dansby. Swanson did what he did yesterday to give them one of these. Tommy likes to say every time you think they’re going to let go of the rope, they don’t BS. If anything, whenever they have a chance to actually grab the rope and pull their season out from the toilet, they let it slide right back in. They have not capitalized a single time on any ounce of momentum they somehow give themselves. And if yesterday didn’t do it, nothing will. This is who they are. Tough to argue that. Ron writes, “I hate this effing team. They have a chance to go up two games on the Reds. From that point, 500 baseball probably gets you in.” And here we are in the seventh inning or whatever inning it is right now, and they’re getting smoked. All that goodwill from yesterday down the crapper. They don’t deserve a playoff spot. They don’t. But LGM, I guess I always hear deserve a playoff spot. Do they deserve a playoff spot? Look, we know they are very lucky right now to be in the position that they’re in that the Reds lost two games to the Pirates. They’re lucky. They are lucky that they are in the spot they are in with four games to go in the season. But what I hate about deserving or not is baseball’s got a format. I don’t love the format. I don’t like it very much, but we have three wild card teams. As long as we have three wild card teams, if you’re one of the wildcard teams, you deserve to make it. Whether you played well down the stretch or not, you made it. You know, I remember in 2022 the Philadelphia Phillies were the third wildcard team and they were choking down the stretch. Like they did not want to make the playoffs. Them and the Brewers were like in this anti- pennent race. And the Phillies to some didn’t deserve to make the playoffs and then they got hot. And I’m not telling you the Mets are going to get hot. I’m telling you the whole deserve thing is kind of weird to me. If you make the playoffs, you deserve to make it. I guess it’s the term of it that bothers me because obviously I’ve spent a lot of time on the Rico today talking about how bad this team has played and how I don’t trust this team and how fortunate they are about the circumstances they’re in. And I guess to some that’s well they don’t deserve to make the playoffs. I guess I just don’t like that term. It’s stupid to me. They don’t deserve to. If you make the playoffs, you make the playoffs. I mean, it is what it is. They’re in a crappy bottom of the league right now. Did the Cardinals deserve to make the playoffs in 2006? Did the Jets People used to say this to me all the time, the Jets didn’t deserve to make the playoffs in 2009 until they did and they won back-to-back playoff games and they were in the AFC Championship game. So, I don’t like the whole deserve thing. This is an interesting one. Joseph writes, “I wish Tyrone Taylor never threw that runner out at home because all it did was give us false hope before the Mets spent the rest of the game disappointing us. I don’t know about you, Evan, but after the third inning, I switched over to Pirates Reds. That’s how sick I was of watching my own team. By the 11th, I’m watching the Reds blow it with the bases loaded and thinking, “Wow, the Mets are so bad. They’ve got me watching Pirates Reds instead of believing we have a shot. They’re just stringing us along only to crush us at the bitter end. Let’s go effing Mets. Yeah. No, I agree with you. I agree with you. Here’s what I know. At the end of this Rico Brillied live right after the Met game, I’ve been watching Dodgers Diamondbacks and the Dodgers have a 4 to1 lead in the eighth inning. If I go to sleep, and I’m not going to go to sleep. And when I go to bed and I watch the last two innings, if the Dodgers blow this game, I I’m not sleeping at all. But that’s the spot we’re in that we got to be glued to Dodgers Diamondbacks like it’s the seventh game of the World Series. But the Mets are relying on other people’s help at some point. They’ve got four games left in the season. They got to figure this out. Oh, one other thing I wanted to bring up, Kodiena. I mean, he’s done here. Like, he is absolutely done here. There was a tweet from Anthony Doma uh quoting Carlos Mendoza. So, really, it was Carlos Mendoza’s pregame uh interview session. Kodi Sena’s live batting practice session in Florida went quote just okay Carlos Mendoza. His velocity was down in the 93 mph range. There was also some concern that the hot weather was fatiguing him. It remains difficult to see the Mets counting on Sanga again this season. I have been a Kodi supporter. He was really really good in 2023. It sucked what happened last year in 2024 when he comes back is pitching great and gets hurt. And then even this year, he’s pitching wonderful until the Alonzo flip the day before the Met season hit the crapper. I’ve got a vibe, and I’m not alone in this. I retweeted somebody on social media, uh, another Met content creator, if you will, who said, “Boy, I don’t think Sank is ever going to be a Met again.” I I totally agree. I was thinking the exact same thing when I read this tweet because the Mets don’t believe in him. you know, when he had that good uh minor league start when they first sent him down. I remember saying here like, “Ah, bring him back. Let’s go.” And the Mets talked about it in such a kind of like blah way. It made you think they were unimpressed by what he did over those six innings. He gets bombed in his second minor league start. And now he’s throwing bullpens. And you got the manager basically saying, “Yeah, it’s very unimpressive.” So, a I don’t think we’re going to see him this year. I think they’re actually going to stick, you know, with Holmes, Maniah, Tong, even David Peterson. I mean, Mendoza’s got more faith in David Peterson than Kodi Sena. And I would disagree with them if I was watching his bullpens. Like, I don’t know what they’re seeing down there. So, I guess I’m going to blindly trust that they think he’s crap, that they think he can’t come up here and help this team. But, when we get to the off season, I think they’re going to try to trade him. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s a singular event. I I don’t know if it’s not meshing with the pitching lab. I I don’t I can’t pinpoint it. And maybe somebody will report and tell us what it is, but I absolutely get a vibe that we have seen the last of Kodi Sena as a New York Met, but you haven’t seen the last of the Rico because we will continue to Rico every single night until this season ends. The Mets play on Thursday night. We are going to know a lot about the Mets standing by the time they play that game because the Pirates Reds game is a 1240 first pitch. So that game will be over early afternoon. The Diamondback Dodger game, the other game of great import will be a late afternoon game. I think at 3:40 first pitch. So by the time the Mets play their game on Thursday night, we’re going to have a pretty good idea of where things stand. So buckle up and get ready to be distracted by Pirates Reds on Thursday afternoon. Oh, baby. That’s the state of us as Met fans. So, tune in live on YouTube or download the Rico Bron wherever you download your podcast for a very special Rico Bron. Of course, it’s a series recap, so it’s something we always do. We’ll pick our Rico I’m the man right now star of the series. We’ll pick our net negative. We’ll look ahead to the Miami series and we’ll have all sorts of fun. Are you excited? Are you confident? Let’s end our Rico today with a confidence test. Pete Hoffman, where is your confidence level right now in the New York Mets bid to make the postseason? I thought even yesterday they weren’t making the playoffs. Um, my confidence level is worse after today’s game. So, I mean, I’ll give it a 25% chance I’ll make it. That’s kind of where I’m at. I’m in that same boat where, you know, you could tell me, “Wow, the Reds the Diamond B.” You could tell me whatever you want. Right now, it is very difficult to believe in this team. I think that’s the most challenging thing. But I’ll leave you on a good note. You know, you can knock one out of the park and raise the apple with Takara Chuhai, a sparkling cocktail that blends real shu spirits with the delicious flavors of fruits locally grown in Japan. It’s available at City Field in Fuji Apple. Of course, hopefully we’ll go back to City Field this year. White peach and lemon. Well, we appreciate you listening, downloading, hanging out, lamenting with us on another edition of Rico Bron. Goodbye. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Rico Brono podcast. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Make sure you download it now to keep it on you at all times.

With a one game lead over the Reds and Diamondbacks, the Mets continue to hold on for dear life. Will they give their fans something to cheer about in October?

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