New York Mets Mailbag Edition – Rico Brogna Episode 574

New York Mets Mailbag Edition – Rico Brogna Episode 574

It’s the Amazing Rico Bron podcast with your host Evan Roberts. It is a brand spanking new edition of Rico Bron. Now, a little housekeeping. We did a two-part go Bronia in which we examined 0 and70 uh the incredible accomplishment that the Mets had trailing after eight innings or trailing going into the ninth inning how the Mets were unable to come back and win a game. So we had a two-part series. One thing we have noticed is that the second part of that series for whatever reason didn’t load where you download Apple podcasts. But luckily if you go to Spotify it is there. If you go to the Odyssey app it is there. If you go to the WFAN YouTube page, it is there. So, if you had issues uh accessing episode two or at least part two of that Rico Bron series, it exists. It’s around. If you didn’t get enough torture, you can find it. So, what I would tell everybody, and this is moving forward, we give you Ricos every 3 days. You know, I I don’t think there’s ever really a time in which we go longer than 3 days without a new Rico Bron. So, if it doesn’t pop up into your inbox wherever you download podcasts, I would always say you could search the Odyssey app, you could search Spotify, you could search Apple Podcasts, and you could always go to the WFA YouTube page. It would be there. So, little housekeeping on that. Today’s Rico Bron is going to be a mailbag, which is always fun because we are going to hit a bunch of different topics. We’re going to hit a bunch of different stories, a bunch of different things. We’ve got a bunch of Ricos coming up over the next couple of days and weeks where we dive into free agency. We’re finally going to do it. Most of October has been spent looking back, re-examining what happened in the 2025 season. We’ve got a few more look back episodes. A deep dive on Juan Sto’s first year as a New York Met, but we’re also going to have episodes replacing Pete Alonzo if that’s what they decide to do. Replacing Edwin Diaz if that’s what they decide to do. We’ll also analyze each and every Met free agent. Let me start with Pete Alonzo real quick. We know nothing. Let make that clear. Nobody knows anything about what’s going to happen. How aggressive the Mets are going to be. how aggressive, well, we know how aggressive Scott Boris is going to be or at least what that market is going to turn into. So, some of my fellow Met fans freaked out a little bit because Joel Sherman the other day said, and it was really speculative, educational speculative, because he’s obviously a a lockedin baseball reporter, that if David Sterns was left to his own kind of decisions, which I guess he should be, his team president, he probably wouldn’t bring back Pete Allonzo because Pete doesn’t kind of fit the David Sterns guy. That has been speculation. I know Hoff has had that speculation. Beningo has had that speculation. We’ve heard that a lot over the last year. Do I believe that’s true? Not necessarily. Like I think the market for Pete Alonzo is going to determine his future. And that was the case last year. And because there was no market and because it never developed, they ended up bringing him back. And I think it’s going to be very similar. So, when I saw that and I watched Joel’s video where he did the three things he’s thinking about with Pete Lonzo, the pros, the cons, the the negatives, whatever, I was not worried by that line about David Sterns that David Sterns may not want him back because I think it’s educated speculation. It’s the same educated speculation a lot of fans have. Uh, I I think that David Sterns values Pete Allonzo and much like last year, he values him at a certain price with a certain amount of years. And so, would Steve Cohen step in at some point in the middle of negotiations and say, “Screw it. I want the guy back.” That’s always a possibility, but I don’t think David Sterns is going into this off season saying, “Boy, I can’t wait to get rid of this guy.” Because David Sterns knows what I know and what you know and what we will fully examine when we do a deep episode called replacing Pete Alonzo. And that is replacing Pete Alonzo is not easy. Replacing Pete Alonzo is not simple. So I don’t think anybody in their right mind would actually go into the off season thinking that makes things better. All right, let’s get to a couple of things before we open up the mailbag. The Yura Murray Giants have announced that they plan on posting quarter infielder Kazuma Okamoto. So, he would be available via the posting system. Quote, this is a quote from Akamoto himself. I’ve decided to take on the challenge of playing in MLB through the posting system. Aamoto said in a news conference on Wednesday, I’m grateful to all the team officials and fans who respected my decision and gave me their support. I believe MLB is the best league in the world and I’ve always wanted to play there. I’ve worked hard with that goal in mind. So once he’s officially posted, there is that timetable in which teams can obviously try to win his services over. The thing about Japanese ball players and really ball players from overseas is that our only frame of reference is to go to baseball reference where all the stats are there and read the scouting reports on what people say about these individ individual players and then really just guess. That’s where we are with international players. And I I’m not against signing somebody from Japan clearly. I mean, we’ve had a lot of guys come over here and be very successful. We’ve had guys come over here and not be successful. It is an absolute crapshoot. And so the way I view it, if I’m being fair, is I read as much as I can about these individuals, but I still prefer what I know. And it doesn’t mean what I don’t know won’t turn out to be great. I mean, when Shoi Otani came over a decade ago, we didn’t know. We heard the stories. He’s turned out to be an all-time great ball player. When Ichiro Suzuki came over back in 2001, we didn’t know he came over. He turned out to be one of the all-time great players. Now, there are plenty of examples where it doesn’t work out. We as Met fans certainly know the case thinking about Kaz Matsui. But what I’ve read about with Okamoto, and this is the intriguing part, the part that makes you say, “Oh, that could be a good fit.” Is that he’s a good defensive player and that he can play third base at a pretty high level. He can play first base at a very high level and he could also play the corner outfield. So, right off the top, my first reaction when just reading about him, and this is before we ever get to baseball references, I like that. I like the fact that you can bring him over here. And first of all, there’s versatility. There’s the idea he can play first base. If they lose Pete Alonzo, he can play third base, which I think is an option no matter what because Mark Ventos is not going to be the third baseman in 2026. That is not happening. They do not trust his defense. It doesn’t mean he’s going to be off the team. It just means I would be stunned under any circumstances. If we’re going into 2026 with Mark Ventos as the planned everyday third baseman, Brett M could end up at second base. Brett Matty could end up being traded. I even think there’s a scenario where Brett Batty ends up learning first base. So, the idea of adding a third baseman is clearly on the table this off season. And Okamoto is intriguing. That that’d be the word I’d use. He’s he’s not old. He’s 29 years old, so we’re not talking about a guy at the end of his career. And when you look at his numbers and you dive deep, you see a guy that hits for a pretty solid batting average, career 274 hitter. You see a guy that gets on base, 355 on base, and fluctuating power, but power that’s pretty good. Like 2018, 33 home runs, and that’s as a 23 year old. 2019, 31 home runs. In fact, I’ll go through real quick. 33, 31, 31, 39, 30, 41 in 2023 and then it jumped down to 27 in 2024. This 25 season, uh, he’s only played 77 games, so it’s kind of the halfway point. He’s at 15. So, kind of that same 30 home run pace. So, you’re talking about a guy, and this is where it’s like, oh, okay, this could be a good addition. good defender plus defender at third base or first base. Right-hand hitter hits between, you know, based on his career numbers, anywhere between 27 and 36 home runs, drives in around 90 to 100 runs, hits about 270. Like, that’s pretty damn good. I mean, if those numbers come over here, I think we’d all be intrigued. And unlike Murakami, Munitaka Murakami, who is the guy we heard more about, it feels like this guy is more solid. This guy is more, first of all, he’s a better defender than Murakami. What I’ve read about him is that he’s likely a DH or if he plays first base, third base, it’s not at a very high level. This player sounds solid. Now, you have to ask yourself, what’s the price tag? That’s a big part of this and I don’t know and I’ve tried to like see what projections are for what Kazuma Okamoto is going to make. It’s not nearly as much as Murakami, but you’re still going to have to offer, you know, what are you thinking a 4-year $75 million contract? I mean, if he turns out to be the guy we just described offensively, it becomes worth it. But there’s a lot of unknown. So, is it my number one choice? No. But I admit it’s not my one number one choice only because I don’t feel confident about it because I’ve never seen them play. That’s where you have to trust your international scouts. You got to trust they know what they’re doing. So, Kazuma Okamoto, keep an eye on him. Item number two, before we dive into the emails, Francisco Lindor had a minor elbow procedure. That’s how it was announced over the last couple days. minor elbow procedure. He had offseason surgery between 23 and 24 on the same elbow. And one thing about Francisco Lindor, which is why I don’t worry about this, I just give you the information if you missed it, is that Francisco Lindor plays. And even when not fully healthy, he plays. So you hear an injury like this, the reports are he should be ready for the start of spring training. So, until proven otherwise, I have no reason not to believe it. Oh, yeah. One other thing. Dicky Love Lady. You know, my opinion on the Mets resigning Dicky Love Lady to a one-year major league deal is calm down. That’s my reaction. I want everybody to take a deep breath. The Mets are going to sign people even to what is labeled a major league contract. For Let me make this clear. Here’s why a major league contract doesn’t mean a damn thing. So for anyone who heard that and they’re like, “Oh my god, Dicky love ladies guaranteed to be on the Mets next year.” No. How many times was this guy DFA by the Mets last year? But by the way, I have the answer. I think it was three times. So, there is a chance Vicki Lovel Lady never even gets the spring training or there’s a chance he gets the spring training doesn’t make the team or yes he could make the team and then get DF8 on April 5th. So, when I saw that he resigned, it’s much like a lot of the minor under the radar moves that are going to be made by David Sterns. The first thing you should do is take a deep breath. It’s like when they signed Joe Jakes to the minor league deal and very quickly we all go to baseball reference and we look it up and we’re like, “Oh my god, this guy’s got a six RA.” You’re going to add a lot of people in the month of October, November, December, January, February, and even March. And on many, many of those names you’ll never hear from again. They may never get the spring training or they may get the spring training. You never see them pitch and they never make the team. I am not worried about Dicky Love Lady. Is there a chance that Love Lady is back on the Syracuse train that David Sterns used so effectively in 2025? Is it possible Love Lady is on the 26 train? Sure. Could be on the train as we know that train is going to feature a lot of people. A lot of people we we haven’t even heard of. So, take a deep breath about that. Now, let’s get to your emails. rico [email protected]. We receive many emails throughout the year, many of which we don’t get to. I apologize, but Hoff and I try to read all of them. So, let’s start off with Christopher Kagan, who wanted to critique the Owen 70 podcast. He says, “Worst podcast yet. Pure torture.” Evan, I’m halfway through the podcast examining 070 and it’s re like reliving it all over again. up 6 nothing against the Braves. A rocking chair game. Nope. I thought this was going to be fun, but wow. This is just torture listening to how we just blew this season game after game after the game. You’re the best LGM Chris. Listen, there are going to be Rico Brillias and certainly that was one of them that are going to be painful. Uh, I I decided that when this season ended, we would spend a lot of October looking back, not as much with the free agency. We would get into the free agency in the latter part of October and the early part of November, which we’re about to do because the off season’s a long period of time. We can get a free agency right away and basically you shoot your load because that’s going to be talked about for months and months and months. So, I thought it was important to look back and see what we learned from this ordeal. And I admit it’s not fun. Like it’s a painful painful thing. And so if you haven’t had a chance to listen to it, I do warn you it’s painful, but it’s probably worth doing would be what I would say. Evan, you mentioned the Mets lead the league last year with like nine comeback wins after the eighth inning as compared to 2025. They had 89 wins. If the 2025 Mets had the league average of six comeback wins trailing going into the ninth inning, the Mets would end up with 89 wins. So the entire difference from 24 to 25 were these comebacks. It doesn’t matter if it was only the 6%. Yeah, I I think that sometimes it can be simplistic to look at that aspect of the team and say, “Hey, if they had four ninth inning comebacks, they had zero. They’re a playoff team.” I mean, you’re right obviously, but I think you can say that about a lot of things that went wrong in 2025. Like you could definitely bring up the way the pitching completely fell off the mountain and say, “Hey, if the pitching doesn’t pitch to a 6 RA in August, it’s a 52. We make the playoffs.” I said this at the beginning of the offseason. I’ll say it again. If you go through one little thing and say if that’s different, we’re in the playoffs. You’re going to drive yourself nuts. That’s why we did 0 and70 as a whole shebang instead of just picking apart one game. Scott writes, “You’ve said you don’t think Scooball gets traded, and I have said that. My gut feeling is that Tar Scubble will not be traded.” Something to consider, Evan. Let’s say there’s a good chance of a salary cap or extremely punitive prohibitive penalties over a certain threshold. I think it’s widely accepted that a salary cap would affect the top of the market for most. For example, take the Mets. Could they even think of paying Scooble $40 million a year on top of Sodto’s contract? I doubt it. So, wouldn’t it stand to reason that the uncertainty would want Scooble extended and eliminate the risk on top of a higher injury risk than a position player such as Juan Sto? If so, don’t you think that increases the chance of a trade? No. And I’ll tell you why. The CBA runs out, much like the last time, in December of 2026. So, what does that mean? It means that there is going to be two waves of free agency in 2026, much like we had two waves of free agency in 2022, right? The season ended, we had an off season and then boom, I think it was December 15th was the exact date. The lockout hits. So, we had two offseasons. Remember that? Because if memory serves correct, the Mets added Max Scherzer and Stling Marte. Those were two of their big items. They did that in the first part of that off season. That’s going to be the same thing in 2026. So, the lockout, which is what you’re talking about, the idea that there’s going to be a salary cap, which is not going to happen, or there’s going to be more punitive uh penalties for going over the luxury tax. Sure, that could happen. That that would cause Scooble to rush to sign early. The reason I don’t buy that is because he’s going to have a chance to do both. He’s going to have a chance to get to free agency after the 26 season ends and sign before there’s a lockout. In fact, can you confirm, Hoff? I’ll look it up, too. When does the CBA expire? Uh, and and I’m assuming that’s how they decided December 15th was the lockout day or December 1st was the lockout day back in 2022, but I would just assume it follows kind of that same calendar of events that we saw in 2022 when we had the lockout and we ended up having split off seasons which made things very exciting. So, it says that it expires on December 1st, 2026. There you go. So, that’s it. I mean, There there is your answer. So just to prepare you for this potential lockout situation, the season will end, right? Whoever wins the World Series, hopefully us, free agency will begin five days later. So let’s say that’s November 5th. We are going to have a four-week time period in which guys are going to sign. And Scott’s right, like guys will sign because they don’t know what things are going to look like on the other side of the lockout. Then we’re going to have a lockout. Hopefully it ends reasonably probably similar to 2022 at least hopefully. And then there’ll be another craziness to lead into spring training. So for that reason, I’m just telling you, I think Scooble doesn’t extend, gets to free agency, but probably signs in the first half of the 2026 offseason. just to dive into the the the potential work stoppage. Do you really believe that this is going to be first of all, why are we already back at a work stoppage again? Like that was the it was that bad in 2022 that they couldn’t figure anything out. It was a 5-year deal. That’s why it’s a five-year contract that’s about to run out. I understand. But you have five more years to figure out what to do next. And instead of figuring it out, they’re going to go I mean Clark Tony Clark basically said expect a work stoppage. Oh, there’s going to be a work there’s going to be a work stoppage. It’s just a matter of is it damaging or not. Uh the one that we had 5 years ago turned out not to be damaging. It was just like if anything it turned out to be a lot of fun because it split the off season into two and made things really really exciting. And when they locked out in December and January and February it was easy to be distracted by other things. So, as long as they don’t miss games, it’s not a big deal. Now, why are they going to get locked out? Because baseball’s broken. That’s why. Because half of the owners want there to be a salary cap. That’s why. And the players are never going to go for it. So, they’re just really far apart on issues. And I’m sure we’ll do Rico’s kind of examining what’s best for baseball and all our opinions. In fact, I’ll save that for 2026 because there’s probably going to be a lot of downtime. But in terms of his question about Scooball, I I don’t think it impacts his decision to extend. I think the only way Scooble would ever extend is on a gross overpay. So the Mets trade for him. Scott says, “I’d like $475 million over 10 years.” And the Mets say, “Sure, that is not going to happen. it’s gonna get to the open market. And so for that reason, does that bring the price down on Scooble to where the Tigers decide not to trade him? That’s my ultimate fear. Like when I put that proposal out a week ago and Met fans freaked out and said, “Ah, it’s crazy.” Remember, the Tigers don’t have to trade him. I think in a lot of the other cases of pitchers being traded, like the Minnesota Twins had to trade Johan Santana. They had to. And so once they decided, you know what, we don’t want to deal with the Yankees. The Mets were in this great position to get him for, you know, maybe what at the time felt like a lot, but not as much as they would if Minnesota said, “We’re not going to trade him.” And I think the Tigers are in that spot where they don’t have to trade him. So, well, I I’d like them to trade him, and I would put 475 on there to sign him. And you would be You’d be some general manager. You would have given Pete Allonzo $300 million last year, too. Yes, I would have and I still would. Let’s go. Uh Deianne writes, “There are too many off days built into the postseason schedule. The fact that the Toronto Blue Jays still had three days off after a sevengame series in advancing is ridiculous. Three off days in a five-game division series is also ridiculous. There’s plenty of days to make the division series best of seven, which it absolutely should be. Less off days also tests team depth way more and is symbolic of 162. And I also completely agree with you. A division winner should absolutely automatically be in the division series. Can’t win a division and still be playing in a wildcard best of three. The ant hits on a lot of playoff issues that I hope will be changed in this new CBA that we were talking about because the system we have right now is not ideal. And I I’ll tell you a story. So I was doing the show with Craig back in the day. And Craig, you know, he would admit it had like his ins with Major League Baseball. And so during the lockout, we’d come on the air every day. I would basically defend the players and rip the the owners. And Craig would be like, “Well, you know, the owners real bad, friend. He’s not bad. But so he’d fight about it, but at the very end as they were getting a deal done, he had inside knowledge. And I said to Craig, “Here’s the only thing I want. I want to know the playoff format. And if you don’t mind, whoever you are talking to, whoever your people are, can you tell them that this is what the playoff format should be?” And he’s like, “Sure. Okay. What is it?” And I said, Don’t have five teams in a division. Let’s get rid of it. Let’s have seven and eight in a division. Obviously, we have 15 in each league, so it can’t be seven and seven or eight and eight. Have bigger divisions. Have the division winner automatically go to the division series and then have like wild cards from the division. And if you want to get it to this wildcard series that you’ve created, that’s fine. What whatever you want to do. In fact, I I’ll tell you how I would line it up. Seven teams in a division. So, let’s say the National League East has seven teams or eight teams. The division winner automatically in the division series. Good for you. The two other teams in the division, the two wildcard teams in each division play a wildcard series. Voila. The winner faces the division winner in the aptly named division series. It actually makes the names make sense. So first place team in the division, you go to the division series. The second place team and the third place team, you play a best of three or a best of five wildcard series. And then yeah, to Deian’s point, then you could move on to a division series that’s best of seven because that is more indicative of the better team winning. And as much as we all love upsets, it’s fairer to have a best of seven division series. So, I agree with you. And maybe in the new CBA, we’ll get exactly what I want, which is bigger divisions. You win the division, you go right to the division series. And maybe we could expand the postseason by having that best of seven and having a cutout best of five. And if you need to cut the regular season down to 154 or 156 or whatever it is, we’re good to go. So, I do agree with you. This email says, uh, this is from Jordan. Jordan writes, “Evan, first time writer, longtime listener, I wanted to point out because it seems like you have forgotten Luis Anel Akuna and the fact that he was actually MLB Rookie of the Month in April this past season. He was looking great until McNeel returned and Mendy couldn’t consistently find playing time for him. You mentioned how he had a good start, etc. But it wasn’t just good, it was legit. One of Mendy’s issues was not playing the hot hand. This was just one example. I mean, so I guess the point is Luis San Helakuna should be in the mix for an everyday job or just a job on the roster. Like what are we talking about here? Uh here’s the way I look at Luis Anne Helakun, and I hope I’m wrong what I’m about to say. I’m just giving you my honest perspective. Yes, he had some good moments in April. Absolutely. He hit a little bit. His average was actually respectable. He had some really good at bats. If you listen to our series we did on the 0 and70, we mentioned his at bat against Josh her on opening day. We know how good his defense is. We know he could steal bases. He feels to me like a super utility player. He doesn’t feel like a future MLB star. And honestly, like could I see him being an everyday player to a degree? I think an everyday player who plays all over the diamond. I think an everyday player who could play a little shortstop. an everyday player who can play a lot of second base, an everyday player who can go to the outfield and play good defense. We didn’t see him a lot in the outfield. We saw him very briefly in the second half of the year and he looked good. And honestly, that’s a game changer cuz if he can give you plus defense all over the diamond, I think there’s a great value to that. But like anything in life, can you hit? And while you’re right, he didn’t get like the fullest of opportunities. I think that he didn’t hit when given the opportunity and that’s why he ended up back in the minor leagues. Like it wasn’t all just Carlos Mendoza giving up on him. I think a lot of it was he just did not perform. And you got to perform. If you don’t perform, you’re not going to be able to play. And I I still feel like he’s one of those guys that probably ends up as a super utility player. I I can’t find this email, but I did write it down because it was an interesting thought which made a request. It said, “Evan, Pete, you’ve done some great deep dives. How about a deep dive on the Ghostrunner? It feels like the Mets are not successful getting the Ghostrunner in. Can you do research to prove if that’s true or not?” Well, I did do the research. I did a little bit of research. Let’s start off with how does the league do getting the ghost runner in? That’s the first piece of information we need to have. So, Hoff, I’m going to ask you a trivia question because I did look it up. I have the answer. What do you think the league percentage is on getting the runner from second to score as the ghost runner in Major League Baseball this past year? I would say 45%. Good guess, but you’re wrong. By how by how much? I mean I you know if you’re off by 8% is that a lot? Maybe 53%. Okay, I’ll take that. I I was going to go 50 but I was like it’s probably a little bit under. You figured it was too high if it was 50. Right. Right. Cuz I watched the Mets and I go that’s that may be the issue. Okay. So the the issue with this whole thing may be cuz it’s it’s such a great question because the Ghostrunner is new. Like I know it’s been around for a few years now, but it really is new. It’s in this last decade. I think it started in 2020, the pandemic year, and it never went away. It’s one of those rules that stuck around forever. Yeah. Right. Like they kept it in 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. I’m thinking the pandemic changed a lot. Like so in the pandemic we had seven inning extra inning games. They only kept that for 20 and 21. After 21, they said, “Okay, we’re done with that.” The DH being fully was there, but then in 21, we let the pitcher hit. And then in 22, we said, “F it. All right, now we got a full-time DH.” But the Ghostrunner is a rule that never went away. Like, we got it in the pandemic. It stayed forever. So, I was curious like, what’s the number? And I looked it up. When I went in looking it up, I was like, I bet I I assumed it was around 50%, but I wasn’t sure. Yeah. So, the league average gets the ghost runner in at a 53% clip. Obviously, situations are so different. If you are in the top of the 10th inning, you’re usually not bunting and playing for a run. You’re usually playing for multiple runs. If the ghostr runner scores amongst others and now you’re down five in the bottom of the 10th inning, well that ghost runner is not something you’re really playing for. You know, you’re more playing for the big inning. So obviously circumstances changed that. So the Mets played 13 extra inning games. And I went through it. I did. I wanted to find out how did we do with the ghost runner. So, we played 13 extra inning games, but we played two 11 in games and a 13 in game. So, even though there were 13 games, the Mets played 17 innings with a ghost runner. All right. Okay. Are we good? Are we We We’re all together right now. We are. We’re on. So, basically, we’re judging it off of 17 innings. That’s what we’re looking 17 opportunities to score the Ghost Runner. Okay, I want to make sure my math is right about this. So, double check my math because I know for sure how many times they scored the Ghostrunner. But if you play 13 games, okay, and 10 of them are regular 10 in games, that’s 10 opportunities. Then there’s two 11 in games and a 13 in game. So based on that, 11 12 this five plus 10. So, I would get it at I don’t know. I’m still I’m still struggling to do the math on this. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me 14, 15, 16. I I think it’s 18 innings then, not 17. 18 innings. 18, right? 13 games. Three of them are beyond 10 innings. There’s two 11s and a 13. 22 10 11 12 13. That’s four extra innings plus two extra innings. All right, so it’s 18. I figured it out. Okay, I figured it out before. Off. 2 plus 2 plus 3+ 2 plus 2 plus 3+ 2. What? I I just want to make sure we have all the math straight before I break this down for you. All right. 18 innings in which there was a runner on second base and nobody out. Again, sometimes the circumstances are different, right? because you could be trailing by one run, two runs, five. I totally get it. Of the 18 innings, how many times did they score the Ghost Runner? That’s the question. Again, they won six games, so obviously they they did it six times. At least at least six. Yes, that’s a good That’s okay. Still not 50%. So, do you have a guess? Um, I think six times. We’ll go with those six. The answer is six. Yes. That’s terrible. They were not good at getting the Ghostrunner home. That is the the lesson in this. They weren’t good. They were not good. That’s the problem. Actually, by the way, the answer is seven. I just want to clarify. It was It wasn’t six or seven. I’m just I’m double-checking my math. I’m I’m carrying the one. I’m carrying the two. I want to make sure I have this all straightened out. And what hurt them was that 13 in a game against the Dodgers because four opportunities to score a run and they didn’t do it. Four or the game against the Nationals where they had the opportunities to score runs. Like there are certain ones that jump out at you, but yeah, they were very under the MLB average is the way I would put it in terms of getting the ghost runner to score. They were not good at it. They did not match the league average. If they match the league average, you’d say, “All right, you know, it’s the league average.” They did not match the league average. Yeah, that’s actually under 40%. So like that’s under what I guessed. I thought it was 45. Uh, you know, I said Ghost Runner would score 45%. That’s less than that. They were 38%. That’s That’s terrible, actually. Yeah, they weren’t good at it. And, you know, I I’ve evolved on this. This is an opinion that I didn’t have necessarily a year ago, two years ago, but watching enough of extra inning baseball has led me to move to territory where when I am the road team, okay, I am top of the tenth inning, tie game, I am bunting and I’m getting that run to score. like I am treating that run as the winning run because I feel like taking the lead and putting the pressure on your opponent gives you such an advantage because like I don’t know it feels like so many times teams aren’t scoring. And again, if the number is 50%. And I’m doing things to make it more likely that I score that one run, I’ve now given myself a 50% chance that they’re not going to score and I’m going to win. And by the way, if they hit the other 50%, it doesn’t mean they’re scoring two runs. It means they may just score a run, keep the game going, and now you go to the 11th inning. So, I’ve kind of moved into this territory. Obviously, in the bottom of an inning, if it’s tied, I think we all know, yes, play for the one run. But even in the top of an inning, I think I’m more aggressive at playing for the one run than maybe I used to feel. Yeah. Well, no, I feel like there is no reason why you should, and you say this all the time, it’s like it’s really not a one-run lead. It’s really like two-run lead that you’re looking for. That run should score every time. You should f there should be a way to get that runner home and you should be aggressive whether it’s bunting or whatever the case is. That runner needs to be scoring every single time. So, I’m not really sure why it’s been so low for the Mets. I mean, what what are they doing wrong besides not making contact? I I think it goes back to the 0 and70 episode. They just lacked a lot of big hits. I think that was something that was always a problem throughout this season. Uh Dennis writes, “Evan and Pete, what about this potential trade with the A’s?” Oh, the A’s. We give them Klay Holmes, Jonah Tong or Brandon Sprrot, and Mark Vientos for Nick Curtz and Luis Severino. The A’s clear Severino’s contract and will get back Holmes who is dependable and good and they get the potential of Vientos or Mauricio and Tong or Sprrot who are controllable for years and would likely be better than what Sevy did for them on the cheap. Of course, we get Curts who would replace Pete or even resign Pete as our DH. But in reality, the money we can save by not resigning Pete can be used for our rotation in bullpen. And we cross our fingers and hope Sebie can revert to what he was for us. At least he can give us innings. Let me know what you think. Well, here’s what I think. The Sacramento, Oakland, soon to be Las Vegas A’s are not entertaining trading Nick Herz. He’s 22 years old. He was an absolute rock star for them this season. Like one of the best, honestly, one of the better players in baseball. He was so good. Guy had 36 home runs in 117 games. they’re not trading him. So, I I appreciate offering Brandon Sprro like you’re trying you’re offering big prospects, but I think there are certain young players that a team is just not going to trade and I think that’s one of them. So, nice try. We’ll have we’ll have plenty of Rico where we break down fake trades, but I think Nick Herz being available is uh one of the most unlikeliest. Uh, I also have to agree with that statement and I’m gonna double down and say that Pete Hoffman won’t be trading Nick Curts either. Oh, he’s on your fantasy team, right? Yes. Yeah, he’s a keeper. Yeah, his keeper. That was a steal from Hadasi. That was a throwin. Really? You got Nick Curts as a throwin? Yeah, that was kind of just like an added added bonus to everybody else I took from him. But I also gave him a bunch bunch of good draft picks. But uh, by the way, we do have breaking news. Breaking news. I was able to figure out and I posted 573. So, anybody that I reposted. So, there might be two sitting in some people’s mailboxes, but there’s at least one for the uh iTunes for the the Apple people that that download on Apple. Okay. So, my warning about episode 573, the second part of the Owen 70. Don’t worry if it’s not on Apple, you can find it elsewhere. Now, you can find it in Apple. All right. now. And if not, you’ll have two sitting in your inbox for the Odyssey app or uh Spotify. It’s like a bonus. It’s like a bonus. All right. Now, you’re about to take some crap because our next email says, “Evan, it’s it’s giving me crap for you, which happens sometimes.” Why, Evan, why do you keep allowing Pete to call Klay Holmes a fifth starter over and over again? 165 innings, a top 10 erra in the National League. How is that ever considered a fifth starter? Not saying he’s a one or a two, but come on. He’d be the best fifth starter in baseball then. And it was his first year doing it. The arrow is only pointing up. How about you push back, Evan? I love when I get killed for something dumb you say. I feel like I have pushed back on this. Klay Holmes had a very good first year as a starting pitcher. You continue to call him a fifth starter. Would you like to apologize? No. Tell me in which world he was anything more than fifth starter. Now listen, I understand. Yes, he pitched a lot. He he pitched the full season. So great for that. But will we have put or labeled José Canana in 24 as anything more than a fifth starter? How many times is a fifth starter pitching to a top 10 erra and giving you 116 innings? I feel like a lot more than you think. I feel like a a a maybe not a Let me put it this way. Maybe this is my issue is I don’t find him as a mid to high-end starting pitcher. And and I Isn’t that different than a fifth starter? No, it’s pretty much the back end of the rotation. and we’re sitting over here taking bows for it. Like that’s my biggest problem is at the end of the day the biggest success that the Mets had was Klay Holmes. We found him and that experiment worked out. But reality is, and maybe I’m just lowering the threshold for what we are popping to champagne for, but like Klay Holmes wasn’t amazing. He knows nobody’s saying he’s amazing. He’s saying he’s not a fifth starter. You should probably talk about him more accurately and say he’s a middle of the rotation arm because he’s not a fif those number like he’s right. Like those numbers are not fifth starter numbers. Like how many quality starts did he have? Is that how we’re defining fifth start? I’m just I’m just I’m just throwing it out there like how many quality starts did he have? We as a as a whole the Mets had 30 what? 38. Yes. They didn’t have a lot. Right. Exactly. So, I’m just throwing you that that the MLB put together a terrible stat for a quality start. It’s BS that it’s all it takes is three runs in six innings for you to have a quality start. All right, I know how we’re going to break I know how we’re going to break this, Ty. There’s there’s one way to do this. I’m going to ask Grock, how would you define a fifth starter in Major League Baseball? All right, Brock, how would you define a fifth starter in Major League Baseball? Let’s see if it gives us like real information. It’s going to play Holmes. In Major League Baseball, the fifth starter refers to the fifth pitcher in a starting rotation. Oh. The term is used to describe the pitcher who is generally considered the least effective or reliable among the five starters based on their performance metrics, experience, and consistency. MLB team performance expectations. Okay. All right. Here we go. The fifth starter is often the weakest link in the rotation. They may have less experience, low lower skill level, or inconsistent performance. Typical characteristics. They may have a higher ERA than the top starters. Often a younger player developing their skills, a veteran with declining performance or journeyman pitcher may be more prone to being skipped in the rotation when off days allow the team to use only their top four starters. This isn’t really helping us. All right. Oh, here we go. Here we go. I got stats. Okay. For example, a fifth starter might be a 25year-old pitcher with a 450 ERA tasked with eating innings to preserve the bullpen while the team’s ace might have a 250 erra. Klay Holmes was nowhere near 450. It was in the threes. So, let’s call Klay Holmes what he is. He’s a third or fourth starter. That is a fair de now. Could he blossom into something more than that this upcoming season? Maybe. Could he become the fifth starter that you have been describing? Sure. But if we were to describe Klay Holmes’s 2025 season, the fairest way would be third or fourth starter. I I I’ll I’ll jump it up to the fourth starter. That’s fine. Here’s my Here’s my thing, and I will just leave at this, and you could totally go back at it, and that’s fine. Um, I think my biggest issue on top of it is he couldn’t get deep into games and they had to play around with. Now, listen, justifiably he was a relief pitcher last year, so I totally understand that, but they had to buy into we may have to pull him at three innings because he just can’t go this long today. So, that to me is unreliable back end of the rotation. We have more Rico Bron coming up the next few days. Let me give you a preview, a deep dive on Juan Sto’s 2025 season. And then we start to look ahead. We will have an episode called replacing Pete Alonzo. It is not an endorsement for getting rid of Pete Alonzo. It’s an examination on if they don’t resign him, here’s how they can replace him. Same thing with an episode called replacing Edwin Diaz. Again, not an endorsement of getting rid of Edwin Diaz, simply an examination of how they would replace him. And following all that, we’ll examine the Mets free agents. So, that does include Edwin and Pete, but it also includes a few other players. So, those are your next four Rico Bronas coming up. Expect it basically every other day. That’s how I would frame it for you. But, make sure you subscribe and if you subscribe, we’ll have no issues. You’ll get your Rico Bronia wherever you download your podcast and we will continue to give you Met content every couple of days. You can also continue to email us the ricobgmail.com the [email protected] and we will try to mix in mailbags maybe even once a week to give even more met content. We’ll do those podcasts. We’ll also mix in some heavy mailbags where we speak to you. We appreciate you downloading and listening to another edition of Rico Bron. 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.

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