Former Mets pitcher RIPS Carlos Mendoza and Brandon Nimmo!

Former Mets pitcher RIPS Carlos Mendoza and Brandon Nimmo!

We’re breaking down the tea that Adam Adavino spilled on Carlos Mendoza, the Mets bullpin, and of course, Brandon NMO. We’re also going to talk about if Kodi Sanga should be dealt out of Flushing. Uh let’s talk with Tyler Ward, your favorite Mets content creator. Wardy, haven’t seen you for a long time, my man. Let’s get straight into all this news that’s been breaking uh about the Mets. It was reported Tuesday that Kodi Sanga is extremely available for trade as the Mets look to revamp the starting rotation. Are you in or are you out with dealing SA? Oh, absolutely in. Uh it’s not a question as to if the Mets should trade him, but when they’re going to trade him. Okay. Uh there are currently at least eight plus teams in his trade market right now and that is thanks to people that have relayed information my way over the past 48 hours that certainly are in on the no and it’s telling that SA is going to be traded because the Mets as we all know had everything imagined will go wrong for the rotation in 2025. So much so that even Kodi Sa who’s once this coveted ace in this Mets rotation going back to his breakout first year in Queens back in 2023 has really been a shell of himself. Not so much because of performance, but more so because of the lack of health and availability. Sanga looked fantastic to begin the 2025 season for the Mets. But as soon as he went down with yet another ailment there in June, he was a shell of himself once he returned from injury and he was so bad that the Mets decide to send him down to the minor leagues where he finished the year in the minor leagues. That was even in attendance for potentially the last ever game he pitched in the Mets organization there uh against the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. and Sanga. The biggest problem with him is not only how meticulous of a pitcher he is, but this is the type of guy that needs things his way, not so much how everyone else goes about their operation when getting the best out of a pitcher and their health. And because of that, David Sterns looks like he’s pretty much had enough of one Kodai Sena who needs a six-man rotation, needs this kind of special treatment. And in order for the Mets to upgrade a rotation that heading into next season right now has eight pitchers under contract that are expected to impact the club, they have to make roster room. And out of their current veteran options, Sanga is far and away the most appealing via trade. His ceiling is as good as an ace caliber pitcher, but his four is as good as someone who couldn’t even be in the Mets rotation. So, not only does he have plenty suitors, but again, the likelihood of SA being traded is almost a near certainty at the time of us talking right now. Yeah, if you’re gonna get something good for him, then you might as well deal him away. You said it best yourself. The best ability is availability, and this man is the Ben Simmons of baseball when it comes to the to the Mets. So, Nets, Mets, it’s all the same. It all rhymes. Uh, but yeah, I’m I’m in I’m in with you on that one. And I I was a huge Kodi Sanger guy when he first got here. Uh but now let’s break down the tea because you know everybody goes on these podcasts now and they rip and they rant and they just talk about everything that goes down in locker rooms or just in in sports in general. Adam Adavino pretty much went scorched earth on the full franchise. But let’s first break down what he said about Mendoza. How he said that he’s got no feel, poor communication, and that he doesn’t protect arms. Uh he also said that they went through 46 different pitchers throughout last season. Are these fair critiques or is Adavino saying and doing too much? I think it’s fair to an extent because you have to realize Adavino is someone who was with the Mets in 2024 to a degree. He understands the Mets more than most current former or active players outside of the Mets organization. So to hear his input, it was more so out of his own personal frustration as someone who was actually a part of the organization, was a part of the clubhouse to a degree and understands how Mendoza’s way of thinking is. He also went on to say in comments from that same live stream that he had on YouTube over the past 24 hours when replying to fans that he thinks Mendy is still by all accounts, you know, a good manager. There’s a lot of things that he likes about him. But he did make it known how much he’s been frustrated with his fellow relievers that you’ve seen over the past calendar year all go down with Tommy Johnl like injuries as the Mets as we know utilize more pitchers than any other team in Major League Baseball history in 2025 between the rotation and bullpen. So it begs the question who’s most to blame here in that kind of scenario and I think Mendy kind of took a bit more of the brunt than he otherwise deserved. And here’s why. David Sterns is the one who builds this roster, right? He’s the Mets president and he went into the 2025 season with the Mets having a rotation filled with uncertainty with guys that have not had great track records of health paired with a bullpen that obviously Sterns loves to rotate different kind of LB caliber pitchers that you call up for the miners that you pick up off the waiver claim whatever the case may be for the sake of eating innings in the short term and that really came back to bite the Mets heavily. So you have a rotation that doesn’t pitch deep for you and you have a bullpen that’s been very fickle in the quality colored me shocked. you’re seeing guys get overworked and seeing guys get hurt at a large rate. But what we have seen since then is even former Mets bench coach John Given as of today come out and state that Adavino’s comments really aren’t accurate to how he believes Mendoza utilized the bullpen to the best of his ability. So I see both sides of the coin here. I see the player point of view a reliever mind you understands the struggle with being a reliever in Major League Baseball on how you’re expected to get your outs no matter really how healthy or not healthy that you are. That’s why guys like Reed Garrett for the Mets, for example, has pitched through injury before he was put on the injury list each of the past two seasons. Now, it really is, have the Mets separated themselves from other teams of baseball in that regard? I don’t believe that they have, and I’ll go as far as to say as this is as not much of a Mets issue or a Carl Mendoza issue as it is a roster building issue and a leaguewide issue. I I stated this on X yesterday and I’ll say it again to you, Brandon. You know, in my opinion, my key takeaway from these remarks has more so to do with why we should focus as to how this is a leaguewide issue on how the LA Dodgers, the back-to-back reigning champs, have set, in my mind, in the minds of many, a terrible example on how to go about pitching orchestration for your bullpen or your rotation. And what I mean by that is the Dodgers built a team over the past 15 years that’s been great. A continued competitor looking to not only make playoffs, but to win a World Series. But what have the Dodgers done to change in their philosophy each of the past couple years that has led them to now being World Series champions? And that’s by deviating away from heavy emphasis on player development and making sure that you do everything in your power to make sure that your pitchers aren’t hurt to now having max effort, max VO pitchers that you spend millions upon millions of dollars on, heavy influence in the trade market for guys that you know can be boomer bust because of their velocity. And in doing so, the Dodgers have built a rotation that’s the best in baseball because they can handle all the races going down with injury in the first half of the season because they know that they’re going to be healthy by the year’s end. And I think there’s something to be said when you look at how the Dodgers operate and how they separated themselves from the rest because they’ve spent more money. They’ve done more drastic trades than anyone else and they’ve been able to bite the bullet with those continued wos they’re pitching. So, do the Dodgers care about player health? Clearly not to the same degree as other teams in baseball. Clearly not as much as you could argue as the New York Mets right now. Both have a lot of pitching injuries, but at least the point I think this needs to be talked about lesser in regards to someone like Carl Mendoza and more from a leaguewide issue top down because it’s going to continue to get worse before it gets any better. That was a very passionate rant right there, man. I’m ready to to write an email to my senator and and just regurgitate what you said and it’s you left me at a loss of words just now. Uh, absolutely love it. But I want to throw this Adavino clip on what he said about Brandon NMO at Francisco Lindor. Just just anything and everything. Keep that same energy for when we come out so I can get your thoughts on uh what he said about Nemo. This is a very delicate situation. Let me speak about this for a second. When I saw that NMO popped up on the trade rumors, I said, “Oh boy, that is not going to sit well with Brandon.” Uh, Brandon’s a very proud player. Brandon got pissed when they did like a Yankees Mets team a couple years ago and Andy Martino had Verdugo as the left fielder and not NMO. Like I saw NMO go at Andy Martino in the hallway about that and I was like damn like you read the paper like that like you care about what the talking heads say that much. Like that’s surprising to me. Also, I don’t think he liked all the talk about Lindor being the captain just based on one of the articles I read. Now I don’t know any of that inside. Nmo is a very gentle, nice, great human being. But I think he’s a little proud of a player and so I think he also likes potentially being a Met for life. I think there’s a world in which NMO could have a couple more great years and get himself way up on the Met leaderboard. You might start to think about his number getting up there in the rafters. That’s how long he’s been a Met. So to me, it’s going to be hard to convince him to go. I think he’s going to want to stay unless he feels super disrespected and then he’d probably go to some place he’s comfortable. But this is an eggshell situation. Is an eggshell situation. Stern’s not the best at communicating, so this is I would love to be a fly on a wall for this conversation. That would be so exciting to me. Uh, but I don’t know what’s going to happen. The floor is yours. How do you feel about how do you feel about him coming out and saying the things that he’s saying, especially when he’s what, one to two years removed away from this team in this roster? Yeah. So, the Nemo quotes are interesting because everyone knows Brandon Nemo as being this like golden retriever type personality. Like when you think of a selfless human being, you look no further than Brandon NMO. He’s the same guy that’s been driving his like late 2000s, you know, Nissan Ultima or whatever it is for the longest time just to stay humble. And I love that. But to hear these remarks, I find interesting because there’s two key takeaways. There’s one, the reaction with Andy Martino, and Andy did actually state on X as of yesterday that yes, that interaction did in fact happen, but Brandon is such a good human being that, you know, they had a really good cordial conversation out of it in the end. So I think it’s one Nemo being a bit more prideful than maybe what us fans from our perspective have known at this point which is really interesting and good to hear because we only know so much about the players other than what the media or talking heads like myself have the chance to relay when we find information. So for Nim to come out and you know basically have an issue with Andy Martino as Andy like many others in the space has included Brandon Nemo in trade talks over the years you have to wonder if that coincides with the other. I’m sure it does. I also think of, you know, the idea that maybe Brandon Nemo doesn’t love the idea of having Francisco Endor’s name thrown in as captain. So, I find it very fascinating and I think what this tells us is that there’s more that meets the eye from just what you see first and foremost from a player’s personality. Once you start to kind of understand a little bit more on how they are from the inside, it gives up gives us a greater understanding from a fan point of view. Do I think that there’s anything bad that’s coming out of these remarks regarding Nemo? No, I don’t. Because trust me when I say there’s a large contingent of players not only in baseball, but you can know this obviously from the NFL perspective of guys that get disgruntled with the media because they’re not happy to hear their names either involved in trade talks prematurely among many other topics that they just don’t want to see out there in the public. So my biggest takeaway personally is more so on the leadership aspect of things. You know, if NMO at all maybe doesn’t love to hear Lindor’s name in the light of captain, is that telling him how NMO feels as a leader in the Mets organization that maybe he feels he deserves more credit than what he’s gone at this point? I’m not entirely sure, but I’m just spitballing for the sake of trying to connect the dots the way that Adamino has kind of laid out the floor plan for us to go ahead and read. So to hear from his perspective I thought was key considering the fact that he again was Brandon NMO’s teammate understands all these guys on the back of his hand I’m sure still has very good relationships with Plenty on the roster. All right the man spilt the tea. Luckily we were able to have you on so you can uh break it down for us. Wardy appreciate you man. We got a long off season so we will be seeing you again shortly. Absolutely Brandon. Thanks so much for having me on.

Tyler Ward dishes on the Mets’ willingness to trade Kodai Senga and Adam Ottavino’s explosive comments on Carlos Mendoza’s bullpen usage and whether there are replacement-level players who could provide the club with a similar performance level that Brandon Nimmo produces.

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