As is customary, Eric McErlain (not pictured) joins to discuss the Washington Nationals and New York Mets. He has brought Off Wing Opinion on Substack.
WFY: In his book True Believers, Joe Queenan said the best years were the ones when teams overachieved. How much fun was the 2024 season? They started off dreadfully, then after Grimace threw out the first pitch, seemingly because of a purple connection with the awful City Connect uniforms, they reached the NLCS. They even eliminated the Phillies before falling to outer borough expatriates, the Dodgers.
EMc: By last June, the 2024 New York Mets looked like a lost cause. Then Carlos Mendoza moved shortstop Francisco Lindor to the leadoff spot, the starting pitching came together and everything started to fall into place. It was the Summer of OMG, and there won’t be another one like it in a long while. They clinched the Wild Card in Atlanta vs. the Braves thanks to more heroics from Lindor, took down Milwaukee in three games as Pete Alonso took center stage, and then brushed aside the Phillies in five games in a series that came awfully close to being a sweep.
In the end, the Dodgers were just too much, thanks to a set of bats that made them look a lot more like a rec league softball team. In the end, the Mets had asked their starters to pitch deeper into games beginning in the first week of September, and by the time the got to the Dodgers the rotation just ran out of gas.
Given the hole the team dug themselves in June, losing to the Dodgers didn’t sting quite as much as the loss to San Diego did back in 2022. So yeah, it was a lot of fun, almost as much fun as the 2015 National League pennant, which was a complete surprise. Normally, the Winter would have felt long, but watching Ovechkin chase down Gretzky left me distracted.
WFY: After that great season, the Mets sign DC World Series champion Juan Soto to a massive contract. Everything is coming up Mets?! How is our former wunderkind doing? He just doesn’t look right in blue and orange, whereas he looked natural in a curly W or Bronx pinstripes. I heard he lamenting he’s not hitting behind and other grumbling.
EMc: On Sunday in Colorado, Soto went 3-for-3 with three walks and three runs scored. It’s the first time he’s reached base six times in a game in his career, and he did it hitting in the third spot after spending most of the season hitting second behind Lindor. He’s hitting .244 with 11 HRs and 31 rbi, which has some fans grumbling, but he leads the National League with 55 walks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a power hitter with a better sense of the strike zone, so much so, that when an umpire punches Soto out on a called strike three, I’m inclined to think the umpire blew the call.
When you command the richest contract in the game, you command incredible scrutiny.
But he’s given his critics plenty of ammunition. There are too many examples of Soto failing to run out ground balls, and at least one instance where even going through the motions would have resulted in an infield hit. As for his outfield play, his flaws are well know. He has all sorts of trouble with fly balls that angle toward the right field corner. Over the weekend before last, in a game against the Rockies, I saw him play a single into a double through sheer laziness. Though the game was well in hand, it was aggravating.
Then again, a lot of the static you hear about Soto originates in the Bronx. The New York Yankees organization and their fans will never forgive Soto for signing with the Mets. A few weeks ago when the Mets visited the Bronx, the Yankee fans really let Soto have it, and it seemed to impact him at the plate. In terms of bile, it feels a lot like Islanders fans and their eternal feud with Jonathan Tavares. In the end, the Yankees lost more than just Soto. We’re talking about a franchise that has been snagging the top free agents on the market since the Winter of 1976. Losing him to the Mets was something of a landmark. He may be the first big free agent they’ve lost to the Mets, but thanks to Steve Cohen, he won’t be the last.
WFY: Speaking of…Pete Alonzo – not a lot of interest out there for him it seemed. What happened?
EMc: There wasn’t a big market for power hitting first baseman. Pete wants to play everyday, and something tells me if he had agreed to be a full-time DH, he might have gotten an offer someplace else. But what really happened is the smart baseball people looked at Pete’s numbers and determined that they saw a power hitter in decline. So Pete signed the best deal he could — a two-year contract that included an opt-out clause after a single season — essentially betting on himself figuring that a big season would force the team’s hand at the end of the 2025 season.
To say that it worked would be an understatement. Going into the series with the Nats he’s hitting .301 with 17 HRs and a league-leading 61 rbi and we’re not halfway through June! Can he keep it up all season? I don’t know, but don’t forget this is a player who hit 53 HRs as a rookie in 2019 and led the league in rbi in 2022 with 131. I’m sure Pete felt unappreciated when he hit the market as a free agent, and he probably felt a little disappointed in the offer he got from the Mets. But, as per usual, he’s said all the right things and responded in a manner no one could have anticipated.
Steve Cohen can afford to make Pete a Met for life. And I hope Pete makes him pay dearly.
WFY: The Amazins are in first place – are they looking really good or is it still early?
EMc: The Mets are 42-24 and have the best record in the National League. Of course it’s very early. Back in 2022, we all thought the Mets had the division sewn up early, then the the Braves started playing like the 1951 New York Giants and stole the division from them on the last weekend of the season. So while anything can happen, I’m feeling good.
WFY: The Nats were barely competitive against the Mets last year which certainly helped them get the Wild Card. Beyond Soto, how else have the Mets improved and will they dominate DC again? Or does not getting to face Patrick Corbin nullify the Mets advantage?
EMc: Be nice to Mr. Corbin. He landed on his feet in Texas and has a tidy 3.52 ERA.
WFY: No.
WFY: How are the Mets bats so far this year? What about their rotation and bullpen?
EMc: The Mets have been having trouble scoring runs. They’re currently fifth in the National League, but that was helped along by an orgy of run scoring vs. the Rockies and the White Sox over the last two weeks. The real revelation has been their pitching. The staff ERA is 2.85, which is 1.16 runs below the league average, which has to be something of a shock. After last season, the team lost Luis Severino to free agency, while rotation mainstay Sean Manaea hasn’t pitched yet this season due to injury. The same goes with Frankie Montas, who the team brought in to shore up the staff in the offseason and is currently getting roughed up in minor league rehab starts.
So how are they doing it? Clay Holmes was converted from a closer to a starter. He’s pitching deeper into games all the time and his ERA is 2.95. Griffin Canning, whose career ERA before getting to New York was 4.78, has slashed that to 2.90. David Peterson, who finally found himself last season, has repeated that performance. And Kodai Senga, who missed almost all of last season to injury, has slotted into the top role in the rotation and has a league-leading ERA of 1.59. That’s four starters with sub-3.00 ERA, something the Mets haven’t pulled off since June 1985.
As for the pen, Edwin Diaz has found his form once again, but the real surprises have been middle relievers Huascar Brazobán and Reed Garrett, who have been solid in the late innings. Manaea and Montas are due back soon, and I wonder who they’ll send back to the minors to make room for them. Can they keep it up with pitchers who have never performed this well in their entire careers? My head says no, but pitching coach Jeremy Hefner clearly knows what he’s doing.
WFY: Who is the best #25 in Mets history?
EMc: #25 might be the worst number in Mets history. Frank Thomas wore it first, and hit 34 HRs in that miserable 1962 season, which isn’t nearly as miserable anymore thanks to the 2024 Chicago White Sox. Amos Otis was an all-star with the Kansas City Royals, but didn’t do much in Queens. Flashy first baseman Willie Montanez wore #25 for two seasons, and nearly drove in 100 runs wearing it on a horrible 1978 Mets team. Bobby Bonilla wore it for five seasons we’d rather forget, but he’s still clearly the best player in franchise history to wear it.
WFY: How long do you figure Steve Cohen has to deliver a pennant before fans get uneasy?
EMc: As long as he keeps spending money and the team keeps winning in the regular season, he’ll be ok. He’s such an improvement over past ownership, he’s earned an extended honeymoon.
WFY: Jayson Werth, who faced with the Mets for 11 seasons in the NL East, recently had this to say:
“If you live in New York, you have a choice. You have an obvious choice. You can either be a fan of one of the most storied franchises , one of the greatest franchises in sports history…or the Mets. I have no respect for people that pick the Mets.”
Mr McErlain, your rebuttal.
EMc: I suppose I could launch into a long explanation of why I’m a Mets fan, but what’s the use. We live in an era of vitality, and Mr. Werth’s broadside is clearly meant to get a rise out of fans who haven’t won a title in 39 seasons and are famously insecure. He’s not the only one to take a shot. Yankees play-by-play voice, Michael Kay, who speaking of insecure, doesn’t like hearing how the rest of baseball thinks the Mets booth of Gary Cohen, keith Hernandez and Ron Darling is the best in baseball.
Said Kay recently: “Can they (Mets fans look in the mirror with their tongue hanging out breathing up against the window at their visage and be proud of themselves? Or do they realize that they are lying punks that are just saying stuff in order to fit their narrative … moronic, dumb, ill-informed.”
I just know this: It’s June 10th and the Mets are in first place. Everything else is just noise.
WFY: You mentioned that you were in Las Vegas recently and I’m wondering if there was any sign of interest in the A’s moving there that you could tell?
EMc: No indication whatsoever. It’s a city that’s clearly in love with its hockey team, the Vegas Golden Knights. As for the Las Vegas Raiders, it fells like they’re playing NFL football in town like a residency with AC/DC.
WFY: A brief sojourn to the world of hockey – how far do the Capitals came up cold in the second round after a special regular. Do you think they were worn out from the Gr8 chase or peaked too early?
EMc: The Caps played a little over their heads in the regular season. They came up against a team that played a style that completely disrupted their game, one that had a goalie that got very hot. It’s happened before, it will happen again. Aliaksei Protas missing the first round didn’t help, and Lars Eller’s game was never more exposed than it was in the playoffs. That being said, I’m very excited about the future, and anticipate that the post-Ovechkin era will not be the suck.
WFY: Back down the Green line Line 4 stops does the rest of Nats – Mets series go, the NL East shake out this year and who wins the pennant?
EMc: McKenzie Gore gets a win for the Nats in the series opener, but the Mets take the next two for a series win. The Mets win the NL East by 7 games over Philly with the Nats in third hovering just above .500 with Miami and Atlanta bringing up the rear.
