A few months ago, I watched an episode of American Masters devoted to Liza Minnelli. One of those attesting to her brilliance as an entertainer and warmth as a human being was the actor Darren Criss, who related Liza’s reaction to a group get-together he considered himself lucky to be a part of: “She’s grabbing everybody and going, ‘This was great, this is great. This is the gang now; this is the gang.’ And when she left, I was like, I’m in the gang now. It was amazing.”
As has been the transformation of the gang we refer to as the New York Mets’ starting pitching rotation, an entity whose recent initiation rites have been as much fun as a singalong at Liza’s place. You flourish in the minors, they call you to the big club, they hand you a baseball, and you show your stuff.
The gang, in flux for so long, has fluctuated fortuitously to encompass Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, and, as of Sunday, Brandon Sproat. This is the core of our gang now. These are whose arms we figure to ride in the weeks ahead, weeks we wish to be certain will extend well into the month beyond. The years beyond, too, but we should probably get to know the gang better first.
Start spreading the news, there’s pitching today.
We now know Sproat as well as we can know any pitcher after six innings. Hey, remember when throwing six innings was something only one Met starting pitcher ever did? Our transformed gang suddenly contains a trio of guys who do it like it’s no big deal, and none of them was with us even one month ago. Brandon, who debuted in Cincinnati Sunday, had a little trouble with control, none with giving up hits for an extended period, and ran into the bad luck of having his teammates come up against a masterful pitching performance from the other side. Reds starter Hunter Greene pretty much toyed with Met batters, going seven, striking out twelve, and allowing only one hit, a solo home run to Brett Baty. Tough to overcome that kind of obstacle, and neither Sproat nor the Mets did, falling, 3-2, and, for the first time in their history at Great American Ball Park, failing to win a September series there.
Yet it was hard to leave the weekend set feeling less than optimistic. Sproat gave up three runs in his six innings, which you’ll take from a so-called raw rookie, especially considering he blocked the Reds from the H column until the sixth. None among the freshman class constituting Generation MST3K feels the least bit raw, but a first start is a first start. If this is the beginning of the journey for young Brandon — the first Met born in the year 2000 — we can’t wait to see the next step. Same for McLean. Same for Tong. They have brought the not-too-distant future with them, taking some of the sting out of the discomfiting present.
What stings and/or discomfits? The fact that there’s only three of them, meaning other Mets have to pitch other days and none has been much up to the task of late. The fact that the nine Mets entrusted with producing runs Sunday did little to mount offense, offering merely two solo home runs (Baty’s and Juan Soto’s) and one last-ditch threat that went nowhere. The fact that despite the Reds, the Giants, the Diamondbacks, and the Cardinals sitting barely above or right at .500, they each linger within grasping distance of the 76-67 Mets, who have yet to put any Wild Card wanna-be decisively behind them. The Mets hold loss-column leads of four and five games on the stragglers. Should they resist the temptation to utterly fizzle, they should be fine in terms of reaching October. But losing two of three when faced with one of their flawed rivals for that final playoff spot is a sign of a lot of the same old same old that has beset 2025 with its catalogue of what stings and/or discomfits.
Which is why it’s so delightful to catalogue the brand new: this gang, these pitchers, their shared opportunity and what they’ve been doing with it. It’s not unprecedented for Mets fans to revel in multiple fresh-faced pitchers delivering on potential. It’s something else having them do it for a team not trying to build up to contention but already in the midst of contending, let alone fending off encroaching heel-nippers. McLean, Sproat, and Tong were prospects when August began. In September, they loom as our most effective line of defense against a teamwide inclination to wither away. Come October…well, let’s get to October. Whatever does or doesn’t happen then won’t be an endpoint. We’ll have our poised, talented, youthful pitchers leading us toward the season and seasons beyond this one. Yeah, I can’t wait to get to know the gang better.
Hard to really see pitches sitting behind 3b but Sproat sure had Reds hitters under control, until the 6th anyway. Not sure what happened on the grounder to Baty, looked like he could have had it. It was nice that we made the 9th interesting. I joked to my neighbors (pleasant 30-something couple in Reds gear) that I should leave after the 8th since we never come back.
Lately we’ve done much better vs teams ahead of us in the standings than against those behind. So getting the 3rd WC makes sense – everyone will have a better record than us. Over 140 games in and I still don’t know what to think of this team.
Psst! (in a whisper):
“We’re playing the Phils tonite.”
Best kept secret in NY, since we just played our truist competition, in Cincinnati, for 6th place. What a come-down to now play the 1st place team in our own division.
Can I add that Generation MST3K is just fantastic? Can we get an MST3K night at Citi? Fans dressed as Gypsy, Tom Servo and Crow? Joel Hodgson throwing out the first pitch? Cheesy movies on the Jumbotron during rain delays? I feel like the Cohens would have this sense of humor.
The Citillite of Love!
I Accuse My
ParentsPitchers.Love the MST3K references. Not sure if anyone noticed, but Gary Cohen made an MST3K reference a few weeks ago when the SNY cameras showed the broadcast booth in silhouette. They should really just relax.
It’s just a show.
In other words, hail, hail, the gang’s all here. The question is, what took them so long? It seems like they were chewing up the minor leagues for a couple of months while we went through the train wreck that was Frankie Montas and exhausted starters who couldn’t make it out of the fourth inning and bullpen games filled with Quad-A pitchers whose names I don’t remember. And we had these guys right there in Syracuse, and the brain trust refused to bring them up until it was verging on too late. It’s exhilarating and frustrating at the same time.
Look, I get that you don’t want to bring up a young guy before he’s ready. And I get that Tong in particular only recently shot up from A ball. Still, when I think of the late Davey Johnson, rest his soul, the first thing I remember is how, as a rookie manager in ‘84, he pushed Frank Cashen to bring up Doc Gooden and Ron Darling and others to replace past-their-prime members of the Mets rotation. At some point, you need to bite the bullet and rely on your kids, and initiate them in the gang. I’m glad it finally happened. I hope it didn’t happen too late to save 2025.
Not all. I’d like to see Dylan Ross in the bullpen. Have to DFA someone, my vote is Stanek. He’s better than that but it would remove Mendoza’s obsession with continuing to use him in high-leverage situations. Ross has some trouble with walks but I’d still take him over some of the guys we have.
There’s a significant possibility that we’ll look back and decide that the 2025 Mets would have been better off, or at least no worse off, making no deadline trades and just promoting from within, though I doubt Stearns could get away with that.
Probably few noticed this but as a longtime Little League manager (took one team to the state finals) I always look closely at replays of guys running to first on hot grounders or possible double play balls due to the First Law of Little League: “Run to first without looking at the ball or it will slow you down.” And there was Marte, not for the first time, looking at the ball most of the way up the first base line–and getting thrown out by half a step.
It looks like the Mets offense has fallen asleep again.
These 2025 Mets seem just as likely to stagger out of the postseason with a different reason to lose every night as they are to squeek in with the 3rd wild card and catch fire. It’s clear that the clutch magic of the 2024 Mets is not with the 2025 Mets. In a game of inches, the Mets seem constantly to be an inch or two the wrong way on both sides of the ball.
I’m glad the 3rd wildcard race is close enough so that the Mets can’t just stagger into the postseason. I prefer that they have to prove something competitively with a sense they earned their way to the 3rd wildcard. I want it to feel deserved.
In baseball, no 3rd WC is actually earned. It is just an undeserved charity case at best.