NY Mets Monday Morning GM: 1 word by Carlos Mendoza sums up a lot

A theme for the New York Mets season has become patience. Or maybe it’s creativity with the usage of certain players, especially pitchers. Or maybe there’s a third option of completely guessing as to what will work.

The Mets made the decision late last week that they’d no longer test out David Peterson as a starter and elevate Sean Manaea into the “bulk” role previously held by their other fallen lefty starter. The team has been scrambling for answers in the rotation while filling up the bullpen with arms capable of going multiple innings. Tobias Myers has since been demoted, Jonah Tong promoted, and rather than solve the problem, they’ve shuffled some pieces around.

Uncertainty was an offseason theme with some of those players plus Kodai Senga and more. One comment by Carlos Mendoza over the weekend helps sum up a lot of what’s wrong with the Mets.

The need to “script” things shows how out of control the Mets pitching plan has gotten

Paul Schrader isn’t walking through that door with a script for the Mets to follow. If he did, it must be a mini-series of Taxi Driver taking place in the summer of 1977. If they could make American Gigolo a television series, they can certainly do it with Taxi Driver.

The need to script things is a common complaint of baseball fans who would prefer a team runs with logic and heart. The reality of the situation is that’s not how the game is played. Nevertheless, the counterargument applies here, too.

Myers had no definitive role with the Mets. He wasn’t a one-inning reliever nor was he a bulk guy. At times used as an opener and at others a finisher, he was a Swiss Army knife for the Mets. Good at times and a bit more sour in some recent outings, the Mets never seemed to have much of an idea as to what the best use was for “the other guy” in the Freddy Peralta trade.

The Mets have been more than patient with others, Manaea loitering because of his contract. They’ve gotten creative with Tong and have plans to continue to deploy him in unconventional ways. With Myers, and in some ways everyone, they’re kind of just guessing.

Guessing can turn out well. The problem for the Mets this year is they guessed wrong and in more than one way. They failed to sell the players with question marks. It bit them back. Before we knew it, the bullpen was stockpiled with multi-inning options who didn’t really fit any traditional role. Two is viable. By the time we got to the past few days with Peterson, Manaea, Myers, and Tong all in there with none trusted enough to actually start, it appeared as if things were more out of control than they could reasonably handle.

The amazing thing is the Mets bullpen has actually been good. Peterson’s success coming in as a reliever included, the familiar idea of blaming the relief corps hasn’t applied. Nowhere can you be less patient than with relievers, the Mets already DFA’ing multiple arms. When it comes to creativity, you can’t overthink it. The Mets might be doing that here. Guess right and the fans are none the wiser. Guess incorrectly and you look foolish. The Mets haven’t been afraid of that last one. They’re going to keep guessing until something kind of works.

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