NY Mets News: Jefry Yan celebration, A.J. Ewing slump, hot and cold players

Jefry Yan is going to pitch for a while, maybe with the New York Mets. The expansion of Banana Ball gives him an outlet where once the reality of his pitching abilities sets in, he’ll have a place to appear.

His premature celebration on a pitch in the ninth ultimately led to a walk later on in the at-bat. A few hitters later, he surrendered a home run and had to do the walk of shame.

It was bound to happen eventually. Yan has prematurely celebrated previously and with the ABS system, it’s going to bite him often. It was fun while it lasted. Yan has walked nearly a batter per inning, isn’t striking out as many hitters as he did in the minor leagues, and showing us he’s about what we expected. Fun for sure, he’s not a major leaguer right now.

That was the big talking point from the Mets’ loss to the Chicago White Sox. A few other details are more front of mind.

A.J. Ewing is in a malaise

There is no exact moment when A.J. Ewing began to slump. He went into a game on July 11th against the Boston Red Sox hitting .282/.358/.447. Now he’s batting .245/.320/.367. Across those 33 games he has hit .191/.265/.252 with 8 doubles, no home runs, and 4 runs batted in. This all came shortly after his move to the leadoff spot.

So maybe Ewing isn’t ready quite yet to bat first. While Carson Benge remains red hot since dropping out of the leadoff spot, Ewing has gone cold. Benge has been a .300/.355/.464 hitter in the second-half. He’s among the top contenders for the Rookie of the Year. Ewing’s fall off has rushed him out from even receiving mild consideration. The slump isn’t cause for major concern but does remind us that the Mets are going to need a pretty good fourth outfielder around in 2027.

The post-deadline Mets bullpen remains really good

Nate Lavender has yet to allow a run and added 1.1 more innings of scoreless baseball against the White Sox. Daniel Duarte cleaned up a pair of outs, lowering his ERA to 0.82 on the season. Each is cementing themselves as capable relief options for next season.

While Lavender has all of his minor league options remaining, Duarte had his expire in 2026. No matter. He should be penciled in for one of the non-optional spots the Mets will have on the roster in 2027.

The circumstances in which both came to the Mets couldn’t be more different, Lavender returned as a Rule 5 Draft pick and Duarte signed as a minor league free agent flier. Now two of Andy Green’s most trusted arms, the way this team has performed after the trade deadline in the one group they executed most is astonishing.

Francisco Alvarez remains a puzzle

Francisco Alvarez had “one of those days” at the plate. He was 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. Three times he made the final out of an inning. The other out came after a leadoff single.

Still a piece the Mets could make good use of, their constant flipping between him and Luis Torrens behind the plate raises a whole lot of future questions for the Mets. Can they really continue with that motif? Alvarez is the clear inferior defender. You also don’t want to bail on him completely as a catcher. He hasn’t been a good enough hitter to be an everyday DH. What’s more, with the way the roster is constructed, you need that space available.

Alvarez is having a strange second half. He’s hitting .193/.329/.413. We’ll take everything but the batting average. Maybe a little too power focused, half of his hits have gone for extra-bases with 4 doubles and 4 home runs among the 16 total. At times a little too in his own head as a hitter, it appears he could be in one of those modes where Alvarez is trying to do too much with each swing.

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