The Mets’ season-worst losing streak stretched to six games with tonight’s 7-1 defeat in Atlanta. Clay Holmes was unable to escape the fifth inning, and the Mets turned to righty Justin Hagenman to work the final 2 2/3 frames in mop-up fashion. Hagenman had been the likeliest choice to start tomorrow’s series opener against the Phillies, necessitating a change of plans.
As first reported by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, New York will now turn to Blade Tidwell opposite Zack Wheeler. They’ll need to recall the 6’4″ righty tomorrow afternoon. It’ll be the second MLB appearance of his career. The Mets called up the former second-round pick for a spot start against the Cardinals on May 4. He gave up six runs in 3 2/3 innings to take the loss and was optioned back to Triple-A Syracuse the next day. Tidwell, one of the better pitching prospects in the organization, has worked 62 1/3 innings over 13 Triple-A appearances this season. He carries a 4.76 ERA but has punched out nearly 28% of opponents against a 9.5% walk rate.
This is likely to again be a one-off appearance. Frankie Montas has been on a minor league rehab assignment since May 24. Pitchers can spend up to 30 days on a rehab stint before they need to be activated (unless they suffer an injury setback). Montas’ rehab window closes on Monday, at which point the Mets need to put him on the MLB roster.
Manager Carlos Mendoza confirmed before Thursday’s game that Montas will be in the rotation (link via Tim Britton of The Athletic). That wouldn’t have seemed in doubt at the beginning of the rehab stint. The Mets signed Montas to a two-year, $34MM free agent deal. He would’ve opened the season in the middle of the rotation had he not suffered a significant lat strain early in Spring Training. The results on his rehab stint have been dreadful, however.
Montas has allowed more than 12 earned runs per nine innings over six rehab starts: two in High-A, four in Triple-A. Teams generally don’t place much stock in a player’s stats while he’s rehabbing. The primary focus is on getting healthy. Yet Montas’ struggles have been so significant that the Mets must be at least a little concerned. He has allowed more than a run per inning in three of his four Triple-A outings. Opponents have combined for a staggering eight home runs in 14 1/3 innings. He gave up five runs on seven hits (including one homer) while striking out only two of 23 batters faced against Miami’s top farm team on Wednesday.
The results certainly don’t suggest he’s ready to face MLB hitters, but the Mets are out of time on the rehab stint. There was some thought that they could activate Montas as a reliever, at least allowing Mendoza to deploy him in low-leverage situations as he tries to iron out his mechanics. That might have been the plan had they not lost Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill to the injured list within the past week. “Look, we need starters here,” Mendoza acknowledged to reporters. “We signed him to be a starter for this team, and we’re going to give him a chance.” That likely positions Montas to make his team debut early next week when the Mets welcome the Braves to Citi Field.
It was just eight days ago that the Mets were reportedly receiving interest in Paul Blackburn because it was unclear if they’d have room for him as a starting pitcher. New York had pushed their lead in the NL East to a season-best 5.5 games that same afternoon. Now, they’re tied with the Phillies as they head into this weekend’s series at Citizens Bank Park. Blackburn looks like a short-term rotation fixture behind Holmes, David Peterson and Griffin Canning. Montas will slot into the fifth spot after getting bombed by minor league lineups.
While things have gone downhill quickly, there’s more cause for optimism in the medium term. Sean Manaea, who has been out all season due to a Spring Training oblique strain, has been on a rehab assignment since June 6. His numbers are also poor, but that’s not as concerning when a pitcher is shaking off the rust very early in a rehab stint. He’s around two weeks away from an MLB return. Senga has a low-grade hamstring strain. He could resume throwing by the end of the month and return in mid-July if all goes well. The news on Megill is less encouraging, as he’ll miss at least 4-5 weeks with an elbow sprain.
The front office will have a little more than five weeks to see how their injured pitchers progress and gauge what they can get out of Montas before deciding on trade deadline priorities. Jon Heyman of The New York Post wrote this evening that they’re likely to be involved in the rotation market once July 31 approaches. That’s true of almost all contending teams, of course. The next month will go a long way to determining their sense of urgency to add a starting pitcher.
As I have said all year, especially since Minter went down, the bullpen is awful. Outside of Diaz and Reed Garrett, they have no reliable arms in the pen. Even Brazoban, who was good to start the year, has been blowing games (due to being overworked most likely). These penny pinching moves by Stearns is the issue. He has stood idily by since Minter went down, when he should of made a trade to replace him. I have 0 faith that he will make meaningful additions to the pen. Guys like Ryan Heslsly, Camillo Dovall, Alexia Diaz, Justin Lawrence, etc. were all guys that I wanted him to get, and instead he went with low cost options like Kevin Herget, Tyler Zuber, Ty Adcock, Hagenman, Wadell, etc. to fortify the bullpen. An absolute joke. The deadline is too far away, he needs to make moves now. The Braves are catching up
Yet somehow he has them in first place. What a joke.
@padam The 2016 SF Giants had the best record in baseball during the all star break. They made no moves at the deadline and the team was playing over their head. They proceeded to have the worst record in the national league in their final 70+ games and barely squeeked in with a wildcard berth. Just because the Mets are a first place team right now doesn’t mean Stearns is doing a good job. There are 80+ more games to play. You’re insane if you think this rotation is good enough to make any sort of noise in the playoffs. They need an ace and 2-3 relievers that have had prior success in the majors (Finnegan, Vodnick, Bednar, Mason Miller, Felix Bautista, etc.). You are only fooling yourself
Stearns is a buy from the discount rack GM. The only big moves were driven by Cohen. Hefner is horrible. The whole pitching staff fails to throw strikes, always work behind and walk too many guys. Mendoza even has no sense of urgency, shrugs off every blown game like it’s no big deal. Their record is a mirage.
And after getting swept in Atlanta, they’ve dropped into a tie for first with the fightin’ Phillies.
Another reason why LOLmets endures.
@padam – All fans panic during the bad streaks, and become too giddy during the winning streaks. It is simply the nature of being a fan. Although certainly when it comes to these comments boards, there are certain types that are simple-minded trolls that litter the field with their garbage no matter what is going on (ahem LFG).
The Mets are a good team, as are my Phils. I thought that the Braves would be in the mix but they have a lot of ground to make up. Health will determine things for the most part.
The biggest thing that I thought about the Mets before the season is that the rotation was weaker than it should be and that Stearns could have spent more for better quality. Up until recently my hopes were dashed but now they are scrambling. Stearns is really sharp but hardly perfect. It looks like y’all wlll be spending some trade capital at the deadline.
I never thought Mintas was good, and disagreed with that signing.
Re-signing Manaea was imperative, and they got that done though he got hurt. That said, if his rehab goes well and he comes back right after the July 4th holiday, it WILL be like getting an 1-2 starter back.
Hopefully Senga gets back sometime in July.
The pitching has carried them so far, because the hitters with men in scoring position are 25th in all of MLB. NO team can win relying on pitxhing alone. Let’s hear the whining about lack of offensive production!! You can’t ask for Alonso to carry the tram the whole season on his back. And now we are seeing the results of that.
BUT DON’T blame the pitching. You are NOT watching the same team daily that I am watching if you don’t throw the batters under the bus.
Apologies to the readers. I need autocorrect. Badly.
No one is available now. I mean, I’m sure they could get Alcantara from Miami if they are willing to part with three meaningful prospects (like Jett, Benge, and Dohm) but that would be a crazy overpay in my mind. They’ll have to wait it out until prices drop, but mark my words, Stearns will be VERY active on the trade market next month.
Prices aren’t going to drop. There are 9 – 10 teams in each league within playoff striking distance. Too few sellers.
And which pitcher is being offered for trade?
You’re right
the crazy thing is all those and pretty much anyone that has pitched this year for the mets in the majors has been better at the major league level than your relievers Brigham and Fujinara has done in the minors and majors combined over the last 2 years including even Hagenman. You will only back a bullpen of Diaz, Hader, Estevez, Chapman, *insert high end closer* and still say they ok and still find holes and complain they can do better.
Most on here just need a break Brazoban has been in nearly half the games this season and has a full `10 innings over Diaz and Reed as he is one of the first first out the bullpen. I never expected him to carry such a heavy load and outside of yesterdays game has been right there with diaz and reed. where diaz was horrible to start the season and brazoban is running out of gas a bit and needs some time to catch his breathe. Butto and Kranick are the same. If they got the same rest as Diaz and Reed they probably would be along the same level.
Once Manea comes back and eats up a few more innings and hopefully Senga comes back as dominant as before. It will take some pressure off the bullpen. Also by then they may move Holmes as good as he is into the bullpen or piggy back some games to save his arm a little and dont end up like lopez with the braves. Would save him and the bullpen for a day.
No that im wishing harm but can someone throw some extra soap in the bathroom before montas hits the shower? The biggest why for the offseason.
@Roll Kranick and Butto could have a months rest and they wouldn’t even be close to Diaz. With that out of the way, Montas was an awful signing by Stearns. I really think they should just make him our long reliever, DA Blackburn, and call up Nolan McLean to be the starter. Holmes should stay in the rotation for now, he has not been the problem with this team even though the bullpen is a glaring need
I dont know if i want montas as even a long reliever but Kranick was the go to guy at the beginning of the season and was getting used pretty much every other day and in multiple innings. He was pretty much clean over 9+ innings and only 2 hits no walks over that stretch.
Do you know what Diaz was in that same time frame .. roughly a half game worth of innings and giving up roughly a run a game and that is with regular rest for a reliever and not many clean innings either where some wanted him out of the closer role like devin williams. Not me but the talks were there.
Am i saying Kranick could be closer no but he has been a solid reliever and until his recent injury stints due to probably over use was a reliable option.
Butto also served as setup guy last year due to injuries and did solid job overall. Over the last month he has been just as good as Reed especially over this losing streak which reed got hit for 2 losses and tagged for 2 runs while butto last er was back in the middle of may.
I hate how teams call up a starter for 1 day then send them right back down. Thats not in the spirit of the rules. If a starter from the minors makes a major league starter they should automatically get 5 days worth of big league pay not 1. I have no clue why they don’t fix this.
I think its time to have Butto start and stop the bleeding instead of bringing up some guy from AAA. Met’s don’t need a reliever when the starter is blown out of the water in the first few innings.
Mets won what they did and made the run that they did last year in-spite of Mendoza with heroic ABs and not because of him.
His bad managing has been exposed on this losing streak.
2-4 is much better than 0-6
They don’t call it the Mendoza line for nothing and that is where the Mets are headed.
@Canosucks I disagree with you on Butto, I don’t think hes a major league starter. If they are looking at internal options, I’d rather they call up Nolan McLean. With that being said, you are 100% right that Mendoza is to blame (Not totally, its on Stearns as well) for this losing streak. My biggesr gripe with him is that he plays every game like he wants to “conserve the bullpen”. Vs the Rays in game 1, he went to Blackburn. Blackburn loaded up the bases, so he decided to put in Kranick instead of someone like Diaz or Garrett. Another issue I have are his horrendous lineups and weirdly constructed positional decisions. Why is Nimmo batting 5th? Why is Marte batting 2nd? Why is Taylor batting 7th? Why is McNeil playing centerfield? Why does Baty play 2nd and Vientos play 3rd when they have a DH spot? Why does he never instruct the players to bunt over the man on 2nd in extra innings? He isn’t a terrible manager, hes good at giving the players confidence, but he leaves a lot to be desired
I think Mendoza is an above average manager who’s still learning. This team has thrived because of the pitching lab led starting rotation BUT it was supposed to be built to win by mashing, offense needs to be a little more consistent with RISP as the pitching comes back to earth. The trade deadline will be interesting, I wonder if they’ll bring in guys who’ve struggled elsewhere instead of premium names and hope to transform them via the lab.
I think they will end up adding a number of pitchers at the deadline but none will have names that excite the fans, but one or two will thrive with some mechanical tweaks.
@LFGMets Spot on about the lineup, bullpen use, and small ball.
“He isn’t a terrible manager, hes good at giving the players confidence, but he leaves a lot to be desired”
Yes and not the manager learning you want on a WS contending team.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Sure, the pitching is tattered (shattered? sha-doobee) but its tough to win games when scoring only one or two runs. Is Devers available? Oh wait…
Per Fox sports, the White Sox current starting rotation has 8th best era. I’m sure that one or two could be had without blowing up the farm
Expect Civale to be available at the deadline. The rest are all relatively young and inexpensive so they might be tougher to get.
What’s Jerry Koosman doing?
Reinforcements cannot come soon enough. Need Montas and Manaea back.
Manaea yes … montas can stay right where he is maybe just have him be a loss and just throw til the arm falls off to save the bullpen.
@Roll Yes Montas 8 homeruns in 14 IP, Yikes
yup and some people want him to come back as long man in the pen …. i dont even want that. I questioned it even from the start but prayed the lab could have fixed him. This is the big question mark so far on Stearns. He will be at best the mopup guy in blow outs it seems at this point. Hopefully he proves me wrong but i am skeptical based on history and what we have seen so far.
Team has been dookie special after coasting for 2 weeks. Braves are still their daddy, why are they throwing Blackburn when you have McLean in AAA????? BLACKBURN IS TRASH. TIDWELL IS TRASH. The pitching was clearly overperforming, but man, does this team just completely die when one star is injured (Lindor) and a pitcher (Senga) goes down.
They got swept by a team that has been abysmal all season when they could’ve buried them, and guess what, now they get Wheeler and the Phillies. Team absolutely blows, I slept with my head in a toilet last night after that spanking. Mendoza is taking drugs.
Mendoza gets a hot hand and burns it out. That is what happened with Brazelban (should not be in majors anyway) and Max Kranick.
Why not let Manea come up and pitch his rehab now. So he get 4 innings in. That is what the starters are doing anyway, and how long the minor league guys like Tidwell will last anyone.
The offense is a mess. Jared Young earned a good salary bump for a month but back to AAA. Mauricio is lost. Cant hit right handed. Baty is hurt and unavailable for at least 3 days, probably longer DL him. Start McNeil or Acuna at third base the other at second.
Alvarez has not found his swing since changing it over the winter and then getting hurt. The hamate bone is an bad injury. You can play because it is healed rather quickly, but it is not 100 percent for a while.
Bringing up McLean would have at least been something to give the team a jump.
Every team goes through slumps, but that cant be the accepted answer for losing. Right now team is listless and flat. Iglesias last year brought energy. Who does that now.
And when is Jesse Winker coming back. He is been in dugout, jumping around for a month.
Jose Urena is available again…