Adonis Medina is your run of the mill righty reliever. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about him is that he’s a short reliever who throws four different pitches at least 12% of the time. In bouncing back and forth between Triple-A and the majors, Medina hasn’t looked overmatched in the big leagues. He’s made nine appearances, six of which have been scoreless. He’s had one bad outing in Colorado but has otherwise been solid.
Overall, he has a 3.94 ERA, a 1.313 WHIP and opponents have a .790 OPS against him. It’s nothing to get excited about but if that’s the worst reliever in your pen, you’re doing all right.
His outing in Denver — 1.1 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 1 HBP
You just can’t pretend that a bad outing didn’t happen. But take that outing away and he’s been just as good as Colin Holderman, perhaps better. And the manager trusts Holderman or at least he did before Holderman went on the IL. Holderman’s been activated and sent to Triple-A. It will be interesting to see what happens after he gets a few games under his belt. Will the Mets call up Holderman to replace Medina?
And for laughs, here’s Medina’s splits this year versus LHB: .182/.280/.273 in 25 PA. That .553 OPS against lefties is better than the four lefties the Mets have used this season.
Joely Rodriguez – .642
David Peterson – .752
Chasen Shreve – .881
Thomas Szapucki – 4.333
Here’s hoping the next reliever sent packing is Shreve, not Medina.
The schedule is easier in July. 17 games against sub .500 teams. 5 games at home with the Yankees and Padres. The 3 games at Atlanta. It will be tough to win that series. 15-10 (.600) is expected and 16-9 (.640) would be nice but 17-8 (.680) would be elite. Right now, they are on pace to win 100 games. LGM
Sherzer and DeGrom? If and how good, a lot riding on those two.
Alvarez gets the call to Triple-A Syracuse
Finally!
I would also like the Mets to promote Baty and his .852 OPS and 10 homeruns to AAA . Vientos and his .845 OPS and 14 homeruns are blocking his way though. There is the possibility that the Mets will trade Vientos the a deadline trade to clear the way for Baty. They only need two prospects at 3B and Baty is the better prospect.
Brian, during the Wilpon reign, there was a great deal of criticism of how injuries were handled. I am not hearing that this year. Can you give us any insight into how, if at all, the Mets have improved their handling of injured players?
They started overhauling the way injuries were both diagnosed and reported before Cohen took over.
I think there is better communication behind the scenes, away from the public eye, among the various departments that deal with injured players. From a public-facing point of view, it seems the obvious thing they are doing different is not putting exact timelines on things until they’re absolutely certain. You saw this particularly with deGrom and to a lesser extent Scherzer while they were rehabbing.
They haven’t had as many injuries as a year ago but it still seems likely they’re in the top half of the league in time missed by front-line players.
This is not a popular take but it would be nice to know if they did anything different while Mickey Callaway was here. In 2018-19, they had 8 pitchers make at least 25 starts and in 2019 Jason Vargas made 18 starts until he was traded and Marcus Stroman made 11 after he was acquired. Essentially, 9 of the 10 SP they had those years made 25 or more starts. And the one who didn’t – Vargas in 2018 – made 20.
It would be nice to have that type of health with the SP again sometime soon.
Much appreciated, Brian.