Most teams and managers give lip service to playing their entire roster. And every team does that with their pitchers but how many do with their hitters? Friday night, all 30 teams played and eight teams did not make a hitting or defensive change to their starters. Assuming that’s a normal day this time of year, then every team will go one day in four without making this type of substitution.
In the last 40 games, Carlos Mendoza has kept the same starting lineup in the game six times. If our average from above is correct, then that’s four fewer than expected. Mendoza has been making moves both as pinch hitters (to get the platoon advantage more so than replacing bad hitters) and as defensive replacements. Mark Vientos is often lifted at the end of the games, a pattern that’s also repeated with newly acquired Jesse Winker.
Of the current four bench players on the team, three of them have seen significant time for a reserve. The Mets have played 14 games since the All-Star break and in that span, Jose Iglesias has 45 PA, Tyrone Taylor 35, Luis Torrens 19 and Ben Gamel with six. With Jeff McNeil playing a lot in RF, that’s opened up more playing time for Iglesias. Moving forward, it’s easier to see less playing time for Iglesias and more playing time for Starling Marte, once he’s activated from the IL.
Some assume that Marte will just return to being a regular in right once he’s healthy enough to play. But it wouldn’t be a surprise if Mendoza went with a platoon with the lefty-hitting Winker and the righty-hitting Marte, both to get Winker’s bat in the lineup and to help keep the 35-year-old Marte fresh.
Platooning has mostly gone out of fashion in 2024. While it started early in the 20th Century, it has strong roots with the Mets’ franchise. Casey Stengel (the team’s first manager) was famous for platooning when he managed the Yankees in the 1950s, where among others he platooned Joe Collins and Bill Skowron; Gene Woodling and Bob Cerv and Andy Carey and Jerry Lumpe.
Gil Hodges also ran platoons, among them Wayne Garrett/Ed Charles, Art Shamsky/Ron Swoboda and Ed Kranepool/Donn Clendenon.
Davey Johnson did, too. There was Wally Backman/Tim Teufel and Howard Johnson/Ray Knight as well as the unorthodox Kevin Mitchell at shortstop when the team threw a flyball pitcher.
Is Mendoza going to follow in these footsteps? When Marte returns, it could be the aforementioned platoon in right field, along with a McNeil/Iglesias platoon at second base. When’s the last time that a team in the playoff chase platooned at two positions at the same time with everyone healthy?
As mentioned earlier, Mendoza’s usage of his bench also extends to defensive substitutions. Regardless of whether McNeil or Iglesias is in the lineup, both figure to be playing at the end of the game, with Iglesias manning third base. And while Marte has a strong arm, he’s simply no longer a good defensive player, with his questionable jumps, his refusal to dive for the ball and his tendency to get alligator arms near the wall.
In 491.1 innings in right field (roughly 40% of a full season) Marte has a (-6.8) UZR, a (-8) FRV and a (-9) DRS. That’s terrible. If he’s in the lineup to start the game, he shouldn’t finish any close games. Tyrone Taylor has played 232 innings in right field and has a +8 DRS. He’s also a positive fielder in the other two advanced systems. Taylor should be the defensive caddy for both Marte and Winker.
Many people worried about how Mendoza would do as a first-time manager. It’s hard to divvy up credit or blame for moves that you’d definitely count as the manager’s back in the 1980s. But if we say that Mendoza has final say on these, then he’s done a good job with the hitting end of things. The pitching is a little bit different.
But he doesn’t seem quite so eager to remove his starters now as he was earlier in the year. And the usage pattern for the relievers seems better, too. Perhaps the biggest question mark now is the usage of Jose Butto. He’s probably better than at least two pitchers currently in the rotation. But even just as a reliever, there’s been usage that maybe doesn’t make great sense.
It will be curious to see what the plan for Butto is once Reed Garrett, Dedniel Nunez and Sean Reid-Foley return from the IL. Will Butto move back to the rotation? Will he become the long man? Will he be the eighth-inning guy to set up Edwin Diaz?
Maybe after the decisions he’s made on offense have worked out, we can give Mendoza the benefit of the doubt with Butto’s usage, both now and when the walking wounded return to action. And if he manages Butto’s role correctly, it won’t be a surprise if Mendoza ends up with a whole bunch of Manager of the Year votes.
Buck Showalter in 2022 is the only Mets manager to win the award, which began in 1983. When Johnson helped lead the Mets from 68 to 90 wins in 1984, Jim Frey won. When Johnson guided the Mets to 108 wins in 1986, Hal Lanier won. Bobby Valentine didn’t’ win either. Maybe it’s time a Mets skipper takes home the hardware.
Mendoza has the look and feel of a guy who is gonna manage this team for a long time. Reflects well on Stearns too since it was fair to assume Cohen would have preferred a more experienced skipper.
It’s going to be interesting to see how both CF and RF shake out going forward. Bader and Marte are probably two of my least favorite guys on the team, so I hope they aren’t handed starting jobs. Hopefully Winker comes up with some big hits before Marte comes back.
People think there’s a huge advantage for Bader over Taylor and I just don’t see it. Taylor had an extended cold streak – thanks to his dismal results vs LHP when he was facing them so Stewart could hit the RHP. But since July 1, Taylor has a .793 OPS compared to a .685 mark for Bader in the same time frame.
My hope is that moving forward that Bader and Taylor have similar playing time. But I expect Bader to get significantly more PA. If he wants to earn my MOY vote, he’s going to have to sit Pinky more.