Carlos Estévez

the Kansas City Royals.

I mean, they, the usage there frustrated me all year, and I think we both saw Carlos Estevez as just the biggest bomb possible, the guy to avoid at all costs.

And that ended up being correct, but there wasn't anybody that really stood out.

They acquired Matt Strom from the Phillies in the off season in exchange for Jonathan Bowen.

I, I'm trying to...

I, I'm not like...

It's not Carlos Estevez.

I think we've been, been clear on that.

Same went in 2024 going into 2025.

They waited until a little bit later in the offseason, but they gave a decent-sized contract to Carlos Estevez when they were not able to land that middle-of-the-order bat.

The quote, though, that I would say stands out the most, more than anything here, is he said, after a season like that, you really have to review everything.

And what I would take as honesty in the moment – you know, you've got to review everything when you fall that short of expectations – is that, well, we've got to review everything with the front office, other departments.

At some point, the core of their bullpen has to be homegrown guys that have yet to hit free agency with big arms, and then you supplement with a couple of guys.

This trying to build a whole bullpen outside, it is flammable, because Carlos Estevez...

You know, you hit gold year one, you got nothing year two.

Like, that's what you can expect.

And when you look at the free agent market, the Mets have to be aggressive here because there's a number of interesting names, and I'll name a few.

Raisel Iglesias, Carlos Estevez, and David Bednar, just to name some.

You also see A.J. Minter on there.

I wouldn't be upset if the Mets brought him back, but I wouldn't think he's going to be a closer.

And not only is he very good, as you see by the numbers last year, where he put up an ERA that was 2.55 and saved 34 games across 60 innings, but you would be snatching him from a fierce division rival in the Atlanta Braves.

Again, he's probably gonna get a contract very similar to what Devin Williams got.

And then you have Carlos Estevez, who's a little bit interesting because Estevez missed basically all of 2026 with an injury.

But if you look at 2025, he was one of the better closers in baseball, nailing down 42 games and pitching 66 innings to a 2.45 ERA.

Sam McDowell, who you hear on my radio show, the program, each and every Tuesday, comments for the Kansas City Star, asked J.J. Piccolo about the fact, you know, a lot made about the injuries, but asked him about the fact that they struggled early, even when they were, for the most part, healthy, minus the closer.

Carlos Estevez went down early.

They were fairly healthy early, and they still struggled yeah it's a fact

we weren't very good in April and weren't very good in beginning of May I can't sit here and tell you that I know we would have been good in June July August and September but if we had had those players on our roster and healthy and available I think we could have made a better run I can't you know we're responsible for the lack of performance in April May and we've got to figure out how we're going to get off to a better start next year uh it's important you know in the broad scheme of things 30 bad games is not going to end your season, so that's where Q and his staff have a lot of work to do when you don't get off to a great start or you have a bad month because you've got to right the shit, but you have a lot of games in baseball to get it right.