Frankie Montas

It's not about developing Tom Seaver and Doc Gooden and Jacob deGrom every time.

It's about developing a guy like Zach Thornton who can maybe pitch you, you know, whatever a fifth starter is going to give you so that you don't have to pay Frankie Montas, $17 million to do it.

And I know Joe Prano is in the comments and Joe is right.

When he guest hosted on the show and everything, I completely agree with Joe on the fact that I don't care how much money the Mets spend.

That has nothing, no bearing on anything.

Developing pitching is irrelevant.

Let's continue to sign Shamanaya and Luis Severino and Frankie Montas and Griffin Canning.

And, you know, let's make sure that our depth is so thin that when your ace gets hurt last minute, that Tyler McGill has to pitch on opening day, that Dylan G has to pitch on opening day.

And you gotta take risks.

Not a risk like signing a guy like Jorge Polanco to a two-year deal or Frankie Montas to a two-year deal.

I'd rather take a risk on a guy who's proven to be an excellent top-of-the-league player.

And that's what I believe the Mets are planning on doing.

This is what a number five starter looks like.

And teams kill to develop them because they cost too much money in the market, unless you want to Frankie Montas your money away.

So you want to try to develop as many of these as possible.

So yeah, this is Schlittler's To me, the MVP of the team because pitching saved them while Judge was gone, and he's been the rock.

They re-sign Ryan Stanek.

They sign Frankie Montas.

They sign Clay Holmes and Griffin Canning to fill out innings in their rotation.

They went for it.

And I think it's a place where I'm having an evolution in terms of the way that I think about it is Stearns I think you're going to see less of those dart throws at the back end where we're like, Oh, we'll just get this guy on a tweet.

I think the, the poster child for this is, Oh, we'll just get Frankie Montas and we'll fix Frankie Montas.

Right.

I think there'll be the exact same thing.

I think there'll be less of those and they'll, there'll be more of, all right, what was our process to get Clay Holmes here? Like follow that process more than following the Frankie Montas, the Luis Severino, the Sean Mania, like that process, mostly the, didn't bear fruit, whereas the Holmes process, yeah, that was a really good process, like that one, and Seve to a certain extent, that one, those two free agents in particular, those worked out, like, find guys that you, that follow that model and that process rather than the, we like this part of the pitcher's profile, but we're gonna ignore, like, don't follow the process that landed to Jorge Polanco being your choice at first base.

And the pitching side of that is Frankie Montas, right? Don't follow that process.

Make the evolution there.

I think to use a foolish baseball term,

We got like these core players.

We got Frankie Montas.

We got like these core players that then turned into like the next winning window.

And the fact that they missed so badly on some of those trades for Sean Murphy.

does it so that he doesn't have to hit the top market value and he can get shorter-term deals.

Think Frankie Montas.

Instead of signing a longer-term, larger, more lucrative contract for a free agent pitcher, he goes the cuter route, the more outside-the-box route.

And his outside-the-box thinking, it's worked when he's brought in guys who have been rejected in the past, bullpen relievers.

And you know, the, the Mets, it's tough because you look at first and second base, and to be good in 2027, I think they have to go get surer things.

But if they can, I don't know, like get the opposite of the karma they got from the Frankie Montas and, and Jorge Polanco short-term signings.

[chuckles] And like if there's a couple guys out there who can be a one or two-year deal, uh, where you maybe pay them a little bit more than, you know, than, than they would get from most other teams, because you have Mitch Voight and Emilio Pietre and Elian Pena, who's still only 18 and playing in Brooklyn.

But, you know, you, you've got infielders, um, who even as the farm system has taken a big hit this year and just its sort of perception around the game from one of the best to not, um, some-- Several of the most exciting players in the system are guys who could end up at short if it aligns with like the age at which Lindor maybe moves to second or third, um, or se- or, you know, or just second baseman.