Why do you feel like this is the angle for game three tonight?

Well, so first off, I wrote the story leading into the World Series.

So obviously some of the stakes are in some ways taken out of it because the Brewers seem like they're going to win this World Series and are up 2-0.

And I also acknowledge the Mets flag behind me.

And if I talk about who's winning or losing the Freddy Peralta trade, people might think that I'm going towards the angle of the prospects and how the Mets didn't lose the trade.

And it's nothing about that.

The genesis of the article is pretty simple.

And that is, I think, where I still, even though Milwaukee's up to nothing, that's where I still resonate with your point.

What would be your advice to, For somebody who says, I don't trust him, but I'm willing to have him earn my trust back, what do you think it takes?

I mean, bottom line is he's got to build a winner next year.

I just think it's that simple.

And again, I get the fans ripping the guy for what just happened.

It was a brutal offseason.

I think what I would ask you to do is zoom out a little bit.

And if you are old enough, and it doesn't take you to be that old to remember this, remember what the Wolpon era was and how... bad that franchise was run.

I don't know.

Maybe, yeah

... at that point, it's still early enough in the season that you're still trying to talk yourself into, "Okay, well, if they just rattle off, you know, five, six series in a row, they'll get closer to 500.

They just gotta get back." And, and now, honestly, it's been a lot more enjoyable once you've accepted that the season's over.

And once you get to that point, you're no longer upset.

Like, Steve Cohen actually talk- talked to the media today, and he said, and they were, like, asking him about still being upset about things.

He's like, "I've moved..." He's, he's like, "...

in, like, the stages of grief.

Hmm.

It's like David Stearns kind of feels like the big cog in this, 'cause as you've made your point on your show multiple times, fire the manager, sure, but if you fire the manager, then you're still trying to figure out why on the heck you gotta give it back to Eric Wagaman.

Yeah.

No, i- it's, you know, l- like you mentioned, the injury bug for the Mets has been a huge issue, but it's also so many decisions that have gone the wrong way.

And I think David Stearns, in the past, was really good at operating a small market team and finding those guys, you know, that other teams overlooked, and then all of a sudden there's value.

I think the Mets have done a nice job with that under David Stearns.

There's been guys like Luis Torrens, who was picked up off of waivers, essentially, a waivers trade.

Uh, or m- might not have been a waiver trade, but a minor league trade.

I wonder a little bit too, and I don't necessarily wanna go too crazy with this whole idea because we'll talk about it quite a bit during the off season, but as the whole idea of a potential lockout or at the very least some sort of CBA battle is going on, do you think that there's any sort of movement this season, seeing how some big market and small market teams are operating, that they might not go for a salary cap?

But Kimbrell in the 10th is... funny uh them pitching to nico horner who is one of the best bat to ball guys in major league baseball is also funny and i'll let you get into the nitty-gritty of the weekend ryan finkelstein but yes you're no question carlos mendoza is managing the new york mets on tuesday after the off day

yes i think so not a confident yes not a confident yes the only reason why i say yes is like three days ago david stearns was like oh yeah it's not mandy's fault and i do think that I really don't think it's all on the manager.

I mean, the players have to play better.

But at the same time, if you're going to scapegoat a guy, this would be the time to do it.

I mean, 11 straight losses.

Obviously, that decision in the extra innings was not the best to pitch to a guy that was clearly going to put bad on ball.

And what I said on my show after the game, if...

It was timely hitting from the Cubs outside of Friday, which was obviously a drubbing.

So what have you seen from Polanco early? I

honestly think Polanco's at-bats have been pretty good.

He's hit into some hard outs, but he's drawn walks.

Marcus Simeon looks like overmatched.

Marcus Simeon looks like, all right, he might be over the hill a little bit.

Jorge Polanco, I honestly think he's going to hit.

I'm not really worried about him.

in the world but they do have zach netto up the middle and they're able to at least field some ultimately i think he's due for some positive regression this year and he could become again improved as one of the better ground ball artists in baseball but instead of just being a ground ball guy be a truly dominant pitcher and he showed it in his first start i i just simply like the take i'm gonna buy it

I wonder if you have noticed yet who's number eight.

Yeah, real quick.

I just have to shout out to Grom because there's something that he now has the narrative because of 20.

What was it? Probably 2021 through 2024 of being this injury prone pitcher.

And that's because in 2021, Jacob to Grom probably should have gotten Tommy John surgery then.

And in that first half of the season, it was when Jacob DeGrom was just like, like having starts that he was just averaging a hundred.

And he, I mean, I will say 2021, Jacob DeGrom is the most unbelievable half of a season I've ever seen.

Yeah,

But if you're trading a Brett Beatty because you've got Bichette here for a year and then Bichette goes and then opts out and then you just said the free agent market's not that great, what did you do for maybe one year at trying to win the World Series? And if you don't, then what?

So for me, I think it ultimately comes down to what else is out there.

I think for David Stearns, he reads the market better than most.

And so I think for him, if you can't get Ballinger, I'm sure they've probably already exhausted Jaron Duran possibilities this offseason.

Let's say you think that's not available to you.

Then you're looking at Luis Robert, Eugenio Suarez.

Where is the bat that you can get that's going to make this? Who's hitting in the first inning with Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor? If it was Jorge Polanco, it's a failed offseason.

And if he's good, whatever, we have Bichette and Beatty here.

How devastating was it to the fans? Because it seemed like the Mets fans had really endeared themselves to Pete Alonzo, and I assume that, you know, Cohen would find a way to keep him in New York.

I thought so, too, and I honestly think If the Mets just kept Alonzo, I think the narrative around this offseason is a lot different because I think that fans would have gotten over the Edwin Diaz departure.

I think, you know, they were already kind of over the Nimmo trade, and it's almost like because of Alonzo leaving and everything else, now people are more upset about Nimmo going or McNeil going.

Pete Alonzo was really the face of this team since 2019.

Even when Lindor and Soto came in, Alonzo was still kind of the guy.

And so I still don't agree with the decision to not sign him.

I would have paid him that contract.

How much do you think it would take the Astros eating in order to make a deal to be done?

So I think that this is definitely a team that is looking to restructure potentially while also still trying to compete because that's what AJ probably does if he's not playing pickup basketball.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's been reported the Padres are going to be sitting in a pretty similar payroll situation to where they're at right now.

So, you know, that's why you see Nick Pavetta being floated because it really, I mean, it's one of those contracts.

We've seen the Rays sign guys to deals like this all the time where they sort of sign a guy to a deal to trade him.

And that's kind of the Pavetta contract.

It was, we're going to pay him $4 million for the first year of this deal.

Yeah.

and Jonah Tong, right? So what was your first reaction, I think, to this report? And like, how much credence do you think you're giving it at this moment?

Do you have any feeling as to which piece of the contract could be altered?

It's so hard to tell.

And for a team like the Mets, you'd wonder if they're just overall trying to be cautious about too much long term spending because of the potential of a salary cap.

But it also I could argue both sides because the other side of the coin is spend while you can and figure it out later.

I think the way that I would imagine this is going to impact things primarily is sort of the middle of the market.

I feel like it's always that way in sports, right? Like the top of the market is never really affected by these things.

And it's more the middle to the bottom of the market that we see a little bit of an impact.

at this point and it does seem like tetsuya imai could push past the price tag that ranger suarez is billed at and from her valdez is billed at but there's more and more coming out about imai's market that he may be interested in this he may not be interested in this it seems like the phillies are involved it seems like the mets could be involved oh wow now the cubs are involved here Do you feel like the Mets or really any other team is kind of the favorite to go grab the more fascinating pitcher on the market, the most unknown pitcher on the market?

Um, what are they doing?

Well, so a couple of things.

I, I guess the, the Devin Williams one's pretty simple for me to understand.

Ultimately, this guy has been a top five reliever in baseball for a long time.

The stuff is still good.

He came on strong.

And I mentioned this on my show, like Edwin Diaz was awful in his first year with the Mets.

Yeah.

So if a team signs him and says, we're confident that he can give us 180 to 190 innings, I don't know if I'm calling their bluff on that.

Yeah, it's an interesting one.

So to me, I think it actually makes sense for this one to jump right into the contract prediction because I'm pretty sure you and Aram or whoever you did the show with when you were breaking down the free agent pitchers did not like my five for 110 prediction.

And so I wanted to kind of start there and how I came up with that.

And to me, it's a matter of if I'm given Ranger Suarez five years, right? I don't know.

Is he a 25 to $30 million pitcher? And I guess I stopped short of that where I think, sure, if he gets a three-year deal, I think he could get the upper end AAV, but I think he gets the long-term years.

I just don't know if he does get that high-end dollar amount.

He's still pretty much the second highest paid reliever in the game.

Did you say 160?

I said one 60 over five, which is $32 million a year.

And I think just building off of that point that you just had to me, the lockout, and I could be wrong with the way I'm reading it, but I think the lockout almost similar to how you see all the new rules in the NBA, where it impacts the mid tier.

I think that is where the lockout is going to impact this market is sort of the more middle tier, the tier B I, I think the top guys still get paid.

I think Kyle Tucker still gets paid.

I think Cease gets paid for Amber Bichette.

I think these guys are still going to get paid because, you know, especially for big market teams, this, you know, is sort of this last chance to spend without knowing what's coming.

Sonny Gray is, For who? Kodai Senga?

What do you make of Bobachet possibly not being a Blue Jay?

So my case against him returning is, for one, I already got them spending $430 million on Kyle Tucker.

So when I'm making these predictions, I'm trying to envision this whole offseason fitting together.

If I wanted to try to land more predictions that are right, I could just predict a bunch of guys going to the Blue Jays that you're going to spend.

Yeah, volume shoot it out and It could work out that way where I'd end up doing better on this.

But again, we're trying to make everything fit together.

So in my eyes, if Kyle Tucker is a Blue Jay, are they going to spend on Bichette as well? And I think the postseason is so interesting because he was amazing in the World Series after not playing.

And that middle infield of Bichette and Mookie, assuming that Mookie is a heck of a lot better than he was in 25, immediately becomes one of, if not the best middle infields in Major League Baseball, and that makes the Dodgers damn near flawless.