{"id":44993,"date":"2025-03-30T01:01:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T01:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=44993"},"modified":"2025-03-30T01:01:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T01:01:49","slug":"breaking-news-clues-emerge-about-how-carlos-mendoza-will-manage-mets-early-season-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=44993","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS: Clues emerge about how Carlos Mendoza will manage Mets\u2019 early-season roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edwin Diaz was not considered to pitch eighth inning vs. Astros but that can change<\/h2>\n

\"Mets'<\/p>\n

\n

HOUSTON — Two games into the season, we have gathered some data on how\u00a0Mets\u00a0manager\u00a0Carlos Mendoza<\/strong>\u00a0will approach game strategy with his new roster.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s\u00a03-1 win over Houston\u00a0allowed Mendoza his first opportunity to deploy his current group of high-leverage relievers. He chose to bring in\u00a0Reed Garrett<\/strong>\u00a0to bail\u00a0Tylor Megill\u00a0<\/strong>out of a jam in the sixth, new acquisition\u00a0A.J. Minter<\/strong>\u00a0in the seventh,\u00a0Ryne Stanek<\/strong>\u00a0in the eighth and\u00a0Edwin Diaz<\/strong>\u00a0in the ninth.<\/p>\n

All were effective, but that order of relievers was not what we will see every time the Mets are protecting a tight lead in the early part of the season.<\/p>\n

— Mendoza said he is still tinkering with when to use Minter, Stanek and Garrett in the eighth versus the seventh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be a combination,\u201d the manager said. \u201c[It will depend on] who is available, who is coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Mendoza served as\u00a0Aaron Boone<\/strong>\u2019s bench coach with the Yankees, the coaching staff would meet before the game to determine the best \u201clanes,\u201d as they called them, for each reliever against the night\u2019s opposing lineup.<\/p>\n

The Mets\u2019 approach under Mendoza sounds similar. They will look every day at data that cuts deeper than handedness and prior history, like how a given pitcher\u2019s stuff plays against an opponent\u2019s swing. They will consider which pitchers are most capable that night of contributing length, among many other factors that will determine the ideal situation for each.<\/p>\n

— You\u2019ll see Diaz at some point in the spot that Stanek faced on Friday: eighth inning, best part of the lineup. In this case, it was\u00a0Jose Altuve, Isaac Parades<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Yordan Alvarez<\/strong>. Stanek took care of them, but contemporary managers, including Mendoza, often use their \u201cclosers” (a term that is gradually becoming anachronistic) in that spot.<\/p>\n

I asked Mendoza after the game if he considered Diaz in the eighth. He said no, primarily because it was Diaz\u2019s first appearance of the season. He wanted to get his closer out of the gate in standard fashion. But if, say, it\u2019s next weekend at Citi Field and Toronto\u2019s\u00a0Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Anthony Santander\u00a0<\/strong>are due up in the eighth with the Mets up by a few runs, that could easily be Diaz\u2019s inning.<\/p>\n

— One last bit of late-inning run prevention strategy: Mendoza said that he might use\u00a0Luisangel Acu\u00f1a\u00a0<\/strong>as a late-inning defensive replacement at second base on days that\u00a0Brett Baty<\/strong>\u00a0starts. On Friday,\u00a0Acuna pinch-hit for Baty in the seventh\u00a0because of a platoon advantage. He then made a nifty play on a grounder in the eighth.<\/p>\n

Baty is a hardworking neophyte at the position and Acu\u00f1a is what Mendoza called a \u201cplus-plus defender\u201d there. Because of that, the manager might make the substitution for purely defensive reasons late in games, even if an obvious pinch-hit situation does not arise — provided that he is not facing a team with righty relievers that could make it unwise to remove the lefty Baty. Managing is complicated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edwin Diaz was not considered to pitch eighth inning vs. Astros but that can change HOUSTON — Two games into the season, we have gathered some data… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nBREAKING NEWS: Clues emerge about how Carlos Mendoza will manage Mets\u2019 early-season roster - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=44993\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING NEWS: Clues emerge about how Carlos Mendoza will manage Mets\u2019 early-season roster - 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