Captain Chaos

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Rest in peace, peace. Deuces to ya. 

Since June 12, 2024, when Grimace threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Citi Field, it’s essentially been a magical carpet ride, hasn’t it? Merth, music, and mayhem (complimentary). Whimsy, joy, vibes through the roof. And most of the gang came back and met up in Port St. Lucie for spring training 2025, plus Juan Soto! 

Then yesterday just had to show its ugly face. Specifically, around the 8th inning of the Mets eventual 6-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox in Fort Myers. That’s when Anthony DiComo of MLB.com published a story about Francisco Lindor possibly becoming the next captain of the New York Mets. We’ve read tell about this possibility before - it has certainly been debated lightly online and on television and presumably on sports radio. And the consensus seemed to be that Lindor being named captain was an inevitability. There was an even rumor going around that they’re waiting for David Wright’s retirement ceremony to announce it. 

The article started off innocently enough:

Early this spring, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation, Mets officials broadly discussed the idea of naming a captain for the first time since David Wright retired seven years ago. Francisco Lindor is the most obvious candidate given the leadership responsibilities he’s assumed in recent seasons.

Okay okay, so far so good. ChatGPT could take the wheel from there and churn out 500 words talking about the history of Mets captains and how it worked out and so forth. But of course we would never do that because we like our articles written by humans. 

In any case, the article took a screeching turn:

Ultimately, they decided to table the conversation -- at least for now. That’s not a reflection on Lindor, whom teammates and officials believe would be an excellent organizational steward. It’s simply an acknowledgement that the Mets’ leadership picture is a nuanced one.

It…is? It is. Because, as one reads on, it turns out that Brandon Nimmo believes that if Lindor were named captain, he should share the distinction with Nimmo. At least, that’s my interpretation of things.

In addition to Lindor, there is Brandon Nimmo, the longest-tenured Met who’s played an influential role in team affairs. How could the Mets name Lindor a captain without also making Nimmo one? Then there is Juan Soto, who only just arrived but is a commanding figure under contract for the next 15 seasons. Where does he fit in? At times last year, Sean Manaea became a vocal leader. Pete Alonso and Francisco Alvarez served as emotional beacons. They’re all still in that room, too.

Juan Soto has been here for five minutes. Sean Manaea? Ten minutes. Alonso is the team’s beloved large adult son, not the leader. Alvarez is barely no longer a teenager. It feels to me that DiComo just mentioned those players to make sure Nimmo wasn’t the only Lindor alternative. 

In a world where Francisco Lindor doesn’t exist, I guess I can see Nimmo holding official captaincy duties? He’s the longest-tenured Met and is signed through 2030 (Lindor through 2031). But be honest: did you even consider Nimmo in any captaincy conversation until I brought it up just now? 

“It’s supposed to be one person,” Nimmo said of the captaincy. “But from what I’ve seen, and how our team responded last year, I saw many different people step up and lead. And I think that just slapping the ‘C’ on one guy would probably not be a full picture of what’s actually been going on in here.”

Later:

“We bring different things to the table,” Nimmo said, “and I just don’t think it all works as well without bringing it all together.”

And:

“The ‘C’ I almost think is more for the fans, and it’s more for just an outward appearance, because on the inside of this clubhouse we know who we’re looking toward,” Nimmo said. “We know who the leaders of this clubhouse are. We know we have many. And we know that we all want to pull on the same end of the rope and get everybody going in the same direction.

But come on, it obviously should be Lindor. Even Nimmo knows this deep down:

“Man,” [Nimmo] said, “it would be tough to slap a ‘C’ on my chest without slapping a ‘C’ on Lindor’s chest.”

Also, within the article, DiComo wrote this of Lindor:

Teammates have referred to him as the soul of this club.

THE 

SOUL 

OF 

THE 

CLUB. 

Both Nimmo and Lindor have been clear in saying that even if the Mets were to name a captain (or two), nothing would change in terms of how they conduct their business. But these are human beings. Crowning one without the other could have the power to offend -- or at the very least, to misrepresent the leadership picture in New York. By its very nature, it would change a power dynamic that worked remarkably well last year without any formal titles attached.

I don’t see how it could be interpreted as anything other than “Brandon Nimmo would probably be offended.” As funny as it is to consider a legitimately aggrieved Brandon Nimmo, it would ruin the good thing the Mets have got going. The two options the organization seem to have is either name Lindor and Nimmo co-captains, or just forget the whole thing and continue to let Lindor be the unofficial leader. I’m guessing they’ll choose to go the latter route. 

Speaking of long-tenured Mets: Jeff McNeil. The squirrel went from 2022 batting champion to batting bum up until the second half of last season, when he realized he had to be like everyone else and try to square up baseballs as hard as he can -  aiming to hit the ball to parts of the field where there wasn’t a fielder stopped being effective when the infield shifts were banned. He got good results until he broke his wrist last September. He was struggling this spring until yesterday, when he smacked a 400+ foot double off of Walker Buehler and singled off of Liam Hendriks. I noticed that McNeil changed his stance since last season. 

On the left is McNeil flying out to center in the final regular season game he played last season. On the right is McNeil yesterday hitting the aforementioned stand-up double to center.

Jeffrey had a closed stance in 2024, his feet parallel to the ground. For 2025, after working in the Mets’ new batting lab, he seems to have decided to open his stance up, lifting his front leg and timing it so it lands parallel to his back foot upon impact. The new approach, McNeil must be hoping, allows him to put more oomph into his swing, to use a scientific term. 

Jose Siri hit his second three-run homer in as many days. The one he hit yesterday was off of the 2-time All-Star Hendriks, so that was kind of impressive. Siri flipped his bat after he hit his bomb, but it was practically demure compared to his typical celebrations. And there’s probably a reason for that. In 2020, Siri told Jake Mintz from Cespedes BBQ that he bat flips homers he hits off of players he thinks are racist. Hendriks famously defended Tim Anderson in 2022 after Josh Donaldson called him “Jackie” and then claimed it was an inside joke, which Anderson denied was the case. Got to respect a man with a code, especially a bat flipping code.

Brett Baty went 0 for 3, but he made a sweet play at third base. It’s clear he can play that position. The rest of the spring should put him at second and short, but what do I know I eat rocks.

Paul Blackburn did not have a good time out there. He threw 23 pitches in one third of an inning, allowing four earned runs, before being taken out. But because spring training allows shenanigans, he returned to action in the second, where he had a much more pleasing 1-2-3 inning. Blackburn blamed a sinker he’s working on this spring, which he says currently has a mind of its own sometimes.

Génesis Cabrera did better, striking out two in a scoreless inning of work. Grant Hartwig allowed just one hit in a scoreless 7th inning. Brandon Waddell is continuing to have a subpar spring, allowing two runs on three hits in two innings. (At least this time he had some swings and misses.)

A.J. Minter threw 20-25 pitches of live BP yesterday. It was the first time he had faced batters since his hip surgery last August. There was reportedly some “loud contact” given up from the bats of Drew Gilbert, Pete Alonso, and Joey Meneses, but Minter finished strong, cracking Starling Marte’s bat on his final pitch of the day.

Francisco Alvarez had a crappy Sunday. He went 0 for 3 and got hurt three times while catching, twice having foul tips hit him in the shoulder, and once in the uh, crotch area. 

Luisangel Acuña was not permitted to hold a bat yesterday, a day after he left a game early after getting hit by a pitch in the elbow. However, Acuña took part in infield practice. 

Darryl Strawberry will be in Mets camp this week. He told Jay Horwitz that he’s going to say the following to Pete Alonso: “I’m glad you are back, and go break my home run record.”

Have $2.3 million burning a hole in your pocket? Then buy Keith Hernandez’s Florida condo!

Former Met GM Billy Eppler has reportedly signed on to work as a special advisor in the MIlwaukee Brewers organization. So essentially, the Mets and Brewers traded general managers. (Mets won that swap.) Eppler was pretty decent when he was employed by New York, having put together the 2022 playoff team, then parlaying a disappointing 2023 season into essentially giving the Mets a decent farm system. Eppler was set to work under President of Baseball Operations David Stearns when he resigned a day into Stearns’ tenure. Soon after he was suspended by MLB for making up injuries to manipulate the team’s IL, which several people laughed at because plenty of other GMs were guilty of this and nothing was ever done about it. I don’t think Eppler would have lasted very long under Stearns, who never bothered to replace Eppler.

10 years ago today, team captain David Wright and Bobby Parnell (sure, why not?) threw rookie Noah Syndergaard’s lunch in the trash. Baby Thor made the mistake of not being in the dugout during an intrasquad game. Can you imagine Brandon Nimmo doing what Wright did? Please, he’d feel so bad he’d take Syndergaard out for a “real meal” every night the rest of the spring. Lindor? He’d hire someone to take the refrigerator out of his house.