With the New York Mets season coming to a sad conclusion with their six-game defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers, there are always the people that are thinking of the second guesses the Mets should have made if they were to shock the baseball world and go to the World Series.
Many of the decisions coaches and front offices make in the postseason form come with a defined purpose and execution. Unfortunately, the Mets made some decisions that turned out to not work out in their favor and if done differently, it could have been a difference against the heavily-favored Dodgers.
1. The Mets only carried 12 pitchers instead of 13.
The Mets went the first two rounds of the postseason with Adam Ottavino on the roster, and did not pitch at all. He seemingly went from a major piece in their bullpen from the start of the season to an afterthought at the end. It became obvious that the Mets did not plan to use him in the NLCS against the Dodgers and was left off the roster to make room for Jeff McNeil, who had just completed his rehab from a fractured wrist he suffered five weeks before.
McNeil being on the roster made sense in the fact that the Dodgers only had one healthy left-handed pitcher on their active roster, and that was reliever Anthony Banda. The Dodgers had just lost star lefty Alex Vesia to an intercostal injury he suffered in the last game of their Division Series against San Diego, and an opportunity for the Mets to get righty-lefty matchups was there.
But here was the problem with carrying just 12 pitchers: The Dodgers lineup was just too good.
The Dodgers came in with a such a lethal attack offensively that it would have behooved the Mets to carry an extra pitcher for a long series with innings consuming more physical energy for their pitchers. The Mets seemingly had to get multiple innings out of long relievers so many times just to get out of a game and save their back-end relievers the next day.
In total, Mets pitchers issued 42 walks and gave up 46 runs in 52 innings pitched, and proved to be no match for the mighty Dodgers. They could have used an extra reliever in Game 6.
To make matters worse on the 12 pitcher cohort, the Mets also kept Luisangel Acuna on the roster, emphasizing speed and defense. It turned out to be pointless, because only one of the six games was decided by four runs or less.
2. The Mets underutilized outfielder Jesse Winker and infielder Jeff McNeil.
The most frustrating managerial decision Carlos Mendoza made during the NLCS was probably his lineups for Games 3 and 4 against righties Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The roster was built in a way to get their platoon lefties at-bats with favorable matchups.
And it’s not like Jesse Winker and Jeff McNeil weren’t All-Stars at one point in their respective careers. Winker and McNeil are excellent hitters and should have replaced the struggling J.D. Martinez and Jose Iglesias.
Martinez had been hitting around .200 since the All-Star break while Iglesias had a .485 OPS at the time of his Game 3 start in his first postseason action in more than a decade. Starting those righties against tough righties made no sense, and the Dodgers made both hitters look bad doing so. In Games 3 and 4, Martinez and Iglesias went a combined 2-for-12 with four strikeouts and no extra-base hits; it was not really a surprising outcome, unfortunately.
Why weren’t the two platoon lefties used more in games they needed to win if they wanted to translate their miracle season into a pennant? The two lefties were finally in the lineup for Game 5 and what happened? The Mets scored 12 runs and thrilled Citi Field for the first and only time last week.
3. Sean Manaea should have been pulled earlier in Game 6.
If you watched Sean Manaea pitch, it was clear from the start of Game 6 that he did not have any command on his fastball. He threw 34 pitches in the 1st inning and gave up two runs and 64 overall before he got pulled in the 3rd inning without recording an out.
It was also clear towards the end of his start in Game 2. He threw five magnificent innings before issuing back-to-back walks to lead off the 6th before being pulled a batter later six days earlier.
In the 3rd inning of Game 6, Manaea gave up a single to Teoscar Hernandez with a 107.1 mph exit velocity, a homer to NLCS MVP Tommy Edman that registered 104.1 mph off the bat, and issued a five-pitch walk to Max Muncy before finally being pulled. Muncy scored on a home run by Will Smith, and before the Mets had a chance to come back, it was 6-1 Dodgers and they never looked back.
Had Manaea been pulled earlier in Game 6, it would have given the Mets a better chance to come back and win with the season on the line because a rested bullpen from the travel day would have been ready in full force.
Manaea had never pitched close to 200 combined innings between regular and postseason play in his career until this year. He was eventually going to run out of steam, and they should have had a backup plan.
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