Mets have identified, optimized young talent they have made sure not to trade away
Mark Vientos. Credit: Jim McIsaac
It must’ve been pretty tempting to look across the way to the visitors’ dugout and focus on the blue-haired dynamo who is making his home in Chicago.
That, of course, would be Pete Crow-Armstrong, better known around these parts as the first-round draft pick the Mets shipped off to Wrigley Field for half a season of Javier Baez and a little less than two years of Trevor Williams. It’s long been a derided move — not just because Crow-Armstrong is living up to his promise but because the 2021 Mets didn’t manage to do much with their trade-deadline acquisitions, finishing third in the NL East.
Although Mets fans weren’t exactly celebrating when Crow-Armstrong scored the opening run in a 6-5 loss to the Cubs on Saturday, they could at least take solace in the current reality.
Mind you, that’s no knock on Crow-Armstrong, who’s as good as advertised. No, it’s more about appreciating what the Mets have now and seeing how far the organization has progressed when it comes to identifying and optimizing the young talent they’ve routinely declined to trade away of late.
Want proof? Look at Saturday night’s lineup, which had Mark Vientos, Luisangel Acuna, Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez starting in the five through eight spots. And though Acuna was acquired by trade, it should be noted that there were six homegrown talents taking the field to start the game: the three young guys, Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso and pitcher Tylor Megill.
Despite the loss, you couldn’t miss the contributions: Baty hit two homers and drove in all five runs. Vientos scored on both those homers. In the third, Alvarez picked off a runner at first, and in the fifth, Acuna made a diving stop on a ball in the hole for an out.
“I feel like we’ve done a good job,” Carlos Mendoza said. “When you see a lineup like the one today — that’s one of the first things, when I was going through it last night, where, yeah, we’ve got a lot of homegrown — obviously, Acuna was a trade — but it’s what you want to see, and we’ve got more coming. There are a lot of people working really hard behind the scenes in player development, teaching these guys, helping these guys continue to get better at the game.”
Baty is as good an example as any. Though he’s yo-yoed between Triple-A Syracuse and Flushing, he’s immediately made an impact in his three games back in the majors, going 4-for-12 with three homers and six RBIs.
Mendoza said that when Baty was sent down in late April, it wasn’t with the message that he just wasn’t good enough.
“When we sent him down, it was a different feeling,” Mendoza said. “We’re sending you down not because you can’t play here. You’re showing us you’re a big-league player. It’s just where we are, roster-wise. So the mentality is completely different when you get sent down and he comes back up and he’s getting opportunities and he knows he belongs.”
Altogether, though, all of this is further proof that owner Steve Cohen is achieving what he set out to do when he bought this ballclub after the 2020 season.
Sure, he’s got plenty of money to spend — and he sure has spent it — but the goal was to build a sustainable winner, primarily via a robust farm system. After all, it’s a little easier to pay Juan Soto $765 million when you’re rounding out your roster with young, cost-efficient talent.
It also likely was one of the big reasons Mendoza was chosen to lead this club despite no experience as a major-league manager. Before becoming the Yankees’ bench coach, Mendoza spent most of his career developing young players. He was a coach for the Staten Island Yankees in 2009 and moved up the ranks, managing the Gulf Coast Yankees and working as an organizational defensive instructor before joining Aaron Boone in the Bronx.
Because of it, he’s got a sense of the tricky balance that comes with nurturing under-seasoned athletes. They need playing time and structure, but they need to adapt to the rigors of the season and respond favorably to the unpredictable nature of this game. Don’t make them flounder for too long if they’re struggling, but also, allow them to learn from failure.
“We want them comfortable with the environment but not comfortable playing a big-league game,” Mendoza said. “There’s always challenges. You’ve got to bring your ‘A’ game, and I think that’s part of our job not only as a manager but as coaches. Like, ‘Hey, it’s not as easy as you’re making it look right now.’ It’s finding the consistency. Don’t get too high. Don’t get too low. I think that’s the next step when you’re talking about development.”
It’s psychological. It’s practical. And it’s pretty hard — especially when you’re trying to figure out which prospects to hold on to and which to move on from.
Certainly, former general manager Zack Scott didn’t know the Crow-Armstrong trade would work out as badly as it did. But call it an organizational lesson — one that the Mets certainly seem to have taken to heart.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
