If you’re thinking that the last thing the New York Mets need is another controversy, then congratulations, you’re spot on in your assessment. But this is the Mets, and controversy is what they do, so what else were you expecting?
This one comes courtesy of manager Carlos Mendoza, who should have been fired as soon as the season ended but wasn’t. And his latest comment about whether outfielder Juan Soto would do some time at DH given the Mets’ focus on run prevention is integrally tied to the “should have” part of that last sentence.
According to Tremayne Person of Rising Apple via Mets beat writer Anthony DiComo, Mendoza’s response when DiComo asked if Soto might see more time at DH next season, the manager’s response was simple: “He doesn’t like DH’ing.”
This is why the Mets are the Mets, basically. According to the stats from FanGraphs, Soto graded out at a -13 Fielding Run Value, which made him and outfielder Nick Castellanos the two worst defensive right fielders in baseball. To put it in Person’s words, “if the ball is hit directly at him, we’re all good. Otherwise, everybody hold hands.”
Basically, what we have here is a failure to communicate. Stearns issues an edict about defense and run prevention, then squares it up with owner Steve Cohen, who gives the GM the go-ahead to move on from a couple of popular fan favorites who happen to be subpar defensively.
But no one talks to the star outfielder about this, and the manager gets caught in the middle. He has to kowtow to his $700 million superstar, who more or less gets to do whatever he wants.
All of this is just an offhand answer to a beat reporter’s question in the dead of winter, so who cares, right? No one, if this was Kansas City, Tampa Bay or another dozen or so MLB outposts that barely have a single beat writer, much less a press corps.
But this is New York, where everything gets dug up with a shovel, run though a fine-tooth comb, then put under a microscope. This comment will resurface, rest assured, and given some of the wandering routes Soto takes to fly balls, it won’t take that long.
The right way to handle this would have been to get Soto on board with what Stearns is doing as soon as the offseason started, then given him the heads up about the DH possibility. Make it clear that he doesn’t have to decide right now, just be open to the possibility and go from there. That would be the common sense approach, but that’s not how the Mets do what they do.