Tim, thank you for joining us.
Thank you very much for having me. Absolutely. You know, I looked at the New York Mets all throughout the course of the season, before the season, and I figured that at best they would fall right at or around 500. Where they have gone, I think, has really exceeded expectations.
What are your thoughts on what they've been able to do coming back from 10 below? And what do you think about this Mets season so far? Well, I think the Mets have been a great line to you. I thought the Mets maybe were a team that would finish a couple games over 500, maybe had a shot at winning a wildcard spot. I absolutely did not expect them to do this, which was sneak into the playoffs and then basically rampage through the first couple of rounds and now end up in the NLCS, baseball's final four. So it's been really a ridiculous couple of weeks for the Mets and they've earned it. Well, they've certainly been one of the hotter teams in baseball as the summer ran into July, into August, into September. Is it just the pitching that's been the turnaround? How did they get to this point?
Really, it's been a little bit of everything. The starting pitching in particular has been bizarrely good. They have a bunch of guys who are not sexy brand name starting pitchers, but have been one of the best rotations in baseball over the course of the second half and now into the playoffs. They've really held up in a way that I don't think even the Mets expected.
But then the offense does it too. They have Francisco Lindor, top of the lineup. Pete Alonso, one of the best sluggers in baseball. Brendan Nimmo, very good player.
J.D. Martinez has had moments. Mark Vientos, their third baseman, who started the season in the minors. He lost his job on the major league roster at the very end of spring training because the Mets signed J.D.
Martinez. Quarter of the way through the year, Vientos comes up, grabs that third base job and emerged as, without exaggeration, perhaps their best hitter in the lineup. So of all of the many, many things that have gone right for the Mets over the last few months, Mark Vientos is right near the top of that list. And Tim Healy is joining us from Newsday.
I like how you say it's a mix, and it certainly has been. It's mind-boggling. The New York Mets have been able to do this without someone who is supposed to be their number one in Kodak Sanga. I was a little shocked that he went out as an opener last week as well.
How much more can we expect from him as this postseason rolls on? Well, he pitched two innings last time, so that means he's probably good for approximately three innings next time, which would be probably game one of the NLCS on Sunday. The Mets have not locked that in, but Kodak Sanga was scheduled to pitch the last game of the division series if the Mets needed it.
Turns out they didn't need it. They took care of the Phillies in four, so until the Mets say otherwise, I do have Sanga penciled in for game one. So three innings next time, four innings later in the NLCS, maybe five innings in the World Series if they get there, they're building him up as they go, as if it's his own spring training. So it's another very weird thing for the Mets. You almost never see a starting pitcher do that in October.
Never. The guy pitched five innings in the regular season, boom, helping out here in the postseason. It's wild stuff for the New York Mets. Tim Healy joining us covers the New York Mets on the beat for Newsday. You mentioned Francisco Lindor. I remember the years and Saturdays on WFAN telling Mets fans to just chill out, relax.
Why are you beating down on this guy? And New York Mets fans are like, hey, we're going to suffer for 10 years with this man. Has he gotten past a grace period? Is he now going to be beloved? They're leaving him alone now, right? They have to leave him alone for now. Yeah, he is probably going to finish second in MVP voting. So when you have that kind of season and sort of embrace that leader role the way he has this year, he's become, if not a face, or at least a face, perhaps the face of the team.
Certainly the tone setter and heart and soul of the team. Yeah, a lot of fans really like Francisco Lindor now. It's kind of funny how it works. When he was new to New York and really wasn't playing very well, to be honest, people ragged on him. And they were pointing to the contract, 341 million dollars, and thought, what is going on with this guy? And I was playing great, so people love him.
So a lot of times, in New York especially, it tends to be a pretty simple equation. And these days, Francisco Lindor is very much on the right side of that line. Well, somebody else that New York Mets fans, they loved, I think, and they didn't like his production, I think, and I know with some home runs it changed. Pete Alonso, this man stayed the entire year as a Met, was not traded, is looking for a big deal, is playing first base.
We know he's good for 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, wherever he's at. What are your thoughts on maybe the contract he has played himself into? Will the Mets stick with him? Will he go elsewhere?
Does it depend on World Series? What do you think about his current situation? Well, his current situation is fascinating because he did have an underwhelming contract year in the regular season. It was 34 home runs, almost 90 RBIs, I believe. And that's a solid year, but it's not Pete Alonso's typical year. He would not admit it publicly, but I do think the pressure of playing his last month going into free agency weighed on him. In the postseason, though, he's been great. He saved their season with a series-winning home run in Milwaukee last week.
He had a couple home runs against the Phillies in the division series. So as far as what sort of contract he's looking at, I don't really know. It's kind of hard to predict these things.
But if he keeps playing well this month, he's going to keep making more money. Well, Tim, what are your thoughts as the New York Mets await the winner between the Dodgers and the Padres? Who are they best equipped to go up against and have success? They're best equipped to go up against the, excuse me, the Dodgers because the Dodgers are the worst team right now. They don't really have any starting pitching besides Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who did not pitch very well in the division series against the Padres. They have Shohei Ohtani, who's the best baseball player in the universe, and Mookie Betts, and an injured Freddie Freeman. So they can score some runs the Dodgers, but honestly, if I'm the Mets, the Dodgers don't really scare me.
If I'm the Mets, the Padres do scare me because they have better starting pitching. They have a very deep lineup. They have Fernando Tatis Jr., who was injured when the teams matched up in August. They were very even that weekend in San Diego. But now Tatis is back.
He's very good. And their bullpen is completely nasty. So the Mets, if they had their druthers, I think they'd rather play the Dodgers. And Tim Healy joining us from Newsday. You know, one thing that you haven't heard a lot about, or one person, is the manager of the New York Mets.
The manager is the first person that the fans want to go after. I feel like Carlos Mendez has kind of just been under the radar in comparison. So it's a former managers in New York with the Mets and or the Yankees.
What makes Carlos Mendez different where he's kind of been spared a little? I don't think he's been under the radar at all. I think he's been very highly regarded really from the moment he was hired by the Mets and all the way through his rookie season as Mets manager.
So he's had a great year. He seems to, you know, when he got hired, what a lot of people said about him was Mendoza knows the numbers. He knows the analytics, but he is not beholden to them. He is able to read the situation, trust his gut. And we've seen that a lot this year, particularly with his decisions with pitchers, especially in the rotation. He knows when to leave the guy in, when to take a guy out. More times than not, those decisions have worked out for the Mets.
It's a big reason why they are where they are. Just the other day, he left in Sean Minaiah to face Bryce Harper in a spot where maybe Sean Minaiah should not have been facing Bryce Harper. And then it worked out for the Mets because right now everything works out for the Mets, apparently. So Carlos Mendoza has been great. I think he, right from the very beginning of spring training, helped set a better, more productive tone in the clubhouse and with the players.
Players seem to have responded to that. And, you know, it's been a great first year for not only Carlos Mendoza, but David Stearns as well in his first year. His first year. We know who hired him. We know the Mr. Uncle Stevie, Mr. Uncle Stevie.
Uncle Stevie bringing him in. He has been criticized pretty much from day one. People were worried about trading for Lindor, but then not giving him the extension. People were concerned about the contracts, giving out to Scherzer and Verlander and then having to trade them off and pay for it. There are a lot of fans who said that Steve Cohen wasn't, was lying to the fans that he wasn't being honest about what he was doing. Did he kind of back into this result with the New York Mets now?
What's the deal? I don't, I, listen, nobody expected the Mets to do this year. That includes Steve Cohen.
That includes David Stearns. So did they back into it? Did they luck out a little bit?
Yeah, probably. But as far as Steve Cohen's several years of ownership, you know, it's been fine, really. They acquired Lindor. They gave him the contract.
Okay, fine. Maybe he overpaid. The Scherzer contract was a great deal. Verlander less so.
A couple if-a-years. What changed, what most changed things for the Steve Cohen Mets was when he was able to hire the guy he wanted to hire from the beginning, which was David Stearns. When David, when Cohen first bought the Mets four years ago this month, he tried to hire Stearns. The Brewers said, nope, can't talk to him. A year after that, he went back to the Brewers. They said, nope, can't talk to him.
So in the interim, Steve Cohen had a couple of other GMs who, for various reasons, did not work out. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Okay. Don't send photos, people. Don't send photos from your phone.
Don't do it. And then he finally got his guy. David Stearns became a free agent. Steve Cohen paid him a boatload of money the way he does. And here they are one year later in the NLCS. So if you believe, if you ask Steve Cohen, there will be more where this came from in the years to come.
810, final question for you. Do you feel the Mets can go all the way and win the first one since 86? You know, I did not expect them to get this far. So at this point, I'm having trouble betting against them in a short series. They keep proving people wrong.
They keep doing the unexpected. So why not? Sure, they can win it all.
Subway series it is. Yeah, that'd be fun. Sign me up.
Yeah, you wouldn't have to travel far. Hey, Tim, where can people follow you and all your work with Newsday? Follow me on Twitter at Tim B Healey, H-E-A-L-E-Y. And check us out at Newsday.com slash Mets. We got a new story up about what became of the last out baseball from the Mets recent clinching game.
So it's a good one. You mean it's on me. They didn't give it to Grimace? That would have been funny, but I don't want I don't want to give it away. You know, I lied. Now that Grimace has been brought up, Tim, this is probably the most important question of it all.
Yes. Is Mr. Met jealous of Grimace? I saw him the other day. I feel like they put him in cobwebs.
Is he jealous? Listen, there are some Grimace and Mrs. Met rumors going on out there. So I think Mr. Met has to be careful. I think he has to be careful.
Grimace is getting a little, getting a little big. OK. Be careful, Tim. We're both going to end up in the paper for the wrong reasons, OK? I appreciate you. You enjoy the rest of the run, OK? All right. Thank you.
