{"id":120836,"date":"2025-09-05T14:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/120836\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T14:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:10:10","slug":"how-the-mets-keep-finding-new-arms-plus-mlb-playoff-positioning-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/120836\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Mets keep finding new arms. Plus: MLB playoff positioning this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Windup Newsletter \u26be | This is The Athletic\u2019s MLB<\/a> newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

The Mets do not have an endless supply of starting pitching prospects. But they do have one more on the way.<\/p>\n

Plus: Ken on the unlikely start to a lifelong friendship between Salvador Perez and Aroldis Chapman, the Giants are forcing us to pay attention, and the Baseball Card of the Week features some bad photo editing.\u00a0I\u2019m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!<\/p>\n

Fresh Faces: Sproat is latest Mets prospect call-up<\/p>\n

It will be so funny to me if the Mets make the playoffs and their three best starting pitchers have a combined, like \u2026 15 big-league starts.\u00a0But it\u2019s not that far-fetched. Here are the Mets\u2019 starting pitching stats since Aug. 1:<\/p>\n

Kodai Senga (6 starts): 0-3, 6.18 ERA, 27 strikeouts, 14 walks, 27 2\/3 innings
\nClay Holmes (6 starts): 2-1, 4.25 ERA, 26 strikeouts, 13 walks, 29 2\/3 innings
\nDavid Peterson (6 starts): 1-1, 6.66 ERA, 35 strikeouts, 17 walks, 31 innings
\nSean Manaea (6 starts): 0-1, 7.81 ERA, 37 strikeouts, 5 walks, 27 2\/3 innings
\nNolan McLean (4 starts): 4-0, 1.37 ERA, 28 strikeouts, 7 walks, 26 1\/3 innings
\nJonah Tong (1 start): 1-0, 1.80 ERA, 6 strikeouts, 0 walks, 5 innings<\/p>\n

OK, it\u2019s a little early to anoint Tong as one of the Mets\u2019 two best starters, even if it was a brilliant debut (he\u2019ll get start No. 2 on Saturday against the Reds). But it looks like Tong won\u2019t be the least-experienced member of the rotation for long.<\/p>\n

As Will Sammon reports, the\u00a0Mets are calling up Brandon Sproat<\/a>\u00a0to make his big-league debut on Sunday. Sproat, 24, was the Mets\u2019 top pitching prospect coming into the season. He\u2019ll now be the third prospect (behind McLean and Tong) to make a late-season debut as the Mets try to lock down a wild-card spot.<\/p>\n

Sproat was\u00a0Keith Law\u2019s 30th-ranked prospect<\/a>\u00a0coming into the year, and while McLean and Tong passed him up on the depth chart, it\u2019s not like any of the other Mets starters have been doing much to keep him in Triple A.<\/p>\n

So they might as well find out what he\u2019s got. After all, they might need him in October.<\/p>\n

Ken\u2019s Notebook: This scary moment sparked a lifelong bond<\/p>\n

From\u00a0my latest story<\/a>:<\/p>\n

More than 11 years later, the memory remains unsettling.\u00a0The Cactus League game between the Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds carried virtually no meaning. But anyone who saw the line drive off Salvador Perez\u2019s bat strike Aroldis Chapman above the left eye will never forget the terrifying sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarch 20, 2014. Sixth inning, bases loaded. It was a 2-1 count, I believe,\u201d Reds assistant athletic trainer Tomas Vera said, rattling off the details as if they occurred yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt so guilty,\u201d said Brayan Pe\u00f1a, Chapman\u2019s catcher that night. \u201cSo guilty, you can\u2019t even imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapman, then 26, already was a two-time All-Star reliever. He wanted to throw a slider to Perez, an All-Star catcher nearing his 24th birthday. Pe\u00f1a called for a fastball. Chapman shook him off. Pe\u00f1a called for a fastball again. Chapman threw it 99 mph. And then . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cI witnessed something so shocking that I cannot even watch the videos anymore,\u201d said Pe\u00f1a, who is now a minor-league catching coordinator with the Detroit Tigers.<\/p>\n

Vera rushed to the mound to attend to Chapman, working with the Royals\u2019 trainers to activate an emergency action plan. Chapman was taken off the field on a stretcher and transported to a nearby emergency room in Surprise, Ariz. The managers and umpires decided to cancel the rest of the game.<\/p>\n

Ram\u00f3n Hern\u00e1ndez, a former Reds catcher who was in spring training with the Royals, drove Perez, a fellow Venezuelan, to the hospital. A group of Reds players also went to visit Chapman. So did a number of Cubans from other teams in Arizona who wanted to see their fellow countryman. Chapman\u2019s father, Juan Alberto Chapman Bennett, was also present.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw Chappy in the room,\u201d Perez said, \u201cI started crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

More here on the close friendship that developed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Standings Watch: NL West, continued \u2026<\/p>\n

Yesterday, we focused primarily on how the Dodgers and Padres have lately been twin-flame burnouts at the top of the division. That continued last night, as the Dodgers lost 5-3 to the Pirates. It was the first time the Pirates have swept the Dodgers since Aug. 7-9, 2015.<\/p>\n

But today, I\u2019d like to check in with a team I had kinda written off weeks ago: the San Francisco Giants.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re still seven games out in the division \u2014 but only four games behind the Mets for the third and final NL wild-card spot. That means they\u2019re also one game up on the Reds.<\/p>\n

Relevant: The Mets and Reds play each other over the weekend, so if the Giants can beat up on the Cardinals, they\u2019re going to gain ground on\u00a0someone.\u00a0As we pointed out previously,\u00a0a late-season power surge<\/a>\u00a0has been at the heart of their 10-1 hot streak. Can they keep it up?<\/p>\n

Who knows? But as Grant Brisbee points out here, sometimes\u00a0the getting-close matters<\/a>. They were five games under .500 as recently as Aug. 16, so \u2026 there\u2019s value in just the act of making us all pay attention again.<\/p>\n

More NL West:\u00a0Fabian Ardaya has\u00a0the latest on the Dodgers\u2019 struggles<\/a>, including: What\u2019s going on with Roki Sasaki\u2019s rehab assignment issues?<\/p>\n

Baseball Card of the Week: 1977 Topps Rookies<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As combined rookie cards go, the bottom half of this card contains two great Guys To Be Remembered.<\/p>\n

Gantner played for 17 years, all with Milwaukee, and finished his career with 1,696 hits (22.5 bWAR).<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s Wills who catches my attention here, and not just because I\u00a0caught up with \u201cBumpy\u201d<\/a>\u00a0a few years ago to talk about his six-year (16.5 bWAR) career. It\u2019s because \u2014 look, I think it is right to make fun of AI at any opportunity, but this card is a reminder of how far photo editing has come since 1977. Wills\u2019 photo looks like a cross between an old west daguerrotype and\u00a0that one botched painting restoration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Handshakes and High Fives<\/p>\n

Last night\u2019s Yankees-Astros game was fraught with action: Taylor Trammell\u00a0had his bat confiscated<\/a>, and Jazz Chisholm suffered\u00a0contusions on both knees<\/a>. Oh, and the Yankees won 8-4.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s\u00a0\u201cSliders\u201d column by Tyler Kepner<\/a>\u00a0starts with Marlins rookie phenom Jakob Marsee, meanders through Victor Robles\u2019 monkeys (no, really) and tells us why Dennis Lamp is responsible for Tom Seaver\u2019s White Sox years.<\/p>\n

We love a good baseball goofball. We also love aces. What Guardians starter Gavin Williams presupposes is that\u00a0perhaps he can be both<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eno Sarris\u00a0ranks the starting rotations<\/a>\u00a0of the teams currently in playoff spots, from 1-12, while our staff addresses\u00a0one major concern<\/a>\u00a0for each of the contenders.<\/p>\n

We have back-to-back days with Cam Schlittler stories. This one is actually about\u00a0his (impressive) performance on the field<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Keith Law has notes on a few key\u00a0Guardians and Orioles prospects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m watching this weekend: All three of these trailing teams are the home teams in series against teams they\u2019re chasing: The Astros lead the Rangers by five in the AL West. The Blue Jays lead the Yankees by three in the AL East. And the Mets are five up on the Reds in the NL wild card.<\/p>\n

Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Jason Lloyd\u2019s piece on\u00a0elusive former Guardians slugger Albert Belle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love The Windup? Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Jim Rassol \/ USA Today Sports)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Windup Newsletter \u26be | This is The Athletic\u2019s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-120836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}