WASHINGTON — With out A.J. Minter, Danny Younger turns into the final lefty standing within the bullpen.
A journeyman southpaw who has pitched in 5 totally different organizations, the Mets have given him an opportunity to show that he’s able to pitching within the large leagues persistently. Younger has made good on their perception in him since final season. He picked up large innings within the postseason when the bullpen was skinny final fall and the Mets have deployed him in opposition to among the league’s hardest left-handed hitters late in video games.
The 30-year-old College of Florida product primarily works off of a tough sinker, which he began throwing extra final season. He’s had among the finest outcomes together with his sweeper this season in small samples sizes. He’s thrown it seven hitters, they usually have but to get a success with the pitch. 4 instances, he’s used it to strikeout hitters, with the horizontal break being powerful to select up.
He’s additionally throwing them for strikes.
“He’s attacking,” supervisor Carlos Mendoza mentioned Monday at Nationals Park. “He’s throwing his pitches in the strike zone, and there’s a lot of movement there. It could be a tough left-on-left matchup, I like how he’s using all of his pitches. The biggest thing is just throwing strikes.”
That is the longest he’s been with a giant league workforce, having been with the Mets since late final Could. He has principally impartial splits in opposition to righties and lefties, which makes it simple to deploy him in quite a lot of conditions. With no left-handed reliever in line in Triple-A and Minter out for the foreseeable future, it’s secure to say Younger can be sticking round for some time longer.
The Mets had no replace on Minter following imaging on Sunday.
BRINGING THE BOOM
With Francisco Alvarez and Jeff McNeil again in motion, the Mets lineup is enjoying extraordinarily lengthy. After beginning the season on the injured record, the catcher and the tremendous utility man have hit safely in every of their three video games since returning, with each of them going 5-for-2 Monday afternoon in a 19-5 win over the Washington Nationals.
“When you’ve got Alvarez hitting seventh and a hitter like Jeff hitting eighth, it says a lot about where your team is at offensively,” Mendoza mentioned. “You’re talking about a righty with power [Alvarez], and a lefty that can put the ball in play and can do a lot of different things [McNeil]. It makes us a lot deeper.”
Alvarez went 2-for-5 with a double, an RBI and a stroll, whereas McNeil went 2-for-5 with a house run, a triple and three RBI. The 2022 NL batting champ has struggled over the past two seasons, beginning chilly in 2023, and enjoying by early accidents in 2024. However a second-half energy surge final season has the Mets assured that McNeil can return to outdated type.
Over the weekend in Washington, he labored counts, fouled off pitches, hit for energy and performed middle discipline. He seems to be extra just like the outdated McNeil.
“He’s driving the ball with authority,” Mendoza mentioned. “When you see him pulling the ball like that and going deep with ease, that’s a good sign. He’s not just trying to flip balls the other way, and that’s what we saw last year in the second half. It’s good to see him continue with that approach.”
DISAPPEARING DIAZ
The Mets have gone to Ryne Stanek twice in save conditions over the past weekend as a substitute of nearer Edwin Diaz. Stanek blew each saves, however that hasn’t modified the Mets’ opinion on tips on how to finest use and finest defend Diaz.
The workforce didn’t need to use Diaz in back-to-back outings this weekend in Washington after he had a heavy workload earlier within the week. Diaz acquired up twice Wednesday in an extra-inning walk-off win over the Philadelphia Phillies, earlier than coming off the mound with cramps in his hip. If the Mets are involved in regards to the hip, they aren’t saying. The main target appears to be extra on managing his early-season innings load.
“It was just more usage,” Mendoza mentioned of the choice to take a seat Diaz on Sunday. “The two ups the last time there with a hit, and then he threw 21 pitches, I think it was the day before. So we knew, because again, the way we’ve been using these guys, we knew yesterday we didn’t have him.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Proper-hander Paul Blackburn‘s rehab from a sore knee more than a month ago has been delayed by a stomach virus. Last week, Blackburn missed a rehab start with the illness and it seemed to hit him pretty hard at the wrong time, with Mendoza saying he lost weight right at the point where he was beginning his build-up. He’ll throw a bullpen at Citi Area on Tuesday when the Mets return residence to face the Arizona Diamondbacks for 3 video games.
Left-hander Sean Manaea (proper indirect pressure) and right-hander Frankie Montas (proper lat pressure) are nonetheless enjoying catch, however not but able to take one other step of their respective rehabs.
Initially Revealed: April 28, 2025 at 4:57 PM EDT
