Prior to Thursday’s series final with the Pittsburgh Pirates (weather permitting), Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns held his usual once-a-homestand news conference.
With the Mets owning a 28-15 record and holding a 2.5-game lead in the NL East, Stearns touched on the state of the team, as well as some of the organization’s top prospects.
Here’s what Stearns had to say…
On the state of the team just past the quarter-mark of the season
“I think we’re a pretty balanced team,” said Stearns. “We can always get better. We’re far from a perfect team and there are absolutely ways we can improve. I think some of that improvement comes internally. I think we can play better defense, and that’s an area where we can get better, and I think the players that we have are capable of playing better defense.
“In terms of external acquisitions, we’re always monitoring, but sometimes it takes a little bit deeper into the season to find the right fit, and I don’t see any specific glaring spot on the team right now that maybe we had last year at this time that we feel like we need to be extremely proactive about. But if there are areas where we feel like we can get better and players available, we’re certainly going to make a deal.”
On improving the team defense
“I think we have a variety of different players who are good defenders – very good defenders in certain cases – who have made some mistakes this year,” Stearns said. “That’s going to happen, and it gets magnified in smaller samples like we’ve had in the first six weeks of the season, but I would expect us to be a better defensive team over the next 4.5 months of the season than we have over the first month and a half.”
On Brett Baty’s MLB resurgence
“If you go to catch a week of Brett Baty at Syracuse, you could very easily just run into a week like we’ve just seen here in the big leagues,” said Stearns. “So why are we seeing it now at the big league level? I don’t know that I have the definite answer for that. If I had the definitive answer, we probably would have implemented that a long time ago to help get him to this point. He’s clearly seeing the ball well, he’s gotten some pitches that he can handle and he hasn’t missed them.”
On the plan for Ronny Mauricio when he completes his rehab
“Ronny continues to progress. He’s still in Double-A. We’ll get him up to Triple-A here pretty soon, and then it’s just play all three [positions] on the infield, continue to build up volume,” Stearns said. “He’s still got, I think, a little ways to go to get – he’s a healthy player, but to get back into that true baseball shape, ready to compete art a high level at the big leagues, I think we’ve still got a little bit of a ways to go. So, it’s continue to get him at-bats, continue to get him reps in the minor leagues.
“He’s a player who has options, so he’s going to stay in the minor leagues until we have a need.”
On Nolan McLean’s rise through the system
“I think the first thing with Nolan is he’s done a tremendous job in pro ball so far, and now he’s got his next challenge ahead of him, and that challenge is Triple-A,” said Stearns. “So, I’m not gonna start getting into timelines to a major league arrival quite yet. I think we’re going to let him perform at Triple-A. His first start was great, that was great to see, and looking forward to watching him continue that.”
On Matt Allan’s progress
“This is a special arm, so I think as long as he stays healthy, he’s a prospect,” said Stearns. “That’s why he was thought of as an amateur the way that he was. That’s why his draft stock was so high. That’s why this organization was so excited about him before he got hurt. So I absolutely look at him as a prospect.”
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