Tuesday, October 07

Welcome back to the Mets Beat newsletter! Anthony DiComo has covered the Mets for MLB.com since 2007, including the past 16 seasons full time on the beat.

NEW YORK -- Late last May, as the Mets languished double-digit games under .500, manager Carlos Mendoza was driving home from another difficult night at the stadium when his oldest son, Adrian, spoke up.

Sensing his father was upset, Adrian said: “You wanted to be a big league manager.”

Mendoza reconsidered his perspective.

“I said, ‘You’re right,’” he recalled. “And then I used that as an example. I was like, ‘Hey man, in life, you’re going to go through ups and downs. This is the dream job, right? But here we are, dealing with adversity. That goes to show you that growing up, it’s not always going to be easy.’ So I kind of used that to teach them about life.”

It wasn’t the first lesson Mendoza had instilled in his sons, 14-year-old Adrian and 11-year-old Andres. Nor would it be the last.

Since Mendoza became manager two offseasons ago, his children have been his shadow. They hang around the complex during Spring Training, fielding fungoes from their father after team workouts. They attend almost every home game during the regular season and sometimes show up on the road, shagging fly balls in the outfield and hanging around the clubhouse.

In a job that demands constant time, stress and attention, Mendoza has kept his sons close enough to maintain his duties as a father.

Asked what having them around means to him, Mendoza replied: “Everything.”

“It’s been a blessing the way I see it, the way we see it as a family,” Mendoza said. “And even when they’re not here at the ballpark, getting home, it’s different if they were [living elsewhere].”

Rather than have his sons stay home in Florida through the end of the school year, Mendoza and his wife, Francis, enrolled them in online classes. During homestands, the boys typically finish their lessons in the morning before driving with their father to Citi Field. They spend the rest of the day enjoying life in the big leagues.

“It’s a privilege, and that’s something that I keep telling them -- that very few people get the opportunity to grow up the way they are in a big league clubhouse,” Mendoza said. “You’re learning a lot, good and bad. You’re growing up around adults. But it’s cool for them to see the everyday grind -- superstars, what they go through behind the scenes, so they get to experience that.”

When Mendoza was introduced as manager in November 2023, Adrian and Andres were there alongside him at a Citi Field press conference. When the Mets stumbled out to a poor start last season, the boys were there to help their father through it. When the team recovered to make it all the way to the National League Championship Series, the entire family was on hand to celebrate.

More highs and lows are sure to come this year. Through it all, Adrian and Andres will be present.

“It’s hard to describe how much it means for me,” Mendoza said, “to have my kids and my wife with me all the time.”

Pete Alonso is nine home runs away from matching Darryl Strawberry’s franchise record of 252. Who held the record before Strawberry?

A) George Foster

B) Cleon Jones

C) Dave Kingman

D) Ed Kranepool

Earlier this week, Mendoza chuckled when asked if he had put much thought into how his rotation might look once Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea return from injury.

“Not really,” Mendoza said. “It usually plays itself out.”

Sure enough, just one day later, Kodai Senga strained his right hamstring and will miss multiple weeks at a minimum. Suddenly, a crowded rotation picture looks a little less crowded.

The good news for the Mets is that they’re in fine position to paper over Senga’s absence. So well-stocked in the rotation that they recently moved Paul Blackburn to the bullpen, the Mets can shift Blackburn back into the rotation for now -- something they’ll decide after this weekend.

Once Montas returns from a right lat strain later this month, New York could potentially move to a six-man rotation for multiple turns, with an upcoming stretch of 13 games in 13 days. By that point, Manaea would theoretically be ready to return from his right oblique strain, giving the club another decision to make.

Or maybe things will simply work themselves out again. The one thing Mendoza knows for sure is that planning in advance is typically an exercise in futility.

“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us,” he said. “We’ve got people coming, and the guys that are healthy now, they will continue to step up, and we feel good with our chances with the guys that we’ve got in that room. It’s part of it. Every team deals with it. We’ve got to keep going.”

• David Peterson is having a moment. Even before his first career shutout on Wednesday, Peterson had established himself as a bona fide National League All-Star candidate. He now ranks fourth in the National League in ERA and appears to be growing only stronger, more than a year removed from hip surgery.

• So how does Strawberry feel about Alonso approaching his 37-year-old home run record? Pretty good, actually.

• Meet the new Jeff McNeil, not quite the same as the old Jeff McNeil. The longtime Mets second baseman has altered his plate approach over the past year, and lately, it’s paid off in a significant way. His walkoff single Tuesday provided further vindication for McNeil, who has four home runs in his past five games.

C) Dave Kingman

Kingman hit 154 of his career 442 homers during two stints with the Mets (1975-77; 1981-83). That stood as the franchise record for five seasons until Strawberry broke it in 1988.

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