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00:08Mark Yentos, while he is a bat first player, there's a reason why he's a bat first player.
00:13And he's always going to profile better probably as a DH than he will even as someone at first base
00:18or at third base.
00:19You know, he's the worst base runner on the Mets team, and you can go down the other reasons as
00:23to why he's just not uber athletic.
00:24Ronnie Mauricio, a very athletic talent, but he can't stay healthy, whether it's getting hurt in the Dominican Winter League
00:31a couple years ago or now, obviously, having a thumb issue in which he's going to be sad in line
00:36for pretty much the same tenure as Lindor when he was supposed to fill the shoes of Lindor, very Mets
00:40-y and very fitting.
00:41The point stands, you know, as athletic of a player that he is, we don't really know what we're getting
00:45there because there has been enough stability.
00:47Here's the difference with this current youth movement.
00:50These are all player profiles.
00:52I've always built their game around their speed.
00:54Let's start there.
00:55These are all player profiles.
00:57I've built their game around great defense.
01:00The bat to ball skills has come, but it's varied on the individual.
01:04Carson Bench was drafted the first round out of OSU, the first ever draft pick by David Stearns a couple
01:09years ago.
01:10He was a very good bat then, was a two-way player like Noel McClain, could throw cheddar on the
01:14mound too, but the appeal about him most was just how uber athletic he was.
01:19That athleticism is why he was a first-round pick and why the Mets were confident he'd be in the
01:24bigs in a couple years, like what he's doing right now.
01:27A.J. Ewing, when he was first picked up by the New York Mets, crazy enough, they drafted him because
01:31of the compensation pick out of like 131 overall and the Jacob DeGrom signing with the Texas Rangers.
01:38So that's a little wrinkle of something that might have a greater effect down the line should A.J. continue
01:44to blossom the way that he is.
01:45Very athletic player when the Mets drafted him, but the bat to ball skills weren't nearly as polished as what
01:50they've now become over the past calendar year and a half.
01:53He really made proper adjustments in the Mets heading lab to his benefit.
01:57And then Nick Morabito, let's not, a lot of people forget this, two years ago, Nick Morabito won Mets Minor
02:03League Offensive Player of the Year.
02:05So this is not a kid that like just popped up out of nowhere.
02:09You know, we were talking Rule 5 draft this past winter and people were thinking, oh, is Morabito going to
02:13be protector?
02:14I'm like, of course he's going to be protected.
02:16He's literally going to be like the lone guy that is protected.
02:19And that's exactly what happened because he had a solid year last year, batted 270 or so in the minor
02:23leagues, a good plate setter, very good defense, great base running.
02:27But these are all guys that are going to benefit the Mets in various ways because, again, the Mets don't
02:32need to look at a Mark Vientos and be like, oh, we can only use you for the bat.
02:36We know you're not going to steal a bag.
02:37We know that you're going to be a negative defensively.
02:40You look at all these profiles of Morabito, pardon me, as well as Benj and Ewing.
02:46What do they have in common?
02:47These are guys that as long as they hit decently well, you're going to want them in the whole time.
02:51You know, you're not going to want to have to do this constant mix and match and that kind of
02:55thing.
02:55Like they bring value as a five-tool talent, one fully polished and right, that very few other players for
03:02the New York Mets do.
03:03Luis Roberts, someone whose ceiling is that kind of player, but the health is a massive factor, right?
03:08We look at Jorge Polanco.
03:11Love the bats and ball skills, but that's all you're getting in him.
03:13That's all that you should be banking on in him.
03:15So I think the Mets have done a very smart job, especially at this point in the year to say,
03:20you know what?
03:20Let's recognize we need to be faster.
03:23We need to be more defensively sound.
03:24That is the David Stearns MO and how he built this roster heading in the year was very much not
03:29the David Stearns MO.
03:31It was a lot more of just kind of throwing things up the wall to see what would stick.
03:34Like good players coming off of, you know, solid years or down years or a Boba Shet that you just
03:39had to throw the bag at to try to make sure you had a top three hitter in the lot
03:42to protect Soto.
03:43And he's finally breaking out.
03:45But the point stands here, Dex.
03:47I think this is something that needed to happen for the New York Mets.
03:50I'm glad it's happening.
03:51And should this trend continue, I'd expect more to happen, whether it's internal call ups or the Mets going after
03:57player profiles that might not be the most sexy on paper, but they're not washed up DFA candidates either.
04:04These are guys with upside that can bring you more of a balance to your game than what they've been
04:08getting to this point.
04:09Yeah, I think it absolutely can and hopefully will continue.
04:14I like seeing that there is some consistency in that player profile of the players they've been looking at and
04:20also developing.
04:22And yes, we heard a lot in the offseason about run prevention from David Stearns.
04:27And then a lot of fans have said, OK, well, we haven't seen that.
04:30Well, these guys that have come up, particularly the three outfielders, you have seen how they're going to help with
04:35that.
04:35I know Nick Morbido had the, you know, misplay on the inside of the park home run the other day.
04:40I mean, I'm sorry.
04:41What, you want to be Tyrone Taylor and just read a book for an hour?
04:44Yeah.
04:45It's pointing.
04:46It's right there.
04:49And listen, he's young, he came up, he misplayed it.
04:52I'm not going to, you know, we can't go crazy off of that.
04:55But we know the skills that these guys have.
04:57I think that's the important thing, too.
04:59And you mentioned that, you know, you had a guy like Benj where the athleticism just jumped off the page
05:04for him, right?
05:05And it's why he was a first-round pick.
05:07And then A.J. Ewing, I think the thing when you talk about him, it's like, man, you're talking about
05:12the bat-to-ball skills for him was not great early in career.
05:15It was about the speed.
05:16It was about the athleticism.
05:18But now he looks comfortable at the plate, even at the major league level.
05:21He's had very professional at bats, which is arguably the most impressive thing to me when I'm watching him right
05:28now.
05:28It's just how professional he is at the plate.
05:30So, yeah, I think athleticism is going to matter here.
05:33And you're seeing it in the player profile, particularly with these outfielders.
05:36But then you talked about you feel like this is going to continue.
05:40You hope this continues.
05:41Because it makes me wonder, are the Mets, you know, I don't say accidentally because of everything that's happened with
05:49Polanco, with Luis Robert Jr.,
05:50are they accidentally building their 2027 core right now?
05:56Because, and it's only happened because of this rough start to the season, because the start to the season hasn't
06:01gone the way the Mets fan base has thought it would, right?
06:04Does this actually accelerate the organization into a healthier long-term position by giving these guys meaningful major league reps,
06:15these young players I'm talking about, by the guys, and the Mets, we might be going into 2027.
06:21I hate to jump that far ahead, but it's that, all right, they got their core here.
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