Sports

Can New York Mets' Rookies Save The Season--And Maybe Much More?

By Jerry Beach Lindys Sports

Because everything in life can be boiled down to a quote from The Simpsons, Leonard Nimoy's cameo in "Marge Vs. The Monorail" popped to mind as the New York Mets closed out their first sweep of the season Thursday by beating the Detroit Tigers 9-4.

Nimoy (after Homer miraculously saves the monorail from spinning out of control): Well, my work here is done.

Barney: What do you mean, your work here is done? You didn't do anything.

Nimoy: Didn't I?

David Stearns, you are Leonard Nimoy.

Rookies Spark Mets

The Mets' much-needed sweep was fueled by a trio of rookies - A.J. Ewing, who was recalled by Stearns and the Mets from Triple-A Syracuse prior to Tuesday's series opener, as well as fellow outfielder Carson Benge and starting pitcher Nolan McLean.

Ewing swiped a base, drew three walks and hit a two-RBI triple in his debut Tuesday, when he became the first player since at least 1898 to walk three times and steal a base in his first big league game. He scored the winning run in Wednesday's 3-2, 10-inning win, when he raced home from second on Benge's single.

All three rookies played a big part in Thursday's win. McLean surrendered a three-run homer to Gage Workman in the first to fall into the biggest deficit of his career before tying a season-high by lasting seven innings. Ewing hit his first homer while Benge, who moved to the leadoff spot Tuesday, went 2-for-5.

Ewing and Benge, both of whom bat left-handed and offer the type of patient, top-of-the-order skills that are in short supply in a three true outcomes era, hit a combined .417 (10-of-24) against the Tigers with five RBIs, three stolen bases, four walks and four strikeouts.

"Their style of play is going to provide a lot of energy, because they're going to get on base, they're going to grind at-bats, they're going to put the ball in play, they're going to make pitchers work," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Thursday afternoon. "And then once they get on, they're going to put pressure on the defense. They're having fun.

"That's contagious. That's contagious."

And nobody needs to have fun more than the Mets.

While Benge and McLean have been with the Mets all season and are turning into mainstays at the top of the lineup and rotation, Ewing's arrival after just 12 games at Triple-A coincided with the Mets requiring a rejuvenation as they hit their latest nadir.

The Mets began play Tuesday with the worst record in the majors at 15-25 despite going 5-4 on a road trip that ended last Sunday. Stearns, the embattled president of baseball operations, finally admitted during a Tuesday press conference that his off-season overhaul hasn't worked as anticipated and that injuries to the injury-prone Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr. - imported to replace the durable Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo at first base and in the outfield - meant "…we absolutely have to look at our risk assessment on injured players."

Yes. It's called Baseball-Reference.com.

Stearns also displayed the most resounding evidence yet that he's not actually a robot by flashing a bit of defiance when asked again to address the safety of Mendoza. Stearns said the Mets "…don't intend to make a change" at manager in an interview with the team's official website on May 1.

"I'm not going to address this every two weeks when I talk to you guys," Stearns said.

Not only might Ewing, Benge and McLean keep Stearns from addressing Mendoza's job security, they might bolster HIS job security.

Can The Mets Rebound From Their Slow Start?

Call it recency bias, or just a desperate search for evidence, these Mets aren't going to be one of the biggest busts of all-time. But it didn't take much this week to envision not only a path back to relevance for the Mets but a path back to contention, much like the one they blazed in 2019.

Way back then, the rookie Alonso and fellow homegrown players such as Jacob deGrom, Michael Conforto, Jeff McNeil and Dominic Smith helped the Mets finish 86-76 and just three games out of a playoff spot after falling 11 games under .500 in June. That surge was fueled by a 14-1 stretch in mid-summer when Alonso unveiled the "LGFM" hashtag and began the tradition of ripping off a teammate's uniform upon delivering a walk-off hit.

Benge is starting to develop a reputation as a goofy team leader with an Alonso- and Mets-like appreciation for enjoying the day-to-day grind (though minus Alonso's id-like tendencies, which surely pleases Stearns). McLean sure looks like deGrom - a former hitting star with a preternatural feel for pitching and a competitive streak a mile long.

And they're all too young and naive to know what they've stepped into here as the next great young hopes for a franchise that's spent most of the last 60-plus years eating its nexts great young hopes. There's exactly zero members of the 2019 young core still on the Mets.

Whether or not Benge, Ewing and McLean follow the path of most of their predecessors out the door is a topic for another year. For now, they've got a chance to save a season - and maybe some jobs, even if the Mets don't make it to the playoffs.

Ewing, McLean Prove Patience Is Needed With Prospects

An easy joke this week was to note that the Mets' season was being saved - along with perhaps the jobs of people like Stearns - by Billy Eppler draftees such as Ewing and McLean. *Sideshow Bob voice* Guilty as charged!

But the success of Ewing and McLean, a pair of 2023 draftees, and the ability of Stearns to include 2022 picks Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat in the Freddy Peralta trade in January was a reminder it takes a long time to fully evaluate a draft class and how those players will eventually help the major league club.

Even one of the greatest draft classes of all-time, the Boston Red Sox's 2005 haul, didn't begin harvesting at the big league level until the end of the 2007 season, when Clay Buchholz threw a no-hitter in his second career start and Jacoby Ellsbury took over the starting centerfield job during a World Series run.

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In that regard, Benge becoming an everyday player fewer than two years after being drafted in the first round is a major feather in Stearns' cap. And the rapid rises of Ewing and McLean are also evidence that Stearns is having a positive impact on player development.

The results for the Mets' other homegrown players - Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio, Hayden Senger, and Mark Vientos, as well as pitchers David Peterson and Christian Scott - have been mixed, which is to be expected when some of their developments span five different GM types.

Sandy Alderson (Mauricio, Peterson, Vientos, Alvarez, Senger) begets Brodie van Wagenen (Baty), who begets Zach Scott (Christian Scott), who begets Eppler, who begets Stearns. This is how Menudo used to cycle through lead singers (ask your grandparents), which is no way to build a perennial title contender.

The Mets need to stop this cycle and Steve Cohen figured he'd done that by hiring Stearns, whose track record at the major league level has been tepid at best and downright awful this season. But the better Benge, Ewing and McLean perform this summer, the better the chances become Stearns gets more chances.

Related: Can Mets, Angels Or Giants Pull A Major League (Movie) Miracle?

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This story was originally published May 16, 2026 at 11:05 AM.

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