The Mets arrive in Cleveland with plenty of roster churn and not much margin for error. After the deadline, they’ve opened up five spots on the active roster, and that comes with Juan Soto already on the injured list after suffering his second calf injury of the season. The result is a team that will spend the rest of the year trying to uncover a few reasons for optimism.
That makes the next wave of young players especially worth watching. A.J. Ewing and Carson Benge are among the names the Mets will want to see develop at the major league level, and the club will also be hoping some of the other younger pieces getting a chance now can prove they belong in the conversation for next season.
Even in a difficult season, Francisco Lindor has given the Mets something real to hold onto. Since the All-Star break, he has hit .295/.366/.574 with a 165 wRC+ over 70 plate appearances.
He has not been running much, which makes sense given the calf injury he dealt with this year, but his slow, delayed, injury-disrupted start has given way to the kind of production the Mets expected. Lindor knows this ballpark well, too, after six seasons in Cleveland.
At this point, his career 61.8 fWAR and 56.6 bWAR are split exactly evenly between Cleveland and New York.
The bigger picture for the Mets is obvious: if they want to be competitive in the next couple of years, they need Lindor and Soto on the field. If Lindor finishes the season healthy and Soto gets back into big league games, the Mets will still have only gotten about 55-60 percent of the plate appearances they once expected from two players who had been among the game’s most durable before this year.
Cleveland comes in with its own offensive issues. The Guardians have scored just 3.95 runs per game, the second-worst mark in baseball, while the Mets are right there with them at 4.04, fourth-worst.
Chase DeLauter has been Cleveland’s top bat with a 124 wRC+ this season, while José Ramírez has been the club’s best player by fWAR despite a down year at the plate, where he has a 101 wRC+. Ramírez has still brought his usual energy on the bases, stealing 27 bags in the 82 games he has played.
The difference for Cleveland has been run prevention. The Guardians have allowed 4.09 runs per game, the eight-lowest total in baseball.
That balance has them in second place in the American League Central, three games behind the White Sox and one ahead of the Twins for the third and final AL Wild Card spot. And with the Red Sox surging, that last playoff berth is still up for grabs in a crowded race that could involve seven teams, with the Blue Jays only four games back of Cleveland despite sitting at 53-60.
The series opens Tuesday night with Sean Manaea facing Joey Cantillo at 6:40 PM EDT on SNY. Manaea’s season line sits at 91.2 innings, 88 strikeouts, 30 walks, 13 home runs, a 4.42 ERA, a 4.33 FIP and a 109 ERA-.
But the real story is the rebound. Since the start of May, he has posted a 3.75 ERA and a 4.30 FIP, and since rejoining the rotation in mid-June, he owns a 3.88 ERA and a 4.64 FIP.
That is a long way from the rough opening that made him look like a DFA candidate, and it is still not the level he showed in the second half of 2024, the stretch that helped convince the Mets to give him a three-year, $75 milion contract.
Cantillo, meanwhile, has quietly become a real part of Cleveland’s rotation. The 26-year-old left-hander was drafted by the Padres in 2017 and later went to the Guardians in the nine-player trade that also involved Josh Naylor and Mike Clevinger.
He debuted as a starter in 2024, spent most of 2025 in the bullpen with some starts mixed in, and this season has settled in as a rotation mainstay. His numbers are neat and tidy: 113.2 innings, 124 strikeouts, 54 walks, 13 home runs, a 3.88 ERA, a 3.88 FIP and a 94 ERA-.
His ERA and FIP match, and his career 3.78 ERA is close to what he’s done this year, too.
Wednesday brings Nolan McLean against Slade Cecconi at 6:40 PM EDT on SNY. McLean has put together a strong season with 125.2 innings, 148 strikeouts, 45 walks, 13 home runs, a 3.29 ERA, a 3.47 FIP and an 81 ERA-.
He’s been especially sharp lately, with a 2.24 ERA over his last eleven starts and a 1.49 ERA over his last six. If he keeps that going, he could push himself back into the National League Rookie of the Year discussion, and a sub-three ERA would make for a strong finish.
Cecconi has been a steadier version of himself since landing in Cleveland. He came over in the one-for-one deal that sent Josh Naylor to the Diamondbacks, and after posting an ugly 6.06 ERA in his 2023 and 2024 big league work with Arizona, he has settled in as a serviceable back-end starter for the Guardians.
Since the start of the 2025 season, he has a 4.51 ERA in 239.1 innings, all of it coming as a starter. For this year, his line reads 107.1 innings, 84 strikeouts, 35 walks, 16 home runs, a 4.78 ERA, a 4.53 FIP and a 116 ERA-.
The finale on Thursday is still listed as TBD for the Mets against Tanner Bibee at 1:10 PM EDT on SNY. FanGraphs’ Roster Resource has Christian Scott as the best guess for the Mets’ starter.
If that’s the route they take, he enters with a 2.99 ERA and a 3.47 FIP in 69.1 innings this year. If not, the Mets may need to piece it together with a bullpen game while they sort through the roster after the deadline.
Bibee has been Cleveland’s Thursday starter, and his season line shows 132.1 innings, 100 strikeouts, 38 walks, 20 home runs, a 3.81 ERA, a 4.50 FIP and a 92 ERA-. Drafted by Cleveland in the fifth round in 2021, he hasn’t matched his excellent rookie season in 2023, when he finished second in American League Rookie of the Year voting after putting up a 2.98 ERA in 142.0 innings. Since then, he has a 3.85 ERA, which is hardly a disaster even if it falls short of that breakout year.
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