The Mets are still in the kind of late-season stretch where individual performances matter just as much as the big-picture standings. August and September have become an extended audition, and while no one’s officially running out of runway yet, a few players have already done enough to force the conversation about next year.
Three names stand out: Jared Young, Daniel Duarte and Nate Lavender. Each has shown enough to move himself up the depth chart heading into next season.
Young has made the clearest case. He may not have 162 games in him for the 2027 season, but he has done far more than just sneak onto the roster.
He’s hitting .266/.335/.446 with 8 home runs and 29 RBI, and his 118 WRC+ jumps off the page. He doesn’t qualify for the league leaderboard because of the at-bats, but the production is real.
Against right-handed pitching, his .826 OPS is especially hard to ignore. For the Mets, that kind of bat plays whether he’s in the lineup every day or filling in as a part-time slugger who can handle full-time duty when needed - and do it cheaply.
Duarte has taken a different path, but the result is the same: he’s earned trust. The Mets were expecting more ground balls from him, and the 38% rate is well short of the 50% mark he posted in his last near-full season in 2024 with the Cincinnati Reds.
Even so, hitters haven’t had any answers. They’re batting just .119/.192/.179 against him.
Through 20.1 innings, he owns a 0.89 ERA, and that kind of work makes it hard to send him back down. With the bullpen more open after the trade deadline, there’s room for him to stay put.
He looks like a capable middle reliever, and he’s already passed the test.
Lavender may be the most interesting fit of the three because of how the Mets can use him. He’s only 26, and he’s being deployed in the most LOOGY way possible under the three-batter minimum rule.
In 5.1 innings over 6 appearances, he hasn’t allowed a run. He’s given up just 1 hit, walked 2 and struck out 6.
Lefties are 1 for 9 against him, and righties haven’t recorded a hit in 9 chances either, though both walks came against right-handers. That’s a small blemish on an otherwise sharp start to his major league career.
At this pace, he’s giving the Mets a second left-handed option worth keeping around, while Cionel Perez may be looking at a much smaller role next year, if one at all.
In Other News...
Mets Outfield Decision Is Raising A Frustrating A.J. Ewing Question
In the wake of injuries to Luis Robert Jr. and Juan Soto, the Mets have had to patch together their outfield on the fly, and that has created a much bigger role for rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing. Interim manager Andy Green had said the plan was to let Ewing handle center field in most games, a sensible arrangement given how well the rookie has performed defensively this season and how much the club has needed stability in the middle of the outfield.
But the recent decision to shift Robert back to center has reopened a frustrating question for the Mets: if Ewing has already shown he can handle the position, why not fully commit to him there moving forward? The club is trying to balance short-term lineup flexibility with long-term evaluation, and with the outfield still in flux, the way it uses Ewing now may say plenty about how it views him beyond this injury stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Darryl Strawberry Had A Powerful Message After Nick Kyrgios News
Nick Kyrgioss provisional suspension after a positive cocaine test from an event in Mallorca has drawn attention well beyond tennis, and Darryl Strawberry weighed in with the perspective of someone who knows how public struggle can spill into a wider conversation. Strawberry, the former Mets star who is now a Christian minister, framed the situation around understanding and recovery when substance abuse is part of the picture.
Kyrgios has already apologized publicly, saying his drug use was tied to the physical and mental strain of injuries and the sense that his career may be nearing its end. For a player whose talent and volatility have kept him in the spotlight for years, the next chapter now carries a different kind of pressure, one that puts the focus on how he responds once the initial shock fades. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Fans Have A New Reason To Question This Roster Strategy
The Mets roster-building choices are drawing fresh scrutiny as the White Sox keep turning seemingly modest moves into useful major league pieces. Several Chicago players who were available along the way have since emerged as the sort of depth and upside the Mets could have used, especially as the club continues to balance present needs with long-term planning. In a market where every roster spot matters, those comparisons are hard to ignore.
Chicagos track record with those acquisitions also adds another layer to the conversation. The White Sox not only identified players the Mets passed by, they helped put them in positions to contribute, which makes the missed connections stand out even more from New Yorks side. For a team still trying to justify its roster strategy, the bigger question is whether these were isolated omissions or part of a pattern. [Read more 🡒]