Buck Showalter isn’t letting the uncertainty of the Mets’ weekend series against the Atlanta Braves steal any of his club’s focus.

“It’s about Pablo Lopez and the Marlins tonight. That’s as far as we’re going,” Showalter said.

The Mets manager said discussions about moving around the series due to Hurricane Ian started “on the plane on the way home” from the West Coast road trip, but “nothing that gets in the way of what we need to do tonight.”

Showalter hinted that there may be more information Wednesday and said with a wry smile he’s “sworn to double secret probation” about what he’s heard from MLB.

"When they tell us play, we play... it's what we do," Showalter said. "They say we’re playing three on Thursday, line ‘em up. Let's go. It's just what we do. We play games. Advantages, disadvantages, you got nine innings to make it an advantage or a disadvantage."

The Mets manager’s focus remains on the series with the Marlins and sorting out the pitching staff ahead of any possible additional travel or weather-related game delays.

“From my concern and [Billy Eppler’s] concern and [Jeremy Hefner's] concern is making sure that we position ourself to go in as many different directions as we can and not get tied up in [one thing] and all the sudden something happens,” Showalter said. “You gotta be careful about making too many plans, but you do need to create some versatility in what you’re able to do and not do and that’s the one advantage of the off days.”

After the Mets’ two-game series with the Marlins, they have Thursday off before they’re scheduled to play in Atlanta. Showalter’s main concern is letting his pitchers know soon so they can maintain their throwing schedules.

“But I don’t really wanna put a focus on that because our guys have done a great job of staying on task,” he said. “And we’ve got our task, one of the better pitchers in the league tonight. We’ve gotta be on top of it.”

Popular in the Community