Mets Notes: Carlos Mendoza on mood of clubhouse, potential lineup shuffle

Carlos Mendoza said that “you hate to go through” the rough start to the season, but believes the Mets’ clubhouse is handling themselves fine as “they know we’re better than that.”

“You hate to see it, especially the way we’ve been playing,” the first-year manager said Tuesday afternoon before that night’s game was rained out. “But at the same time, it’s not the first time that they go through [a losing streak], it just happens to be the first four games of the season.

"Everything that we went through over the weekend and not the way we expected it, but, again, pretty confident in the guys that we got in that room. We’ll turn it around pretty soon here.”

When asked a follow-up about the mood of the team, he said the overall mood is fine, but that "there’s a sense of urgency here.”

“It’s the big leagues,” Mendoza added. “You can’t just sit here and say, ‘Oh, it’s early.’ It’s just one of those where you’re playing big league teams every day, you’re facing big league players. And there’s a sense of urgency of winning every day.

“It’s one of those where we gotta continue to prepare, we gotta continue to make some adjustments whether it’s offensively, defensively, pitching-wise, even though we’ve been throwing the ball [well] and giving the team chances. The mood is fine, but it’s gotta be some sense of urgency.”

He added that he doesn’t sense a lack of urgency now. “It’s just we have to bring our best every day. That doesn’t mean we won’t get the results we wanted because you’re going to go through some stretches like this,” the manager said. “But we gotta get better.”

Potential lineup changes

With several hitters struggling to find their footing at the plate – Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil are a combined 3-for-44 – the question about changes to the lineup arises.

“We’ve faced some good pitching but we’re also chasing a lot,” Mendoza said when asked about batters expanding the zone. “We’ve been passive at times early in the count when we’re taking fastballs right down the middle, and then we chase. That’s basically it. We’ve got to be able to dictate at-bats and we’ve got to be ready to go from pitch one and lay off some of those pitches because right now, there are some empty at-bats there.”

One of the changes the manager had planned for Tuesday’s game was moving Brett Baty up to the No. 5 spot and dropping McNeil down to the seven hole.

Mendoza said the changes weren’t about sending a message, but “more trying to create something here” and “trying to put players in positions to have success.”

“Like the way Baty’s been swinging the bat. Just like I did with [Francisco] Alvarez a couple of days,” he said, referencing moving the young catcher into the clean-up spot behind Pete Alonso.

“I know asking these young hitters, especially early in the season to hit in the middle of the lineup could be a lot,” the skipper said. “But I like the at-bats, like how aggressive they are with pitches in the strike zone and they’re not chasing as much. Baty had a really good game yesterday, he hit some balls hard. Alvarez continuing to have good at-bats.”

Mendoza added that moving McNeil down was about "trying to get him going” and split up the left-handed and right-handed hitters.

And this was something he talked to players about before the season. Mendoza said he had conversations with several players, including McNeil, in spring training about the potential for guys to move down the batting order.

“He just doesn’t care where he hits in the lineup,” the manager said of McNeil. “And that’s one thing that we talk about the versatility that he provides by being a left-handed hitter with bat-to-ball skills, batting average which has always been [a skill]. And this is something that I had those conversations with them and we’re fine.”

In a perfect world, Mendoza said, they will settle into a consistent one through five or one through six of the batting order.

“I would like to have some type of consistency but until we find that, we’ll continue to mix and match,” he said.

J.D. Martinez decision coming

League rules state the Mets can’t officially call up the veteran slugger they signed just before the end of spring training until Sunday after they assigned him to the minors to start the season.

Mendoza said he is having plenty of at-bats in Port St. Lucie, taking as many as seven or eight on Monday and was set to repeat that on Tuesday.

Getting the 36-year-old up to the big leagues is something they are going to discuss in the next couple of days before a decision on the next steps is made, which could include starts in the minor leagues.

With this being a quick turnaround for the veteran the decision on what happens next will likely come down to Martinez.

“It’s a different spring training, it’s not your typical spring training where you’re able to take a day off or so after two or three days of heavy activity,” Mendoza said. "And, right now, as soon as we signed him he's been on the go. He knows his body better than anybody and we'll have these conversations, but if he needs more time, then he's gonna take more time."

Kodai Senga progressing

Senga came out of his first back-to-back throwing sessions feeling good and Mendoza said he is “slowly moving in the right direction.”

“He came out good,” Mendoza said, noting the second day of his workout was “just playing catch, 90 feet, flat ground.”

As far as benchmarks go for Senga to hit there are still testing, metrics and check-ins with trainers that he has to go through strength-wise before the Mets have him progress to the next stage, which is throwing at 120 feet and a more intensity.

“But this is something that is still fluid,” Mendoza cautioned. “We will continue to reassess every time he throws.”

The 31-year-old was “off” Tuesday and received treatment with trainers.