Mets Morning News for April 14, 2024

Mets Morning News for April 14, 2024

Meet the Mets

The Royals beat the Mets 11-7 yesterday in a slugfest. Sean Manaea had his worst start as a Met so far and the Mets played some shoddy defense to boot. The Royals piled on against Cole Sulser and Pete Alonso’s two home runs were not enough to erase the deficit.

Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, Faith and Fear in Flushing, NY Post, Daily News, MLB.com, Newsday

Today the Mets will honor Dwight Gooden by retiring his No. 16 at Citi Field. Abbey Mastracco of the New York Daily News wrote about Gooden’s 1983 minor league season, which paved the way for his big league success.

1986 Met and Mets bench coach John Gibbons remembers the first time he saw Gooden throw.

Speaking of jersey numbers, Sean Manaea wears jersey number 59 to honor his brother, who passed away from cancer at age 59 the same day Manaea inked his contract with the Mets.

Kodai Senga will begin throwing off a mound soon, per manager Carlos Mendoza.

Meanwhile, JD Martinez is still not doing baseball activities and Sean-Reid Foley is scheduled to pitch an inning for Brooklyn today.

“I’m a better player when my heart is in a happy place. Shortstop at Citi Field is my happy place, and feeling the love, it filled my heart,” Francisco Lindor said in response to Friday night’s standing ovation he received at Citi Field.

Around the National League East

The Marlins defeated the Braves 5-1 thanks to a strong performance by Max Meyer and a bases-clearing double by Bryan De La Cruz in the fifth that opened up a five-run lead for the Fish. Chris Sale took the loss for the Braves.

The Braves announced that Spencer Strider underwent surgery to repair his damaged ulnar collateral ligament with an internal brace. He is out for the season.

The Braves signed Yuli Gurriel to a minor league deal.

Nick Castellanos walked it off for the Phillies in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Pirates 4-3.

Taijuan Walker has begun a rehab assignment as he tries to return from a shoulder issue that landed him on the injured list to start the season.

Justin Klugh of Baseball Prospectus wrote about the debut of the Phillies’ City Connect jerseys amid a slow start to the 2024 season.

A dominant MacKenzie Gore fueled the Nationals to a 3-1 victory over the A’s.

The Nationals have not yet broached the subject of a contract extension with top outfield prospect James Wood, according to Stephen Mears of TalkNats.com.

Around Major League Baseball

Yesterday the Twins placed Carlos Correa on the injured list with an oblique strain and designated former Met Michael Tonkin for assignment.

“Everybody has theories,” Clayton Kershaw said to The Athletic about the rise in pitching injuries. “It’s probably a combination of what everybody’s talking about, whether it be added velocity, weighted ball programs too young, all this stuff that people talk about. But at the end of the day, nobody knows. Nobody knows the perfect formula, and if they did, they’d be doing it. So I think the question we need to ask is, how do we fix it? And then somebody has to be brave enough to put their neck out and try something different.”

Ginny Searle of Baseball Prospectus lamented the lack of empathy applied to the gambling scandal involving Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter and friend, Ippei Mizuhara, in which many speculated on the truth without having enough information.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Lukas Vlahos brought us the Daily Prospect Report.

This Date in Mets History

As we honor Dwight Gooden today by retiring his number, we also look back on some notable moments by some other Mets pitching greats that happened on April 14.