Here's the issue I have.

Med fans are excited about Nolan McLean.

Of course they are. Yeah, exactly. Pits fantastic yesterday. He is like he's the Wonder Kid. He's the future. When you think about the Mets and the Mets legacy, no matter what you want to laugh about with the LOL Mets stuff, great pitchers, right? Siever, DeGrom, the era of Matt Harvey and everything can go down the line. like Mets and pitching are synonymous and there was a lot of Mets

who believe that Nolan McLean has the opportunity Siever, DeGrom, the era Matt Harvey and everything can go down the line. Like Mets and pitching are synonymous.

And there was a lot of Mets fans who believe that Nolan McLean has the opportunity to become the next great Mett pitcher. Especially because he's homegrown. Right. And you feel like he's here and he's going to be here for the long haul. And when you saw the schedule come out and knowing that the Mets were going to open up at home. So it's not even a matter of playing that they're opening up on the road.

What's more important?

Your opening day, you started, your home opener started.

The Mets were going to open up at home. So it's not even a matter of plan that they're opening up on the road. What's more important? Your opening day, you started, your home opener started. The Mets get the opening day home, the same deal. And Paul Skeens will be on that mound for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wow. And you had an opportunity to give MET fans your young phenom. McLean versus... Versus Paul Skeens. one of the other young phenoms of baseball. I know Evans talked about it. That was what Evans' expectation was. And instead we get Freddie Peralta. Freddie Peralta's great. He's fine. But he's here for one year. Or is he? And this is where I think this comes into play. So they're positioning. They're propping them up.

They're giving them in port. They're making him feel very wanted. I know that so far the track record of David Stearns and Steve Cohen, and if we want to call it a philosophy or whatever has been, we're not going to pay starting pitchers. We're going to pay the position players. I totally understand that. However, they went out and they traded for Freddie Peralta, who's going to be an impending free agent.

So this is a different animal. Yes, who's pitching today, by the way? Who's pitching today? This is a different animal than going out and just spending in free agency to spend. When they trade assets for Freddie Peralta, I thought from the get-in, I think it was having it argued against me and said, well, how do you know they'd want to bring Freddie Peralta back? Well, you're trading for him. I'm assuming you want to be in the mix and negotiate him. Why would you trade for someone only to lose him a year later? Yeah. Unless you are, we're winning a championship this year and he's the missing piece. And look, I love the MET fans' optimism.

That can't be your belief.

No.

I mean, you might hope that it's going to happen, but I can't imagine that all MET fans are

saying we're winning a World Series this year.

Right.

And Freddie Peralta is helping us get there.

You've got to be thinking, let's hope that we convince Freddie Peralta that we are an emerging organization and that we're going to consistently be in the postseason and we're winning a championship and we need you to do it. So they need to convince him. Exactly right. And also, no. But Altie's going to come down to money. But this is why this whole thing is so silly. The free agent class next year in Major League Baseball top to bottom is viewed as weaker. And we also about the Dodgers signing everybody, this, that, and the strength is in the pitching, and Freddie Peralto will be one of those guys. This just reeks to me of that. No matter what, whether Freddie Peralta was traded for or not, if the Mets threw the most money at Freddie Peralta in the offseason, there's a good chance he would choose pitching for the New York Mets. Of course. But I believe that in the back of the Mets' minds, knowing, I don't know, the perception is we let Pete Alonzo walk, we let Brandon Nimmo. We traded him. I think they're just

trying to get off to a good start here with Freddie Peralta. Remember how weird the whole Soto

start was last year? He's not happy. He's shuffling. What's going on? David Linder. When you really

know, I think the Mets are going above and beyond by naming Freddie Peralta the opening day started.

They know they have Nolan McLean under control anyway. He has more opening days to start.

This is their way of just showing Freddie Peralta how much they love him and want him. This feels like a play towards keeping him next year, even if it comes down to money. They don't want to do any. Diaz, was Edwin Diaz pissed off the Mets for Sunning Devin Williams? True, but at 29, he's been in league for, what, six years, seven years?

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