Laura Albanese: The score may not matter for the Mets, but the information gathered from the final series can
Mets pitcher Jefry Yan throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the Nationals on Friday in Washington, D.C. Credit: AP/Nick Wass
WASHINGTON — You know that show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” It’s the one in which the host introduces every episode as the “show where everything is made up and the points don’t matter.”
What follows is a half-hour of improv — a collaborative, quick-witted exercise in adaptation disguised as free-flowing comedy. But true to its word, the points absolutely do not matter.
On a related note, the Mets kicked off their final series against the Nationals on Friday night.
The score doesn’t matter. The outcome is irrelevant unless you’re especially titillated by the prospect of having rooted for only the second-worst team in the NL East (the Mets fell to 73-87 and clinched last place with a 7-6 loss to Washington). With a nor’easter bearing down on the area, all of this is insignificant enough that there’s at least an outside chance that one of the games doesn’t get played at all. Ever.
But since his appointment in June, manager Andy Green has been pretty intent on dumpster diving in this garbage, and why should the final three games be any different? Because frankly, he’s been really good at it.
And so on Friday, intrigued by the three perfect innings Jefry Yan threw against the Orioles a week and a half ago, Green slotted in the lefty as his opener.
You shouldn’t be surprised if you see Ronny Mauricio in the lineup Saturday even though he has played in only one game since his call-up on Sept. 18, Green said. In fact, you probably shouldn’t be surprised by anything you see Saturday.
“I’m sure I’ll get more questions tomorrow when the lineup comes out,” Green said. “I think quite possibly we’ll do some things lineup-wise in the next few days that are a little bit different that might give us a little information going into the 2027 season.”
All of it is data collection — the last chance for the Mets to squeeze an iota of meaning out of the mostly meaningless. And though Green cautioned to not read too deeply into anything — you can’t “think you’re going to find too much information out at the end of the season” — these three days should at least provide some insight into the areas they think are worth further exploration.
(It should be noted that some things don’t need more exploration: Carson Benge’s solo homer in the fifth inning Fridaymade him the first rookie in franchise history to go 20-20.)
There are plenty of other curiosities, though. For instance, Yan.
Yan, a wacky waving inflatable tube man of a pitcher with a triple-digit fastball and a long, winding road to the majors, was the first one up. It didn’t go particularly well — he allowed two runs, three hits and two walks with one strikeout in 1 2⁄3 innings — but the experiment was easy to read.
Yan has been a mostly one-inning reliever for the entirety of his professional career, but that outing against the Orioles gave the Mets pause. It allowed them to wonder if his stuff could consistently play over longer appearances.
“The outing where he threw three perfect innings was almost eye-opening to a degree,” Green said. “He started out at 96, 97 [and] as he got comfort finding the zone, he was up to 100 [mph] and even above 100 with strikes . . .
“Even when he gets hit, the encouragement to fill up the zone is there from the staff. We’re excited about it. We’re not worried about a home run . . . We’re more concerned about can he fill up the zone? Can he get ahead? And if you do that, once you get ahead, then you can throw all your expand pitches to punch guys out.”
Then there’s Mauricio, whose development has been mishandled since he lost a year of baseball to a gruesome knee injury in December 2023. He essentially was stashed on the major-league roster toward the tail end of 2025 to save an option, severely limiting his playing time. Even now, there’s no real need for an extra middle infielder. What the Mets do need? More information, and for him to have greater exposure to major-league pitchers.
“He can defend the field,” Green said. “His impact has to exceed his chase or his chase has to be reduced if he wants to be a productive big-leaguer for a long time.”
Green then brought up Mariners outfielder Julio Rod-riguez — an impactful bat with a sky-high chase rate. He wasn’t saying that Mauricio, who has a ghastly 53.8% chase rate in his measly 52 at-bats this year, is Rodriguez; he was saying that Mauricio doesn’t have to change who he is fundamentally to be a worthwhile player.
“You can’t have an easy-to-find chase pattern that guys can exploit,” Green said. “Ronny has enough strength and power for that to be the case for him, so there are kind of two paths forward — one is control the chase, get guys in the zone, but the other is demolish baseballs at such a rate that it doesn’t hamper you that badly.”
Those are just two examples. Saturday’s lineup likely should bring more, as will the final two starts from Sean Manaea and Jonah Tong.
Because hey, even if the points don’t matter, maybe something can.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
