Laika

Rogers is probably a yellow light He did do three separate three-in-a-rows last year

One more stray point - Kaz cannot whiff 14.3% of the time and also be this passive. It doesn't show up on this list because it doesn't really work. He kind of needs to pick a path: Adjust and make more contact, OR Swing even less (Schwarber, Judge are 41% or 42% swing dudes) Swing more (guys who are more aggressive can be good with SwStr% of 14% or more because they put the ball in play and don't take strikes as often. Plenty of examples).

Okamoto's start gives us a baseline of his raw skills Still big error bars on things but certain characteristics are hard-coded and visible He can handle third base (that is good to see) but he is not rangy or impressively athletic (meaty legs) so I am thinking the ceiling there is like, a 0 OAA 3B over an entire season. He seems to have good hands, actions, decisions so even if he is a -5 or worse, perhaps it is the variety that doesn't demoralize the team or really stand out in a bad way. The K and BB rates are starting to approach stability, according to the typical baseball research. Since he changed leagues perhaps we need to extend that timeline but I will offer this: Seiya Suzuki NPB in 2020, 2021: 14.2% and 16.5% K rates Seiya Suzuki MLB career: 24.9% K rate That's an 8.4-10.7% jump Yoshida NPB: 5.7% and 8.1% Yoshida MLB: 12.9% 4.8 to 7.2% jump (but even bigger in a relative sense, i.e. more than twice as many strikeouts as the one year) Okamoto's last three NPB years were 11.3%, 15.9%, and 18.8%. So his baseline in NPB was more variable than the others. But he is also 30, compared to Suzuki who was 27 and not declining yet when he came over. So if you think that Okamoto's projected NPB K rate in 2026 and onward would have been 16% or higher, then an MLB K rate in the upper 20s completely tracks. The 32.4% rate so far does seem a bit too high, though. The closest qualified players to him in 2026 WHIFF RATE are: Benintendi (36.4, 17.9), Happ (30.0, 26.5), James Wood (31.2, 31.0), Manzardo (34.1, 26.6), Teoscar (29.7, 29.0), Gorman (28.7, 33.7), Corbin Carroll (25.7, 21.3) The numbers in parenthesis are their 2026 and career K rates I don't know how instructive that list is. There are some positives and negatives. Swing rate is also an important toggle when it comes to K%. New comp strategy... Swing rate 43.8%, SwStr% 14.3% = these or Kaz's 2026 rates. He has been quite passive. Here are the players since 2017, min 2000 PA, who Swing 45% of the time or less and whiff at least 10% of the time. I like this list because Soler and Suarez were comps in my head. Name Swing% SwStr% Joey Gallo 0.449752 0.174126 Giancarlo Stanton 0.43603 0.13821 Aaron Judge 0.420069 0.130191 Jorge Soler 0.44018 0.127079 Justin Upton 0.437813 0.126623 Josh Donaldson 0.441655 0.124006 Wil Myers 0.445889 0.123176 Eugenio Suárez 0.446004 0.122826 Yoán Moncada 0.440443 0.122785 Randy Arozarena 0.43571 0.121344 Gary Sánchez 0.438873 0.121268 Kyle Schwarber 0.411116 0.116007 Mitch Haniger 0.439383 0.113168 Brandon Marsh 0.446173 0.112938 Jake Bauers 0.438735 0.111216 Michael Conforto 0.444153 0.106717 Matt Chapman 0.429325 0.105574 Shin-Soo Choo 0.412667 0.104272 Rowdy Tellez 0.447323 0.10366 Paul Goldschmidt 0.440822 0.102864 Christian Yelich 0.434609 0.102223 Max Muncy 0.391005 0.100207

The Mets have 0.5 total fWAR from their position players 79 team wRC+ with negative DEF and BsR 3 WAR from the pitching staff but McLean - Peterson - Peralta - Holmes have 2.5 fWAR combined So 4 players have 2.5 WAR and the rest of the team has 1 WAR Soto is just coming back and Lindor is down for a month. Their only starting hitters with a wRC+ over 100 are Francisco Alvarez and Soto

Davis Schneider breaks my heart March 28th through April 14th: .250/.400./458 in 30 PA; sparked a win or two with key PAs April 14th - Blue Jays trade for Lenyn Sosa April 15th to present: .000/.174/.000 in 23 PA Schneider has options and it's now looking like he is Buffalo bound when Springer comes back. Or when Barger is back.

This guy was an UDFA and he has great stuff. Mainly that fastball shape. This is an MLB reliever if he can throw strikes. They seem to be stretching him out, interestingly.

Tough assignment for Varland

Pinango!!

Where to go with Kaz Okamoto? From a coaching perspective It seemed like Toronto considered him to have a better hit tool and better athleticism The criticisms of his defense may have been accurate. And he's slow. The whiff rate is concerning. But the power is very real and probably better than anticipated. This doesn't look like a .265 hitter who might hit 15-20 home runs. Gives me Matt Chapman flashbacks offensively

That's wild I assumed he was a two inning hero

One thing that doesn't make sense to me is that Rogers does not have the most innings in the pen. They've used Varland, Fisher, and even Miles more. Why isn't the guy with the rubber arm being used like an 80 IP reliever? I get that there have been some blowouts but he should be getting 2 inning assignments

100%

The pitches that they hit weren't even bad pitches Just hitters guessing right

When was the last time Vlad hit one into the flight deck? Okamoto might hit 40 some day

f*** yeah. Sort of surprised he's not bumping Max Scherzer. Lauer is probably better than Scherzer. Maybe some 3500 K politics here. Or maybe they need more time to line it up, perhaps Berrios and Scherzer's throw days line up?

Schneider

The IL / hurt situation is wild Alejandro Kirk George Springer Addison Barger Nathan Lukes Trey Yesavage Shane Bieber Cody Ponce José Berríos Yimi García Lazaro Estrada Tony Taters Bowden Francis Ricky Tiedemann Jake Bloss Jeff Hoffman (at least has a bruised ego) Eric Lauer (no balls) Max Scherzer (geriatric f***)

Sucks to have the off day sort of wasted by needing to use so many RP yesterday

Latin America Twitter is saying Pinango is up Assuming Lukes to the IL

Valenzuela is probably better even if he strikes out 35% of the time

Spooner Miles is going to have to soak 3+ innings

So I guess Lauer's job is safe

Atta boyyyyy

Hard to watch Fooling nobody

Hard to hate Hoffman, honestly.