After weeks of scrambling, the Mets were in the unfamiliar position Friday of taking it relatively easy while their next-round postseason opponent faced the stress.
The Mets held an afternoon team workout at Citi Field, ahead of the Padres and Dodgers playing Game 5 of the NLDS in Los Angeles.
The winner of that game would host the Mets in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday.
“It’s nice to be able to have these off days and you can reset [the pitching] and just kind of map it out as much as you want,” manager Carlos Mendoza said on a Zoom call with reporters. “But I think it’s more the rest for our guys, the position player group and just the whole team in general. With all the back and forth and the traveling and all the intense games that we’ve been playing, so to be able to have these couple of days to reset and get guys treatment and things like that is huge.”
As for the pitching, Mendoza wasn’t prepared to announce a rotation for the NLCS.
That, he said, was more a function of trying to gauge where his pitchers are between starts than the uncertainty of which team the Mets would be facing.
Kodai Senga, Luis Severino and Sean Manaea are all Game 1 options.
Manaea, who pitched Tuesday, is the least rested from that crew, but would still be on his normal fifth day.
Senga, who pitched two innings in his return from the injured list last Saturday, would still be limited, requiring a piggyback most likely from David Peterson, but Tylor Megill is another possibility.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Mets in the postseason:
- Mets overcome arch rival Phillies to advance to NLCS as Lindor hits game-winning grand slam
- Francisco Lindor lights Citi Field on fire with wild go-ahead Mets grand slam
- Brandon Nimmo waited over a decade for this special Mets clincher
- Mets not a better team than us: Phillies’ Nick Castellanos
Peterson has become the Mets’ secret weapon in October and his availability, whether it be for multiple innings or just one factors into team brass’ decisions.
“It’s amazing because [Peterson] is a guy we saw all season starting games and he’s been able to come from the bullpen in close games and throw multiple innings like he did last game,” Edwin Diaz said. “He’s doing great. I’m really happy to have him in the bullpen, he’s another arm we have there and we can use him in any situation.”
Diaz has struggled with his control in the postseason — he walked two batters in the ninth in the NLDS-clincher against the Phillies on Wednesday — but expressed confidence in his ability to rebound.
And Mendoza said Diaz is an essential component if the Mets are going to continue winning this postseason.
“There’s a combination of a lot of things here in the last week where we have been riding him pretty hard, but the one thing from him is he always wants the baseball,” Mendoza said. “He always wants to be in those situations. He wants to be in those moments and he’s our guy.”
The Mets were planning to hold another workout at Citi Field on Saturday before chartering to Los Angeles.
It will be the franchise’s first appearance in the NLCS since 2015, when the Mets swept the Cubs to reach the World Series.
That was a season before Brandon Nimmo’s major league debut.
As much as Nimmo is enjoying the downtime this week, he is also cognizant that the Mets can’t afford to relax.
“Trying to make sure that you are still getting your reps and seeing high velocity stuff in the cage and if guys need to see bullpens or whatever,” Nimmo said. “Kind of keeping the rust off is the biggest thing, because we have been able to play high-intensity games to this point and not get too many days off in between for that.
“It’s definitely great for the injury side of things, but we also need to make sure we are staying mentally focused and we’re trying to treat these reps like game reps.”
