Adam Ottavino lambasted the Mets’ handling of their pitchers last season, questioning manager Carlos Mendoza’s use of relief pitchers and organizational protocols, all while suggesting that the Amazin’s weren’t worried enough about preserving their pitchers’ arms.
After rattling off names of Mets pitchers that were injured last season, Ottavino, hosting an episode of his “Baseball & Coffee” podcast on Wednesday, implored the team to be “better than this.”
“This is embarrassing, this is actually pathetic, like pathetic. I would’ve never let this happen if I was on the team last year,” he said. “At least half of these guys wouldn’t have blown out. I would have protected these dudes myself; I would have had to jump in front of them myself.
“Unfortunately, there was nobody willing to stand up and talk to Carlos (Mendoza) this year; it was just me, I guess. So a little bit of an issue there.”
Ottavino spent three seasons with the Mets from 2022-24, including one under Mendoza. The ex-big leaguer did acknowledge Mendoza was a good “under-the-stress manager,” but said things must change.
“And if they continue down this path, they’re gonna be f–k-e-d, because you cannot injure this many dudes every year,” Ottavino said. “Hopefully, this is not an actual strategy because it’s freakin’ pathetic and it’s not player-friendly, and eventually people will catch on.
“And it’s funny because they were bragging about keeping people healthy the year before, when it had nothing to do with them. So yeah, I’m a little annoyed. Because these are guys that should be playing, so it pisses me off.”
Ottavino continued to explain that part of the issue, in his opinion, stemmed from a lack of “player education” on how to keep healthy and “pressure on a lot of guys to play even when they feel a little compromise.”
“| think he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to bullpen guys and how to keep them healthy or even how to care about them at all. There’s no communication there, there’s no feel there, there’s no bedside manner when guys get hurt,” the former Mets and Yankees pitcher said.
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The Mets saw injuries to Tylor Megill, Dedniel Nunez, Danny Young, Frankie Montas and Reed Garrett, just to name a few, and they used an MLB-record 46 different pitchers during the 2025 season.
Ottavino pitched just 1 2/3 innings in three appearances for the Yankees this past year.
