No, You Take It

In a fitting end to their disappointing season, the Mets looked at the door to the playoffs that was left wide open by the Reds losing and didn’t walk through it, losing to the Marlins 4-0. The season is over. It’s one of the biggest collapses in MLB history. 

The Mets were 45-24 on the morning of June 13th. They went 38-57 the rest of the season. Everything that went wrong seemed to. There was barely any urgency. The vibes weren’t bad so much as they were nonexistent. Feckless might be the right word to describe the 2025 New York Mets. Of course they went down without a fight yesterday afternoon.

There’s no such thing as a promise in sports. Still, after the special 2024 campaign, and then the addition of the generational talent Juan Soto, making the playoffs when six teams in each league have the honor seemed like a virtual lock. 

It wasn’t. 

Instead, the starting pitching proved to be threadbare, the bullpen couldn’t handle their resulting massive workload, the batters couldn’t hit with runners in scoring position for four months (and yesterday), and the roster showed a complete lack of an edge. To be shut out for nine innings on a day that could have saved their season, to go 0-70 when trailing after eight innings, after last season? A cruel joke. And the fact it was the Marlins that did the Mets in, again? An equally unamusing joke. 

Juan Soto’s near 40-40 season. Francisco Lindor’s 30-30 year. Wasted. 

All the talk about there being so much talent in the clubhouse. Hollow. 

The over three millions fans who showed up to Citi Field this season? They saw a faulty product.

All of the scoring came in the bottom of the fourth. Brooks Raley got his man to end the third, and Carlos Mendoza trusted him enough to keep going. So did I, to be honest - the Marlins are notoriously bad against lefties. Otto Lopez hit a comebacker to Raley for the first out, but then Connor Norby singled to left. Ryne Stanek, who was surprisingly good at stranding runners this season, entered. An Eric Wagaman double off of a hanging breaking ball plated Norby. After a fly out to right, Brian Navarreto doubled off the center field wall to score Wagaman. Tyler Rogers’ turn. Javier Sanoja hustled for an RBI triple down the left field line to make it 3-0. Xavier Edwards then singled to center for the fourth run. 

And that’s all Miami would need. 

The Mets had their chances - they were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position. With runners on first and second and one out in the top of the third, Soto grounded into a 6-6-3 double play. In the fifth with the bases loaded and two out, Pete Alonso hit a ball 115.9 mph, but left fielder Sanoja caught it. (Last year, that’s a grand slam.) With two outs in the seventh, Lindor reached on an error by the shortstop Otto Lopez. Maybe, you thought, this would be the break the Mets needed. Alas, Soto popped it up to second to end the inning. The eighth was the most frustrating. Alonso singled to start. After a Brandon Nimmo line out, Mark Vientos walked. But against Calvin Faucher, Jeff McNeil struck out. Francisco Alvarez worked the count full, then swung and missed at ball four. 

Against the psychopath who slaps himself in the face Tyler Phillips in the ninth, Ronny Mauricio miraculously drew a walk. 

Maybe…

Then Cedric Mullins flew out to right.

Still, top of the lineup coming up…

Lindor grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.

And that was it. 

The slow motion train wreck was complete. 

The Mets ended up successfully stealing second base 101 times in a row against catchers. Even Vientos stole second base yesterday, his first of the year. 

After the game, Carlos Mendoza said David Peterson - Steve Gelbs’ pick to be the X-Factor in the game - wasn’t even in consideration to come in and pitch a few innings because the Marlins were stacked with righties. But they’re not good against lefties…

Pete Alonso became the first Met to play all 162 games in back-to-back seasons. Oh, and he also admitted he’s opting out of the second year of his contract. That’s not surprising in itself. What is kind of eyebrow raising is that he said this right after the final out of the season. 

Edwin Díaz said he’ll talk to his family before he decides if he’s going to opt out or nah.

Bet David Stearns and the Mets regret all of the bullpen games they punted, eh?

It was weird to close the bullpen pitch count meter google sheet tab on my laptop after it had been open for six months.

David Stearns will talk to reporters today at Citi Field. 3:30pm to be precise. 

Andy Martino wrote that Carlos Mendoza’s job is safe. The rest of the coaching staff is a different story. I would imagine Antoan Richardson will be asked back if he isn’t poached by another team. The others seem expendable - especially the hitting coaches. 

A caveat: I highly doubt any of Martino’s sources is Steve Cohen. If Cohen decides Mendoza needs to go, he’ll be gone. 

Kodai Senga told reporters he wasn’t able to “control” his body the way he wanted to after his hamstring injury, resulting in poor performance. I’m surprised Senga allowed himself to return to the majors if he wasn’t feeling 100 percent right physically. Maybe there was some external pressure to come back?

Free agent to be Ryan Helsley ended up not allowing an earned run in his final seven innings as a Met. It would have been interesting to see if he would have become a member of the Circle of Trust again in October. Alas.

On this day in 2018, David Wright played the final game of his career. 

Exactly one year later, Dominic Smith hit a dramatic walk-off home run to beat Atlanta on the last day of the season in the 12th inning. It was his first at-bat in over two months. 

We’ll talk about 2026 in time. I have plans for the newsletter this offseason, and talking about the future is a part of that. I’m not going anywhere, and I hope you don’t either.