The Mets are dead in the water
The Marlins sunk the Mets in a three-game sweep as they scored two runs in their three games in Miami
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets were swept out of Miami on Sunday, losing on a walk off grand slam to the Marlins in the ninth inning by a score of 4-0 (box)
The Mets had no offense once again, as one Met reached third base the entire day as they scattered five singles on a bullpen day for the Marlins
Devin Williams allowed all four Marlins runs in the ninth thanks to a grand slam from Heriberto Hernandez
The Mets scored two runs on 11 hits combined in all three games against the Marlins, were shutout for the sixth time this season, and have scored two runs or less in 23 of their 53 games so far in 2026
Injury Updates 🏥
OF Juan Soto was scratched from Sunday’s lineup with flu-like symptoms
INF Jorge Polanco (achilles bursitis) is taking live at-bats in Port St. Lucie and could soon begin a rehab assignment
Play of the Game 🙃
I genuinely wanted it to be AJ Ewing’s incredible throw to the plate mid-game to prevent a run, but that would’ve required the Mets to win for that to be the difference in the game.
Instead, it’s that Heriberto Hernandez game-winning grand slam in the ninth which completed the Marlins sweep of the Mets and sent New York to their fourth loss in a row.
Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
In the latest edition of the Just Mets Podcast, Andrew and Rich react to another lost week against the Nationals and Marlins, and take a renewed look on where things stand as May is coming to a close.
SUBSCRIBE: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Down on the Farm 🌾
RHP Bryce Conley (AA): 5 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 5 K
OF JT Benson (High-A): 1-for-2, 2B, 2 RBI
INF Elian Peña (no. 7 prospect, Low-A): 1-for-3, BB, R
BOX SCORES
Single-A SLU | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR G1 G2
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (22-31) vs. Reds (27-25)
Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Nolan McLean (2-3, 3.57 ERA) vs. LHP Nick Lodolo (0-1, 7.20 ERA)
When: 4:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
A clocked rant and stream of consciousness about this clown show ✍🏻
I spent a lot of time after Sunday’s game trying to think of something positive to write in this morning’s newsletter. I am tired of speaking negatively about the team, and saying the same things over and over again about the offense, their free agent acquisitions, their roster strategy, who should be fired or not, and their general failure over the last 365 days, during which they are 73-89.
Unfortunately, I don’t have much. There’s Christian Scott, who really cruised over 5.2 innings on Sunday. He looked every bit as good as advertised end-to-end on Sunday, which is exciting to see. He looks like he can truly be a meaningful part of this rotation in the coming years for this club along with Nolan McLean and maybe Jonah Tong, who also turned in a very encouraging outing in relief on Saturday.
But honestly, that’s really it. So, I am making this my first true stream of consciousness of the season about the Mets. I freely admit that as I write, I am thinking what’s being typed and I have no idea where this is starting, where it’s going to go, and how it will end. I am setting a timer for 30 minutes, and I am just going to air it out this morning and stop when the timer ticks down to zero.
Here goes…
Sunday’s game really wasn’t that unpredictable, as maddening as it might’ve been. When Juan Soto called out sick with the flu, their lineup— which already was terrible— had no threat to speak of against the Marlins, who has one of the worst pitching staffs in the sport.
And that doesn’t even really matter. They could face the worst pitching staff in the game, or the best, and the results are usually the same. Day after day. They are the worst team in the National League, are among the worst teams in baseball, so any team they play right now is better than they are at something.
The Mets scored two runs and had 11 hits in their entire series against the Marlins, the team they’re battling for last place in the National League East. They weren’t really that competitive in this series, simply because one run is too much for this team to overcome on any given day, so even a 1-0 lead seems almost impossible for the Mets to navigate.
Even when it was 0-0 going into the ninth inning on Sunday, there was zero doubt the game was going to end badly. Whether it was in the ninth inning and the way it ended, or the 10th, 11th, or 12th inning. They can’t score. They don’t have an ability to score. They employ the same nonsensical approach in every at-bat top to bottom regardless of who is playing outside of Soto.
They’re back to this impatient, uncompetitive approach which results in next to no walks, soft contact, short at-bats, and meager results.
The irony on Sunday, of course, was they drew five walks and they had ten hits. That’s ten baserunners on the day plus one that reached on an error, but only one of them reached third base. They left ten runners on and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
In their last five games, the Mets have scored 14 runs. This after plating ten in their last at-bat last Monday against the Nationals. They’ve notched 34 hits over those five games, nine of which went for extra-bases, and six of those were home runs.
Needless to say, a team that scores 2.33 runs per game should not be expected to do better than 1-5. That might actually be decent all things considered since they pitched to a 4.50 ERA during the same span.
As such, we are at Memorial Day, and the Mets are 22-31 on the season and completely in the abyss. This is the first true mile marker of the season for all 30 clubs and, suffice it to say, the Mets are an absolute disaster on this date. I don’t think the Mets should fire Carlos Mendoza at this point. I also don’t think it will improve anything for this team, which would ultimately lead to continued underperformance and the target then squarely on David Stearns’s back. I don’t see Stearns shooting himself in the foot like that, but at the same time, this team has made one bizarre move after the next so nothing would surprise me at this point.
Besides, it’s not Carlos Mendoza’s fault. This was the hand Stearns dealt him between the players and the coaches. It would be unfair to make him the scapegoat, whether you like him or not. Rather, if they were going to do that, it should’ve been done a month ago in that 12-game losing streak. I am not sure what the impact would be if they canned the hitting coaches, but clearly, whatever message it is they’re peddling to these hitters isn’t working, so that would probably be the next change on the docket, if I were the general manager.
Now, while I don’t think it was bad to promote Tong, Scott, AJ Ewing, Nick Morabito, or Zach Thornton, it certainly feels like these are either moves motivated by desperation, or they’re trying to transition this roster in-season to one that is younger and more athletic while dealing with the deadweight they brought in during the winter. Maybe it’s a little bit of both. In seasons like this, they certainly have nothing to lose by letting the jewels of their farm system develop at the big league level - I just wouldn’t have expected all of them to be here in some combination in May. A couple, sure. And again, a lot of this is out of desperation and necessitated by absent players. They needed to make changes, they needed to get more athletic, they needed to be less predictable, and I think these guys help check those boxes.
Of course, the results have generally gone unchanged as the sample size has grown with them here, even though most of that isn’t their fault. After all, we have to be patient through their growing pains, we can’t expect them to immediately become primary contributors, and they can’t make players like Marcus Semien, Bo Bichette, Mark Vientos, and Brett Baty better at their jobs.
Make no mistake - they’ve won more games for sure so far this month than they did last month, although they went from 12-6 in May with some hope heading into the weekend to 12-9 now and looking just like they did during their 7-19 April over the last three days, making that 12-6 look more like the exception than the norm.
On Sunday, a friend of mine asked me if I thought this was the worst Mets team in the last 25 years. I found that to be a great question and it got me thinking about past Mets failures over the last quarter century. 2002-2004 were really bad and often embarrassing both on and off the field. They spent a lot of money in those years and they were absolutely terrible during that three-year span, wasting whatever they had left in Mike Piazza in the process. I also thought it was ridiculous at the time they decided to move him out from behind the plate, only to put him back. But that was a long time ago, wasn’t it?
There were the failures of 2007 and 2008, which doesn’t need rehashing. There was 2009 which was the first year they were in Citi Field, had made some big-time acquisitions and, as has been the case with this regime, they got old fast and most of those moves blew up in Omar Minaya’s face.
I tend to throw out 2011-2014 since those were rebuilding years even though nobody in the front office would actually say the word. In fact, they refused to characterize it as such at the time, although I would like to think Sandy Alderson relented on that position in the years that followed.
2017 and 2018 were bad years for the team. The Mickey Callaway situation was flat-out embarrassing for this organization, as was the Zack Scott/Jared Porter GM merry-go-round in 2021, which was also an embarrassingly bad year for this team after spending most of that season in first place before belly flopping in August and September. 2023 was actually very much like 2025 and now 2026 in that they spent a lot of money, bet on way too many IFs, bought way too much into the prior year’s success and rejected those team’s fundamental flaws, and ended up in the crap house.
So, at this point, I am probably willing to chalk the 2026 season up as an all-time bust, barring a Hail Mary miracle over the next 100 games, but I don’t think it’s a lot different than the 2023 season, which I also thought was an all-time bust. This might take the cake because I think there’s a lot more hubris that got in the way of building a quality team this year than it did in 2023, which blinded their ability to correct their issues and compensate for the losses they created in a proper manner.
The question is, does 2026 and even 2023 stack up to the 2002 flop, when the Mets brought in Roberto Alomar, Jeromy Burnitz, Mo Vaughn, among others, all of which generally crapped out for this club (Vaughn was actually pretty good offensively for the Mets in 2002, for what it’s worth).
It’s close, that is for sure. But no matter what, they were all bad and very Metsian.
Around the League 🚩
Aaron Judge hit a walk-off two-run home run in the Yankees 2-0 win over the Rays
Kyle Tucker doubled and tripled, and Yoshinobu Yamaoto allowed a run over seven innings as the Dodgers beat the Brewers 5-1
Colton Cowser hit a three-run walk-off home run in the Orioles 5-3 win over the the Tigers, who have now lost eight consecutive games
Parker Messick threw 5.2 shutout innings for the Guardians in their 3-1 win over the Phillies
Michael,
Sadly, there is ONE thing to say:
When David Stearns alleged during Hot Stove that the Mets were going to focus on RUN PREVENTION, I didn't know that he was referring to our OWN lineup!!!
Mr. Baron:
I've shared thinking about Stearn's sole ownership of this a few times.
My worry is shifting to the kids you talked about today. I watch them and worry they are learning how to lose, and that becoming acceptable The Mets have a wonderful talent pool built over several years. Some good prospects were dealt. We see them from time to time around the league and think about what came to the roster in return. Enough said about that...
But the ones that came up since - say - Baty. He has been used like a Swiss army knife and left wherever Just long enough to stop looking lost. Once progress is evidenced, he gets sent somewhere else on the field to look lost. Vientos the same. These kids are learning to lose while working their tails off.
At some point, Team control ends. Then we will see the kids go somewhere, anywhere else. For nothing. Its one thing to Flush 2026 in Flushing. Its another to "eat your seed corn."
Did I mention Stearns solely owns this?
Steve