The Mets keep jerking their pitchers around, and they keep losing!
Meanwhile, Kodai Senga makes his return tonight as Christian Scott hits the IL
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets were absolutely embarrassed by the Reds in their series opener in Cincinnati, falling by the lopsided score of 12-0 (Box)
It was the most lopsided shutout loss the Mets have had since falling to the Nationals 15-0 in August of 2018
RHP Tobias Myers returned to the Major Leagues and served as the opener last night in an outing that proved to be an unmitigated disaster. Myers lasted just 1.1 innings and was tagged with seven earned runs.
RHP Jonathan Pintaro and LHP David Peterson amicably soaked up the last 6.2 innings for the Mets in mop up duty
Bo Bichette stayed hot, contributing three hits including a pair of doubles
Roster Moves 📰
RHP Jonathan Pintaro recalled from Triple-A Syracuse
RHP Tobias Myers recalled from Triple-A Syracuse
RHP Daniel Duarte optioned to Triple-A
RHP Christian Scott (Right hip impingement) placed on 15-day injured list
IF Jorge Polanco (Wrist) Transferred to 60-day injured list
IF Zack Short claimed off waivers from Detroit Tigers
Injury Updates 🩺
RHP Kodai Senga (ulnar nerve irritation) will be activated today and start tonight’s game against Cincinnati
Play of the Game 😢
Things were already looking bleak for the Mets after Tobias Myers got shelled in his opening assignment. Jonathan Pintaro relieved him in the 2nd and, with the Mets already trailing 5-0, faced Eugenio Suárez with the bases loaded. The count ran full, and then Suárez delivered an early knockout blow, crushing a grand slam to center field.
Down on the Farm 🌾
All Mets minor league affiliates were off on Monday
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (32-40) @ Reds (34-37)
Where: Great American Ballpark - Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Kodai Senga (0-4, 9.00 ERA) vs. RHP Brady Singer (2-6, 5.61 ERA)
When: 7:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
The dumpster fire that is the Mets rotation, again! ✍️
The story of the 2025 Mets’ demise was the utter ineptitude of their starting staff, and as we near Father’s Day here in ‘26, history is unfortunately starting to repeat itself.
Back in spring training, the Mets appeared to have an abundance of solid starting pitching options.
In fact, one of the biggest storylines down in Port St. Lucie was what the Mets were going to do with six starters for five spots. Freddy Peralta, David Peterson, Clay Holmes, Nolan McLean, Kodai Senga, and Sean Manaea were all healthy and ready to come north with the club, and with too many off days to start the year, it would not make sense to have utilized a six-man rotation.
The situation resolved itself when the club chose to send Manaea to the bullpen as a long man, but the Mets’ perceived rotation depth did not end there.
The Mets had youngsters Christian Scott and Jonah Tong in Triple-A, and reliever Tobias Myers that could be stretched out.
Unfortunately, things look a lot different a few months later.
Peralta, the Mets’ prized offseason addition, has had his moments and for the most part has pitched well, but he’s consistently struggled to get deep in games.
McLean has dazzled at times but has not been nearly as dominant as a sophomore. At least, not yet.
Holmes was easily the Mets’ best starter before breaking his leg in a game against the Yankees. And now, Scott is hurt and out for the time being.
Senga pitched well in spring training but was awful once the lights came on and then landed himself on the IL with a bunch of strange injuries. He’s coming back tonight, but who knows what the Mets are going to get out of him, if anything.
Peterson struggled tremendously from the get-go and has been reduced to a bulk reliever.
Manaea has admittedly been a bright spot - recently, anyway - and just the other day was finally given an opportunity to make his first start of the season.
But the biggest issue the Mets have had is the same one they had last season. They’re having to get creative too often rather than just running quality pitchers out each and every night in a five-day rotation.
And, quite frankly, their creativeness is not exactly that of brilliance.
The Mets use openers several times a week, and even when they don’t, their pitchers very rarely get deep enough into games. This bullpen has been excellent by and large, but it’s been overused and taxed, which will lead to inevitable diminishment.
Monday night’s game was a pretty good example of everything that is wrong with this staff, and everything that is and was wrong with how this staff was perceived, projected, and deployed from the start of the season.
Myers returned to the Show to serve as the opener for the series opener in Cincinnati. The plan pretty clearly was to try to get two innings from him before going to Peterson as the bulk reliever. Unfortunately, Myers was blasted from pitch one, surrendering seven earned runs while getting only four outs. With the Mets down a touchdown, the plan had to change on the fly.
Maybe if the Mets hadn’t jerked him around from the beginning, they would be getting more value out of him?
Instead of Peterson, it was rookie Jonathan Pintaro to first come out of the ‘pen and go as far as he could. The righty amicably ate up 3.2 innings, but at that point Peterson still had to come in the game in mop-up duty, and he got shelled himself.
The Mets would undoubtedly have loved to keep Peterson’s length available to potentially back up Senga tonight who, let’s be honest, is a complete unknown, but there simply was no other option.
The club will now likely have to make more pitching moves to add fresh arms, with Pintaro and Myers both potential demotion candidates.
Too often the Mets have had the energy and life sucked out of their dugout early, and that was for sure what happened Monday night. Being down 9-0 in the 2nd inning is a complete motivation annihilator, and the rest of the game was pedestrian from that point.
So what can be done?
Well, at some point I think both Tong and fellow young righty Jack Wenninger have to be given a chance to come up and make regular starts and see what they can do here, good, bad, or otherwise. If the season is a lost cause, give kids that could be a serious part of your future a chance to gain experience.
Don’t jerk them around, don’t have them on the Syracuse shuttle. Bring them up, give them a defined role, and let them earn their keep - or not - over a long period of time. Put the five best options in the rotation, let them pitch, just get rid of the rest, see if they can grow, evolve and perform, and stop trying to throw stuff at the wall and hope it stick which is what they’ve been doing for the literally the last 365 days.
I mean, it’s time at this point. What the Mets have been doing with the fragmented arms they have and trying to turn them into something they aren’t is just a waste of time and effort.
And, if those five are Peralta, McLean, Tong, Manaea, and one of Scott, Wenninger, or Myers, fine. Put them into a steady and predictable rotation, try to develop that over time, see what works, what doesn’t, and then go fix it from there. Enough of this opener game, enough of the coddling, enough of the babying, enough jerking them around.
No external help is coming, and nor should they trade any assets at this point to try and right their ship. There’s no evidence this front office will make the right moves anyway, even if they did try and make external acquisitions.
Give your top minor league talent an opportunity.
Beyond that, however, the veterans in the room simply have to pitch better and more efficiently.
That’s easy to say and harder to do. But as we saw last season, if they can’t get it together in a hurry, the bullpen’s effectiveness will soon take a downward turn, and once that happens, things in Queens are going to go from bad to worse.
Around the League 🚩
Gabriel Rincones Jr. hit his first Major League home run in the Phillies 7-0 drubbing of the Marlins
Dustin May took a no hitter into the 7th inning and ultimately finished a one hit shutout of the Padres in the Cardinals 3-0 win
Dylan Crews crushed a three run homer in the 5th inning to help lead the Nationals to a 7-3 home win over the Royals
The problem with bringing up Tong is that he simply hasn't performed well in AAA so why would you think he'd perform well here? And can someone please explain why Myers was sent down in the first place?
Obviously the problem here is Stearns and his non baseball knowledge FO staff. Stearns talks a good game but his performance cannot backup his words. Stearns himself imploded this team by getting rid of Nimmo, Alonso, Díaz and other’s. He didn’t want Alonzo when Alonzo signed last season. It was Cohen who brought Alonzo back, not Stearns. Out of his baseball wisdom, he develops these off the wall experiments trying to better declining pitchers instead of signing reliable established one. Also, what is up with all these players playing out of their normal playing position?Everybody blames Mendoza for poor management. However, yes he has made bad managerial calls, but hey, his is human. In all honesty, he has done the best he can with the garbage team he has been given. Will Cohen finally wake up and realize the mistake he made in hiring Stearns? We will see at the end of the season if firing Stearns is not the first order of business.