The Mets once again reminded us exactly what they are
Plus, why it is hard to have any faith in this team after yet another soulless, embarrassing loss
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets returned to losing ways after being blown out 14-2 by the Nationals at Citi Field on Wednesday night (box)
The Mets have now lost 16 of their last 19 games and stand alone as the worst team in baseball with a 10-20 record
LHP David Peterson, back in the rotation, was a disaster on the mound, allowing seven earned runs on five hits with three walks and five strikeouts over just 3.2 innings
LHP Sean Manaea wasn’t much better out of the bullpen, giving up six earned runs on seven hits, with five of those hits going for extra-bases. He also surrendered a grand slam
RHP Carl Edwards Jr. somewhat stopped the bleeding, allowing just one run on three hits and one walk while striking out six
DH Juan Soto was the only positive for the Mets, going 3-for-5 with a double, a home run, a run scored, and a RBI
LF MJ Melendez provided the Mets’ only other run of the game with an RBI single, while also drawing a walk
C Francisco Alvarez finished 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, while also hitting into his sixth double play of the season
The Mets finished 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, leaving nine runners stranded on base
OF Tommy Pham cleared waivers and, rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, elected free agency (MLB.com)
Rumor Mill 💬
Per Jon Heyman, the Mets are looking into the possibility of acquiring a big bat via trade (Bleacher Report)
Injury Updates 🏥
RHP Kodai Senga (lumbar spine inflammation) revealed that he was dealing with the injury and discomfort as far back as spring training, before eventually coming forward to trainers after it became too difficult to manage and play through
OF Luis Robert Jr. (lower back tightness) didn’t improve after treatment so will now undergo an MRI. A stint on the IL remains a possibility
LHP A.J. Minter (left lat surgery) felt good after throwing a bullpen session at Citi Field on Tuesday, and is set to make another rehab appearance for Triple-A Syracuse on Friday
The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
BONUS EPISODE! Join Rich and special guest James Schiano of the Mets’d Up podcast as they commiserate about this team’s race to rock bottom.
SUBSCRIBE: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Play of the Game 🤬
While the offense was quiet, pitching ultimately doomed the Mets on Wednesday night.
After David Peterson imploded on the mound, Sean Manaea was called from the bullpen to try and stop the bleeding and settle things down.
Instead, Manaea only added to the bloodbath.
The lefty also didn’t have it from the jump, giving up a soul-crushing, back-breaking grand slam to Brady House to break the game wide open.
It was still only the fourth inning, but due to two horror shows on the mound, the game was effectively over at that point for the Mets.
Who’s Cold 🥶
C Francisco Alvarez is now hitting just .100/.095/.100/.195 with eight strikeouts over his last six games
LHP David Peterson now owns an ugly 10.80 ERA in the opening frame through five starts in 2026
Over his last three outings, LHP Sean Manaea has given up a total of 13 earned runs
Down on the Farm 🌾
DH Jacob Reimer (No. 5 prospect, Double-A): 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 2B
SS Elian Peña (No. 8 prospect, Single-A): 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 2B
LF JT Benson (Single-A): 1-for-3, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 HR
BOX SCORES
Single-A SLU (GM 1 | GM 2) | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG (GM 1 | GM 2) | Triple-A SYR (PPD)
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (10-20) vs. Nationals (14-17)
Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Freddy Peralta (1-3, 3.90 ERA) vs. RHP Miles Mikolas (0-3, 8.49 ERA)
When: 1:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
The Mets quickly reminded us again just how bad they are ✍️
Well, we are back to our regular scheduled programming.
Just one night after the Mets provided some hope of getting the train back on the tracks with a big win over Washington, that same team quickly reminded us all of who they really are.
And that’s just an awful, awful, awful baseball team.
If you were tricked into believing in this team on Tuesday, then shame on you. And I mean that with all due respect.
Because, at this point, this team doesn’t deserve our belief or our benefit of the doubt. They’ve provided tantalizing flashes of hope and promise before, only to crash and burn in an ugly and messy car wreck shortly after.
At the end of the day, the Mets are telling us exactly who they are, and it is about time we start believing them.
April be dammed.
You are what your record says you are, and the Mets are officially the worst team in baseball with an ungodly 10-20 record.
Man, that just stinks.
We can call the likes of the Rockies and the Nationals lowly all we want, but, at the end of the day, the Mets now belong in that same category of bad baseball teams.
I’m sorry, but they just do.
This team is going nowhere, and I think all we’ve got to look forward to is the odd win and the odd false sense of hope all sandwiched in between bad, unwatchable baseball.
Maybe, just maybe, this team can string more than one or two wins together and give us a .500 team to watch during the summer.
Wouldn’t that be nice?
It is a testament to all the suffering Mets fans have had to endure that, at this point, we would be happy to watch just mediocre baseball and root for a team looking to reside in averageville.
I mean, it has got to be better than what we are watching right now.
The scary thing is I’m not sure how realistic all that is because I’m not sure the organization knows how to get out of this mess.
We’ve heard Carlos Mendoza and the players say some variation of “we have to be better” almost every single day since the second half of last year. And, yet, the results haven’t gotten better.
In fact, they’ve only gotten worse.
At some point, actions have to be louder than words. You can preach about wanting to be better all you want, but it means nothing if you don’t actually go out there and improve.
Are these players even capable of doing that though?
Because, from what I’ve seen, this current group seems incapable of learning from their mistakes, adjusting on the fly, adapting when things get tough, and, ultimately, not responding to adversity.
That failure to execute and inability to get better is on the players. And the fact that Mendoza has called out his players without a response is probably also a damming indictment that his voice is starting to wear thin amidst all the losing.
Of course, while Mendoza will probably still end up being the first guy to fall on his sword, David Stearns still arguably deserves the bulk of the blame for building what is just a fatally flawed roster.
And his half-assed approach to building the rotation in the offseason came back to bite him yet again on Wednesday. Stearns, as did everyone else, knew that there were issues with Kodai Senga and David Peterson. He knew Sean Manaea’s velocity was down throughout spring training. And, yet, he just stood pat.
The end result?
Senga is on the IL again after proving that he’s probably not a very good starter. And Peterson and Manaea combined to allow 13 of the 14 runs the Mets allowed on Wednesday night.
Furthermore, through 30 games, Mets pitchers only have five wins. Those belong to Freddy Peralta, Nolan McLean, and Clay Holmes, who has three of the five. Sadly, you can’t pitch any of those three every day, which means that the Mets are probably doomed at least a few times a week thanks to bad pitching.
And, even when a starter does deliver a gem, that doesn’t even guarantee a win thanks to the laughably bad offense Stearns is responsible for putting together. The lineup managed just two runs on Wednesday, even with Juan Soto doing Juan Soto-type things. And that just goes to further prove that Soto alone won’t be able to save this team, and it is foolish to think otherwise.
Ultimately, I think we’re starting to come to the damming realization that the Mets are the hapless blind squirrel. Sure, they may run into a nut here and there, but over the long run, they will go hungry and be left to starve thanks to their own sheer incompetence.
Just getting to .500 seems a fantasy a million miles away for these Mets.
Around the League 🚩
The Red Sox placed LHP Garrett Crochet on the 15-Day IL with left shoulder inflammation (MLB.com)
1B Matt Olson hit a walk-off, two-run homer to help the Braves beat the Tigers, 4-3
OF Lawrence Butler crushed a three-run home run as the A’s beat the Royals, 5-2
Diamondbacks INF IIdemaro Vargas has now hit in 22 straight games to start the season after going 2-for-5 in a 6-2 win over the Brewers
OF Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a two-run blast, his second homer in as many games, as the Cubs beat the Padres, 5-4
Does any other team specialize in collapses the way the Mets do? I mean, all teams have losing streaks, but the Mets seem to always take those to the next level. Whether it's the failure-to-launch collapse, the post-All-Star-Break collapse, or my personal favorite, the September collapse. Sometimes they do just enough to pull out of it for the post-season, but it's all just so exhausting. This year's collapse feels different somehow. Even during the horror of past collapses, there was still some sort of "lovable losers" element. There's none of that with this team. It's like watching a bunch of disconnected individuals play. There will be no Grimace coming to save the day this year.
Mendy certainly hasn't helped, but the sad reality is that firing him probably won't move the needle much. This is all on David Stearns. He may be a master at strengthening a team by working on the edges and finding under-valued gems, but assembling a full team is clearly above his skill set. I feel like we are watching the Peter Principle in real time where people rise to the level of their own incompetence and then stay there.
I would love to know what Uncle Steve is thinking. I mean, if Stearns worked for his hedge fund business, would he still be employed? Is Cohen as invested now that his casino has been approved? I hope the answer is yes, but after he recently got angry at fans for not coming out on a weeknight for free 900-level seats to see a bad team play, I have to wonder.
Obviously nobody’s hitting except Soto now and maybe Melendez but I think we have to come to grips with the fact that Alvarez, Baty, Vientos and Mauricio are not full time Major leaguers. Mauricio and Vientos may not be major leaguers at all. Getting nothing from those guys really hurts. Let’s hope the next cop of baby Mets are better