1986 Keith Hernandez: Ahh, The Halcyon Days
AHH…those halcyon days of March, April, May, and early June in Metsville.
Prior to June 12, the Mets pitching was stunningly good, despite the absence all season of Manaea and Montas, the 2 free agents that the Mets signed at a 2025 cost of $42 million plus untold millions in luxury taxes.
The Mets were 44-24, and the talk of all of baseball. Team ERA was about 2.70, as I recollect.
Then arrived June 12:
Kodai Senga was once again being masterful on the mound. Had a shutout going into the 6th inning. His ERA down to 1.47. Cy Young talk stirring.
Then, an errant toss to Kodai as he was covering first base by Pete Alonso brought Senga down awkwardly on the bag. Looked innocent enough, but it somehow got Senga injured - it in point of fact sent Senga to the IL. He was awful the rest of the season. Got demoted in September.
The Mets won that day. 45-24. But it had started, the unraveling process.
Ryne Stanek had a 3.22 ERA coming into that game. Then, he began to unravel, too, allowing three 8th inning runs in a 4-3 nail biter win that boosted them to 45-24.
Starting with that outing, Stanek stunk, allowing 25 earned runs in 34 innings from that date forward.
Then soon thereafter, Canning got a torn Achilles on a baffling play, and he and his 7-3 record were done for the season.
Fans still had hope, as Manaea and Montas, the two costly signings, were almost ready. They returned. They sucked. Montas will miss 2026 with Tommy John surgery.
Then Dedniel needed Tommy John. Then Reed Garrett, who was great early on, needed Tommy John.
Then Tylor Megill, who had a 1.73 ERA going into May, eventually needed Tommy John. And I don’t mean the underwear.
Thankfully, we had David Peterson, my ace.
He had a 2.83 ERA and 7-4 record through the end of July, but then he too unraveled, as he got shellacked in August and September, allowing 41 earned runs in 48 innings over that final 2 month span, hiking his ERA to 4.22.
UNRAVELING TEAM ERA ERUPTS
Per StatsMuse, the team ERA from June 13 through season’s end was:
TWICE AS HIGH AS IT WAS THRU JUNE 12:
A sterling 2.70 (approx.) thru June 12, & 5.38 (per StatsMuse) thereafter.
Go ahead, try to win a pennant when, over the last nearly 60% of the season, you have a 5.38 ERA. A whole scale “pitching unravel”.
Unraveling happened on the offensive side, too. Jesse Winker suddenly turned 80, and sadly hurt himself blowing out all the candles. Francisco Alvarez was fiery red hot…then got hurt. Tyrone Taylor, cold all year, suddenly got red hot….and then he got hurt. Siri rode to the non-rescue. Jeff McNeil, the former batting champ, went 4 for 46 in his last 15 games down the unraveling stretch.
After June 12, the entire Mets team collectively stunk…and unraveled….an awful lot, and just badly enough to miss the playoffs.
ANOTHER “GUESS WHO DONE BETTER SOMEWHERE ELSE?”
I recently wrote about ex-Mets hitters who just DO BETTER after leaving the Mets’ organization.
I just found another one:
In 120 at bats in his rookie MLB year, he hit an exemplary .309, with 8 doubles, a triple, and 4 homers, and a .543 slugging %.
His name?
CARLOS CORTES, now of the Athletics.
How high is .309? Among qualifiers, it is the 4th highest average in MLB. Three points higher, and it would have been second highest in MLB.
While they had him, the Mets promoted him exactly how many times?
ZERO.
My guess is if the Mets kept him and called him up for 120 at bats, he instead would have hit a far lower .209 with a .343 slug %. PRESSURE!
Reminds me of…oh, I dunno…the never-promoted-as-a-Met Jake Mangum.
In his rookie year in 2025 in Tampa, Mangum hit a dandy .296 in 402 ABs.
How would they possibly have known with Cortes? C’mon, Tom…
Well, I wrote this in August 2023, another of my articles the Mets front office most likely ignored:
“Carlos Cortes, the forgotten AAA man, is hitting .292/.420/.583 in August after 3 AAA hits.”
Just too funny, I say to myself, as I grimace.
The Athletics’ payroll, BTW, per Spotrac, was a mere $79 million, which is less than the Mets paid in 2925 just for two players - Soto and Lindor. The As’ bargain-priced team had just 33 fewer runs and 5 fewer homers - and 34 more doubles - than the Mets.
Would I trade the entire A’s offense for the Met’s?
You betcha, I just said to Sarah Palin.
25 comments:
There’s something wrong with the Syracuse coaching staff. They hurt pitchers with their advice and hitters dont get a break. Been that way a few years and I’d clean house there.
Promote every level’s staff up and keep only Arencibia, and maybe Krueger for the MLB club.
Wow. What an uplifting piece. Where's that nife so I can plunge it into my throat?
One win
One more win and this team would have been in the playoffs
Yeah, they probably would have lost two to the Dodgers but...
One more win
we will never know how this would have been written with...
one more win
Mack, it was still very much within their grasp until they went 7-14 over their last 21 games.
But, teams are getting sent home early. Had the Mets snuck into the playoffs, I very much doubt they get out of Round 1. Why? The pitching had crumbled.
I'm glad they didn't make the playoffs, This alone totally exposed that changes were needed.
Gus, I focus on player performance in the minors, and not the managers and coaches. You’d know better.
But…when you look at the very fine success of Cortes, Mangum, Vasil, and Orze, to name 4, after getting just one collective game in the big leagues (Orze) while in the Mets organization, while not being considered good enough to help so much so that no opportunities were afforded to them, one has to really wonder what is wrong.
Cortes and Mangum combined didn’t just hit well….combined, they put up almost All Star caliber stats. And Vasil and Orze combined? Ditto.
True. Part of it is age wearing guys down. Marte was better than 2024, but missed some time, and McNeil either faded due to overuse at his age or just slumped badly at the wrong time.
A big problem, and I will say it until I am blue in the face, is being too concerned with Baty and Vientos working counts, only to have pitchers work them when they all too often got to two strikes.
Yes, that too was a big reason they came up one game short.
Regarding changes, the head of the snake survived. So did his manager. But the exodus of the coaches tells us that there will be a new direction on how to oversee the remaining players on this team.
Past that... to me... the changes to look for is 2026 are:
First base - simply put, who will play it
Closer - same as first base
Patience for impending arrival of prospects that will open this season in Syracuse
Role Jonah Tong will have on opening day
Ditto Brandon Sproat
Will Danny Muno crack the opening day lineup and... oh... err... sorry Tom
Will Brett Baty be declared the full time starting third baseman
what players will be protected from the Rule V draft
Will they ass a quality free agent starter
sorry... will the ADD a qualtiy free agent starter
The Mets are home watching the play-offs. Why? Because they didn't deserve to be there. There is something terribly wrong with this team and its make-up. We keep hearing how close this team is,but it doesn't look it or act it. Not like they did last year. This core is just not working. Change what and who you can and move on.
Lee
You are touching on some valuable things here.
One, it's not TERRIBLY wrong. It's wrong but not inoperable
Two, there was a reduction of positivity in both the clubhouse and dugout, but this is caused by losing. You don't run around singing "Push it... push it good" after you just stunk up da place
Danny Muno was just announced as hitting coach - in my head.
Hard to stay positive when your team ERA is 5.38 over the last 93 games.
And that is in a home park where Mets pitchers gave up very few HRs. They gave up the 6th fewest overall at home in 2025. I’d still move the fences in. Pete, or no Pete. Hitting can be very contagious and drive winning streaks. The hitters can’t “juice”, so juice the park a bit by modest fence move-ins. Watch the Mets hitters smile.
Over the next several days, and particularly next Tuesday, I address how our young hitters who are already here could flat-out thrive in 2026 with the right changes.
The NY Postcharges you for its juicier articles. Since we don’t charge them, I refuse to subscribe to those articles. But an article that just came out essentially said the Dodgers built their pitching staff correctly, while the Mets’ staff composition strategy was wrong. Headline: “Dodgers’ pitching success shows why Mets’ rotation approach was all wrong”
Try to imagine you are a bat on this team and you watch your pitchers pass away game after game
Caution ⚠️
No one will arrive until around the break
They did
Mets didn't
Now stuck with bloated contracts
Tom,
Are the Mets utilizing veterans at Syracuse at the detriment of their young prospects such as Mangrum and Cortes. When promotions are made the young prospects are not either ready to be promoted or simply not on the Mets radar to be sent up. This has happened too many times to simply be a failure of the Mets evaluators to successfully evaluate their prospects. Syracuse appeared to have had too many players who were taking up roster space and not going to contribute as major league players for the Mets. Thoughts?
Tom has a legit complaint about how the Mets mishandled Magnum but not Cortez. He was a 100% bust when he was a Met
DJ, good point.
Mack, I have not done a deep dive on Cortes, but he hit much worse in his Mets years as a righty v. lefties. I advocated that they just switch him to all lefty hitting. Same exact point for Mauricio from me. Just become a lefty-only hitter. It worked for Darryl.
Mack, in my gut, Benge by Memorial Day, Jett by All Starbreak, Clifford possibly, too. If I am Clifford, goal #1 in 2026 in AAA is be more aggressive….fewer walks and fewer Ks. And a higher average and power output. Screw the walks.
A platooned infielder replacing who?
Mack, Jett will replace whoever is hurt at the time, or Acuna.
Jett will be > Acuna, career-wise. Only a matter of time.
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