Paul Articulates - The nothing strategy

We have just about heard it all by now.  The Mets have been in almost a year-long swoon now, which began in mid to late June last year and has just snowballed through this season.  The angst amongst Mets fans is at an all time high, and they are calling for the removal of just about everyone, since everyone is failing, which of course would leave no one.  That wouldn't be good, either.

So, let's take a look back and recap.  The 2025 Mets did a slow, controlled flight into terrain with the crash landing occurring on the day before the season ended.  They tried many tweaks during that slide and just about none of them had any impact.  So after the season, David Stearns and his brain trust did a thorough analysis and decided that the team could not win with the current core of players and coaches.  They fired almost all the coaches (except Manager Carlos Mendoza), people in the development staff, and then traded away or did not renew a substantial core of the players which included the Mets all-time home run leader and the longest tenured player.  This was a large scale shake-up that you don't often see in teams that have significant success in their recent history such as the Mets' 2024 run into the NLCS.

Eventually, we all accepted it as change that needed to happen, because after all, it has been 40 years since a World Series Championship flag was raised in the team's home stadium.  Unfortunately, all that change has not reversed the team's direction.  After a few decent series wins, the Mets collapsed into what is now the worst record in MLB.  Along that trajectory, the team has tried many changes, including the signing of many free agents off the waiver wire on rolls of the dice that one of them could be the gem that sparks this team.    None of them have worked, but the revolving door is still in motion.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, the cancer has spread.  All of the Mets minor league affiliates are struggling with losing records (except 20-18 Syracuse) and horrible statistical performances.

The entire system appears to have collapsed.  I am not sure how an entire organization full of promising, high performance athletes can suddenly just collapse into a heap.  So let me put forth a hypothesis - it is not a collapse, but rather a recoil from the massive blow dealt by changing more than the system itself could stand.

You have seen this in everyday life.  A major change is introduced into a business, a school system, a political organization, and the immediate result is chaos.  No one knows what "normal" looks like, so everything looks weird.  Everything is so unfamiliar, it is hard to figure out what happens next, so next doesn't happen as it should and nothing works right.  Does this sound like your 2026 Mets?

If you accept the hypothesis, then you should also conclude that the worst thing you can do to a system spinning out of control is to introduce more change.  That just throws more chaos into the system.  Instead, you have to seek stability.  You have to find routine.  You have to restore comfort.

How do the Mets do this?  Do nothing.  Don't fire the manager, the GM, or the coaches.  Don't release all the players that you held onto in this rebuild.  Just let them find their center.  I'm not saying that they should continue to roll out lineups that look like spring training lineups, but let's not juggle the order every day, let's not try different roles for pitchers every week, and let's not pull the starter after the first baserunner beyond the fifth inning.  Let the players play.  Let the coaches coach.  They have not given up yet, but they are frustrated with always seeing different.

This is not a Seinfeld episode.  It is a method to help everyone deal with the change.  Communicate the approach for the next 30 days and stick with it.  Pick a first baseman, a right fielder, and a third baseman.  Stick with it except for a rest day.  Pick a lineup and stick with it except for minor match-up tweaks.  Stick with the current manager and let him make the decisions on lineups, pitchers, and rest.

In 30 days, if stability has not been achieved and the team is still losing, then there will be a very consistent data set on each position and each player that can be used to evaluate real deficiencies.