When Stearns rebuilds a team around aging players, you run a real risk.
The whining that occurs when you root for a team of old guys may well be joined by your own whines.
Of course, when you thrust role players into starting roles, or green rookies into starting roles, and the core hitters are MIA, then you are brewing up a potential disaster.
Well, enough of that, it’s only Monday.
At least Elian Peña.(.333) is splendidly raking at the age of 18 in St. Lucie.
HITTING ADVICE FROM THE SPLENDID SPLINTER
I saw this in a non-baseball article the other day. Mets minor league
hitters would be smart to read and consider it:
“The legendary baseball player Ted Williams once wrote a letter to the Angels outfielder Jay Johnstone on improving his hitting.
“Among his pieces of advice was that "with two strikes, you simply have to protect the plate." ”
Your batting average, you see, is .000 in at bats where you take strike 3.
- I wonder what the “splendid splinter” would advise Mets fans.
He probably would say, after 11 straight losses, to protect your eyes by finding something else to do than watch Mets games, which can cause eyestrain.
<The following piece is to be read with tongue in cheek - a little fun to make frowning Mets fans smile>
As the New York Mets’ losing streak continues to extend, now reaching 11 games (longest since 2004), there has been much written about the futility. Of course, when things are going very wrong, everyone wants a reason. They need to blame someone for the disappointment of watching a team full of promise take a nosedive. Let’s look at the potential culprits:
A)It’s the starting pitching. Well, certainly we have not gotten the best out of new ace Freddy Peralta with his 4.05 ERA in 26.2 innings. Kodai Senga has been a bust since his second start, with an 8.83 ERA, 1.90 WHIP, and only 17 innings pitched in four starts. David Peterson has lost his starting job already. But McLean has been very good (2.28 ERA, 0.76 WHIP) and Holmes has been solid (1.96 ERA, 1.09 WHIP) so it would be difficult to say that starting pitching is the reason for 11 straight losses. It’s not them.
B)It’s the Manager. We have all had a few things to say about Carlos Mendoza’s management of the pitching staff and some of his peculiar choices to sit players after a good game. But when you see the way this team has performed on the field, making physical and mental mistakes and failing to execute pitches and at-bats, it is hard to imagine that Gil Hodges could do any better. It’s not him.
C)It’s the bullpen. The last two losses were late give-aways with two different relievers throwing middle-middle pitches in critical situations and being burned. That really hurts. But when the team scores 19 runs in 11 games, anything less than perfect saves nothing. It’s not them.
D)It’s the “new core”. David Stearns replaced much of the core of the 2025 team with a new set of players. Gone are McNeil, Nimmo, Alonso, and others. Here are Semien, Polanco, and Bichette. The latter three have done little to help this team win, but the former three were present for the team’s long, slow crash out of the playoffs and they didn’t pick it up. It’s not them.
E)It’s David Stearns. As just mentioned, Stearns made the decision to blow up the core and rebuild the team. Stearns signed a bunch of veterans off waivers or low end free agent deals to build in “depth”. Stearns brought in Peralta but not Cease; he brought in Bichette but not Tucker. As you have seen from the series by RVH, he had a plan that was very feasible and he took action when many GMs would have just run last year’s team out there expecting a different result. It’s not him.
F)It’s the injuries. Juan Soto came up lame. Polanco never really seemed healthy. AJ Minter had not recovered. These are all factors that may have impacted the team, but these injuries are nowhere near the level of adversity faced in prior seasons by this team or any other ballclub. It’s not that.
G)It’s the coaching. Somehow the Mets’ entire lineup can’t get a hit in a critical situation, ranking 26th in MLB in average with RISP. Overall, the team has the 23rd best batting average in a league with 30 teams. They can’t all go bad at once, so it must be the hitting coaches. Well, look again. The same thing happened to this team last year with an entirely different set of hitting coaches. They all got let go so we could start fresh with new ones. Same with the pitching coaches. It’s not them.
I could go on, but you get the gist. In fact, if you can force yourself to watch the post-game analysis and interviews of the manager and the players, you get a similar result. This collapse cannot be pinned on one thing. It seems like everything contributes at different times (and always the worst times). Some would say, “That’s baseball” because there are always some set of unexpected results in baseball games due to the difficulty of the game. But uncanny coincidence of many events to bring on such a mind boggling losing streak can only happen rarely. This has happened twice in a row if you consider last year’s post-June collapse.
There is one last possibility. It is a curse. Yes, the word that was once associated with the futility in Boston and Chicago is now taking root in Flushing Meadows. The curse has unknown origins, but could date all the way back to 1987 when the defending champion Mets were expected to become a dynasty but lost the NL East to the Cardinals and were dismantled over the next few years. It was certainly there in 2006 with the stunning game 7 loss in the NLCS. The curse was intensified by Jimmy Rollins in 2007 causing them to lose a seven game lead with 17 to play. It was there in 2015 when the hottest team in baseball cooled off against the Royals. The curse was in full effect last year to will the team to failure. There are countless ghosts that come back to haunt the team in the form of cast-off former players that did not perform in Queens but rise to stardom elsewhere. In yesterday’s game the ghost of Michael Conforto drove home PCA (ghost of Javy Baez) to neutralize the Mets’ lead in the bottom of the 9th.
I think it’s time for Pedro Cerrano to sacrifice a live chicken (if you remember the move “Major League”). He can summon Jobu to take fear from the bats. Maybe that is a solution that the front office has not yet considered.
So while the Mets are in the midst of an attempt to tie their worst ever losing streak has anything gone right with this team?
We can all recite all that has gone wrong. There are the injuries to Juan Soto, Jorge Polanco, AJ Minter and the preseason deal with Francisco Lindor. Then they lost AAAA outfielders as well.
Next there are the slumps. I won’t recite them one by one. If I did we’d be here all night. Suffice to say a large number of people are not earning their paychecks.
Instead, let’s take a look at some glimmers of hope in the overrun sewer runoff in which the team has been mired for nearly two full weeks.
Francisco Alvarez -- As a still-learning catcher with some good raw tools the questions about the young man has been more about staying healthy and delivering consistency at the plate. He’s always struggled with the batting average and after his fairly impressive 2023 rookie campaign that included 25 HRs he’s not put together full seasons worth of offensive contribution. In 2026 thus far, however, he leads the club with 4 HRs and is currently hitting a never before seen .271. If he can keep it up for the rest of the year he’ll be crossing the 30 HR mark with a highly respectable batting average. That’s worth celebrating (even if he’s the only offensive player thus far still healthy and playing regularly).
Nolan McLean -- His 2025 late season call up was expected but no one anticipated how absolutely dominant he would be when facing the best of the best with the spin on his thrown pitches. He ended his cup of coffee with 8 games started, a 5-1 record, over 10 strikeouts per 9 IP and a 2.08 ERA. For 2026 he’s picked right up where he left off. Thus far he’s had 4 starts with a 2.28 ERA, the same strikeout and walk numbers with a WHIP dipping to an astounding 0.761. Yowza!
Clay Holmes -- Not everyone was totally convinced in the wisdom of moving stellar reliever Holmes into a starting pitching role for the first extended period last season, but the Mets offered him a deal to do just that and he responded with 31 games started, a 12-8 record and a commendable 3.56 ERA. He seemed to peter out a bit towards year end as his arm was not accustomed to the workload he was now carrying and went from a previous career high of 70 IP to a never before attempted 165. This year he’s also made 4 starts and has an even better ERA than McLean at 1.96. He’s 2-2 which has more to do with the lack of offense than anything he’s done wrong. His WHIP has improved by about 25%.
Huascar Brazoban -- The former Marlin was better in Miami than he has shown in New York but this year he’s been off to a terrific start. Thus far in the combustible 2026 season for the Mets he has a perfect 0.00 ERA over 9 IP. His ERA is just 0.889 and he’s not yet given up a single walk.
Brooks Raley -- Despite having given up the game losing home run in his last appearance, Raley has continued his late career solid effort with the Mets. Including that blast his ERA is still just 2.45 and is providing the team with left handed dominance until AJ Minter is healthy enough to join him in the pen.
Others -- Tobias Myers has been given a starting assignment so anything we’ve seen thus far is on hold as his new role provides a different kind of challenge. He delivered shutout ball vs. the Cubbies, but Craig Kimbrel didn't fare as well. He was off to a strong albeit limited start in his late arrival to the bullpen but not enough IP have occurred to make definitive projections on what his season long numbers will be.
So given the seemingly innumerable things that have gone wrong, every now and then someone steps up and delivers at or above reasonable expectations.
Mets jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the 1st, thanks to a 3-run homer by Danny Heep. Sid Fernandez allowed just two singles over 8 shut out innings and Darryl Strawberry drove in two runs as part of a 2 for 4 day as the Mets cruised to an 8-0 win.
Mets sweep the 3-game series against the Phils and move to 1.5 games behind the 1st place Cardinals.
On This Date 04/20/1986: Sid Fernandez pitched a gem to lead the Mets to an 8-0 victory with 8 scoreless innings, 6 strikeouts and only allowed 3 walks and 2 hits on the mound while also at the plate getting 2 hits and a walk + a stolen base. https://t.co/tFcxQ3dOlxpic.twitter.com/6zdsUmaA5m
It’s not bad luck. It’s not a small sample size. It’s not something you explain away with expected stats and patience.
This is a credibility moment. And it requires a different posture.
Not the measured, process-driven, long-view approach that defines a well-run organization over time. That approach has value. It builds systems, pipelines, sustainability.
But this is not that moment.
This is a wartime moment.
What April Has Told Us
The Mets were built on an assumption: that a core of established players, supplemented by targeted additions, would produce a stable, competitive baseline.
That assumption is not holding.
The team looks flat. Predictable. At times, disengaged. More concerning, it looks like a group operating under an unspoken premise:
That roles are fixed. That opportunity is guaranteed.
That is the fastest way to lose a season.
Because when performance dips and nothing changes, the message becomes clear, even if unintended:
Nothing has consequences. And when nothing has consequences, performance becomes optional.
Wartime Requires Different Rules
Wartime leadership is not emotional. It is not reckless.
It is decisive, time-compressed, and unambiguous.
It makes four shifts:
Time compresses – decisions happen now, not in June
Resources reallocate – at-bats and innings go to production, not projection
Accountability sharpens – roles are earned continuously
Signals clarify – the organization shows, not tells, what it values
Right now, the Mets are still operating in peacetime.
That has to change.
Start With the Rotation
Move David Peterson to the bullpen. At this stage, he profiles as a shorter-burst arm, especially in a walk year. Limit exposure, salvage value, and stop forcing a starter outcome that isn’t materializing.
Insert Tobias Myers into the rotation and promote Christian Scott.
At some point, upside has to be tested at the major league level. That point is now.
Place Kodai Senga on the IL if there is any question physically or mechanically. Grinding through April helps no one. Preservation now creates value later.
When A.J. Minter returns, there should be no hesitation. If Sean Manaea is not providing competitive innings, the Mets should reallocate those innings immediately, even if it means absorbing the cost.
Contracts are sunk. Outs are not.
Force Infield Clarity
It is time to stop managing around potential and start evaluating reality.
Give Mark Vientos first base. Every day. A real stretch.
No more partial roles. No more sporadic usage. No more waiting.
Find out what he is — definitively.
If he produces, you have something. If he doesn’t, you have an answer. Both outcomes are better than ambiguity.
Send Brett Baty to AAA with a clear directive: reset, play, and come back stronger. We have seen this work before. It may work again. Or it may not. But the current state is not helping anyone.
Promote Ronny Mauricio.
Tell him the truth: this is not a cameo. This is THE opportunity.
Play him frequently against right-handed pitching at second base. Move him around if needed. Inject athleticism and variability into a lineup that currently lacks both.
No player should be immune from occasional rest or adjustment if performance demands it, regardless of contract.
Veteran status cannot function as insulation.
Rebalance the Lineup
If Juan Soto is not fully healthy, move him to DH. Protect the asset while keeping the bat in the lineup.
If Jorge Polanco is not physically right, address it directly.
The goal is not to maintain appearances. The goal is to optimize performance.
Right now, the lineup is too easy to game plan against. It lacks movement, variation, and pressure. Mauricio helps that. So does a healthier Soto.
Inject Athleticism
Promote Nick Morabito and give him real opportunity.
Not a bench role. Not a token start.
Real playing time.
This roster needs speed, range, and energy. It needs players who change the shape of the game, not just the box score.
Build the Next Layer Now
Promote AJ Ewing to AAA.
This is not about April. This is about August.
If he can handle the level, you have another option. If he cannot, you learn early and adjust.
Waiting delays learning. And right now, the Mets need information as much as they need wins.
What This Signals
These moves are not about punishment.
They are about alignment.
They tell the roster:
Performance matters
Roles are fluid
Opportunity is earned
Time is not unlimited
Right now, the team feels like it is operating without urgency.
That is the problem.
Not talent. Not even construction, necessarily.
Urgency. Accountability. Consequence.
The Stakes
This is bigger than April.
This is about the credibility of the current build.
If this season fails, it will not be framed as a blip. It will be a referendum.
On the roster. On the strategy. On the leadership.
And for David Stearns, it will raise a simple question: Was this the right plan?
Because if the answer becomes no, the next step is another reset.
Another infusion of capital. Another cycle. Another attempt to get it right.
That is expensive. It is disruptive. And it is avoidable.
The Choice
The Mets can continue as they are.
They can wait for regression to the mean. Wait for veterans to normalize. Wait for the season to settle.
Or they can act.
They can compress time. Reallocate opportunity. Test upside. Enforce accountability.
They can move from protecting what this team was supposed to be to discovering what it actually is. Right now. Because the worst outcome is not collapse. It is drift.
And drift is exactly where this team is headed if nothing changes.
Well, it led me to think of why this team ought to….RELOCATE.
10 reasons/examples:
A) In real life, employees relocate for many reasons.
B) In real life, companies relocate for many reasons. Climate, civility, cost, etc.
C) The Mets fan base have lots of tough, frustrated, angry, despondent fans.
D) Too many stupid fans - booing Bichette in his OPENING SERIES? Really?
E) Cultural - NYC for instance has a million Muslim residents, mostly in Brooklyn and Queens. Think “soccer”.
- I imagine very few are baseball fans.
- Does the city demographic really adequately support the team enough?
F) Ballpark is very hard and costly to get to and from, for those in suburbs.
G) Media - so ubiquitous and so tough.
H) Sometimes a change of scenery is a strategic advantage (e.g., Dodgers).
I) Players struggle mightily here, and often do better before & after the Mets.
J) Very, very few notable franchise seasonal successes in 40 years. No WS wins.
- so much money spent for so little return.
I could go on and on. You readers can add a few.
A guy recently wrote about this, and I add his list here.
Here are the top eight cities that look ready for MLB expansion.
Apparently, in reverse order.
8. Portland, Oregon
7. Sacramento, California
6. Salt Lake City, Utah
5. San Antonio, Texas
4. Oakland, California
(“Oakland recently lost the Athletics, but baseball interest is still strong”.)
3. Charlotte, North Carolina
2. Nashville, Tennessee
1. Montreal, Canada
And…
If Tom Seaver were still alive, he might also suggest….Fresno.
Heck, they relocated “the Franchise” twice, so they have know-how.
But no, I forbid the Metsto relocate to Syracuse or Buffalo.
Here in Jeremiah Jackson is an example of what triggered this article, from this writer and fan who lived in Queens in 1962 and has been a life-long Long Island resident:
This Lad Failed As A Mets Minor Leaguer
But Now Succeeds in MLB Very Shortly Thereafter
I HAD NO IDEA….
I was never expecting Jeremiah Jackson to have success in the major leagues, because he struck out too much as a Mets Minor Leaguer. I speculated that he was just another flawed, failed Mets minor leaguer.
So, having stopped following him altogether after he left the organization, and not giving him a second thought, I’m flipping through some website looking at articles unrelated to sports, and see that a foul ball from one of the Baltimore hitters nailed their manager right square in the face in the dugout.
So I decided to watch the video and it turns out that the batter was…
Jeremiah Jackson.
In the MAJORS?? I certainly had him wrong. VERY wrong. Why?
I looked up his MLB stats, and in 2025 and so far in 2026 through Tuesday, he had the following career splits in 233 Major league plate appearances:
.289/.330/.472.
Wow.
Compare to Marcus Semien. Or Lindor. Cheaper, for sure.
So the question I have is, what suddenly turned this gentleman Jackson into an apparently excellent major league hitter? After all…
He hit a mere.205 in 122 games in Binghamton as recently as in 2024…now he already RAKES at the major league level, barely over a year later?
And why does it seem that the Mets are so incapable of doing the same (pulling excellence out of minors hitters) with the prospect guys they do keep?
They struggle like a guy in deep water who can’t swim, with no life preserver.
I don’t ask that question lightly.
I really would like to know what the heck is in the water in Queens that makes guys utterly incapable of hitting, only to go elsewhere and rake.
If there are no good answers…RELOCATE!
WEATHER WEIRDNESS
The Mets had great opening the weather. Then it got cold, really cold.
In the mid week series before they headed out to Los Angeles, it was so cold in Queens that two night games were rescheduled as 4 o’clock starts. Which helped only a little bit. It was still freezing cold.
Meanwhile, the Yankees were avoiding Arctic weather by being out of town.
When the Mets went out of town, the Yankees came back in. Suddenly, in the middle of April they had memorial day-like weather. Heck, when I was driving to Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoon, at one point, the outdoor temperature was 87°, and 88° on Wednesday, which is more like mid June or late June, in mid April. About 50 degrees warmer than in that frigid Mets series.
After Sunday, the Mets return to Citi Field. They have Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night games. The weather temperatures that are projected during those nightgames? Mid 40s, right back to March chills. Great weather for bats to…stay asleep. Balls to fly to track and settle into gloves.
This weather pattern seems to repeat itself, annually and OK, endlessly, between the two teams. I’ve periodically noted it in articles before. Simply, one team is seemingly blessed with good weather, and one is seemingly cursed. Same city.
I will let you figure out which team is which.
SID ROSENBERG REVOLTS
Radio personality Sid Rosenberg joins what could be an increasing revolt:
“I’ll be 59 on Sunday:) For the first time ever I’m sporting a Yankee jersey as I make my way to the Bronx. The official transition from a life long Met fan to a Yankee fan is now underway.
“Like my friend @CGasparino once wrote “Go Woke, Go Broke!” The Mamdani Mets are too WOKE for me! See ya at the Stadium soon fans!”
- Unpack THAT one.
I DON’T SEE HAPPINESS THERE
I looked at the expressionless look of Mark Vientos (1 for 25 streak though Friday) and thought:
Can we trade him for someone like Jeremiah Jackson?
Then I see the Dodgers “finally” called up 28 year old lefty slugger Ryan Ward, who in 161 games in 2025 and 2026 has 36 doubles, 6 triples, 40 HRs, a .300 average, and 126 runs scored and 136 RBIs.
Let’s see lefty slugger Ryan Clifford do THAT. Or anything half way close to that. (Well, he did on Saturday - 4 for 6, including 2 HRs - WOW)
He was an 8th rounder, unlike first round killers like Parada and Jett.
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