Paul Articulates - Calling them out

The New York Mets’ losing streak ended last week.  When a losing streak ends, it is usually time for renewed optimism, and the players feel better about coming to the ballpark.  That is often reflected in their play.

This is not the case with this team.  There is no more spring in their step than there was in the midst of the dirty dozen consecutive losses.  They had a chance to get back into some successful baseball against the Angels who could have taken over as the team with the worst record in MLB.

Instead, it was more of the same uninspired play.  It was maddening to see them match up on Saturday night against a mediocre lefty Reid Detmers who had awful splits against right handed batters and an ERA over 5.  Instead of blowing the game open early, the righty-dominant Mets lineup got mowed down inning after inning, registering 8 strikeouts against a guy that doesn’t strike out many.  There were so many things in that game that epitomized this season and the end of last season that have just taken the wind out of Mets fans.

With that in mind, I believe it is time to call some people out.  After all, this ball club is one of the highest paid group of athletes in the sport.  Many of the players have recently come to New York on very generous salaries to help the team, and very few are pulling their weight.

Jorge Polanco is being paid $20M this year to sit out with a sore wrist.  He has played two games all season as the “solution” to the gaping hole at first base left by Pete Alonso’s departure.  Polanco did nothing in those two games or in the last two weeks of spring training to prove that he could play first base any better than Pete.  In his wake, a combination of players which has narrowed down to Mark Vientos have filled in.  Bad investment.

Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga, and David Peterson are being paid $25M, $15M, and $8.1M this season to put the Mets behind early and exhaust the bullpen arms.  Last season’s debacle was partly blamed on the overuse of the pen, yet here we are again watching starters go less than five innings.  I find it hard to blame Carlos Mendoza this time, because anyone would pull these guys early with their lack of control of the ballgame.

Francisco Alvarez gets a dishonorable mention here, too.  Although he is still a relatively inexpensive club-controlled player, he was the hope for the future – the most talented of the baby Mets.  Despite all of the accolades coming up on how quickly he improved on the defensive side of the ball, I don’t think he calls a good game from behind the plate.   This could be contributing to the lack of success the starters are having.  I watched Nolan McLean give up three runs in an abbreviated start this weekend.  McLean has the nastiest stuff of all starting pitchers in baseball, yet somehow a team with a .235 batting average managed to string together hit after hit against him like they knew what pitch was coming. 

Mark Vientos and Brett Baty were the other two “baby Mets” that came up with Alvarez amidst much fanfare.  Both of them have shown glimpses of their abilities, but neither has been able to put together a consistent run to prove that they belong in the starting lineup for a championship contender.  Right now they look like a comfortable fit in the starting lineup for an MLB-worst team, but that is not the plan. When they become eligible for free agency, it will be the end of their run.

Devin Williams ($17M); and Luke Weaver ($11M) have not earned their money, as both have shown the inconsistency of a coin flip on the mound.  The back end of the bullpen is supposed to have a high probability of success every time they step on the field.  Without that, the team (and the fans) have no confidence in victory even when the first two thirds of the game goes well.

I won’t call out the rest of the guys, but you can see the theme here.  With none of these guys performing, there is almost nothing that Mendoza or Stearns can do to fix the 2026 problem.  Just to add insult to injury, their attempts to help have been very unhelpful.  Mendoza has used just about every permutation of batters in the lineup and developed elbow tendinitis from pulling so many pitchers so fast.  Stearns keeps sending $1.5M free agent re-treads up to the team to fill for injuries and inabilities.  This has got to be exasperating for the prospects that are striving to get a shot.

For those that are struggling to figure out what to do with this mess, I would focus on one thing.  Players have to step up and play the kind of baseball that got them to this point.  Nothing else short of calling it a lost season and playing a team full of prospects is left.

Reese Kaplan -- Do Platoons Work? They Didn't Help on Saturday

After the Mets made a nice come-from-behind victory against the Angels on Friday there were a a number of Mets fans proclaiming loudly that it was a new month starting off the right way and now we would see the “real” team.  One good game is hardly a trend of correction taking place, but hey, after what’s happened in April you take anything that can be construed this way since there has been so little to celebrate during the early 2026 season.

One of the first signs that things may not be quite so rosy was the starting outfield Carlos Mendoza opted to use for the second game on Saturday night.  In left field the Mets had 33 year old Andy Ibanez, the latest addition from the DFA cesspool of players no longer wanted by their former teams.  Ibanez is a career .251 hitter though lately he hasn’t nearly approached that number.  Over the course of career that began in 2021 he has accumulated 28 HRs and 131 RBIs with the high water marks coming for the Tigers in 2023 when he hit 11 and 41 respectively while hitting .264.  Since then he’s been up 417 times with 9 HRs and 56 RBIs while hitting .235.  Those numbers aren’t bad but his 2026 start with a .118 average demonstrated to his former employer that he was no longer Athletics material.

In center field the Mets inserted solid fielder Tyrone Taylor who is arguably the best 4th outfielder in the game as he could provide late inning defense when starters could be benched for the 8th and 9th innings.  His bat, unfortunately, never reached the same level of acclaim.  For his career he’s a .237 hitter who during a 162 game season would provide markedly similar numbers to Ibanez with a little more power at 14 HRs and 56 RBIs.  Again, these numbers are bench worthy but as a starter?  Probably not.

Out in right field Mendoza opted to use new Met Austin Slater.  He’s a career .247 hitter with an annual average of 10 HRs and 42 RBIs.  Once again David Stearns felt that the club was bolstered by this DFA addition for reasons that are increasingly unclear to fans observing the games.  After all, if a player is cut loose by a team with a better record what makes you think he’s suddenly going to become Tony Gwynn?

Now getting back to Saturday night, it was obvious that the club was going all in with right handed hitters wherever possible as the Angels were starting southpaw Reid Detmers.  Granted the lefty/righty platoon thing is a known component of baseball but it’s not as if Detmers is Steve Carlton reincarnated.  His 4.06 ERA isn’t bat but for his short career he owns a 4.71 mark dating back to 2021.  Think of him as an Angels version of David Peterson though nearly a half run worse in career ERA. 

So how effective is platooning for hitters and pitchers?  .   

Well, according to statisticians the idea of lefty bats facing righty pitchers and righty bats facing lefty pitchers indeed has advantages.  How big?  Well, the number floating around is an 80 point increase in OPS over what is achieved when the opposition pitcher is on the same side as the player bats.  That’s an argument hard to dispute.

On the flip side, southpaws are significantly more effective against left handed hitters.  The metrics are indeed eye opening.  Lefty hitters lose 141 points in OPS when facing a left handed pitcher.  Consequently the prospect of putting a huge number of right handed hitters into the lineup makes some sense indeed. 

Here’s an extended discussion of this concept from Quora:

Lefty-lefty and righty-righty matchups produce a measurable advantage for the pitcher because of how batsmen see and hit a pitched ball, and how pitchers can control movement and release to exploit visual and mechanical weaknesses. Key physical mechanisms:

1. Batter sightline and release geometry

• For same-side matchups (left-handed pitcher vs. left-handed batter, or right vs. right), the pitcher's release point and the incoming ball track originate from a side that partially blocks the batter’s optimal sightline.

• The ball appears to come more "from behind" the batter’s front shoulder, shortening the time the batter has to see spin and trajectory changes before the swing decision must be made.

1. Visual perception and timing

• Batting relies on very small timing and angle cues in the first ~100–150 ms of ball flight. When the pitcher’s release and initial trajectory are on the batter’s glove/shoulder side (same side), the important visual cues (spin axis, seam orientation, lateral motion) are less salient and are revealed later in flight, increasing perceptual uncertainty and timing error.

• Slight delays or misestimates of pitch location/timing reduce contact quality more than equivalent deviations in opposite-side matchups.

1. Lateral movement (sweep) and handedness of movement

• Breaking balls and two-seam/sinker fastballs move laterally due to seam-induced Magnus forces. A left-handed pitcher’s breaking ball tends to move down-and-away from a right-handed batter and down-and-in to a left-handed batter (signs depend on pitch type).

• Same-side pitchers can more easily deliver pitches that move into the batter’s swing path or jam the hands (inside movement), producing weaker contact, more ground balls, and more swings at pitches that break back toward the bat’s handle where it is harder to extend and square up.

1. Platoon-specific pitch repertoires and release angles

• Many pitchers have better command and spin characteristics on certain pitch types (e.g., a lefty with a sweeping slider that naturally moves away from righties but jams lefties). When facing same-side hitters, pitchers can exploit their best pitch shapes and release angles with less fear of a batter turning it the other way.

• Release point alignment with batter handedness changes perceived horizontal location: a same-side pitcher can make a pitch look like the plate is farther inside or outside relative to the hitter’s swing path.

1. Swing mechanics and lane of the bat

• A batter’s swing plane and bat path are tuned by handedness. Same-side movement tends to either run into the hitter’s hands (jam) or move under/behind the bat path, producing weak contact or swings and misses.

• Opposite-side movement more often runs away from the bat’s sweet spot or invites hitching the barrel to reach outside pitches; some hitters handle that better than being jammed.

1. Statistical and strategic reinforcement

• Over many at-bats, these small perceptual and mechanical disadvantages aggregate into lower batting averages, lower slugging, and higher strikeout/ground-ball rates versus same-handed pitchers.

• Managers exploit this by matching handedness: bringing in a same-side reliever for a tough matchup and platooning batters to maximize favorable lefty-righty splits.

 Practical summary

• The advantage is a compound effect of altered sightlines/timing, pitch movement relative to the batter’s swing path, and pitcher command/repertoire aligning with those movements. These physical effects are small each at-bat but consistent enough to produce significant career- and season-level platoon splits.

However, you also need to consider the best case and worst case scenarios with these platoons as well as evaluating whether or not the platoon becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.  No one can evaluate other than through historical records how many lefties vs. how many righties a hitter will face. 

Consider the players the Mets have on their rosters and you really do need to wonder whether or not the platooning makes sense.  We’ve already looked at the career numbers of the three starting outfielders and you have to wonder if, for example, MJ Melendez who is hitting .323 with a pair of home runs in his 31 ABs would have served the team better with a bat in his hand than sitting on the bench doing nothing.  Similarly, neither Brett Baty nor Mark Vientos have demonstrated the ability to dominate with a bat in their hands, so you have to wonder if limiting their ABs is going to help improve things.

As it turn out, Slater got two hits on Saturday night, Vientos got a hit and Ibanez went 0-2 but did drive in a run.  So maybe there is some truth after all.  

Tom Brennan - Green Shoots in a Dire Mets Landscape

Without green shoots, we would only have crap shoots in Queens. 

But the minors may give double-green shoot help - pitching & hitting.

This 2026 Mets season so far is like when I ran the 1981 New York City marathon. Imagine if I took a few steps, tripped on my shoelaces, skinned my knee, try to get up and run only to fall again and have my shoe fall off and twisted my ankle. (I didn’t, though….I ran a 3:25 marathon that day).

That image pretty much summarizes the Mets season so far. 

Last night was competitive against the struggling Angelinos but was lost in extras, 4-3, with Waddell pitching decently but not catching breaks.

Bo Bichette and Juan Soto get the goat’s horns. After the Mets rallied to tie in the late innings, with the bags juiced and 1 out, Bichette was retired on a force out at home, and then Soto fouled back a dead-center-of-the-plate fastball on 0-1, and looked really mad at himself. Then, he fanned on a cutter out of the zone on a checked swing. The Mets needed a grand slam there.

The Mighty Soto has 8 RBIs on the season. Meanwhile, Munetaka Murakami of the CWS has 13 - HRs - that is, and 26 RBIs.  Hmmm…

Anyway…my topic is the Mets Minors…

As I recapped this past week, the Mets minors, in both hitting and pitching, has performed nowhere near what you expect of a top 10 minor league organization. It looks more like a 25th best, based on results so far. The hitting has been mostly quite bad, and the pitching has been mostly pretty bad. And that’s not even pretty good.

In fact, in a league where the second-worst team is hitting .224, the Brooklyn Colonics are hitting an incomprehensible .181. Binghamton’s dead last by far Eastern League team average meanwhile is looked upon with envy by Brooklyn hitters, but by no one else.

Meanwhile, the Queens Mutts are 27th in batting average and 29th in runs, a mere 81 runs behind the Braves.

Back to topic…

The formula for the major leagues, though, as it involves the farm system, is to be able to bring up a bunch of pitchers annually that are viable, and a handful of hitters that can get the job done.

Starting with the hitters first, I think there’s extremely little doubt that AJ Ewing is not going to be a major plus. Potential All Star. Not only has AJ had an extraordinary minor-league season so far, let’s remember that in spring training, this happened:

“A.J. Ewing had an impressive 2026 spring training with the New York Mets, batting .381 (8-for-21) with one home run and six RBI in 10 Grapefruit League games.”

Pinch yourself - AJ looks REAL. The dude has hit AAA like a mugger sneaking up behind an unwitting victim. JUST….SO….HOT! 

On base, I believe, in 14 of his first 22 AAA PAs.

Carson Benge? He has most likely gone through the deep dark days of his early rookie season, and it’ll probably be decidedly uphill from here. 

And Nick the Very Quick Morabito has hit quite well in AAA. The Nick average is not sky high, but his on base percentage (.384) is very strong and he’s added long ball power. 

All three of them are fast, so having all three of them up here soon will be a real treat. If somehow, all three of them really click, with their speed, it could be shades of the 1985 Cardinals, stealing bases with great abandon.

That would be extremely helpful, since last year‘s two main base dealers, Soto and Lindor, who combined to steal a valuable 69 of 79 last year, will probably be stealing very few bases this year after their calf injuries, which will need to be carefully managed. 

Another speedster, Luis Robert Junior, is injured so often that I don’t know how much he’ll run either. Some guys, like Robert and like Giancarlo Stanton, are just plain fragile

Beyond those three hitting prospects, I don’t see much else coming out of the hitting prospects in the minors this year, if anything. 

But Jacob Reimer was totally comatose until the last game of April and, thru early on Saturday, he was 5 for his last 9 ABs, quite encouraging.

Further down, speedy Mitch Voit is showing signs of hitting life, and down in St. Lucie, Elian Peña, and Dandy Randy Guzman are both off to terrific starts, and may really be on the radar screen big time starting next year. All three, however, are unlikely to impact the Queens team until 2028.

Pitching wise, I am not at all worried about Tong, Santucci, and Thornton, because all three are probably working on refining things to broaden the repertoires, so their current results may not be optimal in the statistical sense, but will pay dividends later on. Tong, in fairness, has 3 outings this year spanning 15 innings where he has allowed just one hit in each of the 3. He’s a lot better than the lousy weather has been.

Wildly Rapid Ryan Lambert (I Am The Egg Man) should almost be ready right now to handle bullpen work in Queens, and hopefully Dylan Ross will be soon, as well.  Both simply need to throw it more through that little rectangular box you see over home plate on your TV screen. When that happens, the pitches are called “strikes”.  When it doesn’t, they’re called “balls”.

Nate Lavender? He might be having Deep Purple music walk-ins from the Mets pen soon in 2026. He’s close.

But I don’t think that the minors pitching depth is what it was this time in 2025.

Trading away Brandon Sproat for Freddie (Krueger) Peralta may not in hindsight have been the smartest move, but only time will really tell. I don’t think anyone expected the club’s horrendous season start. If the season was going well, so far, people would probably be happy that the Mets acquired Peralta. And, the last time I looked, “Suffera-Jett” Williams was not setting AAA on fire this year for his new team. (Advice to David: do not trade anymore Brandon’s. Or Tidwell’s.)  

Tidwell and his Switch Blade got dispatched to Fort San Francisco for a bucket of gruel. 

So, to conclude, the green shoots are pretty sparse in the lunar landscape that is the Mets season so far. But, for the noted prospects, the bright side is that they will probably be showing up sooner than they would’ve otherwise, had the Mets been doing well. 

Well, we can hope (absent a sudden Queens team turnaround, which I think is unlikely with Lindor out) that this is the Met’s latest version of the dismal 1983 season. After 2026, hopefully they are setting themselves up for a repeat of Mets 1984 and Mets 1985 and Mets 1986, all over again.

Guest Post – Mack: 2027 Rotation

 

I found where Mrs. Mack hid my laptop. Need to get this done quickly.

My first guest post outlined what I would begin doing… RIGHT NOW… with this miserable team regarding the eight guys that hit the top step of the dugout to support their pitcher. This post features my thoughts on that pitcher.

CAUTION: These are my thoughts during the first week in May. Things change. Someone may come around and pitch five consecutive perfect games. Probably not, but could. Some I thought I would be writing about here, I am not due to their disappointing results so far. What I am writing about is the five starters, right now, that would be in my rotation after I take out the trash.

No one a year ago thought that the ace of this staff would be Nolan McLean. Kodai Senga probably. Jonah Tong possibly. Longshots were McLean, Blade Tidwell and Brandon Sproat. For reasons that are turning out stupid, Tidwell and Sproat were dealt off, thus, taking away the dream of this new, future, super rotation.

I’m so sick of following a game each night with failed pitchers. Oh, we know the bats suck much more right now, but everything starts with the rotation and the current one ain’t hackin’ it.

Me?

Well, it all begins with Tom Seaver… err… Nolan McLean. What a blessing to have him and I will do all in my power to extend him for, at least, five more seasons past this one. Very few have McLean’s ability to send that ball in so many directions. Enjoy him.

Past that, I would do everything in that same power to secure the free agent, Tarik Skubal. The word is he wants a $400mil contract. That’s like $50mil for eight years. Is that worth it? Well, I ain’t paying it, but that doesn’t mean I am not going balls out to get him to agree to come aboard. Hint: I’ll pay a pile of Benjamins for six years.

I’m expecting Skubal to be wearing Dodger Blue next season, so I still need four more starters.

On second thought, if Skubal doesn’t come aboard, I may have this “Mclean being the Ace” thing wrong. 

I mean, as of 4/29, even in this awful season, the Mets own the 7th lowest ERA in the league (1.75). That guy’s name is Clay Holmes and the day I become the honcho here, I am on the phone with his agent, seeking permission to discuss with him to drop that player option for 2027 and, at least, agree to come back for next season. Me? I want to sign him past that. The 7th lowest ERA for the team with the lowest W-L percentage? Come on.

Next, I would promote the current strikeout leader in the International League. Yeah, the Mets got that guy. His name is Jonah Tong. As of 4/30, his stat line has a little of everything, but the 38-K/25-IP stands out. Sadly, so does his current 5.68-ERA, 1.38-WHIP. Work is still needed here, but it is far too early to turn him into a closer. It takes a while for Nolan Ryan to become Nolan Ryan.

I’m three down and two to go and here comes my future workhorse (158-IP and 31-starts since the beginning of the 2025 season both rank first in the org.)… Jack Wenninger is ready now. He’s currently 1.61 after five starts this season, topped off with his fifth start this week (5.2-IP, 7-K, 0-R).

Lastly, I had hoped to be typing the name of Zach Thornton here but it turned out that the boy just ain’t ready. Enter today’s long man and this year’s off-season steal, Tobias Myers. So far this season, he has produced a +0.4-WAR basically as a two-inning guy. Me? I’m stretching him out in hopes of producing a 5-6 inning starter, at least until Thornton comes of age.

RVH - A Mea Culpa on the 2026 Mets: Where I Got It Wrong

 

There are times in a season where analysis becomes less about explanation and more about reflection.

This is one of those times.

I spent much of the offseason and early part of the year framing the New York Mets through a systems lens. I believed in the logic of the build — the shift toward run prevention, athleticism, depth, and a more balanced roster construction.

And I still believe that logic has merit.

But I was too confident in how cleanly that logic would translate to reality.

Where My Thinking Fell Short

Looking back, the issue wasn’t that the model made no sense. It did.

The issue is that I didn’t fully appreciate how many things needed to go right at the same time for it to work.

I treated the roster like a collection of solid parts that would collectively produce stability.

What it really was, in practice, was a system that relied on multiple outcomes aligning — health, timing, and performance — all at once.

That’s a very different level of risk.

The Assumptions I Smoothed Over

Some of these were easy to justify individually:

• Expecting stability or rebound from parts of the rotation

• Believing depth would absorb inevitable injuries

• Assuming defensive gains would offset offensive inconsistency

Each of those, on its own, is reasonable.

What I didn’t properly account for was how interconnected they were.

When the rotation wavers, the bullpen absorbs it.
When the bullpen is stretched, the defense is exposed.
When the offense isn’t consistently producing, there’s no margin to recover.

At that point, small issues don’t stay small.

They start to stack.

Where I Was Too Dismissive

This is the part I take more seriously.

There were concerns being raised — not always cleanly articulated, but directionally right:

• Questions about rotation reliability

• Questions about offensive consistency

• Questions about how thin the margin for error might be

My instinct was to filter those through the framework — to trust the structure, the design, the idea that over 162 games things would normalize.

In doing that, I was too quick to discount what was really being identified:

The number of things that had to go right for this team to function the way it was designed.

That’s not noise. That’s risk.

On the Offense — A Needed Correction

I also need to be precise about something I didn’t frame correctly.

This team did not lack offensive anchors.

With players like Juan Soto, Bo Bichette, and Francisco Lindor — along with support from Jorge Polanco — the capacity was clearly there.

The issue wasn't the absence of talent.

It was an absence of alignment.

Slow starts, injuries, and inconsistency meant that group never really existed at the same time in a stable way. The offense didn’t fail because it lacked pieces. It failed because those pieces never came together.

That’s a distinction I didn’t make clearly enough.

What I’ll Carry Forward

If there’s one lesson I take from this, it’s this:

A system can be well designed on paper and still be fragile in practice if too many of its outcomes are dependent on one another.

I leaned into the structure — maybe too much.

Going forward, I’ll spend more time asking a different question:

Not just “Does this make sense?”
But “How many things have to go right for this to hold?”

Because that’s where the real risk lives.

Final Thought

This isn’t a reversal of how I think about roster construction.

It’s a refinement.

The goal isn’t to be right from the start. It’s to get closer to the truth as the season reveals itself.

Right now, the 2026 Mets are doing exactly that — revealing where the assumptions held, and where they didn’t.

And for me, that starts with acknowledging where I didn’t see it clearly enough.

SAVAGE VIEWS – BACK TO THE FUTURE

HERE I GO AGAIN!

The current version of the New York Mets has a couple of things in common with the original 1962 expansion team. Both teams had a record of 10 wins and 20 losses in the first 30 games of the season. The 1962 team was managed by a clown who was at the very least entertaining. The present team is also being managed by a clown who is not at all entertaining. Thus far, two teams have fired managers with solid past records while Mendoza keeps on ticking.

I understand that Mendoza can only manage the team that was provided to him and admittedly this is a flawed team. However, day in and day out he makes very curious decisions. On Thursday, the decision to pull the lefty bat of Melendez after Soto’s double was a head scratching move. The goal was to move Soto to third and the pitcher was the much-maligned Lovelady.

What really gets me is the lack of development of our young players. Brett Baty is being asked to play three different positions. He is the best first and third baseman on your team. I wonder if not having a set position is impacting his offensive production. He’s a guy who is most effective when he sprays the ball around. Now, to his detriment, he has become strictly a pull hitter.

Mark Vientos should not be allowed to wear a glove. He’s a present-day Dick Stuart. His only position should be designated hitter. Actually, it may be time to check out the market for him. He might benefit at a new address.

Francisco Alvarez has shown flashes of being a capable player. Unfortunately, he’s not consistent enough. Hopefully, his bat will warm up as the weather heats up.

Ronny Mauricio is another young player whose development has been stalled. Another player whose future probably lies with another team.

Our best prospect, AJ Ewing, began the season in AA for reasons none of us could comprehend. He dominated AA and was finally promoted to Syracuse where he has had a phenomenal start. He may be the sparkplug this team needs. Had he started the season in AAA, he might have been added to the MLB roster by now. It’s a matter of time before he makes his debut.

These weekly postings are becoming a chore given the current state of the franchise. With at least three quality starting pitchers, the team should be competitive most games. However, even the expansion 1962 team of has-beens were a better offensive team than our current team. Right now, we are on pace to lose more than 100 games. That’s unlikely to happen with the expectation that Polanco and Lindor will return by the end of May.

Ray

May 1, 2026

Reese Kaplan -- How to Live Through the Remaining 2026 Nightmare

What would it take to make the suddenly 1962-ish Mets 2026 season seem somewhat more tolerable?  There are a number of scenarios to consider:

Making the Postseason

As long as we’re rolling out the statistically improbable fantasy outcomes, how about a New York Mets 2026 season ending with a playoff appearance?  It could happen.  Well, mathematically it is is possible.  Right now the club is playing at a won/loss record of 10-21, a winning percentage of just .323.  Yes, that is indeed very bad, but the newly minted 1962 Mets held a record for 62 years until tied and passed by the Chicago White Sox when a .250 winning percentage with 120 losses was the major league standard in baseball futility.  The Mets currently sit 11.5 games back at the close of the Nationals series and it is indeed possible for the club to spend the next 131 playing at a much more impressive record to equal what they did in 2025 when they finished with a .512 winning percentage at 83-79.  To get there the Mets would have to play at a winning percentage of .557 which extrapolates to a 90 win season long record just to reach 4 games over .500.  Yeah, the playoffs are possible but that’s quite a climb to make which would also require similar drops off the cliff from many other baseball teams league wide.

Wholesale Replacement of the People in Charge

Some people are on already painting the protest signs that read, “Fire Carlos Mendoza” as their panacea for all the things that have gone wrong thus far during this season.  Others are saving some paint to express the very same sentiment about David Stearns.  We’ve seen the results of wholesale roster rebuilding made by the latter and managed by the former.  It’s pretty ugly.  Carlos Mendoza didn’t suggest getting rid of Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz and Brando Nimmo were smart moves.  David Stearns didn’t make the necessary changes to help Mendoza win games when every single hitter on the roster not named Juan Soto was not having even a courtesy level of All Star consideration and while most pitchers are falling into that same category.  All the while the only actions taken by Stearns to help win games was watching the DFA announcements instead of executing actual trades which may or may not happen in late July when the season is already too far gone to have any impact on post season aspirations.

Staying Inside Instead of Going Outside for Roster Improvement

During this past offseason David Stearns held his version of a sales pitch to fellow ball clubs by offering up his minor league resources to help relieve them of payroll burdens or for rentals of players about to become free agents when the season ends.  We saw how that strategy worked out.  Maybe this time around the Mets should instead look at promoting players from the minor league system who have posted gaudy numbers and actually giving them an opportunity to play.  Even the folks ready to roast David Stearns over a flaming pit for sticking to Carson Benge are gradually warming up to him as he’s starting to see hard hit balls finding gaps and his below .100 batting average is threatening now to cross the Mendoza line.  Obviously not everyone who gets promoted is going to be the cream of the crop on day one, but after multiple years of significant playing time with embarrassing results, maybe it’s time to decide to cut them loose and try someone else since what you’re STILL doing continues to be not working. 

What would the remainder of the 2026 season have to look like for it to finish on at least a vaguely spin-worthy positive note?

Ernest Dove speaks with Brooklyn prospect Mitch Voit

Our chief prospect watcher Ernest Dove speaks to infielder Mitch Voit, the #7 prospect in the New York Mets' development organization.

Mitch was the #38 draft choice out of the University of Michigan in the 2025 draft.  He is currently playing for the Brooklyn Cyclones after a hot spring.

Here is the interview: <click here>

For all of Ernest's interviews, check out his YouTube channel.

Tom Brennan - The S.S. Mets Signals…May Day! May Day!

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LOSS FOR THE METS

 It is now May 1, and the crew is screaming “Mayday Mayday.”

The Mets cruise ship has been taking on water rapidly, as this season has gotten off to a titanically bad start.

Luke Weaver got his BS in college, no doubt, because he blew a big save yesterday, and that is no BS.

AJ Melendez was having a GREAT Offensive day, so what did Mendoza do late in the game? He brought in Slater to pinch hit for him. Slater failed.

Anyway, another day another loss.

Syracuse won two games. 

AJ Ewing? Has had one heck of a three game stretch in his triple AAA debut, with 7 for 12, a walk, and no Ks, and we may want to start to think that he might just be ready. Probably premature. Maybe not.

Ryan Clifford is not ready. Why? In Syracuse’s DH sweep, he was 0 for 7 with 5 Ks. 44 Ks on 28 games. 

Jack Wenninger was great - bring him up.

Lambert pitched well in relief, Ross did not.

Binghamton hit, and won. Parada had 3 hits, edging him closer to .200.

Brooklyn won 2-1 on 2 late runs. Antonio Jimenez is not hitting much, but did steal home.

St Lucie gave up lots of runs again. Peña and Guzman had fine offensive nights.

Let May begin!