Reese Kaplan -- So What Else Can Go Wrong for the Mets?

Another day in Metsville and another tin lining to analyze for its negative impact on the remainder of the indescribably bad 2026 campaign.  First came the slumps and the injuries to a multitude of players.  Now it’s working its way into the Plan B  and Plan C level teammates when Tyrone Taylor limped off the field mid game on Monday and manager Carlos Mendoza said that depending on the revelation of hip damage during the upcoming MRI on his hip that he too could be added to the IL for no one knows just how long.

Not that a .186 hitter leaving the roster is necessarily a major blow to the team’s chances.  After all, career .224 hitting Jared Young is ready to resume major league action after his IL stint and the removal of Taylor opens up a spot for him to rejoin, well, the new cast of characters that has coalesced into whatever Steve Cohen’s team is pretending to call a competitive franchise.

Don’t get me wrong.  Had the team decided that they had seen enough of MJ Melendez or rookie Nick Morabito then a spot would have opened up via demotion for Young’s arrival.  After all, Melendez is currently intimidating opposing pitchers with a .211 batting average whereas Morabito has caused opposing managers and pitching coaches to swoon with his perfect .000 batting average thus far.  When the backups are not even hitting at Taylor’s level one could say the roster construction is at best sub optimal. 

Again, there are no resources in AAA who promise to be any better.  Furthermore, a few of them aren’t even currently on the 40-man roster which would necessitate another DFA to occur to create a space to promote, for example, Cristian Pache or Ji Hwan Bae to become the 5th outfielder in Queens.  Ryan Clifford got a recent start in LF but despite a two homer doubleheader performance recently he’s still just hitting .222 in the minors. 

All of the “Play the kids!” advocates out there are having a hard time justifying who exactly they have in mind to stand alongside Carson Benge and Juan Soto (if he’s not DH-ing or recovering from the flu).  AJ Ewing is hitting .273 which is right now second on the ballclub behind the 15 year ailing outfielder. 

Of course, the issues with the team roster construction also extend to the Plan B and Plan C pitching options available to Mendoza and his pitching coach.  Nolan McLean is having his batting practice pitcher moments in his last two starts which raised his previously sub 3.00 ERA to well over 4.00.  Freddy Peralta did not come off an ace like game recently.  David Peterson had a very solid start with his return to taking the mound in inning one, but his track record is very up and down in the rotation.  The other options include Christian Scott who has been more good than bad and recently promoted Jonah Tong who is likely the new Zach Thornton who has been returned to the New York state capitol.  Mets opponents are not likely intimidated in the least by the team’s starting pitching right now with Kodai Senga and Clay Holmes still gone with health issues and reliever AJ Minter just recently getting back into game action. 

In 2023 the Mets did the great sell off of some major league roster talents in the quest to reinforce the minor league ranks with prospects. While the players that left did not return to All Star form elsewhere, the fact is that they at least tried.

In 2024 things were progressing well, so David Stearns in his Mets inaugural season did what he does best and very few changes were made as the club fought for the post season.  However, in 2025 pretty much everything that could fail did indeed go wrong, but once again Stearns waited around until the very end of July to load up by bringing in a number of failed veterans and inexplicably bad external stars for the second half who did not propel them out of the second division.  Here’s hoping that his thus far inertia-laden 2026 proves us wrong by, I don’t know, doing something prior to allowing June and July to resemble April and May.