Paul Articulates – The 2026 season - a blessing in disguise

The New York Mets’ season is finally over, ending months of disappointment.  So many things went wrong right out of the gate that it became a lost season quicker than any other season in recent memory.  You have read (here and everywhere else) all about the failings, the mistakes, and even some bad luck.  But with some reflection on everything that occurred, I found that many good things happened to this team this year.  

Let me expound:

1) First on everyone’s list and recognized in several posts here at Mack’s Mets was the play of the young Mets.  Benge, Ewing, McLean, Thornton, and the return of Christian Scott built hope for the future.  All of them performed very well and pushed through periods of adversity to become even better players.  This is fairly unique, because if you look at the careers of many rookies (including the full cast of baby Mets from a few years ago), they plateau after brief flashes of success.  The five mentioned above have not plateaued – they have continued to climb.  For example, both Benge and Ewing have OPS over .800 in the last 30 days.

2) Jared Young surprised many with his steady play this season.  Expected to be just a bench depth player, he became the one to plug the hole created at first base when no one else could step up to fill Pete’s shoes.  Young will never be Alonso, but of all the “maybe” players out of spring training, he had the greatest rise in performance.

3) We all held our breath when the Mets traded away most of the bullpen at the deadline.  When Devin Williams went down soon afterwards, most of us believed that the team would never win a close game again.  Out of the ashes rose a handful of young relievers that outperformed expectations and shone light on the team’s future.  Daniel Duarte, Cionel Perez, Jonathan Pintaro, Austin Warren, and the returning Dedniel Nunez provided exceptional relief performances over the last two months.  Other than Nunez, who had shown promise before he was injured, none of these guys were expected to be anything other than temporary fill.  Now they are expected to make next year’s team.  Later, the team promoted Nate Lavender.  He may have surpassed them all, pitching to a 1.66 ERA and 0.74 WHIP over 21 appearances.

4) My last point, and this may be the most important one, is the intangible piece that I see building.  When David Stearns blew up the team during the offseason, it was due to an internal analysis that indicated  the team didn’t have “what it takes” to win a championship.  Say all you want about Stearns’ choices in what followed, but the analysis was probably accurate.  The harder part was to build a team that did have “what it takes”.  I now see several very critical aspects that have come together:

• The team acquired Juan Soto in 2025 to anchor the team around one of the best players in baseball.  Soto is truly at another level with a bat in his hands when you watch him recognize pitches and work an at-bat.  He is almost slump resistant with his quick swing and eye for the ball.  However, he is not the personality that rallies a team to higher performance – he focuses on his game and provides consistent (elite) performance. Francisco Lindor has always been a leader on this team, but when Soto arrived, there was an uncomfortable standoff between the two.  This appears to have been resolved, and the team now seems to have two comfortable superstars coexisting in the spotlight.

• Lindor’s leadership style is to keep everything under control.  He has been a calming influence since Javy Baez left. His steady way of going about his business every day helps the team grind through a long season.  But as we have seen from the team-wide slumps in the second half of 2025 and the first half of 2026, the team also needs energy.  Enter Benge and Ewing, the “psychopath brothers”, who lifted the entire team with their relentless energy and all-out play on the field.  The team now has the emotional content to go on big streaks and the stable focus to work through adversity.

• The starting pitching was nothing short of a disaster in early 2026, and then at the deadline the relief corps was devastated by trades.   I can’t say the Mets were fortunate, but I can say that they took advantage of the situation by providing opportunities to some that would not have had the chance.  The failures of Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea created the window for Zac Thornton to move up, which I don’t believe would have happened otherwise.  Christian Scott came back as a full-up starter instead of being slowly incorporated by an overcautious staff.  He delivered 110 innings of solid pitching that cemented his spot on the rotation for years to come.  The deadline trades created opportunities for guys like Austin Warren and Nate Lavender to pitch regularly and they seized the chance to prove their worthiness.  Pitching, which has always been a hallmark of the Mets, is once again becoming a strength.

Let’s tie this all together.  A horrid start to the season by a rebuilt roster killed the playoff hopes early.  But in the wake of that disaster, the Mets were able to create opportunities for many internal candidates to prove their readiness long before the conservative front office would have allowed.  There is now a fresh, young delegation on this team that is MLB ready and under team control for years.  They are strengthened by veteran stars like Lindor, Soto, and Bichette.  The Mets still need more pieces to become championship contenders – one or two strong starters (Clay Holmes, come home!) and a power bat (the Alonso deal was still a huge mistake).  But the putt is so much shorter now than I envisioned earlier this summer.

There is renewed hope in Queens.  Let’s go Mets!