The New York Mets did everything they could do to sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Everything.
Steve Cohen flew his private jet to meet him in Japan. He hosted him in his home. He also offered him the largest ever contract for a starting pitcher.
12 years. $325 million. Opt out after five years.
Short of hypnosis, the Mets did all they could. They went above where even the New York Yankees were willing to go. They just couldn’t overcome Yamamoto wanting to join Shohei Ohtani.
The Los Angeles Dodgers matched the Mets offer, and now, Yamamoto chose the Dodgers. If the Dodgers didn’t match, or the Mets were given a chance to match, who knows how this ends?
While we can guess, in the end, Yamamoto is a Dodger. Worse yet, the Mets offseason was structured as Yamamoto or bust. The Mets busted.
The question is where do the Mets go from here. There’s mid rotation options like Jordan Montgomery. Blake Snell is also available, but he isn’t an innings eater.
If the Mets want everyone to forget about the failed Yamamoto pursuit, they could give Pete Alonso an extension. Other than that, the fans will be up in arms over this failed pursuit.
They can also do what they were going to do all along. Cohen waited years for David Stearns, and it’s now time to see what he can do.
Whatever he does, he will be doing it without Yamamoto. Maybe that’s a good thing considering that cost and complete and utter lack of MLB experience.
Yes, that’s sour grapes.
That doesn’t mean the Mets can’t contend. There are still players here. An 84 sim Arizona Diamondbacks team went to the World Series. Just get in, and anything is possible.
That all said, the Mets did all they could. Doesn’t matter. Yamamoto is a Dodger.
New York Mets fans patience with Brett Baty and Mark Vientos has understandably run out. For some reason, most of the vitriol is directed towards Vientos, and bafflingly the Mets are more invested in Baty.
For a good chunk of the season, we’ve seen some form of a Baty/Vientos platoon. That means more Baty, which can only mean the Mets want to be bad.
For their careers, Vientos has a 98 wRC+ against right-handed pitching. Baty has a 93. Vientos is better against right-handed pitching, and yet, the Mets force Baty’s weaker bat into the lineup.
We’ve seen Vientos have a 27 home run season followed by a GREAT postseason. Baty literally only has one good 24 game stretch.
We can conjure a scenario where Vientos can be that 27 home run guy again. That goes double when you consider he’s historically taken off around Memorial Day (minor league track record).
There’s nothing to suggest Baty is anything more than a back of the bench utility guy. He’s a less fun version of Joe McEwing, who will be never have anything like McEwing’s inexplicable success against Randy Johnson.
We can’t make this about defense either. They’re not third basemen anymore. Baty was far better at third, but Vientos is much better than Baty.
There is literally no justification for playing Baty. He’s the guy who at the end of his career he won’t be a “has been,” he will be a “never was.”
At least with Vientos, there’s something. We’ve seen success, and we’ve seen him come through in the biggest moments. Again, Baty has one good 24 game stretch.
Looking more at Vientos, he struggled at each promotion in the minors. He adjusted, dominated, and repeated. This is a guy who has had real struggles, and he has a history of figuring it out . . . when given the opportunity.
Baty doesn’t. It’s not who he is.
Consider this, Baty is literally only 28 days older than Vientos. Both were drafted out of high school, but Baty was drafted two years after Vientos.
As a result, while Vientos was trying to figure it out against players 2-3 years older in the Sally League, Baty was dominating high schoolers 2-3 years younger than him. Somehow, the Mets constantly go away from the player who fought to go with Baty.
Vientos has had Major League success. He’s shown the ability to make adjustments and thrive. Baty’s never done that.
Let’s stop lying to ourselves. Play Vientos. Sit Baty.
Not since the days when Jeff Wilpon played doctor has the New York Mets medical and training teams need to come under closer scrutiny. In the first month of the season, the Mets have been an absolute mess.
Francisco Lindor had hamate bone surgery, and then he suffered a calf injury that is going to cost him the rest of the first half. Perhaps more.
Juan Soto had a calf injury that cost him two weeks. Now that he has returned, he is relegated to DH as he has a forearm strain.
Jorge Polanco landed on the IL with wrist and Achilles issues. The calf and potential Achilles issues seems to be a theme with the early season Mets problems.
Kodai Senga has been terrible to star the year. While Mets fans assumed the worst about Senga, the truth is he had spinal inflammation requiring an epidural shot.
While not on the IL (yet?), Luis Robert Jr. is dealing with lower back tightness. That makes two Mets players dealing with back issues.
Last season, we saw Frankie Montas, Tylor Megill, A.J. Minter, and Dedniel Nunez undergo Tommy John surgery. It is here we need to note the Mets used a record breaking 46 pitchers in 2025.
There was the freak injury to Griffin Canning. Again, there is something strange going on with the Mets and ACLs.
Sean Manaea needed to have surgery last year to clear loose bodies in his elbow. Manaea has not returned to form after the surgery.
Last season, we saw Mark Vientos and Francisco Alvarez attempt to play through lingering injuries while failing. We forgot Nick Madrigal ever existed because he was injured in spring training in 2025, and he never returned.
Backs, ACLS, and UCLs.
The Mets seem to be dealing with a lot of these injuries over the past two years. They’re dealing with it as David Stearns has revamped all parts of the organization including the medical and training staffs.
That doesn’t mean Stearns or the people he put in charge are at fault. Look at Polanco. He’s always injured. However, Soto and Lindor have always been healthy, and they’re fighting through it this year.
Maybe it is the Drive Line influence. Maybe it isn’t. It could be something as simple as bad luck. For example, Jose Siri’s career was forever changed after fouling a ball off his shin.
The Mets are dealing with a number of injury issues. While we’re focusing on the team losing games, the bigger issue is how are the Mets at the point where MJ Melendez is thrust into action or Ronny Mauricio is back at short because the Mets are just that injured. ‘
Hopefully, this is a bad year plus stretch with the Mets. Chances are it is not just bad luck, and the Mets need to find out what is going wrong in the organization that these types of injuries keep happening.
The Boston Red Sox have been massively disappointing to start the season, and as a result, World Series winning manager Alex Cora was fired. He was replaced by Chad Tracy.
The Philadelphia Phillies have been massively disappointing to start the season, and as a result, pennant winning manager Rob Thomson was fired. He was replaced by Don Mattingly, who happens to be the father of the GM.
The New York Mets might just be the most disappointing team to start the season. Despite calls to fire Carlos Mendoza, Mendoza’s job appears safe for now.
We can speculate why Mendoza has kept his job while Cora and Thompson did not. There are legitimate reasons why Mendoza is still employed.
Juan Soto was hurt eight games into the season and missed 16 games. Francisco Lindor was hurt soon after Soto’s return, and he is poised to miss the remainder of the first half, perhaps more. That also discounts how Lindor was returning from hamate bone surgery to start the season.
With both Soto and Lindor in the lineup, the Mets were actually 5-4, which seems unsatisfying, but that is a 90 win pace. Yes, take that with a grain of salt.
The injuries are a major reason why the Mets have faltered to start the year. Soto has missed 16 games, and the Mets were 3-12 in his absence. The Mets have been 1-3 with Lindor out of the lineup.
Those are not the only injuries of consequence. Jorge Polanco has been injured most of the year before needing to land on the IL. The Mets are 3-11 in games he has not played.
Those are three significant bats that are out of the Mets lineup. Of course, they are going to struggle. However, that’s not the only reason the Mets have struggled.
While the offense has understandable struggled, so has the pitching. Unfortunately for the Mets, there are no injury concerns there to explain these struggles.
Notably, after the Mets fell apart to end the 2025 season, Stearns parted ways with Jeremy Hefner. Hefner is a well regarded pitching coach, who did not remain unemployed long.
Hefner is with the Atlanta Braves now, and the Braves pitching staff has an MLB leading 3.13 ERA. Keep in mind, that is without Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Raisel Iglesias.
Meanwhile, the Mets have seen David Peterson fall apart. Kodai Senga seems to have suffered a fate worse than that. The current Mets pitching coaches have tinkered with Sean Manaea’s mechanics, and he can’t regain his velocity,
That’s nothing to say about Devin Williams being terrible as the closer. Luis Garcia was so bad he was released after just six appearances. Luke Weaver has a 4.91 ERA.
What could have helped was better defense. Believe it or not, the Mets pitchers have a 3.77 FIP, which is the sixth best in baseball. To that end, the Mets have a 1 OAA, which is tied for 13th in baseball. That’s not exactly the transformative defensive impact Stearns promised.
Joining Hefner on the Braves staff was Antoan Richardson. He was the well respected first base coach who had the Mets running the bases much better. Soto LOVED him.
Currently, the Mets have stolen 16 bases, tied for 7th worst in the majors. They’ve been caught 6 times, which is tied for 15th worst. Overall, they have a 72% success rate, far below their 89% success rate last year.
Looking at the returning players, nearly everyone is performing worse. You may want to attribute some of that blame to Mendoza, but in reality, he’s surrounded by a completely new coaching staff. Is it more likely Mendoza got worse, or the coaching staff got worse?
That’s the inherent issue. Stearns not only changed the lineup, defense, and bullpen. He also changed the entire coaching staff basically leaving just Mendoza.
Stearns’ hands are all over this Mets team. To be fair to him, there have been so many impactful injuries. Also, the only player who did not return that has performed well has been Brandon Nimmo, and if you look, he has been quite bad the last two weeks.
The heat is already on Stearns for this season falling apart. However, at this moment, that heat is shared by Mendoza. Once Mendoza is gone, all the attention goes to Stearns.
That makes Mendoza a shield for Stearns. That doesn’t mean that is the reason Stearns is keeping Mendoza. It could be Stearns acknowledges what has gone wrong, and he realizes Mendoza is not at fault. It could be that there are no obvious replacement candidates. After all, reports are Cora does not want an immediate return to coaching. ‘
Whatever the case, Mendoza is taking on the burden of shielding Stearns from total blame. There is no obvious answer as to when would be a good time to replace him, so at the moment, the only thing we can hope is he will be rewarded by this team righting the ship like it did in 2024.
Seemingly since taking over as the president of baseball operations for the New York Mets. David Stearns has heavily pursued Luis Robert Jr. It’s a bit of an overstatement, but Stearns did pursue Robert for multiple years and deadlines before landing him.
The fascination has been rather odd.
In 2024, Robert had an injury prone year. He had a 1.3 WAR and an 84 wRC+. Now, you may want to attribute that to an off injury plagued year.
That’s fair, but then, he essentially repeated the year. In 2025, he had an injury plagued year with a 1.4 WAR and an 84 wRC+.
In his hubris, Stearns thought the Mets could revive Robert’s career. He looked like a genius when Robert hit .308/.460/.462 over the first two weeks while showing much improved plate discipline.
Since then, well, he’s been Robert. Over his next 12 games, he’s hitting .152./188/.217 bringing his season mark to .224/.327/.328. Right now, he’s at a 94 wRC+, and we can assumed he will remain below the 100 mark the rest of the year.
Now, you can live with that in exchange for elite defense. While Robert has been good, we can’t quite say he’s been elite in center. Certainly, his throws haven’t been.
In reality, Robert hasn’t been elite in center for years. In 2023, he was the second best center fielder with a 12 OAA. He hasn’t been that again.
Since 2024, Robert had an 8 OAA. That ranks him as 22nd overall in baseball. There are 30 teams in baseball. These are not elite numbers.
Notably, Harrison Bader ranks higher than Robert. Bader has a 13 OAA in the same time frame. In that time frame, he also has a 98 wRC+.
This makes Bader the better player. It must be why he’s had a 4.5 WAR since 2024 while Robert has had a 2.9. Taking everything into account, it gets worse.
Bader was productive for the Mets in 2024 for a $10.5 million. Instead of re-signing him, Stearns thought he could do better by trading for Jose Siri, who was hurt and bad. He’s now playing for the Los Angeles Angels Triple-A team.
For Siri, the Mets gave up Eric Orze. Orze has been an effective reliever the past two years in his limited MLB time. That’s notable for a Mets team struggling to put together bullpens in Stearns’ tenure.
For Robert, the Mets gave up Luisangel Acuña. Being fair, Acuña has been awful for the Chicago White Sox. That said, Francisco Lindor is hurt, and the Mets don’t have a real shortstop option.
Moreover, the Mets are paying Robert $20 million. After the year, they either pick up his $20 million option or give him a $2 million buyout.
Since leaving the Mets, Bader has made $15 million. Put another way, Bader has made $5 million less over two years and has been the better player.
Stearns gave up assets and had Steve Cohen pay $20 million to get worse at the position. This was done in the name of defense and the belief the Mets can make players something they’re not offensively.
Stearns made the Mets worse in center field. He gave up prospects, and the Mets are paying $20 million to be worse.
Bader was not a long term solution. He was a part time player. It behooved Stearns to improve and find a long term solution. Fact is, he hasn’t.
Instead, Stearns chased Robert. It was an unnecessary pursuit. Hopefully, it won’t prove to be a blunder.
Whatever the case, Stearns wasted resources trying to improve from Bader. He’s failed miserably and compounded it by wasting money and prospects. As Mets fans know, we could be talking about Robert or any number of Stearns’ decisions.
The New York Mets twelve game losing streak is finally over. Mark Vientos went from embarrassingly running through a stop sign to a go-ahead RBI single.
This magic was brought to us by Bark in the Park Night. Dogs and Mets games. Sounds like the 2000 Mets blaring “Who Let the Dogs Out” during their pennant run.
That’s right. As Timo Perez caught the final out, and the Mets players swarmed NLCS MCP Mike Hampton, “Who Let the Dogs Out” blared across Shea Stadium.
The song wasn’t exactly embraced, and there was the blight of the Baha Men on the Mets dugout in the World Series. We can all forget the Z100 trying too hard version of “Who Let the Mets Out.”
However, we’re two years removed from the 2024 magical run to the NLCS. That team was left for dead only to rally around Grimace and OMG. Sometimes, you need these goofball things to get you going.
The 2026 Mets broke the 12 game losing streak with the dogs at the ballpark. The 2000 Mets were powered by that song to a pennant. Let’s embrace this same spirit that worked so well in 2024.
Time to dust off “Who Let the Dogs Out” even if no one wants to hear it.
Make no mistake, Brett Baty is not the reason the New York Mets lost 12 straight games. Rather, it is the thought process that has led to Baty’s consistent playing time that is the reason the Mets have grossly underachieved.
This season, Baty is has a 36 wRC+. He’s hitting .209/.214/.284. He was the last qualified hitter to draw a walk, and he’s 2-for-his last 26. He’s bad.
Here’s the dirty little secret: this is no outlier. This is who he is.
At the trade deadline last year, the Mets reportedly refused to send Baty to the Chicago White Sox for Luis Robert Jr. At the time, Baty was hitting a robust .277/.284/.404.
That led to the Mets pivoting to trade for Cedric Mullins, who hit .182/.284/.281 for the Mets. While we can point to Robert’s numbers that year, Mullins was equally bad with no real hope of upside.
The Mets set part of the stages for their collapse by holding onto Baty who didn’t even have a .700 OPS. Moreover, entering the 2025 season, Baty had a career .607 OPS.
The obvious justification for the Mets decision is going to be Baty’s August. From August 2 – September 2, Baty hit .346/.418/.519. It seemed like promise FINALLY fulfilled.
Digging through the numbers, Baty had a highly unsustainable .407 BABIP. His 91.7 MPH exit velocities were roughly Major League average, and he had a 61.9 GB%.
These numbers screamed regression risk. We saw just that at the end of the season. From September 3 – 26, Baty hit ..255/.296/.471. Even more troubling, those numbers were buoyed by a .345 BABIP.
Instead of focusing on all of Baty’s career, his numbers before the trade deadline, or the final 18 games of the season, the Mets focused on that sweet, sweet 24 game sample size.
It is the epitome of conformation bias. The Mets looked at some underlying data, and they decided those 24 games were indicative of what Baty is whole disregarding the other 278 games.
Relying on their confirmation bias, the Mets handed Baty an everyday role, albeit one that saw him move between three positions. He was handed a job based off a great 21 game stretch.
The other 109 games were of zero consequence. There were people in the Mets organization who believe in Baty, and they used 21 games to justify giving him a starting role.
The end result has been the worst hitter on the Mets. We have seen him bad in right and worse at first base. He can’t hit enough to hit for a pitcher, so DH is out.
Looking at all the numbers, Baty has a bad career 7.3 BB%. He’s got an awful 26.2 K%. There’s no underlying exit velocity hope as Baty has a terrible 19.8 LD% and 51.7 GB%.
And yet, the Mets couldn’t wait to sideline Mark Vientos off a 27 HR season to play Baty last year. They entered this year guaranteeing him an everyday role.
The 2025 Mets were a massive disappointment. This year seems poised to be worse. It’s not Brett Baty’s fault. The fault is the process being utilized to determine Baty is an everyday player who should not be removed from the lineup no matter the results.
On MLB Central, former player and WBC manager Mark DeRosa gave this thoughts on the New York Mets slow start. As seen in the clip below, he blames the GM and the players, not Carlos Mendoza:
After the WBC, I’m not sure how anyone can take him seriously anymore, especially with his take on managing. This is the same guy who didn’t know the WBC tiebreaker rules, and he’s the same guy who used Garrett Whitlock, who was on absolute fumes in the eighth inning of a tied championship game.
Put another way, when it comes to managing, DeRosa has no credibility. His opinions need to be viewed through the prism of how poorly he paid attention to game management and all the details a manager needs to handle.
If we don’t want to use his own history against him when it comes to his managerial analysis, he spoke about how the Mets miss Pete Alonso. So far, they really don’t, and moreover, the people following the Baltimore Orioles feel Alonso’s contract may prove to be an absolute disaster.
DeRosa really has shown that being a quality Major Leaguer doesn’t necessarily make you a good manager. Being a former Major Leaguer who speaks well also doesn’t make you a good analyst.
There are a lot of reasons why the Mets are struggling now. DeRosa really didn’t mention any of them, and he just threw out some talking points. He wasted everyone’s time much like he wasted Team USA’s loaded WBC roster.
David Stearns hasn’t instilled belief in New York Mets fans. That was the opinion before the 2025 collapse. The ensuing offseason made things worse, and the 11 game losing streak is only exacerbating matters.
Mets fans are apoplectic, and they are screaming that Stearns was an idiot for breaking up the core. No one wants to hear this right now, but Stearns instincts have so far been proven correct.
If your immediate reaction is to scream small sample size, you’re not wrong. That said, it works both ways. Can’t criticize Stearns while failing to recognize the other side of the ledger.
Everyone’s favorite Pete Alonso has not gotten off to a good start in Baltimore. Through 22 games, he’s hitting .207/.323/.341, and Orioles fans are already comparing him to Chris Davis.
Alonso’s good friend Jeff McNeil was sent to the Athletics. McNeil is hitting .266/.351/.341. McNeil is getting on base at a level he hasn’t since 2022, but his slugging has also never been this low.
The Mets did want Edwin Diaz back, but the Los Angeles Dodgers outmaneuvered the Mets to get him. They may be regretting it as Diaz wasn’t even this bad in 2019. His velo is down, he’s getting shelled, and at least for now, he’s seemingly lost the closer role.
Now, the Brandon Nimmo trade has (predictably) turned out bad. Returning to the leadoff spot, Nimmo has been a force for the Texas Rangers hitting .311/.386/.522. Even if Nimmo wasn’t this with the Mets, he’s always been a productive player.
With Nimmo, it wasn’t so much the production as it was the contract. With a potential salary cap looming, the Mets were looking to move Nimmo. Whatever the justification, they need Nimmo now.
If you want to “yeah, but” this, feel free. It still doesn’t mean the Alonso and Diaz contracts look like absolute disasters right now. Most fans believed it was time to move McNeil. Again, Nimmo was an open debate.
Remember, Juan Soto is hurt, and most of the Mets players are slow starters. The team will turn things around. We just have to hope they don’t turn things around before it’s too late.
Regardless of the losing streak and disappointment the 2026 Mets have been thus far, Stearns instincts to break up the core was correct. It’s just the execution wasn’t there . . . at least not yet.
After getting swept by the Athletics of indecipherable geographic origin, the New York Mets have fallen under .500. There are people who want to pretend this is reason for grave concern so as to fit an anti-Mets narrative.
However, if you want to be fair and logical (most don’t), this wasn’t completely unexpected. While we can dig through small sample size data, tbd truth is the Mets were partially designed this way making this somewhat expected leaving real hope for the rest of the season.
On that note, here are reasons why the Mets are struggling.
- Juan Soto, their best hitter, is on the IL.
- Unless you’ve missed the past five seasons, Francisco Lindor is a slow starter who takes off in the second half.
- Lindor had hamate bone surgery, which usually robs a player of power for months after the surgery.
- Bo Bichette is a slow starter. He has a career .693 OPS in March/April only to see his numbers jump in May and beyond.
- Bichette is a slow starter who is playing for a new team on a large contract while learning a new position.
- Marcus Semien is a slow starter. He has a career ..691 OPS in March/April, and typically his OPS increases each month of the season.
- Jorge Polanco is a second half player.
- Polanco is playing through an Achilles injury.
- Mark Vientos is a slow starter (sensing a theme here), who usually takes off around Memorial Day (for those that tracked him as a minor leaguer).
- Carson Benge is a rookie bouncing between center and right.
- Brett Baty has a career 86 wRC+, and most of the hope around him centered on an excellent August that buoyed his stats.
- The first month of the season is usually the first or second worst for Kodai Senga.
- Senga is coming off an injury plagued year and is finally being asked to adapt to a five man rotation.
- The first and last month of the season are historically the two worst for David Peterson.
- They’re biding time in the bullpen until A.J. Minter can return.
- It’s a completely new staff and revamped roster around the embattled Carlos Mendoza.
- It needs to be restated that Soto is hurt, and Lindor is a slow starter coming off hamate bone surgery.
- For the returning position players, there is still more undoing of the Eric Chavez nonsense that needs to be done. That can’t all just happen after a few weeks of the season.
- Weird stuff usually happens in the first month of the season in World Baseball Classic seasons.
- It’s only April, and things have to unfold. It was awful in 2024, and that team went to the NLCS. It was great in 2025, and we had one of the most disappointing seasons in Mets history.
Yes, there are reasons for concern. Ljndor does seem off, and the Mets not carrying a back-up shortstop to give him a day seems like failed roster management.
All that said, this was a roster built with players who typically start slow, and that’s before we look at new homes and positions. Soto being hurt just makes everything seem worse.
Right now, Mets fans just have to suffer through it and wait for better baseball ahead. Trust me, it’s coming.
There were many reasons the 2024 New York Mets came back from the dead to make it to Game 6 of the NLCS. One of the biggest was Mark Vientos.
While he kept giving that team reasons to give him a job, they kept holding him back. Finally, when they had no other choice, Vientos grabbed a job and didn’t let go.
In 2024, Vientos had a 132 wRC+, which if he qualified, would have been the best along National League third baseman. If you didn’t believe there, he followed up with a great postseason.
Unfortunately, he struggled in 2025. There were injuries. There was a change in his successful approach and just about all things Eric Chavez. There was also the fact once he faltered the Mets just jumped at the chance to give the job back to Brett Baty.
It’s no secret Vientos isn’t a David Stearns style player. After all, he is a poor defender. However, Vientos has game changing offensive ability, and you could argue that was one of the many things missing during the 2025 Mets collapse.
Vientos showed some glimpses, and he did force the issue for the vacant DH spot. However, Vientos wasn’t the same player, and entering the offseason, he was a purposeful afterthought.
Vientos was relegated to be nothing mouse than a platoon bat. It was so absurd that when a right-handed pitcher entered a game, Vientos was automatically lifted for Baty.
The man once floated as Pete Alonso’s replacement was a non-factor once Alonso actually left. A bad WBC and Spring Training didn’t help matters.
Much like 2024, the Mets were doing all they could to not give Vientos a job. Like 2024, with injuries, opportunities are presenting themselves to Vientos, and he is more than earning a job.
Trying to figure out playing time at first and DH is tough when you have Baty, Jorge Polanco, and Vientos. For the short term, it’s easy because Vientos is the only one healthy. In the long term, Vientos can again make it easy by hitting like he can.
Vientos has the potential to be the Mets hitter not named Juan Soto. At the plate, he has 30+ HR power and can post a wRC+ above 130. That’s the type of bat that needs to be in this Mets lineup.
Vientos can hit. He can be a game changer. We saw in 2024 he can take the Mets to another level. We are again seeing that player, and as a result, he needs to be in the lineup everyday even when everyone is healthy.