Centerfield

Let's recap this homestand. 1. Friday, Sept. 12. Tong gives up 6 runs in the 1st. Can't escape the first inning. Mets lose to Rangers. 2. Saturday, Sept. 13. Baty gets picked off for the second time in a week in an obvious bunt situation. Catcher's interference leads to the tie. Lindor misses a soft line drive that leads to the loss. 3. Wednesday, Sept. 17. The Machado grand slam given up by an obviously ineffective David Peterson. 4. Friday, Sept. 19. Siri drops a fly ball, leads to two runs. Takes a bad route on another ball and turns a single into a triple. Comes up in a bunt situation, and has a pitch clock violation. Fouls off the next pitch, then strikes out. The Mets do manage to win this game. 5. Saturday, Sept. 20. The Soto error. The Alonso error. The McLean wild pitch, where everyone fell down. Nimmo strikes out with one out and the bases loaded. Acuna fails to advance the runner. Alvarez isn't bunting and grounds into a double play. Mullins isn't in "no doubles" and allows a fly ball to go over his head for an IPHR. 6. Sunday, Sept. 21. Juan Soto picked off. Another Lindor error, another Alonso error. The Mullins baserunning play. The Mets won the Siri game. The Tong outing happens. The grand slam sucks, but what can you do. The other three losses are inexcusable. Boneheaded mistakes. Bad fundamental baseball. And they came into this homestand having lost 6 in a row. I don't see how the coaching staff can survive.

Antoan Richardson is an interesting call. I agree he's done a great job with the stolen bases, but his actual base coaching has been atrocious. I don't know what he was doing on the Cedric Mullins play. If he wasn't imploring Mullins to keep running than he's just as guilty as Mullins. He did that a few times this year. The one I can remember was Soto getting doubled off in Atlanta with no guidance from Richardson. I still can't comprehend the Mullins baserunning. That might have been the stupidest play I've ever seen in my life. And this is coming in a weekend filled with incomprehensibly stupid baseball.

As for 2026 and beyond, this team has played so poorly for so long, I don't see how you can just run it back. Gwreck is right. There are a lot of individuals on this team that are talented, and still performed fairly well. If the Mets had made the playoffs and just fallen short in the post-season, it would have been fine to run the core of this team back there and call up Benge and Jett to fill out the roster. Ronny will hopefully continue to develop. But given the year they just had, and given that they're 11th overall in runs scored, I don't know what Stearns will do with this team. I don't see them adding Kyle Tucker. Maybe this is the year they have a shakeup trade. On the other hand, they were 6th overall in OPS. So maybe this was just bad luck? The big problem with this team was obviously the pitching. 17th in team ERA, and 24th in MLB after the AS Break. And that's with the infusion of McLean, Sproat and Tong. I think the comment about dead weight could refer to Manaea and Senga. Both terrible beyond any reasonable expectations this year. So bad that you wonder what you'll get out of them next year. Maybe to a lesser extent Peterson too. I guess the good news is that there is a clear, identifiable problem area that needs to be improved. The problem is there are no easy answers out there. The free agent options are all question marks. Cease has been terrible, Framber Valdez is a headcase, and Michael King has a thoracic nerve issue. One thing that is clear is that this coaching staff cannot return. Anyone responsible for getting this little production out of this group of players doesn't deserve to be back. Factor in the poor defense, the mental mistakes, and just lack of fundamental baseball. This team was not well prepared and never was it more evident than this weekend.

I still can't believe they lost the last two games. That's what I get for actually getting my hopes up. I really thought after the Tong win against the Padres that this team was set to go on a mini run to lock up the playoffs. One thing the 2025 Mets have taught us is that you should never, ever believe in this team. And I don't. The collapse is now complete. They're out of the playoffs. It's unthinkable that this team, with this much talent, can miss the playoffs with this format where everyone makes the post season. And I know it's not over yet. I know they only need to play one game better than Cincy, but not one part of me believes they will do that. I think there's a better chance they'll be out of it by the weekend.

They’re really gonna miss the playoffs aren’t they

I’m not sure we agree on the definition of “fraud.” The Mets got better than expected results out of Canning this year before a freak/non-pitching injury. Senga was excellent before getting hurt with, again, a freak/non-pitching injury. He’s been awful since and maybe there’s no connection but the timing is surprisingly coincidental if not. Holmes has had diminishing results as his inning count goes up. Big shock, we all saw this coming. Why he hasn’t been transitioned to a reliever already is a failure of strategy but overall he was a serviceable back-of-rotation starter. Manaea is the worrisome one. Was his excellent half season the outlier? Is he just not healthy? Griffin Canning was a big part of the pitching lab success. He finished April with a 2.61 ERA. Then posted an ERA over 4 in 5 starts in May. Then posted an ERA over 5 during 5 starts in June. We have no idea what might have happened had he kept pitching. But one month of success isn’t enough to warrant praise. Similarly, Megill was a big part of the early season story line. Then he, like Canning, started to fade. Then like Canning, got hurt. Montas was hurt, then a disaster, then hurt again. Manaea is unpitchable. Is he hurt? Let’s hope so. Cuz if he’s healthy it’s going to be a long three years. And Senga is so bad he’s in the minors. I get that you can’t control injuries, but Senga and Manaea are supposedly healthy and this pitching lab can’t do a thing to help them. Peterson has taken a step back, and has an ERA in the mid 6’s for August and September. Clay Holmes is predictably fading, as you mentioned. Gregory Soto, Tyler Rogers and Ryan Helsley have all pitched worse for the Mets than they did for their prior teams. Granted Rogers has been pretty good still, but the freefall from Helsley is baffling. If the pitching lab were real, you wouldn’t have the 24th ranked ERA in the second half, and 17th ranked ERA for the year.

The Mets are 17th in team ERA. So if you’re looking for reasons why they won’t make the playoffs, you can start there. Their 1.34 WHIP is even worse. 24th overall. So if you feel like the other team has baserunners all the time, you’re not wrong. Post All Star is even worse. 24th overall in ERA. 25th in WHIP. The Mets pitching lab has been exposed as a fraud.

Regarding Mendoza. The Baty play is on him. I get it. Sometimes players fall asleep. It sucks but these guys are human. But it should absolutely not happen twice in a week. That means that Carlos didn’t adequately address it the first time. If he had, Baty would be ****ing alert every time he’s on base the rest of the year. And especially in that situation where the other team thinks you might be bunting, you have to tell the baserunners to be alert for the throw. That’s on Mendoza. You don’t have to rip into him in front of the cameras, but you better rip into him somewhere.

And they complete the 0 for 4. Can’t even steal one game. It’s a lot to ask of the rookie pitchers, but the Mets now have two winnable games before another pitching mismatch on Tuesday. No words for how bad this is.

0-3. Three quarters of the way to fulfilling the saddest, easiest prediction of all time.

Back to the original question, I have no idea what you say to Major Leaguers to get them to play better. I'm not sure there is a right answer, and if there is, I don't see how a fan could ever know. I do know this. Mendoza's answers are infuriating to fans. Much like Pete's. The "we have to play better, we have to execute, we're too good" schtick gets old really quick. It's aggravating to hear the same thing, with no answers again and again. That's why so many people have re-written the Terry Collins story. Terry wasn't a great manager. I think there's plenty of evidence of that. But Terry had fire, and sometimes that came out at press conferences, and it made us feel better. Fans see losses. They feel angry. If a manager comes out angry, then fans relate to that. But was Terry a better motivator of the players than Mendoza? I have no idea. I guess if I were thrown into Mendoza's situation, the one thing I would tell the team is to try to win every inning. And immediately after that inning is over, forget about it and win the next inning. And maybe if you can get them to think in small chunks, they won't play like they feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. Cuz it certainly seems like they're playing with that weight every day.

If I were Carlos Mendoza, I would: 1. Play McNeil, Vientos and Baty every day. Regardless of what hand the pitcher throws with. 2. Stop wasting my pinch runner by batting him. 3. Stop asking my relievers to work multiple innings in games that are still in reach. 4. Stop playing Cedric Mullins. 5. Ask Stearns to call up Jett as a CF option. 6. Stop using Ryne Stanek in games that are within reach. Even if that means using Justin Hagenman. 7. When you pull your starter with men on base, don’t go to Soto.

I think Mauricio needed to be aware of the possibility that the ball could be caught, but not only did he pause too long, he paused too close to first. That's a young player trying not to make a mistake. Was it readable that Castellanos had no chance off the bat? Maybe, but we can't see it from Ronny's angle. His mistake was not getting closer to second and understanding that if Castellanos made the catch, it would be with all of his momentum taking him into the corner. Ronny could have been around second and had time to make it back. But let's go back to the 8th inning. The real mistake was Mendoza batting our pinch runner making him unavailable. This is a mistake he makes repeatedly. Luisangel Acuna cannot hit. He's here to run and play defense. And by batting him in the 8th, you make him unavailable for the role where he's elite. He's also an amazing defender. So maybe he reads Vientos ball differently and runs more aggressively. Baty has a .653 OPS against lefties. Acuna hits .659 against lefties. Is it better? Not really. And by burning him as a pinch hitter, you make him unavailable as a pinch runner. Now, maybe he also reads the ball poorly and holds up. Or maybe he tries stealing and gets caught. But the one thing Mendoza has to stop doing is burning Acuna by using him at the plate. He's not here for that.

They’re gonna ****ing blow it.

As a group, they are 9th in MLB in runs scored. Which I guess is ok, but going in, I think we were all hoping that this would be a top 5 offense. Pitching, the Mets are 13th overall in ERA, which I think is lower than we were hoping, but something we thought could be a possibility given the question marks going in. When you break that down, the Mets are 10th in Starter ERA, and 13th in bullpen ERA. The issue is that the Mets are 25th in IP for starters, and have the 7th highest IP for relievers.

Off the top of my head: Outperforming Expectations: Nolan McLean Edwin Diaz Brooks Raley Performing at Expectations: Juan Soto Pete Alonso Francisco Lindor Francisco Alvarez (but was hurt) Jeff McNeil Brett Baty Starling Marte Luis Torrens David Peterson Clay Holmes Reed Garrett Tyler Rogers Gregory Soto Huascar Brazoban Performing Under Expectations Brandon Nimmo (slighty) Mark Vientos Luisangel Acuna Tyrone Taylor Jesse Winker (injury) Cedric Mullins Jose Siri (injury) Kodai Senga Sean Manaea Frankie Montas Griffin Canning (injury) Ryne Stanek Dedniel Nunez (injury) Ryan Helsley Danny Young AJ Minter (injury) Tylor Megill (injury) Too Early to Tell Jonah Tong Brandon Sproat Ronnie Maurico

I would argue that this year's team will be far more disappointing than those teams you mention. Those teams fell short, but realistically, they had huge holes as constructed. The 2025 team is stacked with talent from top to bottom. It's disappointing that so many of these talented players are underperforming, and that they collectively seem to be less than the sum of their parts.

I guess the one good thing is that the Giants will spend the next 15 games playing the Diamondbacks, Dodgers and Cardinals. Arizona and St. Louis are both .500-ish teams with a slim chance to snag that 3rd WC themselves, so I guess they'll be playing for something. And LA, despite struggling lately, is still LA. But as FK mentioned in the other thread, only one of SF, CIN, STL or ARI needs to get hot. And if the Mets don't at least go .500 the rest of the way, they're likely on the outside looking in.

Last night's loss was bad. Per ESPN, our playoff percentage dropped to 92.3%. It had been hovering around 96% for a long time. Three days of pain might be underselling it. They face Suarez, Sanchez and Luzardo over the next three days. Then come home to face deGrom. By the time Friday ends, they could possibly be out of a playoff spot. 2-2 might be the best we can hope for here. After deGrom they'll face: Saturday: Patrick Corbin. 4.36 ERA, 1.32 WHIP Sunday: Jacob Latz. 2.91 ERA, 1.24 WHIP Tuesday: Nick Pivetta. 2.85 ERA, 0.96 WHIP You figure they can beat Corbin, lefty or not, and you match up McLean against Latz on Sunday. Tuesday night Pivetta against Manaea is a mismatch.

Was on with Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman on his podcasts. Says it was an adjustment issue. Last year no one had any info on him. This year, the book was out on him, and he had to make adjustments. In the recent weeks, he's learned to play the cat and mouse game and has had to adapt to how he's been pitched. When asked specifically what adjustments he made, he fell into cliches. So obviously he doesn't want to give anything away. Separately, he suggests he was too focused on not striking out. Now, he's focused on hitting the ball hard. His strength is his power. So if he strikes out, he accepts it, and understands he'll get another AB to help the team.

They're not just "not eliminated". They're 4 games up on a playoff spot. A better argument can be made that failing to call these guys up cost them the division, or a chance at a first round bye. I think that's a more plausible argument. With McLean, I think there's no question it would have been better for the team had McLean been up earlier, but it's tough to know if he would have arrived here had he been called up earlier. Tong, is still an open book. We have no idea what he will be. Sproat hasn't even thrown a pitch yet.

I like bringing up Sproat, but McLean should get the start on Sunday. First of all, that’s a tough game to give a rookie starter. The Philly games are less meaningful at this point. Also, you don’t want Philly to see McLean again so soon. Not just for the this game, but in case we see them in October. This is short sighted in my opinion.

It's not just the rotation that's thin. The bullpen is looking a little lean too. Diaz is your closer. Tyler Rogers has a much higher WHIP since coming to the Mets, but still reliable. Raley has been pretty good. Beyond that, Reed Garrett is hurt, Gregory Soto has come back to earth. No one else is any good.

Maybe I missed some nuance here, but with a completely rested bullpen today (except Stanek) and an off-day tomorrow, why did Mendy go to Helsley in a one run game?

So are we accepting the Gelbs explanation that this turnaround came after they decided to be aggressive on fastballs? I don’t know what’s changed, but it’s crazy that all of a sudden everyone is hitting. If the story is true, give credit to Chavez and the organization making an adjustment. Though you have to wonder about the philosophy that caused them to suck in the first place. I feel like we had an episode of this a few years ago. Where hitters complained that they went up with too much info. Maybe that was Jeff McNeil? Anyway. Let’s hope this is is sustainable.