What Happened to the Mets?

Wow, did the Mets fall apart. Through June 6, they were the best team in baseball, it seemed like nothing could go wrong. The pitching staff ranked top of the league, Lindor didn’t have the April Slump, Juan Soto was finally breaking out, Pete Alonso was playing the best baseball of his career. And then it all began to crumble.

Since June 6, the Mets have the third worst record in baseball only behind the Nationals and the Rockies. 2 of the worst teams in baseball and the Mets are right there with them. In June, Juan Soto won player of the month but quite literally everyone else sucked. Lindor, Alonso, Nimmo just stopped hitting. Vientos had a terrible season and Alvarez was sent down to AAA. They just simply couldn’t hit but at least they had their top of the league pitching staff right? Right? The pitching staff also ended up falling apart after the season ending injury to Griffin Canning. For over 50 games, not a single starter other than All-Star David Peterson threw 6 innings or more in a start. This is the longest streak since 1901, just an inexcusable, pathetic performance. We all as Met fans, thought it would get better after Sean Manaea got back from injury, spoiler alert, it didn’t.

Sean Manaea came in, out of the bullpen, against the Royals. He looked amazing in his first outing, the last game before the all-star break. He threw 4 innings of no run ball and close to double digit strikeouts. But then the Mets rallied in the top of the 9th to tie the game off Carlos Estevez, the pitcher whom Lindor hit the grand slam off of in Game 4 of the NLDS last year. Everything looked poised to go extra innings as Sean Manaea was dealing. He allowed a leadoff hit, the runner stole second and proceeded to score on a walk-off single. However, Manaea looked great, things were poised to turn around after the All-Star break. However, they never did.

Nobody could hit after the All-Star Break. Brandon Nimmo is now stuck looking at fastballs down the middle, Lindor is frustrated as we saw him slam his glove down after the recent error against the Brewers, even though Alonso and Soto are heating up, they haven’t been great either. Every time the Mets get a lead you expect them to blow it because of the overworked bullpen and the starters not getting enough innings. So the Mets are still struggling coming to the trade deadline and they had to make moves to bolster the bullpen and get a bat.

During the trade deadline, the Mets acquired Gregory Soto, Ryan Helsely and Tyler Rodgers for their bullpen. They now had arguably the best bullpen in baseball and suddenly it wasn’t a concern anymore. Mets fans and fans all around the league began calling it the “Super Bullpen” just because of all of the star studded pitchers in there. The Mets also acquired former All-Star Cedric Mullins as an upgrade for Tyrone Taylor. 

However, the Mets have not been good following the deadline, losing 11 out of their last 12 and a series against the Atlanta Braves coming up. What can the Mets even do at this point? A team that once had a 5 game lead against the Phillies in the division is now struggling and fighting for a playoff spot? Will they even make the playoffs?