A Slow and Sudden Demise

I believe this exchange from the 1985 classic film, Fletch, does a perfect job of summarizing the 2025 Mets season:

Dr. Dolan - You know it's a shame about Ed.

Fletch - Oh, it was. Yeah, it was really a shame...to go suddenly like that.

Dr. Dolan - He was dying for years.

Fletch - Sure, but...the end was very...very sudden.

Dr. Dolan - He was in intensive care for eight weeks.

Fletch - Yeah, but I mean the very end, when he actually died. That was extremely sudden.

It may be hard to remember, but the Mets had a remarkable start to the season. They had 21 wins by the end of April. They looked virtually unbeatable at Citi Field. It took until mid-May for them to have their first 3-game losing streak. This team didn't just look good, they looked to be among the best in franchise history. The pitching questions marks from before the season all seemed to have solid answers. Could Clay Holmes be a reliable starter (yes he could), what were they doing signing Griffin Canning (joke's on you, Canning was solid), could the rotation survive without Sean Manaea (Sean who?).

Still, not everything was perfect. These wins weren't dominant. The hitting was anything but clutch. And the response to this was that when the time came, the team would be there. A 4-0 loss on the literal most important game of the season would tell a different story, but we'll get there. The point is that as good as this team was in the springtime, it was hard to ignore the smoke-and-mirrors needed to feel good about them. It seemed like they could fall apart at any moment. Spoiler alert - they did.

Now, to be fair, any Mets fan feels that way about any situation until the game is over. As much as "Ya Gotta Believe" is a part of rooting for this team, so is that uneasy feeling that they're just one mistake away from disaster. For a team that was relying on a number of players to be better than they've been for a while (or ever), the most jaded of fans (and that's most Mets fans) were just bracing for the other shoe to drop. Well...thud.

Injuries are a part of the game and virtually every team experiences a significant loss of a key player every season, so it's a ridiculous notion to blame the Mets downfall on injuries. Instead, it's what they did, or really didn't do, to deal with these injuries that became the issue. The Mets responded to AJ Minter's early season-ending lat injury by expanding their revolving bullpen door. This worked until it didn't. And then it really didn't. And then it got worse. Sometimes I wondered if Carlos Mendoza would call down to the bullpen to get a pitcher warmed up only to be told he was no longer on the team. Seems unlikely, and not that unlikely.

Obviously then, the problems didn't start with the injuries, they started with the way this team was constructed. Looking back at this roster coming into spring training, there were a number of risks, or projects, or risky projects. While Holmes was so good for the first two months of the season, suddenly people started to wonder what the plan was for when he'd approach his career high for innings pitched in a season with a few months remaining in the season. Before long, people started to wonder why nobody in the Mets management seemed to consider this sooner, or at all. So when Holmes started falling apart and the Mets didn't have a backup plan, worry started to turn to fear which ultimately turned to anger.

On the flip side, there was David Peterson, the only starter who seemed capable of going deep into games. Every time a relief pitcher started warming up in the third innings, fans were reminded that Peterson was the only Mets pitcher to go deep into games (and by "deep" I mean 6 innings). So by the time we got to mid-August, people started to wonder if this would catch up to him. And it did. And then, people started to wonder why nobody in the Mets management seemed to consider this sooner, or at all.

The problems weren't all on the mound either. While the Mets bats got hot at times, they never did find a rhythm. This streaky team seemed to mostly go on their streaks at the same time. If you look at the final season stats, it would suggest that this team had a powerhouse offense. And it did. At times. The rest of the time, they were absent. Often at the worst times.

Even their best hitters who had fine looking seasons, fell prey to this inconsistency. Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, two players who have carried this team time and time again over their respective Mets tenures, went through weeks when they vanished and were non-factors. Similarly, as wonderful as Juan Soto's final numbers were (career-high in home runs and stolen bases, Mets record for walks, etc.), there was a point early on when you could count on a weak ground out when he came up with runners on base. This didn't last all season, and it also never completely escaped his repertoire. Brandon Nimmo was put in a spot in the lineup that was a bit out of his familiar zone, and he changed his approach accordingly. And again, his final numbers had some highlights (25 HRs and 92 RBIs sounds good), there were times when the Mets needed him to be the patient Nimmo he had always been, and he wasn't.

Now, these are just some examples of the shortcomings that led to the terrible conclusion of a roller coaster season. The anger that I mentioned earlier naturally leads to blame. And moments after the season ended, that's where many fans' minds went. Blame the GM, blame the manager, blame the coaches, blame the high-priced players, blame the owner, etc. Truth be told, they all share some blame. For a team to fall apart like they did after such a good start requires "contributions" from all sides.

A quick note here about Mets manager, Carlos Mendoza. He deserved a lot of credit for the team's turnaround in 2024. He never panicked, he never seemed to lose confidence in his players, and he made some solid decisions that worked out well. This year was the opposite. He was simply unable to make the most of out of what he had. It would be asymmetrical to give him credit for one and withhold blame for the other, or vice versa.

So, as the postseason moves on without any involvement by the Mets, the thoughts will soon turn from "what happened?" to "what happens next?". The Mets have already moved on from a majority of their coaching staff. Mendoza will be back next season and will have the opportunity to show what he's learned from this experience. And it's a similar story for GM David Stearns, who openly owned accountability for the holes in the Mets roster. It's reasonable to expect that this team will look quite different in April from how it does in October. Hopefully for Mets fans, 2026 will provide enough hope for them to get over the quick ending they saw from miles away.