Mets missed the MLB playoffs on the final day of the year, Juan Soto’s first season in Flushing.
New York’s slow-motion descent began back in June as rotation began to fall apart.
Homegrown star Pete Alonso is a free agent again this winter. Will Mets bring him back?
In the end, it was not a collapse for the New York Mets, even if it will be labeled as such. They simply were not very good.
Collapse? That’s a sudden act, a building collapsing in an earthquake. The Mets have not collapsed so much as they got lost in quicksand, with a 38-55 record since June 14.
Still, the utter mediocrity of the National League’s wild card contenders and the everybody-in nature of the modern playoff format extended the misery, tempting the Mets, taking it down to a Game 162 where they needed a win over the Miami Marlins and a Cincinnati Reds loss to get in.
Appropriate, then, that the Reds would lose and leave the door open a crack, even if only for one last Mets indignity.
It came in a 4-0 loss to the Marlins that was equal parts storm clouds from the Baseball Gods, managerial malfeasance and personnel shortcomings that doomed the Mets from the jump.
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Even with a $765 million superstar in newly acquired Juan Soto, who nearly turned in a 40-40 season that ultimately was MVP caliber. Even with $341 million shortstop Francisco Lindor, again the heartbeat of the club. And with old friend Pete Alonso, who they let fester all winter only to welcome him back in February on a make-good deal – and get rewarded with 38 home runs and 126 RBIs.
“There are no words to describe what we are going through,” manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters in South Florida after the defeat.
“We came in with a lot of expectations and we are going home.”
It was mildly appropriate that Game 162 was started by Sean Manaea, symbolic of their injury-plagued and poorly-performing pitching staff.
One year ago, Manaea was a hero, the Mets winning two of his three playoff starts as they made a wild run to the National League Championship Series. Rewarded with a $75 million contract to come back, he never got off the ground.
Manaea was hurt before the start of spring training, limited to 12 starts, and brought a 5.80 ERA into the finale.
And he gave what he could – recording five outs and keeping the Mets level with the Marlins before departing. But predictably, a seven-man bullpen relay blew a tire – Mendoza for some reason had Ryne Stanek’s 5.30 ERA on the mound in a 0-0 do-or-die game – and, stunningly, that was that.
The Baseball Gods? They chipped in when Alonso’s hardest-hit ball this season – a 116-mph screamer with the bases loaded in the fifth inning that was hit right at Marlins left fielder Javier Sanoja. The ball looked destined for the gap, a 4-3 game, and an abundance of hope.
Then again, for as much as Mets fans like to personalize their gloom as somehow superior to other flailing franchises, there was no mystique about that. An uncanny bit of positioning by the Marlins, a nice catch, Alonso able to only embrace Lindor, who nuzzled his head in Alonso’s chest after the inning.
The Mets were only out of playoff position for nine days this entire season. The flip side? Nobody ever wept for an 83-79 team missing the playoffs.
“Super-talented team,” says Alonso, who confirmed he will opt out of the second year of his $54 million deal, “and the reality is we fell short.
“We didn’t even get to October. We fell short’
While owner Steve Cohen’s pockets may, in fact, be bottomless, his boutique purchases did result in a lopsided roster. Soto, Lindor and Alonso combined for 15.8 WAR; their most valuable starting pitcher, Kodai Senga, produced 2.2 and ended the year in the minor leagues.
The ill-advised signing of injury-prone Frankie Montas set the group back immediately. A deft backstop signing of Griffin Canning seemed to rescue them, until Canning blew out his Achilles.
And then there were the kids, arriving one after another – Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat, asked to save the season. Only the first one up – McLean, who posted a 2.06 ERA and struck out 10.7 batters per nine innings in eight starts – was up to the task.
So it was spackle and hope for the best and that closer Edwin Diaz remained intact. That he did, firing two dominant innings in a desperation appearance in Game 162, the look of disgust on his face suggesting what the hell he was doing pitching with a 4-0 deficit.
Such is the nature of do-or-die games, one that a club with an estimated $85 million luxury tax bill might have figured was beneath them.
Yet even an expensive trinket can be poorly put together. And now the club faces a big decision on Alonso this winter.
“That’s one of the reasons why this sucks,” Lindor told reporters in Miami. “There’s a lot of good guys here, and it’s not going to be the same. It doesn’t feel good for not accomplishing what we set out to do.”
Beyond that, they’ll have to decide how young they want to go in the rotation or if they want to try and go the luxe route yet again, three years after the Justin Verlander-Max Scherzer experiment failed.
Those questions came quicker than they would’ve preferred, thanks to an eight-game September losing streak and two losses in three games in Miami, when just one more win would do.
Collapse? Not really. The warning lights have been lit since June.