The Mets’ hope is they are not this bad, but the National League is.
In most seasons even having a pipe-dream playoff conversation about a team 11 games under .500 in June would be where folly merges with delusion. And the way these Mets are playing, that is likely true for them as well.
But in an era in which six teams in each league reach the playoffs and in a 2024 season in which just five in the NL are currently over .500, then perhaps you can squint your eyes and see more than just a soulless countdown to the trade deadline for these Mets.
3
The patron saints for such a belief system were in the Citi Field opposing dugout over the weekend. Because the Diamondbacks were still two games under .500 on Aug. 11 last year, eked in as the sixth seed with just 84 wins and yet won the pennant. Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said he saw that club being “inspirational” to struggling teams to envision what is possible.
That includes his own, which is in the swamp of NL sub-mediocrity that wants to believe its best baseball is still ahead. Even with a 5-4 victory Sunday, the Diamondbacks were just 27-32. But that was the same record as the Phillies had last season after 59 games — a point noted by Lovullo — and Philly finished as the top wild-card seed and went seven games against Arizona in the NLCS.
This is what troubled teams cling to at this time of year — too early to surrender, too late to just say it is a bad opening statement. The Mets could look down and see they are closer to the doormat Rockies and Marlins (the only NL teams with worst records) then even the substandard wild-card pile in front of them, where the current final wild-card spot is a tie between the 29-31 Cubs and Giants.
But, for example, Adam Ottavino is trying a mind game wondering whether the Mets can play as well for the next two months as they have played poorly for the first two months, get to .500 and have a puncher’s chance over the last quarter of the season.
At some point, though, no matter how bad the length of the league might be, the Mets just can’t lose their way to a better tomorrow.
They just went 3-7 on a 10-game homestand and their 21 home losses are tied for the most in MLB with the White Sox, Angels and Marlins.
3
“We have to play better, especially here at home,” Carlos Mendoza said. “Now we have a road trip and we have to get some W’s.”
They left for two country’s capitals — three in Washington against the Nationals and two in London against the Phillies — still unable to rely on any element of the game to elevate their play and belief system.
The offense has shown indicators of life with J.D. Martinez and Mark Vientos helping to create greater heft and length to the lineup. But then the Mets throw out a bizarre effort Sunday. They scored four third-inning runs to wipe away an early 3-0 deficit. As part of the surge, the team that came in with an MLB-low two triples, produced consecutive triples — a two-runner from Brandon Nimmo to tie the score and an RBI three-bagger from Martinez to provide the lead.
But the Mets had just one more hit and no runs in the other eight innings.
3
Jose Quintana surrendered homers to two of the opening three batters to bring first-inning boos from the 31,059 at Citi. He also walked three and hit two to build his pitch count to 84 through just four innings. Yet another short start forced an overused pen into a big workload and Dedniel Nuñez, Danny Young, Reid Garrett and Ottavino responded with four shutout innings and nine strikeouts.
However, that didn’t get the Mets to the finish line. The weak link was uncovered when Jake Diekman began his effort in the ninth by allowing a pinch-hit double to Gabriel Moreno and a go-ahead two-run homer to Ketel Marte. Yet more boos. A four-game split. And, thus, a seventh straight non-winning series from the Mets.
It is the kind of run that forges the kind of record (24-35) that makes the playoffs feel more like a punch line than a possibility. The depth of the NL does not look good. But these Mets currently look worse with a woeful defense — notably a Bermuda Triangle of missed outs among first baseman Pete Alonso and particularly second baseman Jeff McNeil and right fielder Starling Marte — an offense that is still hungering for its moneyed players to rise and a pitching staff going the wrong way due to a pen that already seems to be running on fumes.
Ultimately, the strength of a team with playoff ambitions can’t just be the weakness of the league in which it plays.
