What are the Mets? Are they a potentially good team going through an abysmal stretch or a ball club currently well below .500 that is a high-payroll, substandard collective? The Mets were 7-16, the worst record in Major League Baseball, and on a 12-game losing streak when they hosted the Minnesota Twins at Citi Field (Wednesday) in Queens last night.
Star outfielder Juan Soto was expected to return to the lineup. He has not played since April 3 due to a right calf strain. In his absence, the Mets’ offense has been lifeless. During the 12-game skid, they were outscored 67-22. Do the math. That’s an average of 1.8 runs per game over that horrific span.
“I didn’t think we were going to be having that much [of] a hard time scoring runs without him,” said the Mets’ embattled third-year manager Carlos Mendoza of Soto after the team’s 5-3 defeat to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday at home. But again, as I said before the game, it’s hard to put a lot on Soto. But it’s going to be good to have him in the lineup tomorrow.”
Before last night’s game, the Mets were batting .161 with runners in scoring position, had a .222 team batting average, and lowly .617 OPS (On-base Plus Slugging). Closer Devin Williams, who was signed as a free-agent by the Mets to a three-year, $51 million deal in December following pitching last season for the Yankees, has a 9.95 ERA and has allowed seven earned runs in his last three outings.
Another winter free-agent signee, infielder Bo Bichette, is batting .219 with one home run. Centerfielder Luis Robert Jr., who the Mets acquired in a trade with the Chicago White Sox in January, hasn’t been much better. He was hitting .242 with only two homers and seven RBI. And star shortstop Francisco Lindor has made uncharacteristic mental errors in the field and on the base paths while starting slow at the plate. He was hitting an alarming .209 with two home runs and four RBI’s prior to last night’s game.
Mendoza gets much of the blame for the Mets myriad issues as managers. Invariably, managers take the brunt of criticism. But an equal share should be ascribed to general manager David Stearns, who constructed the team. How patient will Mets owner Steve Cohen be with Mendoza and Stearns, who are steering a $381 million payroll — the second highest in MLB behind the Los Angeles Dodgers’ $413 million — off a cliff?
History says the Mets will not make the playoffs. No team that has lost 12 or more straight games in a season has reached the playoffs. That’s the long-term goal. Unfathomably, the short-term aim is just to win a game or two.