For a few hours between late Friday night and Saturday afternoon, the pulse of the New York Mets’ 2026 season was faint.
Their best starter, Clay Holmes, was suddenly joining a variety of other key teammates on a growing injured list. Their crosstown rivals, having the exact opposite season to the Mets in every way, looked indisputably superior. Their manager, normally chipper, admitted that after taking jab after jab after jab this spring, his team was finally staggering backward from the blows.
Then came Saturday’s win, which included a gritty showing from the lineup and a gutsy showing from the bullpen. Then came Sunday’s stunner, which featured the Mets’ first ninth-inning comeback since Jose Iglesias wore their jersey. Sometimes wins like those change everything for teams sputtering early in the season. Sometimes, they don’t.
If the Mets are to make this one count, they will have to do exactly what they did this weekend: Make the best of what they have and hang in there.
For example: As they fly to Dulles Airport Sunday night, the Mets’ pitching staff remains in relative disarray. The team has not yet announced a rotation replacement for Holmes, who would normally have pitched Wednesday against the Nationals.
One would-be candidate, red-hot 24-year-old Jack Wenninger, threw 60 pitches for Triple-A Syracuse Sunday, which would almost certainly rule him out for Wednesday. Jonah Tong recorded just five outs in his most recent start.
The likeliest fill-in might be lefty Zach Thornton, a former fifth-round pick who owns a 3.16 ERA in 37 innings this season and owns a 2.25 ERA in two starts since being promoted to Triple-A. Thornton, 24, also pitched Friday, meaning he is perfectly lined up with Holmes’s turn.
In the meantime, the Mets still face a decision about Sean Manaea, who struggled early in his four innings of relief against the New York Yankees Sunday, but settled in enough that Carlos Mendoza said later he was encouraged by the way Manaea was able to get soft contact from the Yankees lineup in his last two innings.
As a former starter relegated to occasional mop-up duty, Manaea also represents an obvious choice to replace Holmes for purely logistical reasons. But the 57 pitches he threw today likely rule out a Wednesday start – though perhaps not a Wednesday opening.
Thus far, the Mets have avoided any firmer decision on Manaea, who has $43 million remaining on his contract but has struggled enough that Mendoza has had to work around him in the bullpen at times – a concession they have hardly been able to afford amid their early season struggles.
That he settled in and kept the Mets close through four innings Sunday preserved every reliever but Devin Williams, meaning they do not necessarily need to find a fresh arm by the time they play the Nationals Monday. Still, if the bullpen finds itself needing reinforcements before Manaea can safely pitch again, the Mets could find themselves choosing between keeping him on the roster and giving themselves enough arms at a time when they cannot afford to give away any late leads.
Getting him right – and the fact that Manaea’s sinker sat around 92 miles per hour is promising – would increase the Mets’ chances of revival. But the Mets do not have time to waste.
As a result, they seem to be showing increased urgency with first baseman Jorge Polanco, who has been out since mid-April with Achilles bursitis. Last week, Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns said the team was waiting for Polanco to be asymptomatic before ramping him up for everyday duty. But in the days since, Polanco has hit during batting practice more than once, done defensive work, and gone through agility drills.
Mendoza said Sunday that Polanco will travel with the team to Washington this week so he can continue baseball activities and suggested for the first time that Polanco will either have to play through some discomfort or concede a long injured list stint.
“It’s getting to a point where, he’s gonna feel it, right? But just keeping it to a point where like, I can tolerate this,” Mendoza said. “Because if not, he’s going to be shut down for long period of time. So I think we just continue to go through baseball activities, continue to push it running-wise, and see how he reacts to that.”
Polanco would add depth to the Mets lineup – though in his absence, the Mets have had no choice but to allow for the emergence of A.J. Ewing and Carson Benge. Similarly, they will have to rely on Christian Scott to evolve into a reliable MLB starter and David Peterson to reestablish himself as one. Peterson expressed frustration with the Mets’ continued reliance on an opener before he pitches, but the results are indisputable: In 20 innings of bulk relief this year, his ERA is 2.25. In 23 1/3 innings as a starter, it is 8.10.
So the Mets must keep using an opener and crossing their fingers and doing whatever it takes to put whoever they have in the best position to succeed. They will have to make up ground with a tattered lineup while they wait for injuries to heal and sew them back together. Sunday, they proved it is possible. Monday, they must do it again.
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