There’s a song by The Strokes called “Ode to the Mets” that doesn’t explicitly reference the Mets or contain a lyric about the Mets but is nonetheless a fitting tribute to the beloved ballclub’s spiritual essence.
“It’s about something that you set your heart to and that you love unconditionally but that continues to disappoint you,” the band’s drummer, Fabrizio Moretti, explained back in 2020.
Even now, on Thursday, Sept. 25, with the Mets in playoff position and just four games left in the regular season, that feeling remains. That’s despite the club’s current 67.8% playoff odds. That’s despite the club’s $340 million payroll and the laundry list of All-Stars to whom that money flows. That’s despite the team’s recent breaking of its all-time attendance record. That’s despite a strong belief within the fan base that the current leadership group generally knows what it’s doing.
A lot, in Queens, is going right.
But the pessimism survives because, well, the actual baseball team kind of stinks.
Since June 13, the Mets are 36-53. That’s the fifth-worst record in baseball over that span, better only than a quartet of doormats: the Rockies, the Twins, the Nationals and the White Sox. The Mets have gone from NL East favorites to wild-card wanna-bes. A pitching rotation that wowed for much of April and May is the most guilty culprit.
The Mets stampeded to October glory a year ago with a staff of reclamation projects gone right. They employed a similar strategy ahead of 2025, bringing back Sean Manaea and adding Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes in free agency. But that approach has gone south, leaving New York’s rotation woefully undermanned and entirely reliant on three rookies — Jonah Tong, Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat — none of whom was in the big leagues six weeks ago. Since June 13, only the Rockies, Nationals and Angels have worse rotation ERAs than New York.
And so here are the Mets, one measly game up on both the Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks, clubs with smaller payrolls, weaker rosters and lower expectations. Notably, both hold the tiebreaker over the Mets. The margins are nonexistent, the outlook as chilling as it is unexpected. Arizona traded away three of its best players at the deadline. Cincinnati has just two above-average position players. Neither of those clubs expected to be here, and neither is playing particularly well, but because the Mets are in shambles, for them, October remains in sight.
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The star-powered Mets are 36-53 since June 13. (Joseph Raines/Yahoo Sports)
After a rousing comeback victory Tuesday punctuated by a late, game-tying blast from catcher Francisco Alvarez, the Mets came crashing down to earth Wednesday against the Cubs. Tong surrendered five earned runs and collected just six outs. The overworked bullpen couldn’t keep it close, and the offense couldn’t battle back. The result was a 10-3 clobbering. If not for a pair of extra-innings losses in Cincinnati and Arizona, the Mets would’ve conceded their postseason spot once again.
“You can’t worry about them. You gotta play better,” manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters after the game. “We didn’t play good again today. It doesn’t matter what other teams are doing. It starts on us. And we’re better than that.”
For months now, Mendoza and his players have echoed that sentiment. Time and time again, they have insisted that there is simply too much talent on the roster for their season to finish in September. They’ve expressed a belief in the team’s quality, maintaining that in the end, they’ll get it sorted.
And to an extent, that faith is well placed.
Since purchasing the franchise in November 2020, private equity titan Steve Cohen has sought to legitimize the entire operation. In many respects, he has succeeded. His hiring of David Stearns as president of baseball operations was a heralded move that has paid dividends. The team’s pitching development group is considered one of the best in baseball. Much of the incompetence that ran rampant under the previous ownership group has been purged from the halls of Citi Field. Gone are the outrageous, self-inflicted wounds, the unforced errors and the inexplicable headlines.
In that void, Cohen hoped to foster a newfound sense of faith.
“There’s always been a little bit of skepticism with the Mets and believing that we’re going to be sustainable winners, sustainably be in the playoffs,” he admitted during spring training when asked by Yahoo Sports about the team’s disappointing 2024 attendance. “I think Met fans have had this negative perception of the Mets and their own fandom. And one of my goals is to break that negativity and have them believe that we’re going to be sustainable year in, year out, and they come to the ballpark and enjoy it.”
The fans, this season, responded to that challenge, delivering the Mets the largest year-over-year attendance jump in the sport. And many things have gone well in 2025. After a slow start, Juan Soto is living up to the expectations of his record-breaking, $765 million contract. Francisco Lindor remains one of the best shortstops in baseball. McLean has dominated on the mound since his mid-August debut. Edwin Díaz is still one of the best late-inning relievers on the planet.
But even if the Mets survive and reach the playoffs again, it’s hard to argue that this team has done much to break down the negative perception Cohen referenced. That’s true even if the entire energy of the operation is decidedly less bumbling and the future remains bright.
Losing legitimately, professionally, with good process, is still losing.
In the end, this feels like another one of those seasons The Strokes sang about — loved unconditionally, but ultimately disappointing.
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