☀️ GOOD MORNING:
If this isn’t rock bottom, I don’t want to know what rock bottom looks like.
On a weekend the Mets were supposed to get their act back together after a dreadful two weeks of losing, facing the second worst team in the National League, they looked as bad as they’ve ever looked.
9-1.
9-2.
12-1.
That’s a 30–4 against a Pirates team with a total payroll that is less than the combined salaries of Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. It was the most lopsided series score in club history, and the Pirates’ largest positive run differential over three games since 2006.
A -26 run differential for the Mets is the fourth largest over any three-game set in franchise history. In 2023, they lost 7-0, 21-3, and 6-0 in three straight games against the Braves for the largest gap. They lost by -28 over three contests in 2006 and by -27 in three contests in 1985. I suppose the good news is two of those teams won over 95 games.
We know the Mets team we watched (or hopefully many of you turned off the TV and didn’t watch) this weekend is a shell of what it should look like when the pitching staff is fully healthy.
We also know the everyday players have no excuse. You can blame bad pitching for crooked innings, but when the offense rolls over and the defense has trouble making routine plays, it’s the sign of a bigger problem.
We will try to make some sense of it in today’s issue.
🥴 UH OH: When you don’t take advantage against the bad teams, it sets up a difficult path ahead. The Amazins welcome the red-hot Brewers to town on Tuesday — a team they are suddenly battling for a wild-card spot — before gearing up for the next Subway Series that is always competitive.
📨 MAILBAG: Thanks for all of the comments and questions in the Mailbag chat. I will leave it open for another day. I will touch on a few of the topics in today’s issue and take advantage of the off-day on the schedule to answer a bunch of the questions tomorrow. Bonus points for these few below that sum up the state of Mets fandom right now.
Matt F: Why does this franchise continue to hate me when I show them nothing but love?
Brian: Can we get Grimace back?
☕️ Grab your coffee for your morning dose of Mets Fix!
🧗♀️ ROCK BOTTOM?
Sometimes it helps taking a few days between issuing a new newsletter. We know the daily storylines, another bad start, another fruitless game with runners in scoring position, another leak in the bullpen, another this, another that.
What does it all mean?
As we close out the month of June, the Mets find themselves positioned where any optimistic fan, asked before the season had started, would have hoped they would be at this point of the calendar. They are in a neck-and-neck race with the Phillies for first place in the NL East. They are within striking distance of securing a first-round bye in the playoffs. Pete Alonso is having a career season. Juan Soto is finishing one of the best offensive months in franchise history.
If you look at the rollercoaster that is the FanGraphs’ playoff odds chart, there have been some dips and drops for both Philly and New York, with the Phillies reversing course with the Mets over the past month, but it’s really the hated Braves who have given their fans the biggest stomach drop.
Yet, none of that seems to matter right now. The team on our television sets and in front of the poor souls who have survived the equally oppressive heat to see them play over the past two weeks have bore witness to a club that looks closer to the Bad News Bears than the Amazin’ Mets.
🔹 The Pitching
It starts with the pitching. The Mets have used 27 different players to record at least one out during the month of June, including Jared Young and Travis Jankowski. No other team in baseball has used more than 20.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Mets Fix to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.