When the New York Mets finished their offseason after signing right fielder Juan Soto to the largest contract in the history of professional sports and bringing back first baseman and new franchise leader in home runs Pete Alonso, you can imagine they believed they had a team ready for the postseason. And after finishing the season in the NLCS, you can understand why that was the case.
Even as recently as three weeks ago at the trade deadline, New York loaded up with additions in their bullpen like Gregory Soto, Ryan Helsley and Tyler Rogers. And those moves are indicative of an organization that has its sights on October.
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But things this month have become critical for the Mets, as they are on the precipice of watching their season slip away, along with the hope of a return to the postseason. The Mets have lost 14 of their past 16 games, including Friday’s 11-9 defeat to the visiting Seattle Mariners. They are 19-32 over their past 51 games and lost their past five series entering Friday.
What’s gone wrong in Queens? The biggest culprit is within the Mets’ starting pitching.
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When the season began, there were concerns about what New York’s rotation would look like because, despite the additions of Clay Holmes and Frankie Montas Jr., the starter situation wasn’t perfect. Yet throughout the first half, the Mets had one of the best starter ERAs in the game as Holmes, left-hander David Peterson, breakout starter Griffin Canning and Kodai Senga thrived.
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However, things have changed rapidly. The All-Star level production New York was getting has disappeared. Since the All-Star break, Peterson and Sean Manaea have ERAs over 4, Holmes and Senga have ERAs over 5 and Montas is over 7. Not to mention that Canning was lost for the year after suffering a torn Achilles.
Sean Manaea gave up four runs in five innings against the Mariners on Friday night. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
(Jim McIsaac via Getty Images)
Now that the trade deadline has passed, the Mets’ solutions have to come from within. While Senga, Manaea, Holmes and Peterson have each had moments of brilliance this season, they’ll have to dramatically improve if New York has any hope of earning a playoff spot.
The mental toll of losing this many games seems to be wearing on New York as its playoff hopes take a major hit. Among those defeats was a gut-punch loss where New York blew a six-run lead and…