Time is becoming a factor this late in August, and with the Phillies’ lead in the NL East growing by the day, the NL wild card seems to be the only route New York has now toward October baseball.
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.
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 13 of their past 15 games entering Friday, are 19-31 over their past 50 games and lost their past five series.
What’s gone wrong in Queens? The biggest culprit is within the Mets’ starting pitching.
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season]
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.
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.
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 gave up 11 unanswered runs against the rival Braves this week.
“It’s frustrating. We’re not holding up our end, and we need to do better," Peterson said of the pitching.
Since the All-Star break, New York has gone from being tied atop the NL East with the Philadelphia Phillies to now being five games back in the division entering Friday. And in the NL wild-card standings, they’re holding onto playoff position by a thread with a half-game lead over the improving Cincinnati Reds.
One of the biggest impediments to the Mets and a future in the playoffs could be a difficult schedule. In the final eight weeks of the season, New York faces five teams currently in postseason position, including the Mariners (three games), Phillies (seven games), Cubs (three games), Padres (three games) and Tigers (three games). They also have a pivotal series against the Reds in Cincinnati the first weekend of September.
Time is becoming a factor this late in August, and with the Phillies’ lead in the NL East growing by the day, the NL wild card seems to be the only route New York has now toward October baseball. While Cincinnati is right behind the Mets, the Reds also have a challenging schedule down the stretch with series against the Brewers, Dodgers, Blue Jays, Padres, Cubs and Mets.
Several divisions around the game are still up for grabs, but the fight for the third and final wild-card spot might be the most competitive.
Category: General Sports
