Meet The Mess

By Mike Rifkin

The New York Mets might have hit rock bottom on Wednesday, but that’s saying a lot for a team that has struggled since the beginning of the month. The Mets lost to the Dodgers 10-3 and were swept in the three game series by Los Angeles. That makes the Mets 7-19 in the month of May, and they can’t wait for the calendar to flip to June. 

Wednesday put an exclamation point on the month, prior to the game the Mets put closer Edwin Diaz on the Injured List with a shoulder impingement. Diaz, who missed all of last season with torn Patella Tendon at the World Baseball Classic. In 2022, Diaz was unbelievable posting a 1.31 ERA with 32 saves. This year Diaz has not been as dominant, he has a 5.40 ERA and has not looked right at all, hasn’t had command of both his fastball or his slider at the same time. 

The Mets offense has been the definition of inconsistent this season. They’ve tried shifting guys around and nothing has stuck. First baseman Pete Alonso hasn’t had the start to his free agent year he’d like. Yes, Alonso has 12 homers and 26 RBI, but he has a slash line of .231/.308/.453. Alonso wants to bump that average up a bit, but the contract is definitely weighing on him. On Wednesday Alonso got hit by a pitch on his hand and the Mets said X-rays were negative, but Alonso went for further testing. Last year Alonso broke his wrist by getting hit by a pitch. Alonso, is the biggest power threat in the Mets lineup and the team can’ t lose him for a long extended period of time, if they think they can turn it around. 

Now here’s the cherry on top of the sundae. During another brutal defeat, reliever Jorge Lopez threw his glove into the stands after being ejected. Manager Carlos Mendoza said Lopez’s actions were “unacceptable”. Lopez said “ No, I don’t regret it”. There were some other things said by Lopez, and the Mets have reacted very quickly on this and have DFA’D Lopez, so his time in New York is coming to an end. 

After Wednesday’s game the Mets had a team meeting. Now here’s the thing if the team meeting sparks something that’d be something. But this team is massively disappointing and they heard that from their GM on Tuesday. Prior to the first game of the doubleheader David Stearns spoke to the media and basically said he still believes this team can make a run before deciding on what they do at the trade deadline. Now they do have time, but it’s running short and to be honest I am sick of these guys telling the fans that they can be better than this, at some point they have to show it. In my opinion the Mets have never mentally recovered from what happened in September of 2022, including a three game sweep at the hands of the Braves, which cost them the division. If the last year and a half plus hasn’t been rock bottom, what is? If Wednesday wasn’t the cherry on top of what has been an awful month for this franchise, the question becomes what could possibly be next?