PHILADELPHIA (FAF) — Analysts are theorizing the New York Mets may be organizing an illegal and possibly immoral “stealth boycott” of the 2025 Major League Baseball postseason and are coming closer every day to their goal of not participating in the upcoming championship tournament.
By losing their fourth consecutive game [1] on Tuesday night, 9-3, at Citizens Bank Park, the Mets fell to within two games of the nearest Wild Card aspirant, the surging San Francisco Giants. The stubbornly viable Cincinnati Reds also won on Tuesday, moving them within three of the Mets. New York, once seen as a sure entrant into the National League playoffs, appears to be standing on ever shakier ground.
It may not be a matter of simple bad play or bad luck, according to those who claim experience in the field.
“Look at how they proceed,” suggests a man willing to identify himself as only El Castillo [2], a former baseball operative. “They do just enough to indicate they are perfectly capable of winning games, yet they inevitably find a way to lose. This could be interpreted as a sign they do not want to compete beyond their heretofore agreed-upon schedule.”
El Castillo points to individual Mets’ inclinations to “do something well to momentarily make you forget they do something poorly,” so the overall outcome they produce is muddied. “Sean Manaea [3] pitches very badly for a couple of innings, enough to do sufficient damage to his team’s fortunes, then suddenly ‘gets it together’ to finish on ‘a high note’. Jose Siri [4] returns from a long absence and hits a ball that almost goes out of the stadium, then almost makes a difficult catch. Mark Vientos [5] wins your trust by belting a home run, so much so that when he plays a ground ball nonchalantly and allows a base hit that sets up a big inning, well, it’s ‘just one of those things’.
“Or is it?”
Another veteran baseball observer, willing to be known only as Double Agent Punctuation Mark [6] (“double, as in I gave up crucial run-scoring doubles when it mattered most [7], punctuation mark, because family newspapers did not wish to spell my name properly [8] out of concern for ‘propriety’”), points to the activities of Juan Soto [9], who joined the 30/30 club Tuesday when he stole a base in a less than advantageous situation.
[10]Yay?
“I understand the lure of milestones,” Punctuation Mark says. “For a brief time, achieving them can earn you the trust of a doubting populace [11]. And nobody can deny the excellence of Soto. But he attempts to steal third base in the eighth inning with two out and his team down by five runs. You have 30 stolen bases to go with 30 home runs in one year, or you have 300 wins in your career, and it all seems very positive. But you have to ask yourself whether this is about winning and making the postseason, or just about a shiny bauble obscuring a desire to go home in two or three weeks.”
While Soto’s achievement of 30/30 reflects genuine seasonlong achievement, the Mets over the past few months have failed to mount a record of as much as 30-30 over any 60-game span. Most pertinently, they have compiled only 31 wins in their past 76 contests, leaving them in the peril they currently face.
“This does not appear to be a team that wishes to have its October filled by baseball,” Punctuation Mark declares. “Their general manager planted among them several assets who clearly do not boost their chances of winning. I don’t know if their manager shares his players’ reluctance to extend their season, but he does not appear to be particularly proactive in rousing them from their doldrums — and if he is, he is not effective. I also don’t know who are the ringleaders in this reverse-momentum effort, as almost none of the ‘stars’ are, in a phrase I like to use, ‘brave [12]’ enough to meet the moment. The lack of fire is disturbing to the naked eye.”
To those who would counter that the recent elevation of Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, and Brandon Sproat is evidence of a Mets team doing its best to win, Punctuation Mark presents a different theory: “I will say the insertion of this trio of potentially brilliant young starting pitchers seems to represent clever subterfuge. They are too ‘fresh’ to be part of such a scheme to avoid winning, but there are only three of them. They may not realize they are pitching on behalf of an intentional lost cause.”
Despite the stumbling the Mets have done from their once-high perch above the National League East, they remain in playoff position and can regain traction by living up to their reputation and playing up to their capabilities over the season’s final 17 games.
“If they wanted to grab hold of a playoff spot, they surely have the talent to do so,” El Castillo believes. “All they have to do is reach out and take it. But if they don’t grab it with both hands, we will know they are not serious about their effort. There is an old proverb from where I come — all it takes to drop something you should be holding tight is one hand in the air and one hand nowhere in sight, so you better use two hands [13].”