“Trade or release everybody!” is an understandable if impulsive answer to the question, “What the hell should the Mets do next, now that they’ve been swept at home by the Colorado Rockies, having shown no more than scant traces of life in losing their Sunday doubleheader?”
Within reason, it may also be the correct one.
The Mets designated Tommy Pham for assignment following the 3-0 shutout that followed the 3-1 loss that topped off the weekend set that commenced with a 4-3 defeat. The lone highlight from Friday to Sunday was the rainout Saturday. DFA’ing Pham was a slight step in the gotta-do-something direction. Nothing against Pham, but Tommy went nothing-for-thirteen during his two-week Recidivist stint. We already had a passel of players capable of doing that without excavating a 38-year-old journeyman.
Pham is slated to be replaced by the aptly named Austin Slater, another veteran outfielder (32), also designated for assignment by a likely non-contender, in his case the Marlins. Welcome to Queens, Austin.
But you can go, too.
Juan Soto. Nolan McLean. Carson Benge. Keep them.
Everybody else goes up for grabs. Everybody on the active roster. Everybody on the injured list, assuming you can successfully shop players who aren’t available to play immediately. Francisco Lindor is more like Francisco Limbo, given his IL stint, but I’d listen if he tempts anybody. Steve Cohen can pay off whoever and whatever needs to be paid off, lest his baseball product constitute a neighborhood blight on his new casino complex.
Leave the prospects at Triple-A and below alone for now. But put the word out that anybody who’s making this team what it is — out of it for 2026 — can be had.
A tad over one-sixth of the schedule has been played. The Mets have played themselves off the competitive map. At 9-19 they are tied for dead last in the National League East and the National League Wild Card standings. A record of 9-19 is ludicrously bad. It is what the Mets of 1962 were after a sixth-and-a-tad. Disappointing teams go 12-16. Disastrous teams go 9-19.
So it’s time to be Bill Veeck and put out the OPEN FOR BUSINESS sign. Don’t make this a fire sale, but cultivate offers. There are players here contenders will crave, players who I wouldn’t be looking to dismiss if not for this season having imploded on contact. Some contracts won’t look too bad to somebody on the edge of a playoff race. Deals might not come to fruition right away, but get the ball rolling.
Admittedly, I don’t know who’s going to grease the transactional wheel, since in this mood, I’m not suggesting David Stearns stick around. Carlos Mendoza, either. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s everybody’s fault. Everybody can go.
Except Soto, who’s one of the great hitters in the game and isn’t going anywhere with that contract, anyway; McLean, who already qualifies to join the Mets Aces Union’s ongoing class action suit for non-support; and Benge, who needs to grow up in a less hopeless atmosphere, one I’d like to see start being created ASAP.
Everybody else I’m not that attached to. I’ve come to like Clay Holmes, but he can probably bring back a bounty. Francisco Alvarez is a very rootable guy, but that’s not the same as a star in the making, which I could swear was what he was supposed to be. Somebody is likely to see something in Mark Vientos or Brett Baty. Ronny Mauricio probably deserves a shot to show what he’s got, but this squad isn’t inspiring lists of absolute untouchables.
As for those Mets who’ve been brought in lately, none has been on hand long enough to be missed. A scout will notice the flaw in Bo Bichette’s approach. An analytic will reveal Marcus Semien is far more valuable than he appears. A pitching coach in a distant land will want to get his hands on Freddy Peralta and any useful bullpen arm, including fresh-faced Carl Edwards, Jr., the 35-year-old righty lucky enough to have grabbed a ticket on the Titanic just as the iceberg proved not merely a rumor. Whoever and whatever. The Mets should aspire to be a full-service retailer before July is done.
This season is effectively over in everything but length. Fun will be had where we find it. Five-dollar hot dogs on Tuesday nights and gate giveaways if you’re in the mood to line up (though I imagine the lines will grow shorter as the homestands turn morbid). Eric Byrnes screaming about car repairs and the snotty teenage daughter who’s upset about the malfunctioning hot tub at her parents’ vacation rental notwithstanding, televised baseball is still an attraction to stubborn souls who can overlook their own team having become unwatchable. Me, I’ll generally watch whoever the Mets suit up.
But I’d really prefer not to watch so many who are wearing their uniform at present.
Sorry for your pain. I hope your post helped you to get it out of your system.
Because if you really mean it, I think you have to call your column “Keep Two”.
I don’t think that Juan Soto is going to want to play the prime of his career for a rebuilding team, or that Steve Cohen will be willing to pay Soto $60 million/ year for the privilege.
My own observation is that Juan Soto has conducted his career less like an MLB superstar, and more like an NBA superstar.
A silly little thing like a contract is not going to prevent Soto from leaving, if that is what he chooses to do.
Gotta start at the top and that means both Stearns and Mendoza . Cohen can hire an “advisor” to help him conduct this fire sale that you speak of, hopefully someone with some knowledge of the minor leagues who can spot some decent prospects for the 20+ guys he is going to be shopping.
With a cancellation of the entire 2027 season a distinct possibility, the Mets will have 18 months to complete an entire re-set. The 2026 team is going to lose 95 games.
Well that was depressing, although true. Glad I’m in France. I should take wagers on whether Alex Cora is our Manager when I get back on June 1. Hearing a lot of comments – I have no idea if they’re valid – that he isn’t a fit for a young team but would be good for a veteran club like the Mets.
Pham is done IMO. His bat is slow, never caught up to anything.
Yes, Stearns and Mendoza must–but some of us called for Mendy exit last year–remember the 2025 collapse?
You overrate trade interest in some of the players. No one would want a Robert or Polanco or a Semien or for god’s sake Tyrone Taylor. Only the mildest in Vientos and Baty. Bichette paid–as we always knew-way way too much. Sean M? Senga? Peterson? Don’t make me laugh… I wonder if a Soto deal/payout could be done. Always a bad deal as he will be 30 going on 40, maybe already, the danger of super long contracts.
Mendy is fine. He is an adequate manager, the players seemingly respect him, and he not the real problem. I am not sure that Whitey Herzog could do much more with this anemic crew. We now have last year’s trade deadline and a full offseason to gauge David Stearns’ performance, and he has failed miserably as a talent judge as well as a franchise builder. He is also tone deaf to the spirit and feelings of the fan base which, judging from the attendance over the weekend, is dwindling rapidly. One would think that a hedge fund guy like Uncle Stevie would know more than anybody that if it is broke, just cut your losses and move on. Time to start over. Play the kids, trade what vets (other than Soto) you have left, get under the Cohen tax. Otherwise, it is 1977 all over again. I never thought that I would be rooting for a lock-out!
Where is M. Donald Grant when you need him?
Unfortunately, M. Donald’s current position as Chairman of the Board of one of the Rings of Hell in Dante (Bichette’s) Inferno precludes him from having the bandwidth to jump in here.
Mendy does not look happy. His body language tells a story.
Yep, what’s with all the body ticks and scratching his shoulder and chest? Guy said he has tried everything, and refuses to have a team meeting.
Then when they ask him about his job status, he acts like he does not hear it and asks for it to be repeated. I knew (for sure) that he was a dope when lsst year he did not pinch run Taylor for Marte, and then said Marte was a speedy baserunner. The fact that Marte got thrown out at the plate by an inch is irrelevent, as we never know how anything will turn out after a poor managerial decision.
Plenty of time to turn it around.
3 WC’s, remember?
This 2026 Mets team keeps reminding me of Monty Burns’s gloating after he assembles a power plant softball super-team: “Smithers, there’s no way I can lose this bet unless, of course, my nine all-stars fall victim to nine separate misfortunes and are unable to play tomorrow. But that will never happen. Three misfortunes, that’s possible. Seven misfortunes, there’s an outside chance. But nine misfortunes? I’d like to see that!”
The number of “misfortunes” is staggering. In no particular order:
-Soto misses 3 weeks.
-Lindor misses 6-8 weeks.
-Polanco impaired with achilles, then to IL for wrist.
-Benge ice cold, plus Tauchman’s meniscus.
-Manaea ineffective. Robertson ineffective. Senga ineffective. Scott ineffective. Tong taking lumps at AAA. Freddy can’t go six.
-Robert needs his time managed to stay healthy.
-Semien isn’t experiencing a hitting rebirth.
-Bichette is ice cold, which you always fear when forcing a hitter to learn a new defensive position at the major league level.
-Pete ruined Williams and/or Williams is afraid of NYC. Weaver is streaky. Minter still out.
-Baty, Vientos and Mauricio aren’t seizing any opportunities.
All these misfortunes, all at once, leads to the team playing guys like Melendez, Pham, Slater, Edwards, Gerber. The only players doing as well as or better than expected are McLean, Alvarez, and Tobias Myers.
I’m looking for a silver lining. But even if the offense wakes up, the rotation is on fumes 3/5 (or 4/6) of the time.
I know Alonso has had a bad April in Baltimore but I will never forgive Stearns and Cohen for not keeping him. That was rank insensitivity and baseball negligence. My opinion would be the same even if the team played well this year, and of course they are playing miserably with little expectation of improvement.
It didn’t seem like a terrible move at the time — given the failures of the last couple of years, they had to try something different. I would have preferred to keep Alonso (and Nimmo) too, but the problem is that the “something different” has been a miserable failure, and we relied on better baseball minds to make good decisions. It’s just simply poor management. I’m not angry, just deeply disappointed.
just this morning i asked a friend if it was too soon to start a fire sale.
the mets are on track to win 52 games, if they can keep the wins coming.
i told him i only felt for mclean and benge, in wishing this team 100 losses.
cultivating offers is a better way to put it, especially if these were to produce some young, athletic MLB-ready players sporting a pulse and potential.
the team as it stands looks like a poor man’s steve philips creation: but with lesser, former stars sporting their late-career dimunition of skills and passion.
When there is nothing to say, there’s nothing to say.
I always thought the post-Darryl Mets of the early 90s were the Gold Standard for Mets Teams I Could Care Less About, but this group is giving those Coleman-Saberhagen Mets a run for their money.
From Grant’s Tomb to Cohen’s Crypt, full circle
I’ll keep watching periodically through the season.. Yankee broadcasts are so dull , and besides our broadcast team is better , it’s always been better..
Uhhhhh…. Yea……
The starting pitcher for the Nats tonight has an ERA of 7.36. Lately, starting pitchers with inflated ERAs have gotten healthy against the Mets. I don’t expect tonight to be any different.
Yep. Then when he shuts us out, we csn “tip our cap.”
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