“Look for the helpers,” Mr. Rogers implored, and the wishful thinkers in Mets management listened. They didn’t know who was gonna help in Mr. Met’s Neighborhood, but they’d keep looking. As of Tuesday night, the Mets had sought help from 48 players in 55 games. As of Monday afternoon, they had tried only 46 different players in 54 games. The search for helpers is constant.
Without Tyrone Taylor (injured), Jonathan Pintaro (optioned), and Nick Morabito (ditto), but with Eric Wagaman (recalled), Jared Young (activated), and A.J. Minter (reactivated), the Mets lost, 7-2, to the Reds at Citi Field. When Taylor, Pintaro, and Morabito were available and playing the day before, the Mets lost, 7-2, to the Reds at Citi Field.
Throwing bodies at the situation is not proving all that helpful at effecting change.
The main Met who didn’t accomplish anything worthwhile versus Cincinnati was David Peterson, who last week in Washington seemed to solve whatever had been ailing him as a starter. Peterson previously required the training wheels an opener provides — first innings were too scary for him. Trusted to go get ’em from the get-go, he pitched well against the Nats for five innings. Trusted to do it again against the Reds, he didn’t. He really didn’t. Peterson was in trouble early and mostly, bailed out from digging a far deeper hole by the specific strengths of Luis Torrens, baseball’s version of a special teams player. Torrens makes throws to second and tags at home so well he could be named an All-Pro Despite the contributions of our Backup Catcher For Life, the Mets were down, 5-0, by the fourth. The cruelest blow came in the sixth, when Petey didn’t back up the plate on an altogether messy defensive sequence. The pitcher’s brain freeze cost the Mets a base, not a run (the run, Cincy’s sixth, was gonna score, anyway), but it placed an italicized exclamation point on the entire David Peterson experience for the evening, as in Wow, that was really bad!
And it was for just about every Met. Maybe not Juan Soto. Juan Soto called time in the sixth to put on a brief fireworks show that accounted for two runs and distracted the crowd from its miseries long enough elicit a few oohs and a couple of aahs. His was one of those home runs that parted clouds. It was also one of those home runs that couldn’t close a six-run gap with one swing. Not Juan’s fault the Mets couldn’t win. Not any of 48 individual 2026 Mets’ faults at this point that the Mets rarely win. The aggregation of talent or whatever you’d term it hasn’t jelled in any 26-man format that’s been shaped. The latest iteration that includes Young, Minter, and Wagaman is no exception. Young qualified as a revelation during the slice of the schedule that hadn’t yet revealed itself a slog to nowheresville; he went 0-for-1 with a walk upon his return. Wagaman sat on the bench for a single April afternoon before someone noticed he was optionable; he had the honor on Tuesday of staying in after pinch-hitting and becoming the Mets’ 194th third baseman (ever, not just this year). Minter had been gone thirteen months; the scoreless inning he logged following Tommy John surgery and rehab should feel like a win to him.
Nothing feels like a win to Mets fans. Five losses in a row have piled up, sinking the club to eleven under .500, matching this season’s nadir and echoing the exact record of 22-33 from two years ago at this juncture. That was as comparably grim a scene as this one, yet the 2024 Mets turned their nosedive around and our expectations on their head, ultimately winding up two games shy of the World Series. A giddy and special time indeed awaited us as we soared from grim to Grimace. We couldn’t see it developing then. We sure as hell can’t see something like it developing now. The temptation is to say Grimace is not walking through that door, but having cycled through 48 Mets in 55 games, there’s no telling who’ll be playing for this team next.
