Wouldn’t it have been something if this August version of the New York Mets had shown up back in April?
The team’s 12-game losing streak did serious damage, but that wasn’t the only rough patch. There were other stretches in between when the Mets were getting knocked around, and even getting swept by the Colorado Rockies at Citi Field didn’t come during that skid.
Better health would have helped. So would stronger starting pitching and a different offseason.
Those aren’t the moves we’re counting here, though. The focus has to stay on decisions the Mets controlled after Opening Day.
So if you’re looking for the choices that might have changed the season, these are the ones that stand out.
Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga should have switched roles sooner
Right now, Sean Manaea looks revived in the rotation and Kodai Senga has settled in as a popular closer. That’s a far cry from how things looked for a while.
Manaea was ordinary in the bullpen, while Senga kept turning in rough outings out of relief. Both were used as starters, bulk arms and traditional relievers at different points, but the answer may have been much simpler: move Senga to the bullpen and let Manaea get back to starting.
There’s no way to know exactly how that would have played out if the Mets had made the switch earlier. Still, by mid-August, both pitchers seem very comfortable in the roles the team finally gave them.
The problem is that the Senga part may have come too late. He missed all of May and the first half of June, and by the time he returned from the injured list, the Mets were already buried.
Carlos Mendoza should have been out long before June 26
The Mets gave Carlos Mendoza 81 games, and by the end it was obvious he wasn’t the right fit to lead the club. Yes, not everything was on him.
But Andy Green’s success as the skipper makes you wonder what might have happened if the switch had come earlier. The Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies turned their seasons around, after all.
What made the commitment to Mendoza even harder to understand was how clear it seemed early that he wasn’t going to be around for the 2027 season. Looking back, he probably should have been gone at least a month earlier, maybe two. Sometimes changing course just to try something different is enough to save a season.
The Mets should have stopped forcing players into the wrong spots
Lately, the Mets have at least started to line up more closely with the defense they want on the field. It isn’t perfect, but the approach now seems to be about putting the best possible glove work out there. That has meant Luis Torrens catching, Francisco Alvarez at DH, and keeping Brett Baty out of the outfield as much as possible.
There’s nothing wrong with the team trying Bo Bichette at third base, especially since that has worked extremely well. But the lack of a true first baseman on the roster made a lot of the other alignment choices harder to justify. Marcus Semien and Francisco Lindor also taking big steps backward defensively hasn’t helped.
Errors don’t tell the whole story, but they do matter. The Mets had 79 all of last year and have already reached 82 through 128 games in 2026.
It’s fair to imagine that number would look even uglier without players like A.J. Ewing and Carson Benge helping stabilize things.
At a certain point in 2026, Baty simply didn’t need to be in the outfield anymore. If the Mets wanted to keep using him, first base was the place to try him more often, or they could have sat Semien more regularly.
In Other News...
Mets Outfield Decision Is Raising A Frustrating A.J. Ewing Question
In the wake of injuries to Luis Robert Jr. and Juan Soto, the Mets have had to patch together their outfield on the fly, and that has created a much bigger role for rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing. Interim manager Andy Green had said the plan was to let Ewing handle center field in most games, a sensible arrangement given how well the rookie has performed defensively this season and how much the club has needed stability in the middle of the outfield.
But the recent decision to shift Robert back to center has reopened a frustrating question for the Mets: if Ewing has already shown he can handle the position, why not fully commit to him there moving forward? The club is trying to balance short-term lineup flexibility with long-term evaluation, and with the outfield still in flux, the way it uses Ewing now may say plenty about how it views him beyond this injury stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Darryl Strawberry Had A Powerful Message After Nick Kyrgios News
Nick Kyrgioss provisional suspension after a positive cocaine test from an event in Mallorca has drawn attention well beyond tennis, and Darryl Strawberry weighed in with the perspective of someone who knows how public struggle can spill into a wider conversation. Strawberry, the former Mets star who is now a Christian minister, framed the situation around understanding and recovery when substance abuse is part of the picture.
Kyrgios has already apologized publicly, saying his drug use was tied to the physical and mental strain of injuries and the sense that his career may be nearing its end. For a player whose talent and volatility have kept him in the spotlight for years, the next chapter now carries a different kind of pressure, one that puts the focus on how he responds once the initial shock fades. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Fans Have A New Reason To Question This Roster Strategy
The Mets roster-building choices are drawing fresh scrutiny as the White Sox keep turning seemingly modest moves into useful major league pieces. Several Chicago players who were available along the way have since emerged as the sort of depth and upside the Mets could have used, especially as the club continues to balance present needs with long-term planning. In a market where every roster spot matters, those comparisons are hard to ignore.
Chicagos track record with those acquisitions also adds another layer to the conversation. The White Sox not only identified players the Mets passed by, they helped put them in positions to contribute, which makes the missed connections stand out even more from New Yorks side. For a team still trying to justify its roster strategy, the bigger question is whether these were isolated omissions or part of a pattern. [Read more 🡒]