TORONTO - The Mets’ biggest problem isn’t just the losses piling up. It’s what this kind of season can do to the young players still trying to find their footing.
That’s the larger takeaway from a story former Mets hitting coach Eric Chavez told this week on the ‘EC3’ podcast, where he described Juan Soto spending time alone or with a front-office official near the indoor batting cage between innings. Chavez said, “I think [Juan] is one of the coolest human beings, just a really good person,” and added, “He struggled the first two months emotionally and I don’t blame him.”
Soto hasn’t commented, but the picture Chavez painted is easy to understand: a superstar who had finally landed somewhere permanent, carrying the weight of a $765 million deal while trying to adjust to a new clubhouse, new teammates and a new home. He’s through that now. The point, though, is bigger than Soto.
For the Mets, the real concern is whether this lost season starts to leave marks on the players who don’t yet have Soto’s resume, or his ability to bounce back.
Right now, the whole roster feels stuck in that same place. David Peterson’s trade and Carlos Mendoza’s firing have all but written off the season, and the mood around the club has only deepened.
Bo Bichette’s emotional return to Rogers Centre on Monday was another reminder of how much this year has already taken out of people around the game. “I think I gave it everything I had,” Bichette said, still upset that he couldn’t help the Blue Jays finish off Game 7 of the 2025 World Series.
Bichette is still settling in, too. He hasn’t hit the standard he set for himself.
Soto is out of that phase now, and Bichette will get there eventually, even if this season could hurt his earning power. But years like this one and last can linger inside a franchise, and the players most likely to feel it are the youngest ones.
That’s already shown up with Brett Baty and Mark Vientos, both of whom arrived with real upside and then ran into a mix of poor performance, organizational instability and likely mismanagement. The Mets can’t let that pattern keep repeating with the current wave of prospects.
There have been encouraging signs. Carson Benge and A.J.
Ewing have started to grow into their roles, growing pains and all. Nolan McLean, who started against the Blue Jays on Tuesday, is still in the middle of that process despite having already dipped into the majors last year.
He is learning, adjusting and developing, with a long run of success still in reach.
Those are important stages in a player’s career, and the Mets are being forged in ugly conditions.
Interim manager Andy Green, who knows the group well, said Tuesday he doesn’t believe this season will leave a permanent scar. Still, he knows the risk is there.
“They’ve been incredibly resilient in their life - that’s who they are as people,” Green said Tuesday. “I can’t look at this adversely impacting them.
I could understand where somebody might think that…We’re encouraged by the way they’ve handled that. It is harder in that set of circumstances for sure, but I have not seen any yielding in them whatsoever.
They’re learning, they’re growing, they’re being challenged and they’re handling it well.”
Even so, there have been bumps. Jonah Tong and Ronny Mauricio have both come up and struggled, and McLean has had his own uneven stretches despite showing plenty of mental toughness. The point is simple: the Mets are human, and if there’s anything left to play for this year, it’s making sure the organization’s young talent doesn’t get dragged down by the mess around it.
Chavez’s podcast comments also included a question he says he raised with David Stearns after seeing Soto sit by himself or with the Mets’ assistant general manager. Chavez asked whether that could be a bad influence on younger players, and Stearns’ response, per Chavez, was: “Those players need to learn that they’re not Juan Soto.”
There’s another way to look at that, though.
Not everybody is a generational player. But anybody can end up as the slugger on the sofa.
Unlike Soto, not everyone can simply get back up.
Luis Robert Jr. began his rehab assignment with Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday because of a spine issue, and he was in the lineup with Jorge Polanco. There is no clear timetable for either player’s return.
Green also said he did not want to move Ewing out of the outfield once Robert comes back. That leaves the Mets with decisions to make, including the possibility of a crowded designated-hitter picture now that Jared Young has nearly taken the first-base job from the struggling Vientos.
Clay Holmes, who is dealing with a broken leg, is set to throw a bullpen in the coming days and appears to be ahead of schedule. That could put him in position to become a trade candidate before the Aug. 3 deadline.
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