Carlos Mendoza has run out of patience. The Mets manager spent the first eight weeks of the season hitting the same talking points after every loss. The schedule is long. The pitching will come around. The hitters are talented. We are not panicking.
That version of Mendoza is gone. After the Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds 7-2 at Citi Field on Tuesday and dropped their fifth straight game, the manager finally said the thing every Mets fan has been waiting to hear.
“It’s not early anymore,” Mendoza said. “We’re not putting ourselves in a good position, obviously.”
He went further than that. He used the word “sucks.” Twice.
“They’re all frustrating, especially when you’re not playing well. They’re all the same, to be honest with you. It sucks.”
The Numbers Are Bad
The Mets entered Tuesday at the bottom of the NL East with a five-game losing streak. The offense, which was supposed to be one of the best in baseball with Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, and Francisco Lindor anchoring the lineup, has gone cold. Mendoza acknowledged it directly.
“We can sit here and make excuses with some of the guys we’re missing, but we have big-league hitters here, and they are struggling. We’re having a hard time putting rallies together, and the biggest thing is our inability to drive the ball out of the park.”
Translation: the lineup the Mets paid almost a billion dollars to assemble is not producing. The Soto contract was supposed to fix this. It has not.
Through 50 games, the Mets are 10 games under .500. The pitching has been worse than expected, with Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea both spending time on the IL and the bullpen blowing late leads at an alarming rate. The defense has been sloppy. The starting rotation has the third-worst ERA in the National League.
The Fire Sale Question
The trade deadline is August 3. The Mets are 73 days away from having to decide whether they are buyers or sellers, and right now they look like sellers in a uniform that was designed to never sell again.
Owner Steve Cohen did not sign Juan Soto to a 15-year, $765 million contract to hold a fire sale in July. But Mendoza is laying the groundwork for honest conversations in case the season goes sideways. His “it’s not early anymore” line is the kind of quote a manager drops when he wants the front office to start considering the worst-case scenario.
The Giants are reportedly preparing for a sell-off at 16-24. The Phillies, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Mariners are all underperforming. If the Mets continue this stretch into June, they will be on the same list.
What Comes Next
Mendoza closed his press conference with a line that should worry every Mets fan.
“Whatever I say here doesn’t matter. We’ve got to go out there and do it.”
That is a manager telling reporters he is out of answers. He is not blaming the players, he is not blaming the front office, he is not throwing himself a pity party. He is just saying the truth. The Mets need to play better baseball, immediately.
The schedule does not get easier. The Mets host the Dodgers this weekend before a road trip through Atlanta and Philadelphia. By June 8, the picture will be clearer.
If New York is still in a death spiral by then, the Mendoza honesty tour will keep going. And the next quote will probably be even harsher than this one.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
