After a win against the San Francisco Giants on July 27, the New York Mets had 62 wins — tied for second-most in MLB — and a 96.8% chance to make the postseason, according to Fangraphs.
Two months and two days later, the Mets finished the regular season with only 83 wins. Not only did they lose their lead in the National League East division, but they also missed the playoffs entirely.
“Mets fans everywhere. I owe you an apology. You did your part by showing up and supporting the team. We didn’t do our part,” team owner Steve Cohen wrote Monday on X. “We will do a post-mortem and figure out the obvious and less obvious reasons why the team didn’t perform up to your and my expectations.”
He added: “We are all feeling raw emotions today. I know how much time and effort you have put into this team. The result was unacceptable. Your emotions tell me how much you care and continues to motivate the organization to do better.”
Cohen especially has to be feeling raw emotions after the collapse, considering he spent slightly over $342 million on New York’s roster this season, the second-most expensive payroll in baseball.
One year after the team made it to the National League Championship Series, money couldn’t even buy Cohen a postseason spot.
The Mets were an outlier among the five most expensive teams in the sport. The four other teams that spent over $250 million this season — the Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays — all clinched playoff berths.
To make matters even more embarrassing for the Mets, despite having posted a 21-35 record from July 28 through Sept. 26, the team was still alive for a wild card spot on the final day of the regular season. New York even got the help it needed when the Cincinnati Reds lost their last game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Mets, however, were shut out 4-0 by their divisional rivals the Miami Marlins — who also happen to be the cheapest team in the majors. The Marlins spent under $70 million on their team this season — less than 20% of New York’s payroll — but won two of three games during the teams’ season-ending series to knock the Mets out of the playoffs before they even began.
“It’s hard to describe,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters after Sunday’s loss. “I just got done addressing the team, and there’s no word to describe what we’re going through. It’s pain. It’s frustration. You name it. We came in with a lot of expectations, and here we are going home. Not only did we fall short, we didn’t even get into October.”
Shortstop Francisco Lindor said: “It was something that was on us, on me, on the players to get it done, and we didn’t execute. We didn’t do the job.”
New York’s slide began much earlier than July, even though that was when its playoff odds peaked.
On June 12, the Mets had the best record in baseball, at 45-24. But they finished 38-55 over their final 93 games, the fifth-worst record in all the majors over that time.
Pitching injuries played a major role in the team’s decline, as constant changes in the rotation led to inexperienced players’ starting big games and a bullpen that was taxed.
While the team’s arms faltered, its most expensive bat couldn’t make up the difference.
After he signed a 15-year, $765 million contract in December (the largest contract in American professional sports history), outfielder Juan Soto couldn’t reach the heights he did last season when he played for the crosstown rival Yankees. Soto had a lower batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage in his first year with the Mets compared with his lone season in the Bronx.
“It’s a failure,” Soto said. “Any time you don’t make it to the playoffs or win a championship, it’s a failure. That’s how we’re going to look at it, and that’s how we’re going to go through things in the offseason.”
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