Despite entering the season with lofty aspirations and a commensurate payroll, the New York Mets limped into the All-Star break with their poorest first-half performance in 31 years.
On Sunday, a miscue by shortstop Francisco Lindor—who failed to handle a potential game-ending double-play grounder—ignited Boston’s rally, resulting in a 3-2 victory over the Mets in 10 innings.
The loss was New York’s 16th in its last 22 contests, leaving the club at 40-57 and matching its lowest point of the year at 17 games below .500. The Mets had not entered the All-Star break 17 games under .500 since 1995 (25-44), a season delayed by the players’ strike. In a complete season, this marks the first time since 1993—when they began 27-60 and ended 59-103—that they’ve been that far below .500 at the break.
Interim manager Andy Green, now 6-10 since replacing Carlos Mendoza on June 26, stated, “I think everybody understands what needs to happen going into the second half. There’s cleaner, better baseball for us to play. We all bear a measure of responsibility for it. This organization, the fan base, deserve better baseball.”
The Mets wasted a strong seven-inning scoreless outing from rookie Zach Thornton and two RBIs from Lindor—only his second multi-hit game since returning from the injured list.
Baseball operations president David Stearns prioritized run prevention and a more efficient offense, dealing Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil while letting franchise home-run leader Pete Alonso and closer Edwin Díaz depart via free agency.
Offensively, New York sits 12th in the National League with 398 runs and has seldom fielded its ideal lineup. Opening-day starters Lindor, Francisco Alvarez, Jorge Polanco, Marcus Semien and Luis Robert Jr. have collectively missed 259 games.
The Mets’ sole All-Star, Juan Soto, missed 15 games in April with a left quadriceps strain. Bo Bichette, signed in January to man third base, is batting .255—39 points below his career average entering the season. He started the first 94 games but was limited to pinch-hitting this weekend because of leg soreness.
New York’s pitching staff owns a 4.27 ERA, nearly a quarter-run worse than last year’s 4.03 figure. Opening-day starter Freddy Peralta, obtained from Milwaukee in a January trade, has posted a career-high 4.66 ERA.
Devin Williams, who surrendered a save for the second time in a week, carries a 4.83 ERA.
“It hasn’t been a lot of fun,” Williams remarked. “Not a lot of celebrating going on in this clubhouse right now.”
The Mets trail the final NL wild-card spot by 12 games and will open the second half with 19 consecutive contests versus teams presently in playoff positions.
“Unacceptable,” said Lindor, who is hitting .216 with a .671 OPS over 40 games. “It just encourages us to continue to fight. At the end of the day, that’s the only thing we can do. We’re going to try to be better. We’re going to play as hard as we can in the second half and hopefully we put ourselves in a much better position because right now, it’s not where we want to be.”
