Mets eliminated from 2025 playoff contention

MIAMI — Pete Alonso stood, lips slightly parted, and dropped his arms in disbelief. Alonso stared into left field, where Javier Sanoja had just made a running snare of his 115.9 mph liner, the hardest-hit ball by a Met this year. In another world, in another season, that line drive could have changed everything. In this Mets reality, it altered not a thing.

Instead, Alonsoâ€s liner encapsulated one of the most puzzling, frustrating seasons in franchise history. On June 12, the Mets held the best record in baseball, a full 21 games over .500. They had stretched their NL East lead to 5 1/2 games with an 8 1/2-game margin for error in the fledgling playoff race.

Three and a half months later, their season ended without a postseason berth. In a win-or-go-home game, the Mets lost to the Marlins, their decades-long tormentors, 4-0, at loanDepot park.

Over their final 93 games, the Mets went 38-55, producing a better record than only four teams: the bottom-feeding White Sox, Nationals, Twins and Rockies. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only two teams in Major League history — the 1905 Indians and 1977 Cubs — finished with worse records after climbing at least 21 games over .500.

“I said at one point in the year, I felt like it was the most talented team Iâ€ve ever played on,†outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “And we werenâ€t able to make the playoffs. Thatâ€s obviously coming up short and a failure in my mind.â€

In the end, the pitching problems that had haunted the Mets since the early days of summer became their undoing. In a must-win game, manager Carlos Mendoza drew up an aggressive plan, knowing he had 11 pitchers available to use. But things went haywire in the fourth, after Brooks Raley allowed a one-out single. Mendoza responded by summoning Ryne Stanek, who began the afternoon with a 5.01 ERA. Stanek promptly served up RBI doubles to two of the three batters he faced, before Tyler Rogers entered and permitted two more runs to score.

The four-run inning happened almost simultaneously with a lead-changing rally in Milwaukee, where the Reds lost to the Brewers. That didnâ€t wind up mattering. To qualify for the postseason, the Mets needed a win combined with a Reds loss. Any other outcome promised to send them home.

“Thereâ€s no words to describe what weâ€re going through,†Mendoza said after addressing his players in a postgame meeting. “Itâ€s pain. Itâ€s frustration. You name it. We came in with a lot of expectations, and here we are going home. We not only fell short, we didnâ€t even get into October.â€

Now, the question becomes where the Mets go from here. All-Stars Alonso and Edwin Díaz can both opt out of their contracts and become free agents after the World Series. The rest of the Mets†offensive core of Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor and Nimmo is under team control for at least the next half-decade. More uncertainty surrounds the pitching staff, even with rookies Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong prepared to help stabilize it for years to come.

Ask the Mets, and theyâ€ll say the names in the room are not the problem.

“We have everything we need,†Soto said. “We just have to win games. Thatâ€s the only thing thatâ€s got to change: win games.â€

Still, as Lindor noted, change is inevitable for every club. The Mets know that. As Soto spoke in the postgame clubhouse, players quietly shuffled around, shaking hands before going their separate ways for the offseason. Some will never be teammates again.

Alonso walked through the room carrying a beer and a cigar — accessories that, in a different context, would have been celebratory. On this night, they were creature comforts for a mourning player.

“It wasnâ€t just one thing throughout the course of the year,†Alonso said, trying like all of them to explain what went wrong. “Itâ€s kind of beyond frustration. I think itâ€s just straight-up disappointing.â€

Over 64 seasons, the Mets have endured some of the most precipitous collapses in Major League history. In 2007, they blew a seven-game lead with 17 to play, failing to make the playoffs with one of the leagueâ€s most talented rosters. In 2008, they again crashed out of the playoff race on the seasonâ€s final day. To this day, the members of those teams carry the weight of their failures.

This year was supposed to be different. A roster that made it to within two games of the World Series last October, then added Soto on a record-setting $765 million contract, was meant to make the playoffs with ease. One of the most expensive teams in MLB history was never supposed to flop.

But over 162 games, the Mets proved that they were not what they appeared to be. In the second half, as the Mets lost game after game, losing leads with regularity, the possibility of falling short grew increasingly real. It didnâ€t matter that the Reds and other would-be contenders were also playing poorly. All that mattered was what the Mets did.

Or, more accurately, what the Mets never did enough.

“Youâ€ve got to win,†Mendoza said. “Itâ€s as simple as that: Youâ€ve got to win. And until we [do], itâ€s going to be attached to all of us.â€

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