How The New York Mets Embarrassed Themselves In 2025

After one of the most memorable seasons in 2024, the New York Mets responded by giving fans one of their most brutal, frustrating, and exhausting years as a fan in 2025. The Mets were primed to make another deep run to October, and were in the midst of it with a strong 45-24 record before June 11, and could make memories for fans, and they did, which were awful, and painful memories of what could have been. 

New York’s season was undermined by various elements in and out of its control, with injuries and regression during the 162-game season. The elements that were in the team’s control were costly to them, from terrible coaching decisions to moves that horrifically backfired on their faces. While the offseason could provide answers, the Mets, from the top all the way to the players, need to take deep looks into beyond 2025 and hope for a better future. 

New York Mets: Horrible Starting Pitching and Pitching In General

After losing to the Marlins, the New York Mets are officially gone from the postseason picture and will have to think about what could have been for the team. While there are positives, the Mets’ roster was brutalized by injuries and poor roster decisions. One of the decisions that cost the Mets the postseason is simple: it was poor starting rotation construction. The theory of hoping that Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea would be the aces wasn’t a poor concept; in fact, Manaea was coming off a strong 2024 season, and could bolster the roster with Senga being healthy.

While that concept worked for a time, not getting better arms was costly to the team. Fans during the last offseason wanted big names like Corbin Burnes, Garrett Crochet, and others, but Burnes suffered a season-ending injury, along with other starters regressing, except Crochet, for whom the Mets probably weren’t going to pay the trade price. 

However, the move that confused fans was signing Frankie Montas for the rotation, who had a poor 2024 season for the Brewers and Reds. Having him as a spot starter and a rehabilitation project for the New York Mets’ pitching lab would have been sufficient, but it was anything but that, with Montas having a nightmare season and ending it with a UCL tear. Montas was a disaster, along with keeping Paul Blackburn, who did not help put out the fire.

The Mets were desperate for starting pitching, so they used Manaea, who was coming off surgery and potentially pitched with the injury, destroying his confidence. David Peterson fell off a cliff after a great first half of the season, and Senga fell off a cliff after returning from his early-season injury. He had a nightmare second half to the point of being in AAA. 

The starting pitching was collapsing to the point of calling up their rookie starting pitchers with mixed results. Nolan McLean showed he has great stuff. He and Brandon Sproat could be a dynamic duo for the team. Jonah Tong, who has amazing pitches, was too raw for the role and showed he wasn’t ready for the lights yet. An issue that fans had was that the Mets could have called up McLean and Sproat earlier to take starts away from Montas and Blackburn. However, this was probably due to roster control over the young pitchers, along with the early call-up of Tong. 

Horrible Coaching and Management

The New York Mets also made confusing in-game and front office decisions during the season, which were awful in hindsight. During the season, the New York Mets made various roster moves, including designating various players for assignment and calling up pitchers in June and July, which backfired horribly.

One of the moves was when the Mets were hosting the Reds. They wanted to keep Manaea’s pitch count down due to it being his first start of the season. That burned the bullpen out and cost them the game. Carlos Mendoza’s overmanagement of the bullpen was brutal to watch. The blame for this goes to the front office and coaching due to the poor hindsight and regression. 

New York Mets Lacked Clutch and Heart

Another cruel but honest reason the New York Mets are not playing in October is the hot-and-cold offense and poor situational hitting from the coaching staff. The offense was underachieving during the early parts of the season, and it showed its ugly face against the Rays, with the offense getting shut out in the sweep. While the offense improved during August, the team’s hitting with runners in scoring position was poor due to grounding out into double plays and poor hitting adjustments.

While coaching was a problem, and it could be solved for the Mets soon, player regression also happened with Jeff McNeil, Mark Vientos, and other underperforming players. While hitting isn’t easy, four Mets players had great years with Francisco Lindor having another 30-30 year, Pete Alonso breaking the Mets home run record, and Nimmo having a career year, but it was for naught. 

While looking back this year, the New York Mets were not a clutch team like in 2024, losing 65 of 162 games, due to poor timing, luck, and just bad play. The first loss of the season should have been noteworthy for striking out with bases loaded and an indication that it could be a long and frustrating season. During the 65 losses, the Mets were trying to rally, but failed due to poor luck and or poor hitting IQ. A loss that fans could say ended the season was the extra-innings loss to the Guardians.

McNeil could have given fans hope, but it didn’t happen. Another crushing loss was the loss to the Marlins at home when they tied the game, and McNeil hit a triple, and no one drove him home; it didn’t happen. There were also the two losses to the Nationals at the last homestand, in which Nimmo could have been the hero, and or Alvarez, but it didn’t come to be. While 2024 was in the past, that New York Mets team would have won at least ten of those games, but it couldn’t happen, and it shows baseball can be a cruel, crushing, and unapologetic sport for fans. 

What To Do Now?

While the 2025 season is over for the New York Mets, they need to look at the offseason with hope and fix the past errors if they ever want to see hope beyond 2025. 

One of the issues was the starting pitching, and it could easily be fixed by signing solid pitching arms and not reclamation projects. The starting pitching also needs time to gel with Tong being the future, and should be in Triple-A before getting another call to be ready mentally and physically.  There is also a bright spot with McLean and Sproat getting experience and fans hoping they could be the future, while Peterson and Manea recover, along with potentially trading Senga and others away to ease the bullpen. 

New York Mets fans also could have hope that the hitting could be fixed with new coaching for the team in 2026. While Eric Chavez is a decent coach, he has hit his expiration date, and could be fired along with others. With the Mets’ young hitters stepping up, it could be time to let veterans go like McNeil, Marte, and others. There is also a chance one of the Mets’ young stars could be on the trade block this coming offseason. 

The Mets also learned this lesson from 2023 of not taking things for granted, and hopefully, they will learn that lesson again. Losing 65 games that they trailed is abnormal for the New York Mets, and the lessons that Mendoza and the players learn could help with their accountability and stepping up. While the season ended in a dud, Juan Soto, the Mets’ young superstar, still believes in this team and their future, and with David Stearns leaning his lessons, the future could be bright for the New York Mets in 2026 and beyond.