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<\/p>\nCHICAGO \u2014\u00a0Before the Mets took the field Friday, president of baseball operations David Stearns sat in the visiting dugout at Wrigley and expressed his firm belief in manager Carlos Mendoza.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Mendy is doing a very good job,\u201d he said. \u201cI think Mendy is putting players in positions to succeed. . . . He\u2019s enormously consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe need to play better and I think we will. I\u2019m very confident we will, and it can start today.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few hours later, Stearns got to witness the Cubs circling Kodai Senga like ravenous wolves, a slew of defensive misadventures, and a ninth straight loss \u2014\u00a0a 12-4 walloping \u2014\u00a0matching their longest losing streak since 2004.<\/p>\n
You read that right. The last time the Mets were this consistently bad, Carson Benge was a one-year-old. But it\u2019s somehow actually worse than that: Since that fateful June 13 day that marked the beginning of their 2025 collapse, this team is 45-68 \u2014\u00a0an absurd 107-loss pace.<\/p>\n
Two things can be true, though. It\u2019s not all Mendoza\u2019s fault. And that fact may not preclude him from being scapegoated, Stearns\u2019 words notwithstanding.<\/p>\n
Friday, Mendoza tried everything he could to shake things up. Francisco Lindor was moved out of the leadoff spot in favor of Benge, he loaded up on lefties against Edward Cabrera, and he played his best defensive outfielders in the notoriously tricky Wrigley expanse. He\u2019s also working without Juan Soto, who\u2019s still slated to come back next week, and Jorge Polanco, who should be on the injured list already but isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The Mets responded by playing one of their worst games of the season, in a way far too reminiscent of last year \u2014\u00a0bafflingly so. And as the innings wore on, it continued to be apparent that this team needs a major shake-up. It\u2019s na\u00efve, though, to think that simply firing the manager will make athletes play to their level.<\/p>\n
After all, Stearns is the one who constructed a \u201crun prevention\u201d roster that, as of right now, appears only good at preventing its own runs. And his players are stuck in a rut \u2014\u00a0a non-cohesive group that still looks to be finding its identity.<\/p>\n
There are some practical options to explore, though.<\/p>\n
After the game, Mendoza said he would have to consult with Stearns before determining what to do about Senga, but coming off two straight clunkers, it\u2019s becoming harder and harder for anyone to justify keeping him in the rotation. And after allowing five runs in relief, Sean Manaea certainly isn\u2019t jockeying for a spot. At this point, either Christian Scott or Jack Wenninger, both of whom have looked good with Triple-A Syracuse, should be candidates for promotion.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tempting to say the Mets just need to batten down the hatches and wait for Soto to return, but that\u2019s not a complete answer, either. Soto hit 43 home runs and stole 38 bases by the time the Mets were eliminated from playoff contention in Game 162 last year; he\u2019s incredibly talented, yes, but he can\u2019t do everything for this team.<\/p>\n
No, somehow, in some way, there has to be a mental shift \u2014\u00a0a little bit of fire that burns the fa\u00e7ade off this team. To quote Mendoza, \u201cI want them to be [upset].\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Mendoza\u2019s own frustration has been palpable during this losing streak. The bats finally came to life Friday, but that wasn\u2019t the case against the A\u2019s and Dodgers \u2014\u00a0two series that saw hitters expanding the zone and stringing together a slew of uncompetitive at-bats. Simply put, they were pressing and consistently failed to pick each other up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of urgency, there\u2019s plenty of want and sometimes that can lead to things like (increased) chase rate, unfortunately,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cI think that ends with one bases-clearing double. We\u2019ve all seen that time and again throughout our careers in baseball and I think once we get that, it will normalize.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s right, but last year proved that doesn\u2019t always happen.<\/p>\n
Speaking of which \u2014\u00a0I asked Stearns if he saw a through line from last season to this one, and he understandably noted that it\u2019s basically a completely different team.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou talk to Bo Bichette about last year and he\u2019s like, yeah, I was in the seventh game of the World Series. Last year was pretty good,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cAre there similarities? There are similarities because we\u2019re not playing great baseball at the moment but in terms of any root causes or things like that, it\u2019s very difficult for me to draw any lines there.\u201d<\/p>\n
It really is a conundrum, but the risk right now is that Stearns eventually ends up drawing that line to Mendoza \u2014\u00a0warranted or not.<\/p>\n
Injury updates<\/p>\n
Soto (calf) is expected to be activated on the next homestand, Stearns said. Soto took live batting practice Friday and engaged in high-intensity running and will undergo a precautionary MRI before returning to play, Mendoza said . . . Polanco, who\u2019s already dealing with Achilles bursitis, is also experiencing right wrist soreness. He underwent and MRI; though results are pending, he may be placed on the injured list, Mendoza said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She’s been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014\u00a0Before the Mets took the field Friday, president of baseball operations David Stearns sat in the visiting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203],"class_list":{"0":"post-677959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mets","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-mets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkmets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116422544657529021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}