Stearns: No Plans To Make Managerial Change
The Mets are out to an awful start, which is a situation that often puts a manager in the hot seat. However, president of baseball operations David Stearns downplayed the likelihood of manager Carlos Mendoza getting the sack. “We know our record is not what we want, and we know we are capable of more,” Stearns told Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. “We don’t view this as a manager problem, and we don’t intend to make a change.”
The spotlight seemed to pivot to Mendoza in the past week when manager firing season began. The Red Sox got things started by canning Alex Cora last weekend, giving the interim job to Chad Tracy. The Phillies followed suit by letting Rob Thomson go. That job was offered to Cora but he declined, so Don Mattingly has taken over on an interim basis.
Like the Red Sox and Phillies, the Mets came into the 2026 season with every intention of contending but have fallen flat in the early going. Despite having the second-highest payroll in baseball, behind the Dodgers, the Mets have the worst record in baseball at 10-21.
How much blame lies at the feet of the manager in such situations is something that has been debated throughout baseball history and that will surely continue to be the case. A skipper certainly does make some decisions that impact results, such as setting the lineup and making pitching changes, but how much those things can actually impact the win-loss is debatable. Some feel a manager’s job as a strategist is essential while others feel that role is overblown and a skipper is more about being a motivational clubhouse leader.
In the case of the Mets, one could take either side of the debate. As a team, the Mets are hitting .227/.289/.342 this year. That results in a wRC+ of 80, indicating the entire team is 20% below league average. They’re the worst team in the majors in that category. Eight guys on the team have taken at least 70 plate appearances, a group that doesn’t include Juan Soto since he spent time on the IL. Of those eight, Francisco Alvarez is the team leader with a 104 wRC+. Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien, Brett Baty and Carson Benge are all below 70.
The pitching is a bit better but still not great. Their 4.17 earned run average is very middle of the pack, putting them 15th out of the 30 teams in the majors. David Peterson, Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga have each posted ERAs north of 6.00 in samples of 20 innings or more. Devin Williams and Luke Weaver were supposed to be the lockdown bullpen arms but Williams has an ERA of 8.00 and Weaver is at 6.00.
An endless debate could be had about what role Mendoza plays in those numbers. One side could argue a manager should find ways to wring better results from his players. The other camp could say the manager can only do so much if the players aren’t performing. Stearns has been consistent in his viewpoint. “I think Mendy’s doing a very good job,” Stearns said two weeks ago, per SNY Mets. “I think Mendy is putting players in position to succeed and we need to go out and play better.” Today’s comments echo those.
It will be unwelcome news for those who want heads to roll but it seems the Mets don’t view the manager as the key issue, at least for now. If the struggles continue, it’s possible the club’s desire to make a change will grow.
Mendoza is in the final guaranteed year of his three-year contract. They won 89 games in 2024 and went to the NLCS. Last year, they were on an even better pace for most of the year. They were 62-47 through July but had an awful August and September, going 21-32. That put them at 83-79 and just outside the playoff picture. Mendoza’s deal has a club option for 2027. The events of the coming months will determine if that seems likely to be picked up.
Photo courtesy of Brad Penner, Imagn Images
Mets Claim Andy Ibáñez
The Mets have claimed infielder/outfielder Andy Ibáñez off waivers from the Athletics, per an announcement from the A’s. Francys Romero of BeisbolFR reported the move prior to the official announcement. The A’s designated him for assignment a few days ago. The Mets have an open 40-man spot after designating Carl Edwards Jr. for assignment earlier today. Ibáñez is out of options and will need to jump onto the active roster, so they will need to make a corresponding move in that regard when he reports to the team.
Ibáñez, 33, is a utility guy who provides defensive versatility. His offense has been mercurial and is currently at a low ebb. He had solid seasons in 2021 and 2023, with a swoon in 2022. Over the 2024 and 2025 campaigns, he slashed .240/.297/.355 for the Tigers. That production led to an 85 wRC+, indicating he was 15% worse than league average. Detroit could have retained him via arbitration but non-tendered him instead, sending him to free agency.
Teams around the league still believe in his potential. The Dodgers signed him to a one-year, $1.2MM deal in January. The designated him for assignment a couple of weeks later, which may seem odd, but was by design.
Ibáñez has just over three years of service time. Players with at least three years of service have the right to reject outright assignments after clearing waivers. However, if they have less than five, they have to walk away from their salary commitments. The Dodgers were hoping that the contract was enough for other teams to pass on him. Once he passed through waivers, he wouldn’t want to walk away from the $1.2MM, so he would surely stick around as non-roster depth.
The A’s interrupted that plan, claiming him back in February. He stuck around for a few weeks but hit .118/.167/.118 in 18 plate appearances. Despite that poor showing in recent weeks, the Mets are going to take a shot on him.
Ibáñez will at least provide some flexibility off the bench. He has experience at all four infield spots and the outfield corners. His shortstop work consists of just nine innings but he has over 1,000 innings at second base and almost 800 at third, with good numbers to boot. Combining that with improved offense would be ideal but it’s been a few years. His most recent above-average offensive season was 2023, when he hit .264/.312/.433 for a 103 wRC+.
The Mets have operated with narrow infield flexibility for much of this year. They opened the campaign with Francisco Lindor at shortstop, Marcus Semien at second and Bo Bichette at third. First base has been shared by a rotation of Jorge Polanco, Mark Vientos, Jared Young and Brett Baty. with Young and Baty also playing some outfield. The Mets have mostly been playing without a bench infielder. Bichette was effectively the backup for Lindor, while guys like Baty or Vientos could cover third for Bichette. Baty could also cover second if Semien missed time.
The picture has been shuffled in recent weeks. Lindor, Polanco and Young have all hit the IL recently, as has outfielder Luis Robert Jr. That leaves the Mets with Ronny Mauricio at short, while Bichette and Semien still hold their positions. Mauricio has struck out in nine of his 22 plate appearances so far this year. The Mets called up infielder/outfielder Eric Wagaman today when Robert hit the IL but Wagaman is more of a corner guy. Ibáñez gives them some more cover in the middle infield. Wagaman has options and could be sent back out when Ibáñez joins the team.
Photo courtesy of Scott Marshall, Imagn Images
Mets Place Luis Robert Jr. On Injured List
11:30am: Robert is receiving an epidural injection and will be reevaluated in a week to 10 days, per Tim Britton of The Athletic. The Mets don’t currently expect him to miss too much more than the minimum.
9:20am: The Mets have formally placed Robert on the 10-day injured list due to a lumbar disc herniation. Corner infielder Eric Wagaman is up from Triple-A to take his spot on the roster.
9:12am: The Mets are expected to place center fielder Luis Robert Jr. on the 10-day injured list today, reports SNY’s Chelsea Janes. Robert has been battling back discomfort for several days and underwent an MRI yesterday, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo noted.
Trips to the injured list are nothing new for Robert, a star-caliber outfielder whose health hasn’t allowed him to regularly reach his sky-high ceiling. The 28-year-old raked at a .264/.314/.542 clip and belted 38 homers to go along with 20 steals and plus-plus defense with the White Sox back in 2023. He’s only played in 234 of 354 possible games since that time (66.1%). That 2023 season is the only time Robert has reached even 450 plate appearances or exceeded 110 games played in a single season. (He did play in 56 of 60 possible games as a rookie in the shortened 2020 season.)
Along with that decline in health came a downturn in performance. Robert suffered an MCL sprain at the end of September in 2023 and a hip flexor strain early in 2024, the latter costing him about two months of action. When he was on the field in ’24, he stumbled through the least-productive season of his career, slashing just .224/.278/.364 with a career-worst 33.2% strikeout rate.
It was more of the same to begin the 2025 season, though Robert caught fire in early June after the Sox sat him for a few days to refocus his mechanics in the batter’s box. Robert took a few games to find his stroke even after that little breather, but he went on a tear thereafter, slashing .282/.344/.471 (125 wRC+) in nearly 200 plate appearances … before again returning to the injured list — this time due to his second hamstring strain of the ’25 campaign.
Along the way, the White Sox fielded trade interest in Robert, but they opted to hang onto him after not finding offers to their liking. They exercised the first of two $20MM club options on Robert to begin the offseason, and several months later the Mets landed him in a trade sending infielder/outfielder Luisangel Acuña and minor league righty Truman Pauley back to Chicago.
Robert is currently mired in a 2-for-19 slump, dropping what was a solid .258/.372/.379 batting line to a .224/.327/.329 output that checks in about 7% worse than league-average overall, by measure of wRC+. The dip in production coincides with the Mets beginning to sit Robert on occasion about a week and a half ago. Manager Carlos Mendoza eventually revealed that Robert has been dealing with back discomfort. Last night’s MRI, it seems, did not produce favorable results.
A formal diagnosis isn’t clear. The Mets have not yet announced an IL placement and thus have not revealed the nature of Robert’s ailment. Robert last appeared in a game on April 26, so his IL stint can be backdated to April 27 — the maximum three days allowed. That technically makes him eligible to return in just a week’s time, though his actual timetable will naturally hinge on the specific injury that’s been plaguing him.
Robert joins Francisco Lindor and Jorge Polanco on the shelf. That’s a third of the Mets’ starting lineup sidelined. With Robert out of the equation for the time being, the Mets’ options in center field include veteran Tyrone Taylor and rookie Carson Benge (who’s been their primary right fielder but has four games in center this year). Recently signed veteran Austin Slater has a fair bit of center field experience but hasn’t played there this season and has only logged 63 frames at the position since Opening Day 2024.
Down in Triple-A, the Mets have 2022 No. 75 overall pick Nick Morabito, who’s already on the 40-man roster (but has yet to debut) and is slashing .262/.382/.452 with four homers, four doubles and six steals. Morabito entered the season ranked 11th among Mets farmhands at Baseball America. He’s the Mets’ No. 12 prospect at MLB.com and No. 19 over at FanGraphs. Scouting reports peg him as a plus runner and center field defender with well below-average power.
Mets Designate Carl Edwards Jr. For Assignment
The Mets announced Thursday that reliever Carl Edwards Jr. has been designated for assignment. They also confirmed the previously reported IL placement for center fielder Luis Robert Jr., who’s been diagnosed with a lumbar disc herniation. Righty Austin Warren and recently claimed corner infielder Eric Wagaman are up from Triple-A Syracuse in a pair of corresponding moves.
Edwards, 34, signed a minor league deal back in December. The longtime reliever opened the season as a starter in the Mets’ Syracuse rotation but was added to the big league bullpen earlier this month. He’s pitched well, holding opponents to one run in six innings. Edwards has punched out a whopping 44% of his opponents (11 of 25) but has also dished out four free passes already (16%).
A key member of the Cubs’ bullpen from 2016-18, Edwards has bounced around the league in the eight years since. The Mets are Edwards’ ninth club in the majors, and this year’s six innings already tie his highest single-season workload since 2023.
Edwards also had a productive two-year stint with the Nats in 2022-23, but his stops with the other seven clubs for which he’s pitched have typically been fleeting. In addition to the Cubs and Nationals, he’s suited up for the Padres, Mariners, Braves, Blue Jays, Angels and Rangers. However, Edwards hasn’t pitched more than six innings for any of those teams. Overall, he carries a career 3.51 ERA in the majors, though most of his production came during that initial run with the Cubs, when he had about three extra miles per hour on his fastball over his current 92.5 mph average velocity.
The Mets will have five days to place Edwards on waivers, release him, or trade him. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment to the minors even if he clears waivers, so barring a minor trade for cash, he’s likely to end up a free agent. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so his DFA will be resolved in no more than seven days.
Tommy Pham Elects Free Agency
Outfielder Tommy Pham has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse. The veteran has exercised his right to reject the assignment and elect free agency. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reported the news.
Pham, 38, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in March. He was added to the roster in mid-April. He got into nine games and was sent to the plate 14 times. He struck out seven times, walked once and did not get a hit. The Mets pounced on Austin Slater a couple of days after the Marlins let him go. Pham was the roster casualty for that signing. As a veteran with many years of experience, Pham has the right to reject outright assignments and has exercised that right.
He’ll now head to the open market in search of his next opportunity. He’ll most likely be limited to minor league offers. In the most recent offseason, he lingered unsigned until late into March, signing on March 26th. His recent performance with the Mets surely didn’t do anything to improve his stock.
Though Pham is in his late-30s, he was still providing offense close to league average with the Pirates last year. He hit ten home runs and drew walks at an 11.1% clip, leading to a .245/.330/.370 line and 94 wRC+. That’s not too inspiring but he did have a torrid stretch in the summer. He had a brutal .207/.280/.237 line through the end of May but then slashed .304/.382/.495 from the start of June to the end of August, before he scuffled through September with a .143/.270/.270 line.
Coming into 2026, Pham expressed some hope that a treatment to address plantar fasciitis could improve his game after struggling with the condition in recent years. That hasn’t panned out yet but he also didn’t really get a good chance to get into form. As mentioned, he remained unsigned long enough to miss spring training. The Mets put him into five Single-A games before calling him up and he didn’t get into a groove. Though he may only get minor league offers, it’s theoretically possible that some regular reps could position him for another summer surge.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Mets Place Kodai Senga On Injured List
The Mets announced Tuesday that righty Kodai Senga has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to lumbar spinal inflammation. Right-hander Christian Scott has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse in his place.
Senga, the 2023 National League Rookie of the Year runner-up, has seen his standing in the Mets organization drop precipitously in recent seasons. He missed the 2024 season due to injury, came back strong early in 2025 but crumbled over the summer. Although he finished the 2025 season with a 3.02 ERA, all of Senga’s production came in the season’s first three months. He struggled so much in the summer — 6.56 ERA, eight homers, 22 walks in 35 2/3 innings — that he consented to be optioned by the Mets.
The early returns in 2026 were promising. Senga yielded only two runs with an 11-to-1 K/BB ratio in 9 2/3 spring frames. He totaled 11 2/3 innings and held opponents to four runs with a 16-to-5 K/BB ratio in his first two starts this year. He looked to be getting back on track — at least until his third start of the season. Senga was tagged for seven runs, followed with another seven-run clunker (six earned), and lasted only 2 2/3 innings (three runs allowed) in his most recent start. Over his past three turns, he’s totaled just 8 1/3 innings but been shelled for 16 earned runs on the strength of five homers — all with more walks issued (eight) than strikeouts recorded (seven).
Senga averaged a hefty 97.4 mph on his four-seamer in his 2026 debut, but it’s been downhill since then. His average fastball dipped to 96 mph in his second start and sat between 95.1 mph and 95.7 mph in each of his three subsequent starts. That’s still better-than-average velocity, but a drop of two miles per hour since March 31 certainly seems to suggest that he’s been pitching at less than 100 percent.
The Mets haven’t provided a timetable for Senga’s return. That’ll presumably come closer to today’s game, when skipper Carlos Mendoza meets with the media. Regardless, today’s injury announcement continues a worrying downward trendline for Senga. His struggles have played a notable role in the Mets’ underperformance as a whole, and getting the right-hander healthy would go a long way toward the Mets digging themselves out of the awful 9-19 hole they’ve dug in the season’s first month.
Scott, once one of the game’s top pitching prospects, will look to play his own role in that turnaround. He entered the 2024 season considered to be the Mets’ top pitching prospect and one of the top 100 prospects in the sport. He had a decent debut that summer but wound up requiring Tommy John surgery that wiped out his entire 2025 campaign. Scott made his big league return last week against the Twins, and it didn’t go well; he faced 10 batters, walking five of them and plunking a sixth. He didn’t make it out of the second inning, and the Mets optioned him back to Triple-A the following day.
That’s not a great start to his big league campaign, but Scott has had more encouraging results in Syracuse. Granted, a 5.27 ERA isn’t much to look at, but it’s come in a small sample of 13 2/3 innings. Scott was roughed up for six runs through 3 1/3 frames in his first game action since 2024, but he rebounded with just two total runs allowed across 10 1/3 innings in his next two Triple-A starts. He’s sitting on a strong 17-to-2 K/BB ratio in Syracuse, though he’s also hit a pair of batters there. Still, Scott has a nearly 30% strikeout rate and is sitting 95.4 mph on his four-seamer this year — a full mile per hour north of the 94.1 mph he averaged back in 2024.
The Mets have gotten brilliant results from rookie ace Nolan McLean and veteran Clay Holmes. Offseason acquisition Freddy Peralta had a rocky start but has strung together three sharp outings. Senga and David Peterson have struggled throughout the year. The former is now on the injured list, while the latter was moved into the bullpen for the current turn through the rotation. If Scott struggles again in Senga’s place, it’s possible Peterson will be plugged back into that rotation spot, but the situation seems fluid with several underperforming and/or injured options on the staff.
Mets Claim Eric Wagaman
The Mets announced that they have claimed infielder Eric Wagaman off waivers from the Twins and optioned him to Triple-A Syracuse. Minnesota had designated him for assignment last week. The Mets had a 40-man vacancy and don’t need to make a corresponding move. The Mets also announced that they have signed outfielder Austin Slater and designated outfielder Tommy Pham for assignment, moves that were reported yesterday.
Wagaman, to his credit, didn’t have a whole lot left to prove in the upper levels of the minors at one time. Drafted by the Yankees in 2017 out of Orange Coast CC, Wagaman had a slow and steady climb up the affiliate ranks, but he started to show some big league promise between 2022-2024. His worst “full season” line was a .258/.346/.468 line, good for a league-and-park-adjusted 123 wRC+ (100 is average) in 266 plate appearances spread between High-A Hudson Valley and Double-A Somerset in 2022. His work was even better the following year with Somerset: a .320/.355/.500 showing for a 146 wRC+ in 136 PAs. Perhaps due to his then-age (25), defensive limitations, or limited offensive upside, the Yankees passed on adding Wagaman to their 40-man roster to protect him during the Rule 5 Draft.
The Angels, however, saw enough to warrant a potential return to Orange County for the Mission Viejo native, adding him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft. While his numbers at Triple-A Salt Lake were less promising, the Angels granted him a cup of coffee in September 2024. His big league results, in 74 PAs, were uninspiring: a .250/.270/.403 line for a 87 wRC+ with little defensive or baserunning upside. Wagaman’s strong plate discipline also backslid, and without average power at a bat-first position, the Angels found little incentive to keep rostering him and elected to non-tender Wagaman, sending him to free agency.
The Marlins pounced with a major-league contract for 2025. In 514 PAs, Wagaman was able to somewhat rediscover his plate discipline at the major league level, but the power and contact quality further waned. Ultimately, his .250/.296/.378 line and 85 wRC+ didn’t look much different than his 2024 sample, but a below-average bat at an offense-first position was untenable. Miami cut bait with Wagaman following the 2025 campaign. The Twins were next in line for Wagaman’s services after an offseason swap, but after a poor showing (48 wRC+ with a 33.8 strikeout rate) in 74 PAs at Triple-A St. Paul, he was designated for assignment.
For now, Wagaman will look to regain his footing at Triple-A Syracuse while he awaits his next chance at the bigs. The Mets would certainly take any offensive boost they can at this point: they’ve scored the fewest runs in all of MLB. While Wagaman profiles best defensively as a first baseman, he’s shown some versatility covering the outfield corners and third base. Left field and third base are spoken for by Juan Soto and Bo Bichette, respectively, but Wagaman could be insurance for offseason signing Jorge Polanco (currently on the shelf with a wrist contusion) alongside Mark Vientos or in the right field mix with Tyrone Taylor, utilityman Brett Baty, and the newly acquired Slater.
There’s upside here for the Mets if the bat can come around: Wagaman’s controllable until 2031 and, perhaps more importantly, has all three option-years remaining. For a major league club that is currently starved for offense and seems open to shaking up the roster at the periphery among a league worst start, Wagaman represents a low-risk move that could potentially pay dividends.
Mets Sign Austin Slater, Designate Tommy Pham For Assignment
The Mets have agreed to sign outfielder Austin Slater, The Athletic’s Will Sammon reports. Slater’s signing comes shortly after news broke that outfielder Tommy Pham was designated for assignment, as per Mike Puma of the New York Post. It can be assumed that Slater will take Pham’s spot on the active roster and 40-man roster, though New York still has only 39 players on the 40-man even with Slater’s arrival.
Slater is now on his third team in a little over a month’s time. The Tigers signed Slater to a minor league contract over the offseason, and after Slater triggered the first mandatory opt-out clause in that contract at the end of camp, Detroit released the veteran rather than add him to the Opening Day roster. Slater then quickly landed with the Marlins on a one-year, $1MM guarantee, but was designated for assignment after 12 games.
It was just earlier today that Slater cleared waivers and he elected to become a free agent. Because he has more than five years of MLB service time, Slater can keep the remainder of that $1MM salary, so the Mets might just be paying him a prorated big league minimum salary (which is subtracted from the $1MM total, with the Marlins covering the rest).
Slater hit only .174/.286/.174 over his 28 PA in a Miami uniform, though that is still better than Pham’s numbers in a similarly small sample size with the Mets. Assuming that the DFA will end Pham’s tenure in Queens, Pham will conclude his nine-game stint with zero hits and just a single walk over 14 plate appearances.
New York signed Pham to a minor league contract right at the start of the season and then selected him to the active roster on April 13. His long stay in free agency meant that the veteran didn’t get any sort of traditional Spring Training, though he got some ramp-up time in the Mets’ extended spring camp and five games of single-A ball with the team’s St. Lucie affiliate. While 14 PA isn’t a huge sample, it is safe to wonder if Pham simply wasn’t yet ready to face big league pitching, notwithstanding the fact that Pham has plenty of experience as a 13-year MLB veteran.
The selection to New York’s roster locked in a prorated $2.25MM salary for Pham in 2026. Another team would absorb the remainder of that salary if Pham is claimed off waivers, but the likelier scenario is that Pham goes unclaimed, leaving the Mets on the hook for the remaining money no matter what the next step is in Pham’s career.
He has more than enough MLB service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, though it’s possible Pham might accept an outright just to get more playing time in the Mets’ farm system, with a handshake agreement in place to recall Pham once he is fully ramped up. However, the Slater signing probably means Pham’s time in New York is over, and he’ll be released if he isn’t claimed. A new team could then sign Pham to a contract and only owe him a minimum salary, which is subtracted from the Mets’ $2.25MM figure.
Pham and Slater are both right-handed hitting outfielders, and Slater has more of a reputation as a lefty-masher even though his numbers against southpaws have been average to mediocre over the last three seasons. Pham has also not been particularly productive since 2023 (a season that included his first stint with the Mets), as he hit .246/.317/.369 over 927 PA with the White Sox, Cardinals, Royals, and Pirates in 2024-25.
With 10 different teams on his big league resume, Pham might well land with team #11 in relatively short order, or perhaps revisit another of his former organizations. Slater spent his entire Major League career with the Giants before the team dealt him to the Reds in July 2024, and Slater has since also become a journeyman who has now played for six different clubs at the MLB level.
Slater should slide right into Pham’s role as the complement to the left-handed hitting Carson Benge, who has yet to get going at the plate in his rookie season. Benge’s struggles are just one drop in the bucket of calamity that has been the 2026 Mets’ season, as the team has sunk to a 9-19 record (tied with the Phillies for the worst in baseball) after being swept by Colorado in today’s doubleheader.
Latest On Francisco Lindor’s Recovery Timeline
Francisco Lindor was placed on the Mets’ 10-day injured list on Thursday due to a left calf strain, and the team now has a loose idea about how long the All-Star shortstop may be out of action. Manager Carlos Mendoza and president of baseball operations David Stearns told reporters (including the New York Post’s Jake Nisse) yesterday that Lindor will be in a walking boot for the next week, and will be fully re-evaluated in three weeks’ time.
If all goes well, Lindor projects to be back in the Mets’ lineup before the end of May. Supposing that Lindor is given the green light in mid-May after his three-week shutdown, he’ll need at least a week of baseball activities and workouts to bring him back up to speed, plus at least a couple of rehab games.
This is just the best-case scenario, however. A more concrete timeline can’t be established until after Lindor is re-evaluated, and it is certainly possible that his calf might still be sore after three weeks’ time. Calf injuries have been known to linger or even to be season-threatening in more severe cases, though there isn’t any sign that Lindor’s issue is anything that serious.
It has already been an injury-marred season for Lindor, as he missed most of Spring Training due to hamate bone surgery. Lindor was able to make it back and play a few Grapefruit League games before the end of camp and avoided a season-opening stint on the injured list, yet it seems like the missed time had an impact. Lindor has a modest .226/.314/.355 slash line over his first 105 plate appearances, far below his usual standard.
Even if Lindor is able to return by late May, losing their star shortstop for “only” a month is still a major blow for the struggling Mets to try and overcome. New York has a dismal 9-17 record and is already 9.5 games behind the Braves for first place in the NL East. Virtually the entire Mets lineup is off to a collective slow start at the plate, and the loss of Juan Soto (to a calf strain of his own) for just shy of three weeks only worsened the offensive power outage.
Ronny Mauricio probably isn’t the answer to these batting woes, as Mauricio has hit only .236/.294/.357 over 303 career plate appearances in the majors. However, Mauricio is a former top prospect who has a history of crushing Triple-A pitching, so he’ll get another chance to break out as the expected regular shortstop in Lindor’s absence.
Can Any Expected Contenders Escape The Early Holes They’ve Dug?
It's commonplace for at least one postseason hopeful to run into unexpected struggles early in the season. In the past, we've seen World Series aspirants and Wild Card hopefuls alike shoot themselves in the foot with sloppy April sequences that jeopardize their visions of October baseball. In some instances -- the 2022 Phillies, the 2024 Mets and, most notably, the 2019 Nationals -- teams are able to rally and make good on those playoff goals. For those 2019 Nats, they went so far as to win the whole thing. Nary a baseball fan in D.C. will ever forget the significance of the 19-31 record they faced roughly one-third of the way through the season.
More commonly, however, a disappointing April can prove to be a backbreaker. Fans need only look as far back as the 2025 Orioles to see a would-be contender whose awful early performance sunk their season before it ever had a chance to get going in earnest. The Orioles wrapped up April with a 12-18 record. By the midway mark of May, they were 15-27 -- buried by nine and a half games in the American League East and with their postseason hopes all but dashed.
There have been plenty of oddities so far in the 2026 season. Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery are the first pair of teammates in MLB history with active streaks of homers in four or more consecutive games. (Oh, and Miguel Vargas has gone deep in three straight.) We're about one-sixth of the way through the season and Mason Miller has fanned a superhuman 71% of his opponents through 11 1/3 innings. Tigers phenom Kevin McGonigle, who skipped Triple-A entirely and broke camp as a 21-year-old, ranks fourth in the majors in Baseball-Reference WAR or fifth in FanGraphs WAR, if you prefer.
But the strangest development of the 2026 doesn't focus on any one player's individual efforts. To see the most bizarre facet of the season's first month requires a step back and a more macro look at the league as a whole.
Entering play Thursday, the four worst teams in baseball weren't the Rockies, Nationals, Twins or any other widely expected cellar dweller. Instead, the bottom-four records belong to the Royals, Phillies, Mets and Red Sox -- four clubs that entered the season with clear designs on contending. Fifth-worst are the White Sox -- not terribly surprising -- followed by the sixth-worst Astros. One game up in the standings are the Blue Jays and Mariners, last year's ALCS opponents.
In any given year, seeing one or two of these clubs faceplant out of the gate wouldn't be all that remarkable. Teams fall short of expectations all the time -- often well short. But to see seven clubs who entered 2026 as win-now teams populate bottom-10 spots in the leaguewide standings with more than four weeks of the season in the books is fairly incredible.
Is the season lost for any of these clubs? Not quite yet, but the margin for error has all but eroded. For most of these clubs -- especially the bottom four -- it's going to take something close to .600 ball the rest of the way to end up in contention. Let's take a look at this year's most disappointing clubs at the season's one-month mark to see if there's a chance of a rebound and, if not, who they might have to begrudgingly listen on at this year's Aug. 3 trade deadline.
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