David Lennon: These Mets won't repeat the OMG magic of the 2024 club
Mets' Nolan McLean leaves a game against the Cincinnati Reds during the fourth inning at Citi Field on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
You remember the 2024 Mets, right? Terrible first two months, reliever Jorge Lopez rifles his glove into the stands . . . and then they wake up to go on an OMG bender, winning at a .626 clip to squeeze into the playoffs on the season’s final day.
Well, those memorable Mets were 22-31 through the first 53 games that year. Same as these current Mets heading into their Memorial Day matchup against the Reds at Citi Field.
But for any eternal optimists out there, hoping that lightning somehow strikes Seaver Way twice in three seasons, that’s about where the similarities end.
The ’24 Mets were plagued by crippling underperformance, but their core players were mostly intact, so there was always a chance that reverting to the mean was possible.
As for the ’26 Mets? Their season has steadily crumbled one body part at a time and given way to a befuddling mix of offensive futility and slapstick ineptitude. Monday’s 7-2 loss to the Reds was another super-sized portion of the above, along with the continuation of a disturbing trend: the sudden implosion of Nolan McLean.
Considered a budding ace, McLean lately has pitched like someone barely holding on to a rotation spot. He allowed seven runs, including a pair of homers, in 3 1⁄3 innings Monday as his ERA jumped from 3.57 to 4.40. In his last two starts, McLean has surrendered 13 earned runs in nine innings, giving up 13 hits and four homers.
“It’s a combination of things,” McLean said. “Getting behind in counts, not landing off-speed pitches like I should, and I’ve been hitting guys with two strikes, too, which isn’t a great recipe for success.”
On Monday, McLean opened by striking out the side on 15 pitches, including three swings and misses. He began the second inning with an 0-and-2 count before drilling Sal Stewart in the midsection with a changeup.
It was all downhill from there. The Reds scored twice that inning, JJ Bleday homered in the third and Cincinnati tacked on four more runs in the fourth.
“Where we’re at, that’s the last thing [we need],” manager Carlos Mendoza said of McLean’s struggles. “But he’s going to get back on track. His stuff is too good for this to keep going. I’m pretty sure we’ll go back and do some homework here and try to help him. But it just sucks that it happens in back-to-back outings.”
Mark Vientos had two of the Mets’ 12 strikeouts, but he was the only one to whiff on a curveball that also hit him on his back leg. After Marcus Semien’s leadoff homer in the sixth, the Mets lost another player to injury when Tyrone Taylor pulled up lame with right hip pain on a groundout to third and was removed. Mendoza said Taylor is scheduled for an MRI and expects him to be placed on the injured list.
Mendoza has become so focused on scraping up enough healthy players to fill out a lineup card that winning the game feels like a bridge too far. Monday’s lineup was Exhibit A. Three rookies, including a pair who were at Triple-A Syracuse earlier this month, weren’t even the biggest concern. It was the .214-hitting Semien, owner of a .560 OPS, in the cleanup spot as Mendoza stacked his most accomplished righthanded hitters against Reds lefty Nick Lodolo.
Not having Juan Soto was a major factor in that decision, obviously. He didn’t start for a second straight game because of illness, including a high fever, according to Mendoza. Tough timing, considering that Soto was on a 10-game heater, batting .378 with six homers and a 1.342 OPS during that stretch.
Still, Mendoza was asked a very logical question before Monday’s matinee: Um, could you walk us through why you have Semien hitting cleanup?
“It hasn’t been easy,” Mendoza said.
No further explanation was needed. Semien isn’t wearing a cast these days, so he was as good a candidate as any to occupy the heart of the Mets’ lineup. And it’s not as if people would notice the difference.
Entering Monday, the Mets ranked dead last in the majors in on-base percentage (.293) and slugging (.349), had the second-worst wRC+ (86), ranked 27th in batting average (.226) and were 26th in runs per game (3.89). They managed a total of two runs during a three-game sweep by the Marlins, and with Monday’s 7-2 loss, they have scored two or fewer runs in 24 games this season, the most in the National League and second-most in the majors.
There’s zero reason for that to change much anytime soon, either, as Mendoza ticked through his extended list of walking wounded Monday afternoon. Jared Young (knee surgery) is expected to return Tuesday, so that’s an experienced bat at least.
But the real difference-maker and the engine of any potential turnaround is Francisco Lindor, so the sight of him on the field doing some straight-line running and fielding short-range grounders from a machine in front of the dugout was encouraging.
He’s also taking indoor batting practice, but Lindor is at the very early stages of baseball activity after suffering a calf injury, so his timeline is still being measured in multiple weeks.
In 2024, it was Lindor who spearheaded the historic revival, hitting .307 with 25 homers, 65 RBIs and a .952 OPS after the 53-game mark to finish runner-up to Shohei Ohtani for the National League MVP.
This year, the weight of the Mets’ myriad issues is just too heavy for this squad to overcome. It’s going to be too late for Lindor to play hero by the time he returns.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
