The Penguin Sports Report.

Let’s start by analyzing a game, a seemingly meaningless game that happened on April 9th of 2025, but easily can help us explain the issue, that is the New York Mets. For comedic purposes, this game also happened to be against the Miami Marlins, cause, yah, they’re the Mets.

There is so much tragedy in this photo. It shows one of the many issues the New York Mets fell into this year. Tylor Megill is taking the mound, Vientos and Baty play simultaneously while Lindor and Alonso are out there mentoring the youth. This was the picture of success for the New York Mets. But, clearly one issue that ended up being the most glaring for this team, was that Tylor Megill was not prevalent for this seasons stretch run. Neither was Griffith Canning(possibly their most consistent starter of the first half, besides Peterson), both due to injuries. And then the other half of the rotation, excluding Manea who only had one relief outing in the first half(but also seemed decent in that outing), absolutely collapsed into the Abis during the second half.

David Peterson, who rightfully earned his first all-star appearance, claiming a ERA in the mid-high two’s, and a record of 6-4, including a gem of a performance on on June 11th. Where he recorded a 6 strikeout, complete game shutout against the Nationals. His fate in the second half wasn’t actually as bad for him as the others in the rotation, but it is worrying to see his command fallout of place. The first time we saw him consistently lose control with that arm side running fastball, since he got the constructive hip surgery. Along with the free base on balls, he also fell victim to bad pitch selection, hanging sinkers+sliders, and honestly, some bad luck bloops that kept finding grass.

Sean Manea, who just signed a 3 year deal for 75 million to stay in Queens, ended his injury delayed season with a 2-4 record, and a 5.64 ERA. With Manea, his struggles seemed to come down to a couple consistent factors: stamina, pitch location and pitch selection/ordering. When he was dominant against the Phillies in the NLDS, and the Dodgers in the NLCS, he was consistently using his high sinker to speed them up, and using that pitch to set them up for his low slider or drop off the table change piece. But, it was evident he still has stardom in him, as he showed flashes of it in Kansas City and a couple of innings to start games down the stretch. But once the third or fourth inning came around, he would seemingly lose life and location of his fastball, leading to the fastball being hittable, and thus making his off speed selection ineffective and susceptible for longballs or ropes down the line. Speaking of down the line, does it annoy anyone else how it seems Nimmo doesn’t seem urgent to ever get the ball out of the corner and throw it in? Anyways, there were games such as a very promising one on August 4th, where he gave up a single(by Steven Kwan, so its sorta acceptable), but then hits Angel Martínez with a pitch, ultimately leading to him giving up the games first run and a penultimate homer by Gabriel Arias, sealing his fate, from what was unfortunately his best start of the season. This was where he was absolutely dominating and cruising through the oppositions order. But a hit by pitch hindered his rhythm, and just like that, he lost his magic. He lost his gas and imploded for t runs in the 6th inning. This summarizes Maneas 2025 season. But, hopefully he can rest up, and shape up to be the ace(or at least a solid option behind Mclean), for the Mets in 2026.

Clay Holmes was decent, everything you expected out of a closer turned starter, he finished the season with a 12-28 record, and a 3.53 ERA. Mendoza and David Stearn’s are also to blame for this teams slows slow descending collapse. As he turned to guys like Wagenman and Frankie Montas, costing them many games, games their strong offense couldn’t power past. Mind you, they only needed one more game. One more game of Mclean, Sproat or even Tong on the mound for those games, and they are no doubt into the PostSeason. And we all wouldn’t have had to watch the senseless series between Cincinnati and the Dodgers.

There is also so much tragedy in this photo. It features Max Kranick entering a tight situation in the 5th inning, and escapes with little damage. Point is, there other prevalent issue was their atrocious bullpen. I can’t blame David Stearns, Kranick ,Garret, and Brazoban were certainly not helpful towards the mets cause. And when he identified these losses, he went out and acquired Gregory Soto(who was ok), Tyler Rogers(who shaped into form late into the season), and Ryan Helsley. We’re going to focus on Ryan Helsley. We all remember that fateful moment, game on the line, vibes were high, momentum on the Mets side. But the Brew Crew loads the bases in the bottom of the inning late in the game, and Mendoza makes the call to bring in Helsley. Why? We know he was struggling, we know something wasn’t right about the way opponents were hitting him. Yet Mendoza opted to trust him, which he predictably rewarded his decision by giving up the game losing grand slam. This issue of bullpen, and pitching issues fall solely on Carlos Mendoza and Jeremy Hefner. Mendoza, for not seeing the human side of the sport, and Hefner for not freaking fixing anyone in a span of 2-3 months.

Complacency was the story of the 2025 New York Mets, they were never organized, never truly jelled, and as I mentioned in my pre-season article, they tried too hard to recreate last seasons magic, instead of finding ways to naturally get momentum for this season. Fake chemistry will not amount to wins or success when it comes to the end of summer.

The Lineup….

The Youth and Mendoza.

I’m sick of what Mendoza did this year. Pick a lane and stay in it! You can’t keep hoping lanes hoping you’ll miraculously end up at the right exit. The point was the win, while also seemingly finding out what the Mets have in their youth. But Mendoza forcibly plays McNeill everyday, was could barely scratch out a hit in the last month.

Mark Vientos earned a full time job due to last years performance, he proved to be clutch, consistent and a force at the plate when it mattered most. Yet, the moment he took a day off, we wouldn’t see him for another week. He would then play a couple of games, not find his rythmn and then get benched for freakin Baty. When he did get consistent playing time, he clutched out, carried the mets for a week plus and yes, he did hit a wall, but he deserved to play the entire season on a consistent basis, then if he couldn’t get the job done, let Baty or Acuna take his place.

Ronny Mauricio didn’t even get a fair chance. Yes, it’s annoying to watch him continuously flare at anything that touches the dirt. But, he was their best hitter for a one week span. He hit is stride in the road trip to Cali, where he capped it off with a clutch splash hit game tying HR against the Giants best reliever. He also carried them throughout the next couple games before having one bad game. And then he didn’t the see the field or the light of day for a month after that. He and Vientos, and even Acuna deserved consistent playing time.

Acuna simply was their defensive replacement or pinch runner, again, how was he supposed to find rhythm when he spastically starts once per month? We saw his potential towards the stretch run of the 2024 season, and we didn’t get to see him as much this year as opposed to last year, how does that even happen? The only player that played almost on a daily basis it seemed, was Bret Baty, and he didn’t impress. The numbers may seem decent, but he was unclench, and would tap a single or hr at the most insignificant times. Towards the end of the season, he started improving in his RISP, but still showed he isn’t their future in the infield.