“From the beginning I knew my destination, and I chose my route accordingly. But am I working toward an extreme of joy, or of pain? Will I achieve a minimum, or a maximum?”
—“Story of Your Life,” Ted Chiang
Carlos Beltrán may very well go into the Hall of Fame next year, perhaps even with a Mets hat on his plaque. Carlos Delgado hit 473 home runs, including an even 100 across his three healthy seasons with the Mets.
And upon their return to Citi Field on Saturday for the club’s Alumni Classic game, they were asked, among other things, about 2007. That team’s collapse remains an integral part of their legacy with the Mets — a hypothetical that lingers nearly two decades later.
That’s what the 2025 Mets have two weeks to avoid.
This has been a different kind of collapse. In 2007, the Mets started to collapse, and then did all at once — like Bart Simpson’s warehouse. In 2025, it has been a far more gradual process, more erosion than collapse. The Mets had the best record in baseball on the morning of June 12. They blew a four-run lead that night. They’ve had the fourth-worst record in baseball since over exactly half a season. Only one team has ever gone 32-49 over 81 games and still made the playoffs: the 1973 Mets, who snuck in with 82 wins.
Prior to Sunday’s exhalation, the postgame exhortations have become stale, the players citing the talent in the room, the manager left falling back on “We’ve got to do it.” What else is there to say?
This is when fans want to see a manager go on a postgame tirade, want to hear about a players’ only meeting with chairs thrown and tables flipped — stuff that seldom happens in baseball in 2025. Asked pregame Sunday whether the Mets could use someone with more of an edge in the clubhouse, Carlos Mendoza talked about the emotions behind closed doors.
“You guys probably don’t see it, but we’ve seen it. There are a lot of people pissed off and frustrated,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the results on the field.”
The Mets’ core did so much to win the fan base over last autumn; missing the playoffs this season would wipe away so much of that goodwill. Owner Steve Cohen spoke during that postseason about slaying negative perceptions from the fan base. This season has stoked them.
That stain of 2007? It set in deep. Deep enough to mitigate the joy that the team had created the year before during a National League Championship Series run, deep enough to eventually cost a manager his job and undercut the next year’s team in another tight pennant race. Deep enough to still be a question for Beltrán, for Delgado, even for David Wright when his number was retired earlier this summer.
These Mets have two weeks to avoid that infamy. To avoid some alumni game in 2043 where Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso are back — and have to answer about what went wrong in 2025. They have 13 games to change that future.
The exposition
The Mets finally halted their season-worst eight-game losing streak with a walk-off win Sunday over the Texas Rangers. New York is 77-73 and 1 1/2 games ahead of the San Francisco Giants for the final wild-card spot. With 13 games to go, its magic number to clinch a postseason berth is 11.
The San Diego Padres took three of four from the Colorado Rockies; their only two series wins in the last six have come against Colorado. At 82-68, San Diego is 2 1/2 behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for first in the NL West, 3 1/2 behind the Chicago Cubs for the top wild card, and 6 1/2 up on San Francisco for a playoff spot.
The Washington Nationals took two of three from the Miami Marlins to continue a nice start to September. Washington is 9-4 this month; it hasn’t won more than nine games in a month since May. That’s why the Nats are 62-87.
The pitching possibilities
vs. San Diego
RHP Clay Holmes (11-8, 3.75 ERA) v. RHP Michael King (4-2, 2.87 ERA)
LHP David Peterson (9-5, 3.77) v. RHP Nick Pivetta (13-5, 2.73)
RHP Jonah Tong (1-2, 8.49) v. RHP Dylan Cease (8-11, 4.59)
vs. Washington
RHP Brandon Sproat (0-1, 2.25) v. LHP Andrew Alvarez (1-0, 1.15)
RHP Nolan McLean (4-1, 1.19) v. RHP Cade Cavalli (3-1, 4.76)
LHP Sean Manaea (1-3, 5.76) v. LHP Mitchell Parker (8-15, 5.69)
Following up
On Tuesday, expect Manaea to piggyback after Holmes. On Sunday, expect the inverse.
Injury updates
Mets’ injured list
Player
Injury
Elig.
ETA
Left hamstring strain
Now
September
Right forearm contusion
Sept. 17
September
Lower back inflammation
Now
2026
Right elbow sprain
Now
2026
Ruptured left Achilles tendon
Now
2026
Left lat strain
Now
2026
Tommy John surgery
Now
2026
Right flexor surgery
Now
2026
Tommy John surgery
Now
2026
Tommy John surgery
Now
2026
Left shoulder fracture
Now
2026
Tommy John surgery
Now
2027
Right elbow UCL injury
Sept. 28
2027
Red = 60-day IL
Orange = 15-day IL
Blue = 10-day IL
- Since our last update two Mondays ago, Tyrone Taylor and Luis Torrens have hit the injured list with short-term injuries that could see their returns this week. Taylor may need a rehab stint, and the Mets will have to shuffle the roster a bit to make room for him.
- Also, Jesse Winker and Tylor Megill experienced setbacks that push a return this season out the window. Winker’s back was still too bothersome during his attempt at a rehab assignment, and Megill required another MRI on his elbow as he neared the end of his rehab stint. We expect an update on his diagnosis this week.
- Max Kranick was back at Citi Field over the weekend for the first time since his elbow surgery. He expects to be out of an arm brace next week, with a plan to resume throwing in January. Because he required only flexor surgery and not ligament replacement surgery (i.e. Tommy John), Kranick could return sometime next summer.
Minor-league schedule
Triple-A: Syracuse at Lehigh Valley (Philadelphia)
Double-A: Binghamton versus Somerset (New York, AL) in best-of-three playoff series
High-A: Brooklyn versus Hub City (Texas) in best-of-three championship series
Low-A: St. Lucie lost playoff series to Daytona (Cincinnati) to end season
A note on the epigraph
“Story of Your Life” famously became the movie “Arrival,” and as someone who really liked the film, I was surprised how different the story itself was — how much deeper it went despite being, you know, a short story. While I didn’t like this overall collection of short stories (called “Stories of Your Life and Others”) as much as Chiang’s “Exhalation,” that’s largely because I don’t like any collections of short stories as much as Chiang’s “Exhalation.” My favorite story in this group, as in “Exhalation,” was the last one.
Trivia time
The Mets are in a playoff race with the Giants, and many members of the 2000 team were at Citi Field this past weekend. So, what Giant got the lone hit off Bobby Jones in the clinching Game 4 of that year’s division series?
(I’ll reply to the correct answer in the comments.)
(Photo: Pete Alonso celebrating his walkoff three-run homer: Gregory Fisher / Imagn Images)