{"id":24513,"date":"2025-06-29T12:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T12:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/24513\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T12:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T12:45:10","slug":"seeking-a-turnaround-mets-players-call-team-meeting-as-losses-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/24513\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking a turnaround, Mets players call team meeting as losses mount"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH \u2014 For approximately 20 minutes Saturday night, the door to the visitors\u2019 clubhouse in the bowels of PNC Park stayed shut as the New York Mets\u2019 players aired issues out amongst themselves.<\/p>\n

A handful of players spoke, including Francisco Lindor, a de facto captain of sorts, and Pete Alonso, another one of the team\u2019s strongest voices. Publicly and privately, players declined to share specifics of the messaging beyond the theme of sticking together. The gathering lasted long enough for several coaches and player personnel types to switch into street clothes. The discussion, multiple players said, started organically.<\/p>\n

Brandon Nimmo, another clubhouse leader and the team\u2019s longest-tenured player, called the meeting \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cproductive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll look to build on that one step at a time,\u201d said Nimmo, who added he was not one of the six or seven players who spoke during the meeting. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be fixed overnight. I\u2019d love it if it was. But it\u2019s not going to be fixed overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the team played poorly over the last week, the Mets\u2019 leaders held off<\/a> on a group talk, trying to keep things in perspective. The meeting ended up feeling similar to last year\u2019s pivotal gathering, though the circumstances are different. Last year, the Mets were well outside of the playoff picture. This year, they are 48-36.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza argues with home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz after being ejected from the game against the Pirates on Saturday. (Charles LeClaire \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Not much changed over the last week. Aside from Carlos Mendoza\u2019s first ejection as the Mets\u2019 manager, the team\u2019s 9-2 loss to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates (34-50) on Saturday did not feature characteristics that were markedly different from their other losses \u2014 after all they had just lost 9-1 to the same bad team the day prior. They didn\u2019t pitch well. They didn\u2019t hit well. They didn\u2019t defend well.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the whole point. This keeps happening. The Mets have lost 12 of their last 15 games.<\/p>\n

So it was no surprise what Lindor shared as his hope regarding what emerges from the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing but winning,\u201d Lindor said. \u201cThis is not \u2018Rah-Rah,\u2019 and \u2018Now, the season is going to turn around.\u2019 We are competing \u2014 still. We are one game or a game and a half from first place. And we are in the top for the wild card. This is not a magic thing. Nobody is hoping for that. This is not how it works.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s how it worked, we would\u2019ve done it probably a while ago. It\u2019s just part of the adversity we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the Mets took the appropriate action after the game. Their meeting last year coincided with an epic turnaround. Generally, in sports, that is not typical. Nimmo said Saturday\u2019s meeting, while feeling similar to last year\u2019s, also felt similar to others over the course of his career. Some had better results. Others, not so much. But it was just last week when Lindor said that conversations needed to happen organically. So if that is indeed what happened, it sounds like a positive step.<\/p>\n

The problem is that there are so many more of those steps that the Mets need to take.<\/p>\n

Nimmo said the club\u2019s morale has stayed strong throughout this poor stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the trouble,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Nimmo\u2019s point about things not getting fixed overnight stood out in importance. This is likely going to take time.<\/p>\n

Just consider the state of the roster.<\/p>\n

After a 90-minute rain delay midway through the first inning, the Mets\u2019 brain trust decided the best thing to do was to have starter Paul Blackburn return to the mound for the second inning. Granted, the game shouldn\u2019t have started on time, and when it did in the first place, Blackburn was right to call it \u201cbizarre.\u201d During the delay, he kept throwing. Still, it was an unconventional choice to stick with him. In the second inning, Blackburn allowed five straight hits and failed to record an out.<\/p>\n

At best, Blackburn was supposed to give the Mets another 35 or 40 pitches, which amounts to another couple of innings. They felt they needed to ask that of him. And they did so because of the state of their bullpen, Mendoza said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paul Blackburn pitches against the Pirates in the first inning, which was interrupted by a 90-minute rain delay. He also returned to pitch the second inning. (Justin Berl \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Mets\u2019 bullpen wasn\u2019t used Friday. The club is off on Monday. Yet Mendoza said that he still had relievers he preferred to avoid. That\u2019s what happens when a club\u2019s starting pitcher fails to record an out in the sixth inning of a game for 11 consecutive games. It adds up. The situation also calls on the Mets to constantly shuttle pitchers on and off the roster, leading to a few members of the bullpen being fresh from Triple A.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Mets\u2019 offense, designed to carry the club, has averaged 2.9 runs per game during this ugly 15-game period, despite an 11-run outburst in one of the few wins and a historically good month from Juan Soto. There are too many spots where the Mets receive little production, including, on most days, the back half of their lineup.<\/p>\n

It was more of the same for the Mets on Saturday. They left 10 runners on base and went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position. For all of that, the Mets still trailed just 3-2 heading into the eighth inning. But Huascar Brazoban, once part of a circle of trust and now in a slump, and Colin Poche, summoned Friday from Triple A, combined to allow six runs. By then, Mendoza was long gone from the dugout, having been ejected in the fourth inning for arguing about balls and strikes (though he did have a point there against home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz).<\/p>\n

Mendoza said he wasn\u2019t trying to fire up his players; he was just fed up with an inconsistent strike zone. Even if some of the recent context did play a part in Mendoza taking such action, it did not seem to make a difference. It\u2019s unclear whether a team discussion will do the same.<\/p>\n

On its own, a players\u2019 meeting won\u2019t fix the Mets. Though it may have helped, it is not what fixed the Mets last year, either; it was the consistent, inspired play that came afterward. That\u2019s what needs to happen next this time, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good,\u201d Nimmo said of Saturday\u2019s meeting. \u201cWe\u2019ll see \u2014 we\u2019ll see if it works or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Top photo of Huascar Brazoban after being removed in the eighth inning against the Pirates: Charles LeClaire \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 For approximately 20 minutes Saturday night, the door to the visitors\u2019 clubhouse in the bowels of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,1305,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-24513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-new-york-mets","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114766723487857447","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}