The New York Mets may be 29-18 on the season, but they have lost three of their last four games. This includes losing a pair to the crosstown rival New York Yankees over the weekend in the first rendition of this year's Subway Series. New York took the middle of the three games on Saturday, but self-combusted late in the rubber match on Sunday night.
While every season has its ebbs and flows for every MLB team, the Mets' fatal flaw in roster construction reared its ugly head at the worst possible time. Two costly defensive errors sunk them: In the bottom of the first, third baseman Mark Vientos failed to cleanly handle a slow roller from Paul Goldschmidt that helped spark a two-run Yankees rally; then, in the bottom of the eighth, an errant throw home from first baseman Pete Alonso allowed the go-ahead run to score and opened the floodgates to a six-run frame.
Simply, New York must be better than league-average defensively. Through their first 49 games, New York has committed 24 errors; while Alonso's second on the season was the most costly, Vientos already has six on the campaign. Although other teams such as the Boston Red Sox have been miserable in the field for years now, it would be a shame if this is what held the Mets back. You cannot give teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers any extra outs to work with.
Again, New York has a well-constructed team top-down, but its mediocre defense cannot continue.
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The New York Mets will need to get more sound defensively in a hurry
If there is any saving grace to the defensive lapses we saw on Sunday for the Mets, it is that there is plenty of time for them to rectify this. There will be more sure-handed infielders potentially on the trade market in the weeks and months to come. Being able to realize that a potentially fatal flaw does exist at this stage of the season is far better than coming to grips with one in September or October.
I remember a time growing up where the 1999 Mets were an absolute dynamo defensively in their infield. Mike Piazza was the team's leader behind the plate, but he and his teammates could regularly rely on the defensive prowess of Edgardo Alfonso, John Olerud, Rey Ordóñez and Robin Ventura around the horn. Every team is different, but the 2025 Mets are not even close to them with th eglove.
Admittedly, not having an exceptional defense is a weakness that an otherwise great team can overcome. However, a team that lacks firepower in the starting rotation, does not possess the clutch gene at the plate, or has a leaky bullpen is not going far in the postseason. Defense aside, I think the Mets might.
We have so much baseball left to be played, but New York is not reinventing the wheel on defense.