Spread the news: 8 Mets most to blame for their season being on the brink

Game 161 might be the New York Mets' final game of any import. It's hard to believe, but their season, one that began with so much promise, is on the brink. If the Mets lose their game against the Miami Marlins AND the Cincinnati Reds defeat the Milwaukee Brewers, New York's season will come to an end. Any combination of two Mets losses and/or two Reds wins over the final two days of the regular season ends their year as well before the postseason.

The Mets began this season with such high expectations, and for the first 2.5 months, they played like the team they were expected to be. They had the best record in the majors on June 12, but have been one of the worst teams in the league since, allowing a team like the Reds to hang around and eventually overtake them in the Wild Card race.

The Mets have controlled their postseason fate for much of the season, but after Friday's outcomes, the Reds are in full control of that third Wild Card spot. For New York to get in, they'll need to take care of business on their end and get some luck. It's still possible they get in, but the odds are stacked against them.

Virtually the entire team is to blame for the Mets being in the uncomfortable position they're in, but these eight individuals deserve most of the blame, in no particular order.

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8) Jeff McNeil, second baseman

This might be a weird insertion because Jeff McNeil, by all accounts, has had a decent year. He's provided value with his defensive versatility, and has a 114 OPS+, making him roughly 14 percent better than league-average offensively. While he's had a pretty good year overall, McNeil has come up small when the Mets have needed him most.

McNeil has been the everyday second baseman down the stretch, but has had one of the worst months of his Mets tenure in September. The infielder is hitting .194 with a .528 OPS overall, and that's after he began the month with hits in five straight games. Since that hot start, McNeil has slashed .104/.218/.146 with zero home runs and three RBI. He has just two extra-base hits, both doubles, in 55 plate appearances in his last 16 games.

McNeil has five hits in his last 48 at-bats, three hits in his last 38 at-bats, and one hit in his last 15 at-bats. It's been ugly. Having this player, who has primarily hit fifth or sixth in the order, struggle like this in September has been a major buzzkill and has played a real role in the team's collapse down the stretch.

7) Ryan Helsley, relief pitcher

You knew he'd be here. Yes, Ryan Helsley has thrown six straight scoreless innings, but all that did was lower his Mets ERA to 7.58 in 21 appearances. He's allowed 20 runs (16 earned) in 19 innings of work. That's brutal for any reliever, and is even worse for one the Mets traded for, intending to have as their primary eighth-inning man.

Helsley was the 2024 NL Reliever of the Year winner, and for the majority of his Mets tenure, he's looked like a minor leaguer. He's pitched his way out of high-leverage spots and has unequivocally been one of the worst pickups of the trade deadline and one of the worst deadline additions in Mets history, considering the expectations he came with.

It's been good to see Helsley pitch well over the final couple of weeks, but it feels like his breakout came too late. If the Mets miss the playoffs, several Helsley blowups can be pointed to as the reason why.

6) David Stearns, general manager

I think a lot of the criticism of David Stearns has been unfair. Nobody could've expected decisions like re-signing Sean Manaea, relying on the likes of David Peterson and Kodai Senga, and trading for Ryan Helsley (to name a few), to backfire quite as poorly as they have. With that being said, Stearns is far from blame-free, and the trade deadline is a huge reason why.

Tyler Rogers has been decent, but Cedric Mullins has been a liability on both sides of the ball, Gregory Soto has had a miserable September, and Helsley, as mentioned above, has been a nightmare. The Mets refrained from trading their best prospects and instead pursued high-priced rentals. Three of the four moves have backfired spectacularly.

What makes this worse is that Stearns did not add a single starting pitcher. Yes, he had prospects waiting in the wings, and nobody could've anticipated struggles from Manaea, Peterson and Senga being as brutal as they've been, but I thought the Mets could've used a starter at the time, and the benefit of hindsight has proven that to be correct.

Again, a lot of the Mets' struggles have to do with things Stearns deserves no blame for, but you can't play as poorly as the Mets have for quite some time and have the president of baseball operations be blameless. Stearns had to make the team better, and for reasons both in and out of his control, failed.

5) David Peterson, starting pitcher

David Peterson was an All-Star and the Mets' only reliable starter for a majority of the first four months of the season. He deserves a lot of credit for that, but his collapse seemingly out of nowhere has been troubling and costly.

Peterson has a 7.74 ERA in his last 10 starts since the beginning of August, and the Mets, unsurprisingly, have gone just 3-7 in those appearances. Things have only gone worse for Peterson in September, as his 9.72 ERA in four starts would indicate. Peterson had a sub-3.00 ERA entering August and now, his ERA sits at 4.22.

Peterson going from looking like the Game 1 starter to unusable in an eyeblink is really hard to fathom. Perhaps Peterson throwing 47 more innings this season than he ever had in the big leagues is catching up to him. Regardless, the Mets needed their ace to step up in the most important moments, and he's done the opposite - emphatically.

4) Mark Vientos, infielder

Mark Vientos was one of many heroes to come from the 2024 campaign, but he's taken a noticeable step back in 2025. As poorly as this season had gone for Vientos, it appeared as if he had broken out of his season-long funk by hitting eight home runs, driving in 22 runs, and posting a .988 OPS in August. Well, this has not been the case, as Vientos has struggled mightily in September at the worst possible time.

The 25-year-old has slashed .176/.238/.297 with two home runs and eight RBI in September, and he has just four hits in his last 34 at-bats with 13 strikeouts. Vientos is an abysmal defender and a very slow base runner, so when he isn't hitting, he's a net negative when he's in the lineup.

Everybody slumps at certain points, but Vientos, having as bad a year as he's had and slumping to the extent he has in September, especially after an outstanding August, has been brutal.

3) Carlos Mendoza, manager

Blaming a manager for any team's poor play is often taking the easy way out, and I don't think Carlos Mendoza is at fault for as many things as Mets fans believe he is. For example, while his pitching decisions have been far from perfect, managing games when the starting rotation has trouble completing even four innings is an impossible task. I can't even blame him for this extremely talented team underperforming - at some point, the players have to produce.

What I can blame him for, is having a team that seemingly looks unprepared. The Mets have made a ton of both physical and mental errors this season, and most of them have come down the stretch. The Mets don't have the best defensive personnel, but there's no excuse for mental errors. Mendoza even acknowledged that he deserves some blame for the team's mistakes down the stretch.

Strikeouts, I can deal with. Physical errors are frustrating, but they happen to even the best of them. Mental errors, though, especially for a veteran-led team that expects to be playing October baseball, are inexcusable. The players deserve a ton of blame for not having their heads completely in the game, but Mendoza also has to have his guys ready to play. For whatever reason, it feels like he hasn't done that.

2) Sean Manaea, starting pitcher

The Sean Manaea signing was universally praised by Mets fans, and for good reason. Manaea was the team's ace in 2024 and was one of the best pitchers in the National League when he changed his arm angle. The Manaea experience in 2025, though, has been far from pretty.

He missed the first three and a half months of the season due to injury, and since returning, he simply hasn't looked like the same guy we saw last season. I don't know whether he's not 100 percent healthy or if he's tipping his pitches at all, but Manaea has a 5.80 ERA in 14 appearances (11 starts) and 59 innings of work. What's been even more frustrating is that his outings seem to go the exact same way. He looks alright in the first two or three innings, but implodes as the game progresses.

Manaea went from the team's ace in 2024 to a pitcher that's impossible to trust in 2025. The starting rotation will be the biggest reason the Mets miss the playoffs if that does happen, and Manaea is arguably the biggest culprit of all.

1) Kodai Senga, starting pitcher

Kodai Senga was seemingly in Cy Young contention in the first two and a half months of the season, posting a 1.47 ERA in his first 13 starts. Well, he suffered a hamstring injury in that 13th start, and since returning one month later, he has not been close to the same guy.

Senga has a 5.90 ERA in nine starts since returning from the IL. Things went so poorly for the right-hander that he was sent down to Triple-A in early September and hasn't been back since. The Mets are choosing to rely on three rookies and other struggling starters over Senga, which is pretty telling.

If Senga was even remotely serviceable, the Mets probably would've clinched a postseason berth by now. His struggles couldn't have come at a worse time and have cost the Mets dearly.