3 decisions that could have saved the NY Mets season before it was too late

Wouldn’t it have been nice if this August version of the New York Mets showed up in…April? The 12-game losing streak did irreputatable damage to the team. However, they had several other stretches between then and now where they were getting beaten down. Getting swept by the Colorado Rockies at Citi Field wasn’t even a part of the losing streak.

Better health, stronger starts, and completely different offseason moves would have made these recent wins more relevant. We’re not going to count those. Instead, we need to look strictly at decisions made by the team that was within their control after Opening Day.

Re-do these choices and maybe the Mets are battling for a playoff spot. Let’s be fair. A.J. Ewing was never starting the season on the roster.

Where were these Mets changes when we needed them?

1) Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga swapping places

Sean Manaea has found redemption in the rotation while Kodai Senga has become a beloved closer. What happened here? For the longest time, Manaea was looking average in the bullpen while Senga threw clunker after clunker in the bullpen. Both spent time as starters and bulk guys as well as more traditional relievers. It turns out the solution all along may have been to put Senga in the bullpen and let Manaea rediscover velocity as a starter.

There’s no telling how things would have gone if things reversed sooner with Senga getting thrown into a one-inning-at-a-time relief role and Manaea starting games for the Mets instead. But in mid-August, each looks incredibly comfortable in the last spot the Mets put them in. The Senga part might not have done enough as he was out for all of May and the first half of June. By the time he came back from the IL, the Mets were already done.

2) Firing Carlos Mendoza way before June 26

The Mets let Carlos Mendoza manage 81 games and it was clear he wasn’t the right man to lead them. While everyone will admit it wasn’t all on Mendoza, the success Andy Green has had as skipper begs the question of what could have happened if the Mets made the change earlier. After all, the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies turned their seasons around.

The commitment to Mendoza was more frustrating because it was clear early on he wouldn’t be around for the 2027 season. In retrospect, Mendoza should have been gone at least a month earlier if not two. Change for the sake of trying something new can save a baseball season.

3) Play fewer guys out of position

Lately, the Mets seem like they’re far more in line with the defense they desire. It’s not perfect, but choosing to have the best defense possible on the field seems to be a preference. This tends to mean putting Luis Torrens behind the plate, DH’ing Francisco Alvarez, and avoiding Brett Baty in the outfield as much as possible.

We can accept the Mets trying to make Bo Bichette a third baseman, a plan that has worked out incredibly well. The fact the team didn’t have a real first baseman on the roster made a lot of the moves in favor of run prevention more questionable. Marcus Semien and Francisco Lindor taking huge steps backward defensively hasn’t helped. Errors aren’t everything but the team has already made more in 2026 than they did in all of 2025. Only 79 errors all of last year and 82 through 128 games in 2026, we can only imagine how much worse they’d rate if not for guys like A.J. Ewing and Carson Benge. There came a point in 2026 where Baty was no longer needed in the outfield ever. If you want to play him, see what he can do more at first base or sit Semien on a more regular basis.

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