Even the biggest NY Mets haters can’t deny this fact

Somewhere deep beneath Citi Field, past the storage rooms, hot dog freezers, and the inexplicably long line for Shake Shack, there’s got to be a hidden lab. Not the kind that tests baseballs, whittle torpedo bats (that’s near the batting cages) and brews new ballpark snacks, but a full-blown pitching lab. It's the only explanation. Because what David Stearns has stitched together in 2025 doesn’t resemble a standard staff, it looks more like the result of a government-funded science fair. No blockbuster names. No Cy Youngs. And yet, here the New York Mets are, sitting pretty with the best pitching staff in baseball. Guess they’ve figured something out, and it’s not just the formula for the rainbow cookie egg-roll.

The NY Mets are silencing their critics in 2025 with a pitching staff that’s dominating MLB and leading key categories.

You don’t have to dig deep to find all the criticizing takes heading into camp. Just open a tab, type “Mets pitching” and watch the doubts roll in—article after article, post after post, all wondering if this staff could even keep the ball on the planet, let alone give this club a fighting chance. Kodai Senga had barely broken a sweat in 2024, throwing just 5.1 innings. Could David Peterson replicate his breakout 2024 performance? Clay Holmes was a closer-turned-starter experiment that smelled more like a gamble than a game plan. And Luis Severino? Gone without much of a fight. Yet here we are. David Stearns might not say much, but you know there’s a folder somewhere on his desktop labeled “Receipts—Do Not Delete.”

Through 25 games, the Mets have pitched their way to an 18-7 record, and while a few bats in the lineup have done some serious damage, the arms have been the real engine. This staff has been lights out, kept games close, and shut the door when it mattered most. They lead all of baseball with a 2.34-team ERA. Their starters? Even better at 2.33. The bullpen? Second-best in the majors at 2.35. The rotation hasn’t allowed a home run in the last 12 games, and the staff ranks third in MLB with 239 strikeouts. They have a habit of getting into tight spots and an uncanny ability to slip right out of them. It’s not always clean, never textbook, but it keeps ending the same way: the Mets walking off the mound.

Maybe it’s not magic and maybe there’s no glowing lab hidden beneath Section 126. But whatever’s going on behind those double doors, it’s working. The Mets didn’t bring in a pack of household names or stack the deck with awards. They built a staff that keeps getting outs. And if anyone's still waiting for it all to fall apart? They might be in for a surprise because the Mets’ pitching lab is showing no signs of shutting down.