Jomboy may have found the play that “doomed” the NY Mets season

It was a Friday night in June and an Apple TV broadcast no less which was the site of what’ll now be known as Judgement Day for the 2025 New York Mets. Mike Puma’s exclusive on the relationship of Francisco Lindor with Jeff McNeil and Juan Soto covered within, tears down the star shortstop for his behavior behind the walls; or at least it’s presented that way.

No reasonable person could read it and think Lindor is in a constant fit of rage. Only one tense standoff was mentioned between him and McNeil. The whole part about Soto is silly and describes how most of us feel about 99.9999% of our co-workers. We get along but we’re not naming our kids after them, having them in our wedding parties, or even grabbing a beer together.

The specificity of the date when Lindor and McNeil had their standoff helped Jomboy spend his late Friday evening to determine the play. He seems to have done so on this soft toss from McNeil to Lindor on a failed double play.

Already down 8-2 in the 8th inning, this seems less personal and more about built-up frustration

In, not quite fairness but a word quite close to it, to Lindor, McNeil played to play a lousy second base throughout the game. Fans were dissecting which moment may have been the one. Times when McNeil looked nowhere to be found on multiple defensive plays could have been the culprit. This one, with Lindor and McNeil going eye-to-eye after the play, appears to be the second baseman’s miscue that broke the shortstop’s fuse.

The Mets hadn’t won since June 12, the game when Kodai Senga was hurt. We were right in the middle of the team’s demise. This wasn’t a case of a locker room leader getting out of control. This was a moment of “enough’s enough.”

Determining if Lindor is in the right or wrong requires exact information and some set of moral codes we all agree upon. Good luck on either one. Bread crumbs about his leadership style have regularly been leaked out whenever there’s something negative to say. It feels like a house divided and the strangest thing is, no one seems to really be on his side for whatever that’s worth.

We know Soto and Starling Marte are tight. If we’re going to start putting cliques together, Ronny Mauricio is in there, too.

This has been a long-lasting question for fans even before Lindor arrived. In 2019, everyone wanted Pete Alonso to be the captain. The obsession with a singular leader being needed came from a decade of David Wright being an unquestioned leader who’ll throw away your lunch before you finish it. 

What’s funny is there is no bad guy here at all. Lindor and McNeil having a tense moment over that play, if it is indeed the one, feels understandable. And for sure, McNeil must know he was in the wrong even if he didn’t appreciate the way Lindor may have spoken to him. It would still be beneficial for Lindor to assess what he brings to the team as a leader. Two playoff appearances in three seasons with the Mets isn’t good.