3 infuriating Mets takeaways from their series loss to the Phillies

3) The Mets bullpen is too untrustworthy to go far in the playoffs

It was a combination of Danny Young and Reed Garrett on Saturday who blew it for the Mets. Let’s not forget that even on Friday Alex Young wasn’t so stable. Come Sunday, it was the usually trustworthy Diaz to take the loss.

We can deep dive into who gets the blame with some of these calls over the weekend. Should Carlos Mendoza have gone to Danny Young on Saturday? Against conventional wisdom in a tie on the road, was Diaz the correct choice on Sunday? The choices Mendoza did go with aren’t the real debate here. Instead, the focus should be more on the inability of these guys to simply get the job done.

The 2024 Mets bullpen has shown signs of brilliance at times and looked more like the Dark Ages at others. Which era are we in right now? Mendoza is pushing his starters deeper into games to eliminate at least one inning where he must call upon a reliever. It’s still not enough, apparently, as we saw Severino and Peterson each give up runs late. Having an arm they could trust might have yielded different results. Walking J.T. Realmuto in the ninth wouldn't have hurt much either.

The Mets do have some good bullpen arms and then the drop off is huge. Ryne Stanek, Adam Ottavino, and others just seem to be familiar names with experience and not much else.

While the Mets played the trade deadline a little timid for guys like Stanek, Phil Maton, and Huascar Brazoban, the San Diego Padres sent a king’s ransom to the Florida teams for Jason Adam in one deal and Tanner Scott plus Bryan Hoeing in a separate trade. They have respective ERAs of 0.45, 2.33, and 0.90 in a combined 59.1 innings. It wouldn’t have made a big enough difference but golly, they’ve gotten their money’s worth.