There was a time when people were excited about these Mets. It was spring training, and despite all the things you’re going to hear about how David Stearns botched this team, most of us filed his moves under “just weird enough to work.”
Despite their overhauled roster, the burgeoning clubhouse chemistry seemed promising. Although it was February — and if you can’t be optimistic about baseball in February, when can you be? — their impressive lineup depth, coupled with high expectations, gave this team an aura of competence.
In the midst of it all was David Peterson.
Granted, Peterson, whose phenomenal first half earned him an All-Star nod in 2025, ended up being one of the architects of that season’s demise. But with Pete Alonso (who fans chanted for Wednesday night), Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil all gone, the 30-year-old lefty was the Mets’ longest-tenured player. He gladly took on a leadership role, helped organize a team bonding activity and was named the Mets’ new union representative.
It was fitting, then, that Peterson’s departure late Wednesday night is likely to be the receding tide that precedes a ferocious tsunami.
It’s more than the fact that the Mets traded a scuffling Peterson to the Cubs for infield prospect Cole Mathis. Because consider this: When asked about his trade deadline strategy on Tuesday, Stearns said he plans “to continue to give this team time to prove that we can get back in this in a very legitimate sense.’’
“The cutoff is the deadline,” he said.
That may have been true at the time, but it certainly didn’t feel true in the ensuing hours — first a 9-6 loss to the Cubs, and then a split doubleheader Wednesday that proved to be little more than a prolonged humiliation ritual, including six infield errors in Game 2.
And that’s when they moved Peterson. Sure, Peterson hadn’t been what you would call “good.” He has a 6.09 ERA but fared better when the Mets used an opener ahead of him. But he certainly was what you would call “a warm body.” And given Kodai Senga’s implosion and subsequent bullpen banishment, that alone qualifies you to start for the Mets these days.
And that might mean that the full fire sale is nigh. It also means that for two years in a row, the Mets will have been the worst team money can buy.
Whenever Carlos Mendoza was asked about Peterson or Senga, or the myriad underperforming players on his team, he often replied that the Mets needed to get them right “because we’re going to need these guys.”
In other words, the Mets needed the best version of these players for them to have a prayer of reaching the playoffs — Peterson included. But it’s late June, the trade deadline is less than six weeks away, and the postseason might as well be Mars, given how likely it is for the Mets to qualify.
By Thursday, “we’re going to need these guys” turned into “we can’t afford to need these guys.”
“I’ve seen [Peterson] have success, make the All-Star [team], seen him struggle a lot, and how he handled it, but it got to a point where we needed the flexibility on the roster,” Mendoza said. “We already had Kodai in the pen, and to continue to have starters in the bullpen, it’s not going to be sustainable. There was an opportunity to make a deal and we move forward.”
It makes sense. They had a 7.1% chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs, entering Thursday’s 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Cubs. They are 9 1/2 games out of the third wild-card spot, with seven teams ahead of them. But forget that: They folded at exactly the wrong time.
On June 15, the Mets began a stretch of 13 games against teams directly in front of them for a wild-card berth. They have now played 10 of them and lost eight.
All that means is that Freddy Peralta might want to start looking at Zillow listings. A.J. Minter makes for good trade bait, as does Brooks Raley. Even Clay Holmes and his broken leg could court some significant suitors. Luke Weaver has one more year on his contract, and the Mets likely would prefer not to move a low-cost, high-leverage piece that could help them next year, but he also could net a very nice bounty.
Despite being 36, Huascar Brazoban has performed remarkably well and is under team control. Or, as in the case of Peterson, teams might be looking for pseudo-reclamation projects such as a heating-up Mark Vientos. If August rolls around and Bo Bichette is trending toward an opt-out, well, you probably can say goodbye to him, too.
After that, there’s not much left — just a sad clubhouse fielding two of the best players in baseball near or around their best years. It’s baffling to think that the Mets may have wasted two years of Juan Soto in his prime. Or that, save for postseason appearances in 2022 and 2024, they haven’t done much since signing Francisco Lindor.
When Peterson last addressed the media after his poor start in Philadelphia last weekend, he was asked if he was worried that time was running out. It was by far his longest answer of the evening.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a concern because that’s not where our focus should be,” he said in part. “We obviously have not put ourselves in a situation we want to be in, but it’s not for a lack of effort, it’s not for a lack of commitment. I think it’s just one through 26 getting the job done . . . I think for us, it’s continuing to come to the ballpark, continuing to be excited to play with each other, committed to our good work, and going out and competing.”
They failed to do that last part, and now Peterson — and very likely many others — will attempt to do it somewhere else.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She’s been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
