David Lennon: Mets need someone to step up before things really start to turn bad
Mets' Francisco Lindor slides into third base after hitting a triple against the Cardinals on Monday in St Louis, Missouri. Credit: Getty Images/Dilip Vishwanat
SAN FRANCISCO — Too soon?
The short answer to that question, as it pertains to being concerned about Steve Cohen’s $370 million Mets, is nope. Definitely not.
These Mets have been on the clock since they showed up for spring training. Actually, even before that, from the moment Francisco Lindor grounded into that season-ending double play on Sept. 28 at Miami’s loanDepot Park.
Did David Stearns’ drastic winter makeover come off as the behavior of a tolerant president of baseball operations? How about Cohen’s February declaration that it was long past time for the Mets to end their championship drought?
Seven games? Nah, you can trace this simmering dissatisfaction to last June 13, when the Mets slammed into the proverbial iceberg, flipping baseball’s best record into one of the must stunning slow-motion collapses in history.
This goes way beyond a bad first week and is precisely why it was so imperative for the 2026 Mets to get off to a clean, fast start. Obviously, they haven’t, losing three straight and four of five heading into Friday night’s game against the Giants at Oracle Park.
Another reason to worry? Jorge Polanco’s Achilles discomfort now seems more problematic than originally thought. Polanco hasn’t manned first base — the position he was given the two-year, $40 million contract to play — since Saturday and was kept out of the lineup Friday for the second time in four games.
“I’m not going to say concerned, but it’s day-to-day,” Carlos Mendoza said before Friday’s game. “He’s got days where he feels it more. For the past couple days he was in a pretty good place until [Thursday] night, so we’ll have to continue to monitor it. He’s getting a lot of treatment and the trainers are working really hard with him.”
Given Polanco’s learning curve at first base, Brett Baty and Mark Vientos probably are better defensive options anyway. But the switch-hitting Polanco is supposed to be Bo Bichette’s protection in the cleanup spot, so that required Luis Robert Jr. to move up to No. 4 for Friday night.
It’s been frustrating enough losing games. The Mets can’t afford to start losing players, too, especially the ones Stearns personally designated to be part of the solution. This is a very inopportune time to be spackling holes in a misfiring lineup.
The vast majority of the MLB landscape can look at a 3-4 record out of the gate and shrug. The only sub.-500 team in the NL East? The bottom of the division? No biggie.
But not the team that resides at 41 Seaver Way.
The Mets occupy their own twisted zip code, where the natural laws of baseball — those that preach patience and stability over six months — often don't apply.
“I think people are looking at everything, every day, throughout the whole season,” Bichette said after Thursday’s loss. “Some years you get off to a good start, some years you don’t. That’s part of it.”
But it’s not that simple for the Mets this year. For all the reasons mentioned above, plus the status of Mendoza, who is in the final guaranteed season of his three-year contract. Although that puts the crosshairs on any manager, Mendoza also was handed a shuffled deck that included a new coaching staff and a roster restocked with unfamiliar faces.
That in itself is not necessarily an obstacle. But such sweeping change tends to require an adjustment period, and the Mets have been playing as if they’re still at the early stages of that process.
Thursday night’s 7-2 loss to the Giants showcased more of some disturbing trends. Offensively, the Mets can’t get out of their own way, and after going 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, that extended their current futility to 1-for-32 since Monday in St. Louis.
David Peterson getting knocked around, that happens. The Giants ambushed him early, racked up nine hits and six runs, then pretty much iced it with Rafael Devers’ solo homer off mop-up man Sean Manaea in the sixth inning.
In these types of stretches, it’s the little things that can reveal bigger issues. A great diving stop by Vientos at first base turned into disaster when his toss was slightly behind a covering Peterson, whose fumble allowed the Giants to score on the error. The very next inning, the baseball found Marcus Semien, who hasn’t looked comfortable as a Met and definitely not in shallow centerfield, where he botched a pop-up that should have been easily caught by Robert.
We’ll skip more run-prevention gags for now. But these gaffes are continuations of the curious mental lapses that sprung up in St. Louis, two in particular that involved Lindor.
During Wednesday’s series finale, which wound up a 2-1 Mets loss in 11 innings, Lindor forgot how many outs there were in the first inning when he stepped on second base and didn’t bother to complete the routine double play.
Lindor also got picked off first base in the sixth without even trying to get back to the bag.
The bizarre sequence of events was very out of character for someone considered to be captain-caliber — at least until Cohen squashed that entire narrative in Port St. Lucie by saying that no Met would wear the “C’’ as long as he owned the franchise.
At the time, it was a shocking statement by Cohen. Right now, however, the Mets need someone to grab the reins and change the conversation — before the team’s spiraling situation requires more urgent measures.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
