Time Continues Running Out On The New York Mets

A 13-word quote by Buck Showalter Friday night unwittingly summed up not only a game but a season gone terribly wrong for the Mets.

“Even at 3-0, we thought we’d make a run at some point,” Showalter said after the Mets were one-hit in a 6-0 loss to the Dodgers.

For most of this season, the Mets have believed a big run was just around the corner. But with the trade deadline 16 days away and the Mets having gone 12-22 since June 2 — tied with the Nationals for the third-worst mark in baseball over that span, ahead of only the Royals and Rockies — to fall eight games back of the third wild card, the only run might be mounted by other teams trying to shop for their upgrades via the Mets’ roster.

As was the case from June 6-8 — when the Mets’ season likely turned sour for good when they were swept by the Braves — the sight of the opponent Friday reminded the Mets just how far they have to travel to become the annual contender desired by Steve Cohen.

The Dodgers’ 10-man lineup (counting starting pitcher Julio Urias) Friday included Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, a pair of Hall of Fame-track imports, as well as fifth-place hitter J.D. Martinez, who just played in his fifth straight All-Star Game. But the rest of their lineup was filled either with players drafted or signed by the Dodgers (Urias along with Will Smith and James Outman) or picked up via minor trades or free agent signings (Max Muncy, David Peralta, Jason Heyward and Miguel Rojas).

The three pitchers who set down the final nine Mets batters in order consisted of two free agent signings (Yency Almonte and Ryan Brasier) and 38th-round draft pick Caleb Ferguson.

Today, of course, it would take almost two full drafts to get to 38 rounds, which only magnifies the challenge the Mets face in trying to catch up to the player development chains developed by the Braves and Dodgers.

The Mets’ lineup Friday looked like a pretty good Braves/Dodgers template. There were five homegrown players (Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty) plus two superstar imports (Francisco Lindor and pitcher Justin Verlander), a medium-sized free agent acquisition (Starling Marte) and two lower-cost free agents (Tommy Pham and Mark Canha).

But a seemingly well-constructed plan has not worked well for the Mets (as opposed to the old days, when seemingly poorly constructed plans did not work well). Lindor, signed to a 10-year, $341 million deal before ever playing a regular season inning for the Mets, has a .771 OPS since getting to New York, which is 64 points lower than his OPS in Cleveland.

Lindor is actually one of two Mets regulars with a better OPS this year (.789) than last year (.788). Nimmo’s OPS is at .806, up from .800 in 2022. But the steadiness displayed by Lindor and Nimmo has been negated by the drastic declines suffered by Alonso (.869 to .802), Canha (.770 to .738), McNeil (.836 to .653) and Marte (.814 to .642). Outside of perhaps Marte, who underwent surgery on both of his groins after last season, none of these declines were particularly foreseeable.

The Mets’ offensive struggles — Nimmo led off Friday’s game with a home run that was turned into a double upon review, after which no other player got beyond first base — wouldn’t seem so insurmountable if they weren’t also getting so little from their pitching staff.

But the Mets rank 20th in the majors with a 4.41 ERA. Verlander and Max Scherzer, the co-aces each being paid a shade over $43 million this season, have combined to post a 4.04 ERA in 162 2/3 innings. They entered this season with a combined 2.89 ERA from 2014 — their final season together with the Tigers — through 2022.

And while the Dodgers were rolling out thrift store finds in the later innings of a reasonably close game, the Mets’ final pitcher Friday night was Drew Smith, who was supposed to emerge as a key late-inning cog but has a 4.45 ERA and 1.35 ERA after giving up a run while allowing four baserunners in the ninth.

The outcome was already decided by that point — of a game and maybe a season.

“This was not a good game of baseball in any facet,” Verlander said. “But that doesn’t mean that we can’t go on a roll. We played good baseball going into the break and I’ll be damned if one game is going to be the thing that says ‘Oh well, we sure can’t go on a run.’”

But for the Mets, there’s a lot more than one game saying that.