{"id":631213,"date":"2026-04-27T04:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/631213\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T04:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:56:12","slug":"mets-spiral-from-contender-to-major-league-cellar-as-pressure-on-mendoza-builds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/631213\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets spiral from contender to major league cellar as pressure on Mendoza builds"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Ping-pong and shuffleboard have been removed from the New York Mets<\/a> clubhouse this season, replaced by a chessboard and cribbage table.<\/p>\n

Recreational activities have changed, but the spiral from contender to cellar remains unchecked.<\/p>\n

New York has lost 15 of its last 17 games after getting swept\u00a03-1\u00a0and\u00a03-0\u00a0in a doubleheader Sunday by the Colorado Rockies, a 119-game loser last year. The Mets are tied with NL East rival Philadelphia at a major league-worst 9-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s hard to explain,\u201d Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not a good showing. Not good at-bats up and down.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big league-best 45-23 at the start of play on June 13 last year, the Mets are 47-74 since. The offseason makeover that saw\u00a0Pete Alonso,\u00a0Brandon Nimmo\u00a0and\u00a0Edwin D\u00edaz\u00a0depart, and\u00a0Bo Bichette,\u00a0Marcus Semien\u00a0and\u00a0Devin Williams\u00a0arrive has thus far fizzled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know what kind of talent we have in that lineup and what kind of hitters we have and how much damage they can do,\u201d star outfielder Juan Soto said. \u201cSo it\u2019s a matter of time that they\u2019re going to wake up and bring the best out of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York is 10 1\/2 games behind NL East-leading Atlanta and seven games back for the last NL wild card. Its 28-game start matches the expansion 1962 Mets \u2014 who lost 120 games \u2014 along with 1964 and 1983 for the second-worst in team history behind an 8-20 opening in 1981.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not great. We got to be better,\u201d Brett Baty said. \u201cWe\u2019re putting in the work. All the guys are working really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York’s 92 runs are the fewest in the major leagues and its 20 homers are one above the big league low. Its .625 OPS ranks last. The Mets have scored one run or none 10 times, including five shutouts.<\/p>\n

A day after\u00a0Boston’s Alex Cora\u00a0became the first major league manager jettisoned this season, Mendoza said his job security isn’t a concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I\u2019m worried about here is I\u2019ve got to get the guys going,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cI know the questions will continue to come up, but my job is to find a way to get those guys out of the funk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendoza said president of baseball operations David Stearns had not given him any assurances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come here every day. I have a relationship with David, with everyone,\u201d he said. \u201cI come here every day to do my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kodai Senga dropped to 0-4 with his third straight poor outing, getting chased in the third inning of the second game. An All-Star in 2023, when he was second in the NL with a 2.98 ERA, Senga has a 9.00 ERA and has allowed a team-high five homers in just 20 innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously not good enough,\u201d Mendoza said.<\/p>\n

He planned to have a conversation with the 33-year-old Japanese right-hander.\u00a0Senga’s $75 million, five-year contract, which runs through the 2027 season, specifies the pitcher cannot be assigned to the minor leagues without his consent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat warrants a lot of discussions with a lot of different people,\u201d Senga said through a translator. \u201cI can\u2019t give you a yes or no answer right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He would consider a relief role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done it in the past so I don\u2019t think that\u2019s an issue.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Seeking offence, New York plans to designate Tommy Pham for assignment and has agreed to a major league contract with Austin Slater, a pair of people familiar with the move said, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the decisions were not announced.<\/p>\n

Pham, 38, is 0 for 13 in nine games since he was called up on April 13. Slater, 33, hit .174 in 28 plate appearances for Miami, which designated him for assignment on Thursday.<\/p>\n

New York began the season with a\u00a0big league high payroll of $358.4 million, according to Major League Baseball’s projections, and a total spend including luxury tax of $482.5 million, second to only the two-time World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we got to go out and do it. That\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cYou watch film. You talk to players individually, support them, encourage them, challenge them. There\u2019s a lot that goes (on) behind the scene as a manager. You\u2019ve got to stay positive obviously but, yeah, it\u2019s just finding ways to get the guys going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ping-pong in the clubhouse was a favourite of Alonso, and the table tennis was removed as soon as he left town. From last year’s clubhouse diversions, the basketball hoop and the pool table remain.<\/p>\n

In the pool table after the doubleheader defeat, several balls were sitting in a corner pocket. Prominent was an 8-ball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Ping-pong and shuffleboard have been removed from the New York Mets clubhouse this season, replaced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-631213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}