MIAMI — The biggest challenge for the Mets coming into the 2025 season wasn’t starting pitching, and it wasn’t the NL East.
It was handling prosperity.
For the second year in a row, it came down to Game 162. But unlike last year, there were no heroics, no late-game theatrics and no post-game celebrations. The Mets were eliminated from postseason contention in a 4-0 loss to the Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park on Sunday afternoon. The Fish rallied for four runs in the fourth inning off of three different pitchers, and right-hander Edward Cabrera threw five shutout innings.
The Cincinnati Reds clinched the final NL Wild Card spot by nature of owning the head-to-head tiebreaker. Both teams finished the season with 83-79 records.
“We came in with a lot of expectations, and here we are going home,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “Not only did we fall short, we didn’t even get to October. This is a team that was built to not only get to October, but to play deep into October. We’re pissed, sad, frustrated — I mean, you name it.”
What should have been a prosperous season ended as an unmitigated disaster. A team that led the division lead by as much as 5.5 games on June 12 collapsed to fall out of the race completely. The most expensive payroll in the game, a generational slugger in Juan Soto added to an already-deep lineup, and one of the best closers in baseball in Edwin Diaz, and still, they were eliminated on the last day of the regular season.
A season that ends without a playoff appearance can be considered nothing short of a disaster.
Amazingly, the Amazin’s went 38-55 after June 12 to miss the playoffs for the second time in three seasons, and the seventh time since 2016, the last year they qualified for the playoffs in consecutive seasons — and still the only time in franchise history the team has reached the postseason in back-to-back years.
“It’s a failure,” Soto said. “Anytime you don’t get into the playoffs or win the championship, it’s a failure. That’s how we’re going to look at it.”
They needed help from the Reds and Milwaukee Brewers, and they needed to beat the Fish. The Brewers did their part with a win.
“That one is a nice little cherry on top of the sting,” said outfielder and team leader Brandon Nimmo. “It definitely hurts.”
The Marlins, however, made no secret of wanting to end the Mets’ season.
This was evident in the top of the fifth inning. Miami had a 4-0 lead when the Mets loaded the bases on Cabrera. In what could be his final game in a Mets uniform, Pete Alonso smoked a ball 116 MPH off the bat into the glove of Javier Sanoja for the third out. Sanoja was giddy with excitement after making the catch.
When you have the most expensive payroll in the game, you’re going to have a target on your back.
“I think that’s the hardest ball I hit this year and I thought, for sure, it’s a double and we’re going to get rolling there,” Alonso said.
It was the Mets’ best chance to cut the deficit. They had runners on every inning after, but there were bad pitches the Mets swung at and good pitches the Marlins made to continue shutting them down. When the Mets get punched, they don’t get up, failing to come back to win a single game this season when trailing after the eighth inning (0-70).
“We didn’t execute when we had to,” said a tearful Francisco Lindor.
Eight pitchers were used. Mendoza planned to be aggressive, sending most of his starters to the bullpen, and he wasn’t giving anyone a long leash. The plan backfired in the fourth inning when he removed left-hander Brooks Raley with one on and one out, replacing him with right-hander Ryne Stanek.
A fireballer with a hard fastball, Stanek has been wildly inconsistent this season, especially over the second half of the season. Going to him was the wrong move, as the inconsistencies continued. Eric Wagaman, the first batter he faced, drove a double to the center field wall to score Connor Norby and break a scoreless tie. Stanek got the second out, but then came more hard contact and another RBI double, this one from catcher Brian Navaretto.
Mendoza went to the bullpen again, this time for right-handed submariner Tyler Rogers — a ground-ball pitcher who is best when brought in for clean innings. It went from bad to worse. Sanoja pulled one down the left side for a triple. Going back to the top of the order, Xavier Edwards singled up the center to score Sanoja.
“We knew we were going to be really short with Manaea, right? Once you get in trouble and it becomes a bullpen game, you try and piece it together. Stanek is going to play a role, Rogers is going to play a role, everyone is going to have to get outs. You play the matchups there. We felt good going in for those matchups, and it didn’t work.”
Diaz, the sixth pitcher used, was brought in to stop the bleeding. The right-hander pitched two scoreless innings to give the Mets a chance to come back, and wanted to go out for a third, but the Mets capped him at 30 pitches. It could have been Diaz’s final appearance in a Mets uniform, since he can opt out of the final two years of his contract this winter.
He has not yet made a decision.
Left-hander Sean Manaea started the game, and pitched 1 2/3 innings before the Mets went to right-hander Huascar Brazoban for three outs, and so on, and so forth. It was a failed and flawed game plan drawn up by Mendoza and the rest of the group, but without any reliable starting pitchers available, it’s what they had to do.
“I take responsibility,” Mendoza said. “I’m the manager, it starts with me. I’ve got to take a long look here to see how I need to get better. That was the message for the whole team as well.”
This wasn’t the kind of game or season that showed the Mets can handle being on top.
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