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The New York Mets have the most expensive payroll in the history of baseball. The New York Mets are also terrible, which makes that first sentence even more excruciating.
Just a few weeks away from the All-Star break and the Mets, who were expected to compete for a National League pennant and World Series title, sit at an abysmal 35-43.
Making matters worse for the Mets is the fact that they currently find themselves in FOURTH place in the NL East — yes, even behind the Miami Marlins — and 8.5 games back from a Wild Card berth.
Needless to say, given the money and resources that he’s invested in the underperforming team, billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen is none too thrilled with the current on-the-field product and plans to speak to the media about it on Wednesday, June 28, prior to the Mets’ game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I will be doing a press conference tomorrow before the game. You will get it from me straight,” Cohen tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.
While there are currently a litany of issues plaguing the Mets, their main problem right now is their pitching rotation.
Heading into the season, the Mets were expecting future Hall of Famers Max Scherzer and newly-signed Justin Verlander (who just won the Cy Young award last season, by the way) to form a two-headed monster at the top of a rotation that was also set to feature Jose Quintana, Kodai Senga, Carlos Carrasco, and Edwin Diaz, the game’s best closer, in the bullpen.
Diaz, however, got injured before the season even began, while Verlander also started the campaign on the sidelines. Plus, both Verlander and Scherzer have been far cries from their usually dominant selves when they are able to play. And even when they are able to start, their usually let down by the Mets’ porous defense or their inability to score runs.
If the Mets don’t start turning their fortunes around soon, they’ll likely be sellers at the trade deadline instead of the World Series-contending buyers they expected themselves to be when the season began.