From the start, the Mets’ 2026 offensive philosophy was designed to be a departure from the recent past, trading power and a wildly streaky nature for more day-to-day dependability built upon high-average hitters with proven track records of producing in the clutch.
At one point in spring training, David Stearns summed up the new philosophy by saying, “We wanted to have a lineup with more competitive at-bats 1-9. I believe we have that.”
It turned out the Mets had anything but that, at least through the first half of this season. The newly acquired proven clutch hitters, Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco, either failed or were hurt, while the concept of a deeper, more competitive lineup proved all but laughable, as the bottom half was full of easy outs.
Throw in the injuries to Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor, and the result was worse than even the resentful Pete Alonso fan might have predicted.
Indeed, the numbers spell out a level of futility that seems almost unfathomable for a team with the second-highest payroll in baseball.
Consider that, in MLB rankings, the Mets are: 27th in batting average (.231), 28th in slugging (.375), 29th in on-base percentage (.300), 27th in OPS (.678).
Also, they are dead last in doubles, with 101.
And with runners in scoring position, the most common measure of clutch hitting, where the changes were supposed to be most impactful, the Mets are 22nd in batting average (.238) and 29th in OPS (.675).
Ouch, ouch, and ouch.
“It’s hard to be that bad across the board with some of the high-level talent they have,” one MLB scout told me. “It’s like their lineup was infected by some virus that they couldn’t stop from spreading. At the same time, I thought they created a lot of uncertainty about what they’d be offensively with some of the gambles they took.”
Yes, particularly in some cases, the offensive failures reflect poorly on the president of baseball operations for what have proven to be bad gambles.
Most notably, Luis Robert Jr. and Polanco each had an off-putting history of injuries that have reared their ugly heads in their first season in Queens, a development that Stearns admitted recently at a news conference might force the Mets to change the way they evaluate and approach such acquisitions.
For that matter, the same injury-related red flags applied to the Frankie Montas free-agent signing from the previous winter, perhaps the most head-scratching Stearns’ move of them all. Turned out to be a waste of $34 million over two years.
But this is about the offense, including the other move that raised eyebrows at the time, the trade of Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Semien.
Stearns sold it as a move to bolster his offseason theme of run prevention, even if it seemed driven at least as much by his desire to get out from under the five years remaining on Nimmo’s contract, compared to three for Semien.
As such, it had the feel of a small-market move that a Steve Cohen-owned team didn’t need to make when in pursuit of a championship, though it could be argued it was also made partly to open an outfield spot for Carson Benge, one of the few bright spots of the first half.
Even in that case, however, Semien hasn’t played well enough to justify the deal. At the plate, he has pretty much performed as poorly as his two-year decline with the Texas Rangers predicted, with a .613 OPS that is second-worst among all MLB second basemen, while his Gold Glove defense has slipped significantly, at least according to various metrics.
Finally, Stearns bet that homegrown holdovers Mark Vientos, BrettBaty, and Francisco Alvarez would finally grow into dependable offensive players, after a few years marked by ups and downs, and that hasn’t happened either.
All of it made for a disastrous first half. Even when Soto was swinging a hot bat, eventually joined by Benge and finally Bichette in recent weeks, the Mets have been prone to days when nobody hits.
In fact, they have scored two or fewer runs in 32 different games, the most in the National League.
With all that said, there were also important developments that bode well for the future, as rookies Benge and A.J. Ewing emerged as major contributors.
Benge struggled for the first month or so of the season, but then began living up to the Mets’ belief that he can be a star player, as he shortened his swing a bit and learned how to catch up with high-velocity fastballs, hitting .288 since the beginning of May.
Ewing, meanwhile, was a revelation from the moment he was called up on May 12, showing remarkable plate discipline for a rookie and a short, quick stroke that likely makes him an ideal leadoff hitter in the future.
“Those two kids are really good pieces for anybody’s offense,” a second MLB scout said. “It all went wrong for the Mets in the first half, and injuries were a factor, but with their big guys healthy now, especially if they get Polanco back, they could be much better in the second half.”
Whether it’s too late to make any sort of run toward wild-card contention remains to be seen. All we know for sure is the Mets dug a huge hole for themselves, and while a lack of strong starting pitching became their biggest problem over the last several weeks, the anemic offense was at the root of the 7-19 record in April from which they have yet to recover.
