At 5:08 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, Jorge Polanco hit a line drive out to right at Citi Field. He had been peppering the 408 sign on the center field fence for 15 minutes or so. The problem, of course, is that Polanco was not in the lineup when the Mets’ game against the Detroit Tigers started at 7:10 p.m. He has not been in the lineup since April 14.
Some days, the bursitis in Polanco’s left Achilles tendon subsides enough for the Mets to see these tantalizing pregame displays. Some days, it doesn’t. And until he is asymptomatic, they cannot reinstate him. In the meantime, they are not shutting him down.
“Right now, we’re following the protocols laid out by the physicians who are experts in that, and they have not recommended a complete shutdown,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “So we’re still following the protocol.”
Nearly a quarter of the way through their 2026 season, Stearns and his last-place Mets are in a similar state of in-between – and so far, they are sticking to the plan.
Some days, when the top end of the rotation pitches well and the lineup hits enough, and one considers the players who could return from injury, it is possible to see the contours of an eventual contender. Some days, when the lineup looks short and their unorthodox bullpen lets deficits grow instead of shrink, they look like a puzzle whose pieces never really fit. Only time can say for sure.
For now, they are proceeding like Polanco, wondering if this season’s wounds can really heal if nothing major changes. May is too early to give up on a season, Stearns insisted Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t think sitting here in the middle of May, I’m going to do a post-mortem on our season,” Stearns said. “We still have confidence in our team and we’re still going to support this group and do everything we can to have a successful season.”
So they continue to be patient.
After telling MLB.com that he does not intend to fire Carlos Mendoza, Stearns said Tuesday he continues to think Mendoza “does a really good job,” but would not clarify how long Mendoza is safe.
“I’m not gonna address [Mendoza’s job status] every two weeks when I talk to you guys,” Stearns said. “And I’ll leave it at that.”
At times during the first 40 games of this season, Stearns’s unwillingness to do something drastic – which will eventually be looked upon as patience or obstinance, depending on how the next few months go – has felt hard to comprehend. But firing Mendoza never seemed like it would address the problem, a problem Stearns articulated bluntly on Tuesday.
“We haven’t been a good enough offensive team. We haven’t scored enough runs,” Stearns said. “And I think it’s a combination of we’re having some injuries, and there have also been players who have been healthy who haven’t performed at their customary levels. And we have to do everything we can – we are doing everything we can – to help get those players back to where we need them going forward.”
Bo Bichette, for example, is hitting .222 with a .559 OPS. He is a .290 career hitter with a .793 OPS. One reason to exercise patience with this roster is that Bichette will almost certainly climb toward his career norms in the coming months, and given how far he is below them now, the Mets could cautiously expect quite an outburst. Then again, what if he doesn’t?
Marcus Semien, too, is hitting well below even the declining offensive numbers he has posted in recent years. Even as he has established himself as a steady presence with runners in scoring position, he is hitting .225 with a .594 OPS. Even if one assumes the .230 average and .669 OPS he posted last year are his new mid-30s norms, he should still gain dozens of points in OPS to go with elite defense at second. If he hits a little more…well…Again, mid-May is not mid-August.
And then there are those injured players like Polanco, whose successful return would almost certainly help the Mets claw back. But Polanco seems to be in purgatory. And Luis Robert Jr. seems to have joined him there. Both Mendoza and Stearns acknowledged that Robert Jr.’s lower back pain is “not resolving” and the team has sought out the opinions of specialists to determine why it hasn't. At this point, Stearns said, surgical intervention has not been suggested. Maybe he will heal and play regularly for the Mets again this season. But given the uncertainty around his injury, well…one has to wonder if he won’t.
Francisco Lindor has said he is determined to play again this season, too, and to be sure, no one has suggested his calf strain would prevent him from doing so. But while Lindor is out of his walking boot, he will not know how long he will be out until he gets an MRI in the next few days. That MRI, Stearns said, will tell him whether he is ready to resume baseball activities or whether he will miss several more weeks.
If Lindor can finally pair with Soto and Bichette at the top of the lineup for a prolonged stretch, the Mets offense will look much better. But at this exact moment, the “if” looms large.
Stearns said he has been, and is always, exploring all options for improving his roster. But to this point, the biggest shakeup he has made is calling up 21-year-old outfielder A.J. Ewing, who the Mets plan to play regularly in center field until further notice. But even that move fits all potential outcomes. If this is a lost season, someone the Mets believe will be a key part of their future outfield will gain experience on the job. If it isn’t, Ewing is capable of being a reason why, injecting elite defense into an outfield that already included some from Carson Benge and bringing elite speed to a lineup searching helplessly for a jolt.
“The situation that the big league club is in and the opportunity that’s here right now is certainly part of it,” Stearns said. “But we would not have made the decision to promote A.J. if we didn’t think he was ready for the moment.”
Exactly what moment Ewing needs to be ready for remains to be seen. Maybe he needs to be the sparkplug for a sputtering and expensive baseball behemoth on the verge of dramatic revival. Maybe he needs to get all the experience in meaningful games now before the Mets run out of them and rebuild a roster around him and his fellow younger players.
“We’re not close to that point right now,” Stearns said of the latter possibility.
For now, the Mets are sticking to the protocol and hoping they somehow heal from within.
COVERS INTEL: Mitchell is already a volume scorer, 