Entering July, the New York Mets find themselves in a position they did not expect.
The Mets begin the new month with the third-worst record in the National League at 36-50. This puts them in last place in the NL East, as well as 10 games out of the final Wild Card spot.
From the struggling starting pitching, questionable offseason moves, injuries to some key players, poor in-game decisions and a managerial change, things have not been great in Flushing this year to say the least.
While blame can certainly be tossed around, former Met and Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez made it very clear what he thinks has gone wrong for the Amazins' this season.
“The Mets lack personality, they lack identity, they lack leadership. The Mets must find their identity,” Martinez said on TNT on Tuesday. “It gets me mad, because when I was there from 05 to 08…our team was recognized by probably unity, and that’s what made us be successful. We did not achieve our goal, which was to win the World Series, but we were pretty good."
Martinez didn't stop there, making it very clear how he felt about his former team in a string of X posts, echoing what he said during TNT's MLB broadcast Tuesday night.
Martinez also knows a thing or two about the Mets never fully putting their talent together. The Hall of Famer spent three seasons in New York (2006-2008), making the postseason just once in 2006, when the Mets fell a game short of a World Series berth, losing to the eventual World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals.
His last two seasons saw the Mets squander division leads and miss the postseason on the final days of the regular season.
So it's hard to argue with what Martinez is saying. Despite the talent on the roster, this team just never quite jelled and lacks consistency. New York has suffered multiple losing streaks of five or more games, including a 12-game slide in April that really derailed their season.
And the Mets' revamped top of the batting order never got into full swing, with Bo Bichette, Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor playing in only 11 games this season. Soto missed 15 games early in the season with a right calf strain while Lindor missed over two months with a significant left calf issue. Bichette also got off to a slow start this year.
New York has also been without two other offseason acquisitions for much of this season. Jorge Polanco has appeared in just 14 games due to an Achilles injury, and Luis Robert Jr. has played in only 24 games due to a back issue.
It will be very interesting to see how this Mets team looks between now and the August 3 trade deadline, with the team increasingly like sellers. But Martinez believes that, with the talent already on the roster and perhaps brand-new leadership, things could be different.
