The New York Mets Are Once Again Nearing The Point of No Return

It's only June 24 - the fourth day of summer. School is still in session in some parts of the northeast.

And yet, once again, the New York Mets are approaching a point of no return on this ever-lost season.

Mets' Starting Pitching Woes Make A Return to Contention Difficult

Uttering some variation of the phrase "The New York Mets are approaching a point of no return on this ever-lost season" reminds me, as so many things do on a daily basis, of a Simpsons episode - this one "Radioactive Man," where poor Milhouse somehow ends up starring as Fallout Boy and realizes shooting movies is a dreadfully repetitive activity.

"I've said ‘Jiminy Jillikers' so many times, the words have lost all meaning," he says before being told it's time to do the Jiminy Jillikers scene again.

Anyway, it's time to do the New York Mets are approaching a point of no return on this ever-lost season scene again.

A doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs presents the Mets a real opportunity to finish burying themselves in the National League East basement and cementing themselves as one of three non-contenders in the Senior Circuit, along with the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies.

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A split or even a sweep probably won't do much long-term to boost the Mets, who are 34-44 and seven games out of the final wild card spot. But at least a win or two today - especially if Francisco Lindor returns from the injured list - would provide a flicker of hope the Mets are capable of mounting the extended surge needed to get back into the playoff hunt.

Yet the Mets are also one of nine teams who have yet to build a five-game winning streak this season, along with the Giants, Rockies, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Angels and Washington Nationals. Only the Nationals (41-39) are over .500 and the Red Sox, Angels and Rockies are all in last place in their respective divisions.

I was never very good at math, but to get from 10 under .500 to the edge of the breakeven mark, you're going to have to win at least five games in a row at some point. Probably twice.

As evidenced yet again by Kodai Senga's latest dud Tuesday night, the Clay Holmes-less Mets don't have enough starting pitching to craft an extended winning streak Their rotation has produced a 4.87 ERA this season, the fourth-worst mark in the majors ahead of only the Houston Astros, definitely-not-the-Sacramento Athletics and the Rockies.

It's been especially dire in the 36 games since Holmes was injured, a span in which the Mets rotation has compiled a 6.20 ERA. Ten pitchers have made at least one start for the Mets, including openers Huascar Brazoban and Austin Warren, minor league call-up Zach Thornton and swingman Tobias Myers as well as David Peterson and Sean Manaea, who needed to work behind openers earlier in this stretch before returning to traditional starting roles.

The most effective starting pitcher over the past five weeks is Christian Scott, who is averaging just five innings per outing in his last five starts and is on the injured list with a hip ailment. Yet Scott, in his first season following Tommy John surgery, may return as soon as this weekend without the benefit of a rehab start, which tells you just how desperate the Mets are for anything resembling competence out of the rotation.

This does not sound like a recipe for success. Yet if you want to don rose-colored sunglasses with a blue-and-orange hue, you can still envision a path to contention if the Mets can just construct a sweep today behind Nolan McLean, their best starter, and Manaea, who has given up four runs in 11 1/3 innings over two starts since returning to the rotation.

And if that doesn't happen, either because McLean and/or Manaea struggle or because the bullpen can't construct six-plus innings of sturdy relief behind them or because Craig Counsell is in the opposing dugout at a fragile time for an underachieving Mets squad? Then this could get really ugly over the rest of the week and the rest of the season.

Cubs Doubleheader Presents Mets A Familiar Opportunity

David Stearns, displaying the blind optimism-slash-detachment from reality that was supposed to be disposed of along with the Wilpons, said Tuesday the Aug. 3 trade deadline provides the Mets time "…to give this team a chance" to prove it is better than its record thus far.

Speaking of Aug. 3…it's impossible to head into today's doubleheader without thinking of Aug, 3, 2002, when the Mets were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Counsell, a light-hitting utility infielder long before he became the world's highest-paid manager, delivered a game-tying pinch-hit homer off Armando Benitez in the ninth inning of the opener to spark the Diamondbacks' 8-5, 10-inning win. Arizona won the nightcap 9-2 to hand the Mets the third of their 15 straight home losses, a skid that dropped the Mets from wild card contention into the NL East cellar and cost Bobby Valentine his job.

It's not difficult to envision things continuing to go that south that fast for these Mets. Thanks to a six-game homestand will take place over five days, their starters over the next four days are likely to be Peralta, Peterson, Scott and someone anyone please anyone but Senga.

"What options do you have?"--@AbbeyMastracco



Terry Leach? Pat Mahomes? Jason Middlebrook? One of the Bobby Joneseses? https://t.co/DJXiJ3CDpN

— Jerry Beach (@JerryBeach73) June 24, 2026

The likely opposing starting pitchers on Thursday and Friday will be the Cubs' Ben Brown and the Philadelphia Phillies' Zack Wheeler, who have combined for a 1.98 ERA. If the week and the homestand is already lost by Friday night, does it matter the Phillies will probably employ an opener on Saturday and the scuffling Jesus Luzardo on Sunday? Jiminy Jillikers indeed.

Related: Mets B-Squad Skid Exposes Huge Problem for David Stearns

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This story was originally published June 24, 2026 at 7:04 AM.