NEW YORK, NY — The New York Mets’ 2025 season came to a crashing end Sunday afternoon in Miami, losing to the Marlins, which eliminated the Amazin’ from National League postseason contention via Cincinnati holding the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The 2025 Mets season may have been the strangest one in the team’s 63-year history. They were the best team in baseball for the first 2 ½ months of the season. At their zenith, they were 21 games over .500. On June 13, the Mets began a three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays at home. The Rays swept them which began a seven-game losing streak. It would be their first lengthy losing streak of the year, but it would not be their last as separate seven and eight-game losing streaks would ensue.
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I was in Philadelphia to catch the series between the Mets and the Phillies the third week in June while the Amazin’s were suffering that first losing streak which would set the tone for the rest of the season. I asked longtime New York Post Mets beat writer Mike Puma if he was preparing to write an article on the Mets being sellers instead of buyers at the July 31 trade deadline. Mike laughed and replied, “Net yet.” In retrospect, the Mets should have been sellers.
The talent they acquired in trades at the deadline astonishingly made the team worse.
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Mets fans had every right to believe they were watching an old movie this weekend. In 2007 and 2008, the Mets played the Marlins in the final week of the regular season needing to win two of the three games. They lost the first game and won the second, only to wind up frustrating their fans by dropping the decisive last game of the season. The same thing happened this past weekend. The Marlins always seem to relish playing Bugs Bunny to the Mets’ Elmer Fudd.
Adding insult to injury was the fact that the Cincinnati Reds lost their season finale to the Milwaukee Brewers. The Mets went into Sunday, knowing they needed help from the Brewers, and they obliged. Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo admitted to the media following the season finale that the Reds losing added more sting to a dreary day.
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Mets manager Carlos Mendoza showed leadership by taking responsibility for the team’s disastrous 38-55 record from June 13 through September 28. While all managers can be criticized for in-game strategic blunders, and Mendoza made more than his share, the lion’s share of the blame falls mostly on the players.
The hitters failed miserably with runners in scoring position, while the starting pitchers rarely made it through the fifth inning which led to a fatigued bullpen by the time September rolled around.
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Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, to the surprise of no one, announced he would be opting out of his contract and will become a free agent. What was most surprising in his postgame Q&A with the media is he failed to give a ringing endorsement of Carlos Mendoza or his coaching staff.
You can be sure Mets owner Steve Cohen’s ears were ringing.
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The Mets suffered their share of major injuries to their pitchers in 2025. The unwelcome news began when lefty reliever AJ Minter suffered a torn lat in late April which ended his season. Six weeks later, starter Griffin Canning, who pitched well, tore his Achilles and was also gone for the year. Frankie Montas missed 95% of 2025 and will miss all of 2026 with a variety of serious ailments.
Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga could never find a consistent rhythm in the last two months of the season because of injuries.
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It should be noted the NL East champions Phillies had pitching issues of their own but overcame them. Reliable starter Aaron Nola missed most of the season with a fractured rib cage. His fellow starter, Zack Wheeler, had to have thoracic outlet surgery because a blood clot was discovered near his collarbone.
Their closer, Jose Alvarado, missed most of the season because he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.
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The most dubious indictment of the 2025 Mets season was they failed to win a game if they were trailing going into the ninth inning. That violates all statistical probabilities.
Liberty part ways with head coach Sandy Brondello
The New York Liberty season mirrored that of the Mets. After winning their first nine games, the Liberty were hit with injuries to their three big stars: Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, and Breanna Stewart. They wound up backing into the playoffs but were eliminated in the first round by the Phoenix Mercury who ran them out of Barclays Center in the second game of that series.
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In a clear case of “What have you done for me lately?” the Liberty fired head coach Sandy Brondello despite having won the WNBA championship in 2024.
Nets hold Media Day at Barclays Center
The Liberty’s Barclays Center co-tenants, the Brooklyn Nets, held their media day last Tuesday. It was televised from noon to 2PM on the Nets’ cable home, the YES Network. I must give the anchors, Chris Shearn and Frank Isola, a lot of credit for handling things as well as they did.
Both guys know the Nets are likely to be the worst team in the NBA. When they were chatting with Nets head coach Jordi Fernández, they avoided asking him about wins and losses, but rather, they spent an inordinate time discussing “player development.”
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They had the unenviable task of interviewing team star Cam Thomas who is certain to be a free agent following this season. Thomas was clearly angry that Nets management did not want to make a long-term commitment to him. He seemed as if he had been happier having dental surgery than taking part in media day. He gave Shearn and Isola one-word answers.
The most candid moments came when they were interviewing the Nets’ big off-season acquisition, Michael Porter, Jr. When they asked him about playing injured in the playoffs for the Denver Nuggets, he replied, “I was only at twenty percent. It was important for me to be there for my teammates. In retrospect, the decision to play got me traded to the Nets.”
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Shearn and Isola asked him about New York City traffic. “I would rather take Uber rides than drive here. I am not shipping my car to Brooklyn.” I take that as meaning Porter expects to be traded sometime during the season.
Jay Marine appears as guest on Andrew Marchand’s podcast, “Everybody Loves Sports Media”
Andrew Marchand, the sports media columnist for The Athletic, hosts a very entertaining podcast called “Everybody Loves Sports Media.” Last week he held a public taping with Prime Video (a division of Amazon) Sports and Entertainment CEO Jay Marine.
Under Marine’s leadership, Prime Video has landed broadcasting rights packages for the NFL, NBA, and New York Yankees games.
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Marine made an interesting comment as to where Prime Video differs from most American television networks. “We are a global brand, and we can laser focus on getting the rights in countries for their biggest sports. We have the rights to professional cricket in India, the National Hockey League in Canada, and soccer’s UEFA League in many countries where that is the top sport. We are not interested in obtaining worldwide rights.”
Remembering and Paying Tribute to Ken Dryden, Ed Giacomin, and Bernie Parent
The cliche of deaths coming in threes was sadly true for legendary hockey goaltenders in September as Ken Dryden, Ed Giacomin, and Bernie Parent passed away. Parent was the Philadelphia Flyers goalie on their 1975 and 1976 Stanley Cup-winning teams. He stayed in the Philadelphia area and was a beloved figure who would gladly take part in events to raise funds for non-profits in the Delaware Valley.
New York Comic Con returns to Javits Center on October 9th-12th
October is a busy month in New York. The annual pop culture confab, New York Comic Con, returns to Javits Center from October 9-12.
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Comic Con normally attracts both current and retired professional wrestlers for autograph sessions. MSNBC, the liberal cable news network, will be hosting their second-ever fan festival, “MSNBC Live ‘25,” at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom on October 11. I am surprised Fox News has not had a similar event for fans of the conservative news network.
New York City Wine & Food Festival set to take place October 15th-19th at Old South Street Seaport
The Big Apple’s biggest public food event, the New York City Wine & Food Festival, will take place October 15-19 at the old South Street Seaport which is now simply called “The Seaport.” Among the celebrities slated to appear are Padma Lakshmi, Brie Larson, Bobby Flay, and Queens hip-hop legend Ja Rule.
You can read more of Lloyd Carroll’s columns posted weekly on The Queens Chronicle.
