This Has Been A DISASTER For The New York Mets...

This has been a disaster for the New York Mets. Marcus Simeon, Kodai Senga, Freddie Peralta, Tobias Meyers, Mark Vientos, Jorge Polanco, you go down the list. There are so many disastrous failures that were brought in by David Stearns that has led to this absolute nightmare of a 2026 season. And today we're going to break down the biggest net negatives of the 2026 Mets. What's going on, guys? I'm your host today, Josh Byrne. You're tuned into Mets Digest, guys. Thank you so much for all the support. It's been a terrible season for the Mets, we know that. But we do appreciate you guys staying engaged to the daily updates because we have a lot of them coming to you. It's going to be a big month. We've got the trading deadline coming up, serious implications for the Mets in that regard. And then also, guys, we are on TikTok now. We are on X. Go follow us. The links will be below. And also we'll be starting some YouTube shorts. So a lot of exciting stuff here for Mets Digest. And it's all because of you guys. So thank you very, very much. Now, as we look at where the Mets stand today, they are in last place in the National League East. They have the second worst record in all of the National League, just ahead of the Rockies. And I mean barely ahead of the Rockies. And so when you ask the question, well, who is the biggest net negative of the Mets season, it's really unfair to boil it down to just one guy because when you have a team that's 17 games below 500, that was expected by some to be 17 games above 500 at this point, then it doesn't really do anybody justice to single out one player or one coach for this. So let's just break it down and kind of go through it from there. So let's start off. The first winner of the day goes to Marcus Simeon. Step on up, Marcus. Marcus was brought in in a 1v1 trade, something that rarely happens these days in Major League Baseball for fan favorite Brandon Nimmo, who spent nine years with the Mets organization and was one of the top 20 players in the franchise in terms of wins above replacement. And David Stearns decided, well, you know, Brandon Nimmo, he's regressing. His defense is lackluster. He's not getting on base as much. And both of those things, by the way, are true. But he decided, you know what, I look at his contract, five more years, a hundred million on it. We can't have that. Let's go with three years and 75 million left for Marcus Simeon. What a bargain that's looking to be. Not really, because I think if you asked any Met fan as happy as we are about the outfield output that they've gotten from the young guys in Ewing and Benj, Marcus Simeon has been downright dreadful. And it's not just the offense that we knew was regressing. Because if you looked at his prior season stats, they had gone downhill from where he was in 2023, where he put up an MVP caliber campaign. He went downhill in 2024, downhill in 2025. And what do you know? He's gone downhill in 2026. But what's most alarming is that his defense, his calling card, one of the real coping mechanisms for David Stearns to justify this acquisition has also turned out to be an absolute mess. And he, Marcus Simeon, has graded as one of the worst defenders at second base. And now, voila, he's on the injured list. Little did we know, us naive fans, that Marcus Simeon was actually playing through an injury going back to early May. So that's a big net negative. A guy who's providing nothing offensively is a liability on defense in the middle of the infield and is literally replacing someone who wasn't a perfect player in Brandon Nimmo by any means, but someone who is a consistently solid average to above average major league starter. That's not what Marcus Simeon's been for the Mets. He's been that in prior seasons. He's been a good player in prior seasons. This year, abject failure. I didn't like the move at the time, but I'm not going to say that I expected this to turn out as horribly as it ultimately has. Now, let's move on to the next abject disappointment, and that is, drumroll please, Freddy Peralta, another brilliant trade. Freddy Peralta, he was brought in in a more complex deal which involved Jet Williams, remember him, former top Mets prospect, Brandon Sprott, and you know, then you might say to yourself, or you might have said to yourself at the time, oh, that's somewhat of a price tag there. That's somewhat of a hefty price tag. Well, you know, the Mets also got back Tobias Myers. Surely, you know, neither of them are bad players, and they're both going to be pretty good, right? At least one of them, right? They're not both going to stink, right? We'll get to Tobias Myers in a second, but let's talk about Freddy Peralta. Let's do that, because Freddy Peralta, he hasn't been DFA level bad, but when you consider the fact that this was a guy brought in to be the Mets ace, the horse, the guy at the top of a rotation that was expected to go to the playoffs, there is a very real argument he is the most disappointing and thereby biggest net negative of the first half season of the New York Mets. He hasn't been the worst player of the Mets. He hasn't been the worst pitcher on the Mets by any means, but considering where he was supposed to be at at this point, and where he is at, and what they gave up to get him, he might be the And not only has he been just a disaster during this first half of the season, in which he consistently can't go more than five innings, which he's never been able to do really in his career, but at least in the past, he wasn't putting 1.43 guys on base per inning, which he's doing this year. At least in the past, he wasn't pitching to an ERA of almost five, one of the worst ERAs of any qualified pitcher in the major leagues. At least he wasn't doing that in the future, or in the past. And of course, he comes to the Mets, and we get the worst version of Freddy Peralta. The worst version of his career, and he's gone. I mean, I don't know how many more starts Peralta has. I wish him the best. I'm sure he's a nice guy. I don't wish ill on him, but he has been a catastrophic failure for David Stearns and for the Mets. They can't rely on him. He hasn't been good. And when you have a rotation that hasn't been good, and a bullpen that's getting taxed, and your quote-unquote ace, the guy who was top 10 in Cy Young voting last year, you bring in, you give up the prospects, say what you want about how those prospects are performing now. I know Brandon Sprott's doing better now. I think a lot of people would rather have Brandon Sprott still in the Mets organization than have Freddy Peralta. I liked the Freddy Peralta move at the time. I didn't see him as this ace of aces, but there's not that many real aces out there in Major League Baseball. There's not that many guys that can go deep in games. But at the very least, pitched to an ERA under four, he's been unacceptable. Now let's move on to what I promised you before, and that is the second part of this lovely trade with David Stearns' old team, and that is Tobias Myers. Tobias Myers, you know, Tobias Myers to me was actually the favorite part of the deal at the time because Tobias Myers had shown in prior seasons that he could be a quality, perhaps more than quality, fill-in as a starter, provide a solid, reliable, hand in the bullpen, and could be maybe an x-factor for the Mets pitching staff. Well, the only x-factor he's proven to be is whether you're gambling on whether he's going to be pitching for the Syracuse Mets or pitching for the New York Mets on a weekly, if not daily, basis because they have, the Mets management, yo-yoed him to the point where you feel like you are on a rollercoaster loop, going upside down and around and around and around. I mean, it's seemingly every week that there's a transaction with this guy, and don't get me wrong, it's not undeserved. You know, when it first happened, I was against it because, first of all, Tobias Myers, when he was first sent down to AAA earlier in the season, wasn't doing as poorly, but then he got sent down, okay, but then ever since they brought him back up, he comes into the game, might as well turn the TV off and just start looking at Mets Digest videos. I mean, because this guy has been horrific. His ERA's over six. He wasn't bad the whole year. Earlier in the season, he was a bright spot, and now he's just part of just a trade that just looks disgustingly bad. You know what else looks disgustingly bad? Letting Pete Alonso go. I don't think anyone was happy at the time. You know, there were some people who were real detractors of Alonso because they cited, oh, his defense didn't grade well. It didn't. It's true. It didn't, but here's my argument. This was my argument at the time. If you're going to let a slugger go, a slugger who hits 40 home runs, drives in 100 every single year, plays every single day, and you're going to argue, well, you know, he costs us too much defensively, then wouldn't you try to make an effort to bring in a replacement that is better defensively, or mind you, can actually play the position, or mind you, can actually play any position? No, instead we get Jorge Polanco. Not you, Tobias Myers. We already got to you. Jorge Polanco. I respect Jorge Polanco. He's had a good major league career. I believe he could potentially have more good years ahead of him. Sure, he's a nice guy. He was brought in to be the Mets first baseman. How many games has he played at first base this year? One. He either hasn't been healthy, or when he's been healthy, he still hasn't been healthy because he can't play the field. And don't forget the fact that he's made his time count because he's still been a liability when he's been out there. He's batting 178, 241 on base percentage, 514, OPS 44. That means he's 66% worse than the league average hitter. And that's the not that last year was the perfect conglomerate of players and hitters, but they were a top 10 lineup in baseball. They struggled with men in scoring position. That's true. They were a team that collapsed down the stretch. That's true. A lot of that had to do with the pitching. And then the offense, if you wanted to improve it, sure, that should have been a focus of this past off season, but they didn't. Jorge Polanco had a good year last year. He didn't play first base. Even if Jorge Polanco, God forbid, stayed healthy this season, was he really going to pan out as a first baseman? I don't know. But instead we got Mark Vientos. And unfortunately, I don't want to pick on Mark, but I got to. Because when you rank as the worst player in all of major league baseball, when you look at wins above replacement, you got to be mentioned. And I will always appreciate what Vientos did in 2024. He was clutch. Those home runs he hit against the Phillies specifically, it was electric. I thought the Mets had a young stud, a young star. And maybe just maybe he'll still pan out to be a productive MLB player. It just sadly won't be with the Mets. And they cannot continue to trot him out there. They can't. You keep hearing from certain people, oh, well, if you play Vientos every day at this point, what do you have to lose? The season's over and you could up his value. He doesn't have any value. He's not going to increase his value by continuously playing first base. The only value he has is as a designated hitter against left-handed pitching, which he can hit left-handed pitching. We know that. Has an OPS over 800. Problem is right-handers. Strikes out, breaking ball in the dirt. Can't lay off it. Doesn't draw any walks. Yeah, he'll hit the occasional home run. He'll also commonly commit terrible errors, not get the balls that he should and cost you at first base. He wasn't a good third baseman defensively, but he's an even worse first baseman. Probably because he hadn't played there much before, but doesn't cut it. He's being asked to play there almost every time he plays now because the Mets don't have a better option. Because Jorge Polanco, who by the way, again, has never played first base before outside of a few innings in his career, has either been hurt or not healthy enough when he's not hurt to actually play a position. Speaking of guys who can't stay healthy and guys who are amongst the worst players in baseball, welcome Kodai Senga to the list of net negatives because Kodai Senga, oh boy, was I wrong about him. I'm not afraid to admit I was wrong. I'm wrong a lot, guys. These are opinions. We're all going to have opinions. You post it on the internet and it lasts forever. I thought Kodai Senga was going to be good when he came back from the injured list because he was good in the first half of 2025. He was great in 2023, but I was wrong because he has been horrendous. Not only has he been horrendous, he's been unpitchable and he has been a guy that the Mets cannot count on to start as they have officially moved him to the bullpen. He has been a guy that they cannot count on in the bullpen as a bulk reliever, as they have more so hinted that they're taking him out of that role as they've started moving him into one-inning appearances. And fine by me, but it can't be a close game. It can't be any kind of competitive game. There can't be a competitive nature to it. There can't be a question of who's winning a game. Although anytime the Mets are winning, it's always very much in doubt, no matter how many runs they're up by. But I digress. Kodai Senga cannot be asked to contribute to winning by a major league club that is serious about winning right now. Kodai Senga needs time at the minor leagues to get back what he lost, and I don't know if that'll happen. I hope it does for him, but just like I said about Mark Vientos, I don't think it's happening with the Mets. I know for a fact it's not. There's too much damage done already. Do I pull up the numbers for Kodai Senga? Do I? Eh, let's do it. Let's do it. Have a good laugh. Not at Senga, but just at the reality that we're Mets fans. Negative 1.3 war, so you know, twinsies with Mark Vientos. 8.69 ERA and he's allowing just under two runners per innings pitched. Yeah, that's a recipe for success. What is there to say? David Stearns, there were one, two, three, four, five, six guys listed on this video. I could have listed another six if I wanted to. We didn't get into the over-reliance on Brett Beatty. We didn't get into the trade for Luis Robert Jr. We didn't get into having faith in David Peterson before sending him to the Cubs. There's so many things that you can point to in this season that have gone wrong, and it all falls on the executive in charge. It's an indictment on David Stearns. You gotta hope that he can learn from this somehow, someway, and realize that this can't happen again. He may have been promised by the owner that his job is safe, but do you really believe that if they have a repeat next season of this catastrophe, and they're 40-57 again, that they're keeping David Stearns at that point? Something tells me that's not going to be the case, and it's really marvelous how the Mets acquire a guy in David Stearns, someone that they had been yearning for for years, one of the top-ranked executives in the game, and he cannot create a roster that is even competitive with the most resources in baseball, at least tied for the most resources in baseball. It's unthinkable. It's truly otherworldly, you know, and that's something that we're gonna have to live with. Let me know what you guys think below, and as always, let's go Mets.