With a particularly limp 4-0 loss to the Miami Marlins in their 162nd and final game of the 2025 MLB Regular Season on Sunday evening, the New York Mets managed to follow through on their long-standing threat to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Despite the Cincinnati Reds also losing their final game – and not exactly storming through the finishing tape themselves – it was the Mets‘ continued decline (and, from the outside at least, air of complacency) that has seen them miss out of October baseball. And SNY announcer Gary Cohen was not OK with it.
“It is unfathomable that this collection of talent winds up outside of an expansive playoff system after having the best record in baseball for the first two and a half months of the season,” Cohen began. “[It was] one of the most disappointing years that the Mets have ever suffered through their 64-year history.
“Expectations could not have been higher. The start, it could not have been better coming off a magical year last year. And it ends in ashes.”
A Historic Collapse
The Mets had a 45-24 record as recently as June 12, standing 21 games over .500 and looking like a National League powerhouse. But after losing their seven games, and dropping ten of their next 11, the Mets seemed to lose all confidence – not helped by some badly-timed injuries.
Some aggression at the trade deadline was inevitable, and saw the bullpen get reinforced, following up on the same market aggression that saw them sign Juan Soto for several trillion dollars over the winter. Yet the spark never came back. Slumping to a 10-15 record in September after an 11-17 August, the Mets played like a team that knew there was no future for the team as constructed.
Mets Need Multiple Honest Conversations
So painful was the implosion outlined by Cohen that the Mets’ owner, the unrelated Steve Cohen, had to issue an apology to the fanbase on social media. In it, Cohen promises that he and the Mets‘ brain trust will “figure out the obvious and less obvious reasons” behind what went wrong.
This is the right messaging, in theory. But in practice, it will not be simple. Within minutes of the end of the season, it was announced that star slugger Pete Alonso would decline his contract option and head to free agency, a move that was widely expected but which nonetheless gives the Mets yet more situations to address. (The Yankees are said to be circling.)
Ultimately, the season will go in the book as an 83-win season, regardless of whether the Mets won the first 83 games or the last. But the manner of that total, and the progression (or lack of it) over the course of a long season, tell a more accurate story. The Mets had it all to play for, and failed to show up. By the end, Game 162 was a mercy killing.
“Unfathomable” – Mets Announcer Chastises Team Over Pitiful Collapse