NEW YORK — Mets pitcher Luke Weaver believes his team is being crushed by the mental burden of their historically poor start to the season, following New York’s latest heartbreaking defeat.
The right-hander surrendered a crucial two-run home run to Washington’s CJ Abrams during the eighth inning on Thursday, as the Nationals rallied for a 5-4 victory that marked the Mets’ 17th defeat in their last 20 contests.
“At the end of the day, this pursuit of perfection is just an ultimate pressurized failure mindset,” Weaver said softly during a lengthy postgame introspection. “Everybody wants to be the hero because we care and we want to win really, really bad, and I just don’t think success lives in that realm. It just truly doesn’t and I think the freedom of which we play day to day is just kind of being suffocated a little bit.”
The Mets currently hold baseball’s worst record at 10-21. Their .323 winning percentage through April ranks as the franchise’s fourth-worst start, trailing only disastrous beginnings in 1962 (3-13), 1964 (2-10) and 1981 (4-10).
Despite rallying from a three-run deficit to grab a 4-3 advantage on MJ Melendez’s three-run blast in the third inning and Mark Vientos’ RBI double in the sixth, New York squandered another lead for the 10th time this season.
Luis García Jr. connected on Weaver’s first offering in the eighth inning, and Daylen Lile successfully avoided a double play with his speed. Abrams then crushed a poorly located changeup 403 feet to right-center field for the decisive blow.
“I want to do my job. It’s that simple. There’s moments that feel really close, and then there’s just one — mistakes that magnify our situation,” Weaver said. “And, so, of course I sit there and feel the weight of the world, and feel like I let the team down. But at the end of the day, I do feel like I’m in a good spot. It’s just, we sit there and we just tell you guys, ‘It’ll come. This is the game. This is the law of averages’ and all these things, but at the end of the day those words just don’t hold the same weight when you continue to go (lose) day after day.”
High expectations surrounded the Mets following an aggressive offseason restructuring that saw Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Edwin Díaz leave town, while Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien and Devin Williams joined the organization. So far, those moves have produced disappointing results.
New York entered the campaign with Major League Baseball’s largest payroll at $358.4 million. After posting an outstanding 45-23 record through June 13 last season, the Mets have gone 48-76 since that point.
The team currently ranks 27th among 30 clubs with a .227 batting average, 29th with just 106 runs scored, and dead last with a .631 OPS.
“Typically we don’t see an entire kind of collective group at the same time not playing their best brand of baseball,” Weaver said.
Only two position players in New York’s regular lineup are hitting above .240: $765 million superstar Juan Soto, whose 15-game absence due to a right calf injury coincided with a 12-game losing streak, and MJ Melendez, who began the year in the minor leagues but has recently batted third behind Soto.
Injuries have decimated one-third of the Mets’ opening day starting lineup. Center fielder Luis Robert Jr. (lumbar spine disk herniation) joined shortstop Francisco Lindor (left calf) and first baseman/designated hitter Jorge Polanco (left Achilles, right wrist) on the disabled list Thursday.
Weaver and Williams, acquired from the crosstown Yankees by president of baseball operations David Stearns to strengthen the bullpen’s late innings, have posted a combined 6.86 ERA with three blown saves.
Starting pitchers are lasting barely five innings per appearance on average. Rotation members excluding Clay Holmes and rookie Nolan McLean have compiled a 6.04 ERA.
“It just feels like there’s a little bit of a culture that’s just kind of adapted to it unintentionally,” Weaver said. “It’s just how winning and losing goes. When you win, you feel like you’re on top of the world. When you’re losing, everybody wants to talk about the failures and the outcomes. And the magnification just becomes immense.
“Sleep is lost. The mind wanders and you just kind of get into a fixation that you don’t really need to be in.”
New York trails the National League’s final playoff position by 8½ games and sits 11½ games behind the division-leading Atlanta Braves. Only two franchises in baseball history — the 1914 Boston Braves and the 1981 Kansas City Royals — have reached the postseason after starting 10-21 or worse, with Kansas City achieving that feat by capturing the American League West second-half title during the strike-shortened season.
“It’s hard for all of us,” embattled manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’re in this together. It’s not easy. But we’ve got to keep going. There’s no other choices here. We have a responsibility and we have to turn this thing around.”
The solution may require returning to baseball’s fundamental joys.
“It’s simplifying the process and maybe doing less,” Weaver said. “Maybe it’s less reps. Maybe it’s more about just enjoying why you do this for a living and trying to just find your inner kid and the joy of why you play the game and not trying to do it for other people.”
