The Mets Snapped Their 12-Game Losing Streak. The Problems That Caused It Haven't Gone Anywhere.
The Streak Is Over — But the Damage Might Already Be Done
Juan Soto stepped back into the Mets’ lineup on Wednesday night and did exactly what a $765 million franchise player is supposed to do: he steadied the ship. Going 1-for-3 with a walk in his return from a right calf strain, Soto helped the Mets snap their 12-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Citi Field. Mark Vientos delivered the game-winning RBI single in the eighth inning, and Luke Weaver — not struggling closer Devin Williams — locked down the ninth.
For the first time in nearly three weeks, the Mets won a baseball game.
But before anyone starts planning a parade down Roosevelt Avenue, there’s something the celebration can’t erase: the Mets are now 8-15 on the season and still own the worst record in Major League Baseball. And the news got worse before the champagne dried — Francisco Lindor left the game with left calf tightness and will undergo an MRI on Thursday.
“Here we go again,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after the win.
That might be the most accurate two-sentence summary of the 2026 Mets season so far.
How the 12-Game Slide Unfolded
Let’s rewind. Through 11 games, the Mets were 7-4 with a half-game lead in the NL East. Soto was slashing .355/.412/.516. The vibes were good. The $370 million payroll — second-highest in baseball — looked like it was going to deliver.
Then Soto went down with a right calf strain on April 3 against the Giants. And the floor fell out.
The Mets lost 12 consecutive games between April 8 and April 22. During that stretch, the offense was historically futile. The numbers are staggering in their awfulness:
The team scored just 19 runs in 11 of those games — an average of fewer than two runs per game. They were the worst-scoring team in baseball over that stretch by a significant margin. The bullpen, anchored by closer Devin Williams, cratered at the worst possible time. Williams came into the season with a perfect ERA through his first five outings, but over his last three appearances he surrendered seven earned runs in just over one inning of work.
On April 19, against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, the Mets carried a one-run lead into the ninth inning. Williams blew it. Former Met Michael Conforto tied the game with an RBI double, and the Cubs eventually walked it off on a Craig Kimbrel wild pitch. That loss — the 11th straight — was perhaps the most demoralizing of all. The Mets finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position that day, the only hit being an infield single.
“This feeling sucks,” Lindor said after the Cubs loss. “We’re professionals and we got to find a way out of it.”
By the time the streak reached 12 on Tuesday night — a 5-3 loss to the Twins in which the Mets blew a 3-0 lead — the statistical reality was grim. No team in MLB history has ever made the postseason in a season where they lost 12 consecutive games. Not once. In more than 150 years of professional baseball.
The Soto Effect Is Real — and Measurable
The with-and-without-Soto splits tell a story that needs no embellishment.
Before the injury, with Soto in the lineup, the Mets were scoring 4.38 runs per game — 15th in baseball. Not elite, but functional. Since his absence, that number cratered to 2.67 runs per game, dead last in the majors.
And it’s not just about his bat. Soto’s presence in the lineup provides protection for the hitters around him. Without his elite plate discipline and on-base ability in the two-hole, pitchers attacked the rest of the lineup differently. Pete Alonso saw fewer strikes. Lindor saw more breaking balls out of the zone. The chain reaction was immediate and brutal.
“Soto is irreplaceable,” Lindor said before Soto’s return. “Having him back is gonna help us a lot. He’s a top three hitter in the league, probably top two. He’s gonna lengthen the lineup.”
The flip side of the Soto dependency argument is that a team with a $370 million payroll shouldn’t fall apart when one player misses two weeks. That’s a roster construction problem, and it’s one David Stearns will have to answer for regardless of how the rest of the season plays out.
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The Williams Problem Isn’t Going Away
Devin Williams was one of the Mets’ marquee offseason acquisitions, brought in to stabilize a closer role that had been a revolving door for years. Through his first five appearances, he looked like the answer — spotless ERA, sharp stuff, clean innings.
Then he didn’t.
Over his last three outings, Williams surrendered seven runs in less than two innings. That’s closer malpractice. And the fact that Mendoza turned to Luke Weaver instead of Williams for the ninth inning of Wednesday’s win tells you everything about where the trust level stands right now.
Mets fans at Citi Field on Tuesday night began chanting “MVP! MVP!” at journeyman reliever Austin Warren after he struck out Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee, and Byron Buxton in sequence — cleaning up a bases-loaded, no-out mess that Williams had created. When your fanbase is ironically anointing middle relievers as Most Valuable Player, something has gone very wrong.
The Mets can’t contend in October without a functional closer. Right now, they don’t have one.
The Lindor Injury Could Be the Final Blow
Just when the clouds seemed to part, Lindor left Wednesday’s win with left calf tightness — a familiar, ominous injury description for a team that just watched its best hitter miss 15 games with the same type of issue.
“We’ve got to wait and see what we’re dealing with,” Mendoza said.
Lindor is the Mets’ engine. His defense, his leadership in the clubhouse, his ability to produce in the biggest moments — the team simply cannot afford another extended absence. If the MRI reveals anything beyond minor tightness, this season could functionally be over before May.
And there’s a subplot that’s getting harder to ignore: the relationship between Soto and Lindor. Multiple reporters have noted tension between the two stars during the losing streak. When asked on Wednesday if he had spoken to teammates during his IL stint, Soto admitted he hadn’t been in consistent communication. For a team with championship aspirations, that kind of disconnect between your two best players is a red flag.
Can This Season Be Salvaged?
FanGraphs’ simulations, run before the streak ended, put the Mets’ playoff probability in the low-to-mid 20% range — down from over 70% after their 7-4 start. The database shows that a team needing just 85 wins could still grab the final Wild Card spot about 47% of the time, which means a Wild Card berth isn’t mathematically dead. But it’s on life support.
There are reasons for cautious optimism. Soto is back. The Phillies have also been bad recently, so the Mets haven’t been completely lapped by every divisional rival. The schedule softens in late April and early May.
But the 2017 Dodgers are the only team in the Wild Card Era to lose 11 or more consecutive games and still make the playoffs. The Mets need to join that exclusive club — and they need to do it potentially without Lindor for an extended period.
The $370 million question remains the same one it was on Opening Day, just with a lot more urgency: is this roster built to win when it matters?
Through 23 games, the answer has been a resounding no. The next 139 will determine whether April was an aberration or a verdict.
The signal is clear: the Mets aren’t dead yet, but they’re running out of time to prove they were ever alive. Stay locked in — we’ll be tracking every move.
The Roster Construction Problem Nobody Wants to Discuss
Let’s talk about David Stearns for a minute.
The Mets’ president of baseball operations came into the offseason with a clear mandate: retool the roster after a 2025 season that ended in a gut-wrenching September collapse. Stearns made aggressive moves. He brought in Devin Williams to shore up the closer role. He restructured pieces of the lineup. He bet on the returning core of Soto, Lindor, Alonso, and Vientos to carry the offensive load.
But the underlying assumption of every move was that the lineup would remain healthy. And that assumption has been shattered in the first three weeks of the season.
The depth behind the core has been exposed as paper-thin. When Soto went down, the Mets turned to Tommy Pham, who was called up and promptly went hitless in five games with four strikeouts. That’s not a replacement-level performance — that’s a black hole in the lineup where production is supposed to exist.
The bench has been unable to pick up the slack. The bottom third of the order has been an automatic out for most of the losing streak. And the lack of a credible fourth outfielder who can replicate even a fraction of Soto’s plate discipline has been devastating.
This isn’t just bad luck. This is a roster that was built without a safety net. When everything goes right — when Soto, Lindor, and Alonso are all healthy and producing — it’s a championship-caliber lineup. When one piece breaks, the whole structure collapses. That’s a design flaw, and it’s one that Stearns will have to address before July’s trade deadline, if not sooner.
The Clubhouse Dynamic Is Getting Complicated
Beyond the on-field struggles, there are signs that the chemistry in the Mets’ clubhouse isn’t what it needs to be.
Multiple reporters have flagged concerns about the dynamic between Soto and Lindor — the team’s two highest-paid players and supposed co-leaders. When Soto was asked on Wednesday if he had talked to his teammates during his time on the injured list, he admitted he hadn’t been in consistent contact. For a player making $765 million — the largest contract in North American professional sports history — that kind of detachment during a franchise crisis raises questions.
Now, it’s entirely possible to read too much into this. Injured players often step back to focus on their recovery. And Soto’s personality has always been more reserved than Lindor’s outgoing energy. But perception matters, especially in a market like New York. When your team is losing 12 straight games and your $765 million man isn’t actively engaged with the group, it creates a narrative — fair or not — that erodes trust.
If Lindor’s MRI on Thursday reveals a significant injury, Soto will need to become the emotional anchor of this team, not just the best bat in the lineup. That’s a role he hasn’t been asked to play before, and whether he embraces it could define the rest of the season.
What Has to Change Starting Now
The Mets’ playoff probability, per FanGraphs, has cratered from over 70% after their 7-4 start to somewhere in the low-to-mid 20% range. That’s not dead, but it’s close to terminal.
Here’s what needs to happen for this season to have any chance of being salvaged:
First, Soto needs to stay healthy and produce at his career norms. He was slashing .355/.412/.516 before the injury. If he returns to that level, the lineup immediately goes from worst-in-baseball to functional.
Second, the closer situation has to be resolved. Whether that means Williams works through his issues in lower-leverage spots, or the Mets pivot to Weaver or someone else in the ninth, they cannot continue blowing leads in the final inning. Wednesday’s decision to use Weaver over Williams was telling — and it might need to become the new normal.
Third, the Lindor situation needs clarity. If he’s out for any significant stretch, the Mets need to make a move. Waiting until the trade deadline in July isn’t an option when you’re already eight games under .500 in April.
And fourth, the front office needs to acknowledge that the depth is insufficient. One call-up from Triple-A who goes hitless isn’t enough. The Mets need at least one productive bat from outside the current roster, whether that comes via trade, free agency, or an internal prospect.
The 2017 Dodgers lost 11 straight and still made the playoffs. But those Dodgers had a historically deep pitching staff and a lineup that could score in bunches. These Mets have shown neither of those qualities over the past three weeks.
The streak is over. Now the real test begins: can this team prove that the first 23 games were the aberration, not the preview?
Historical Precedent Says the Odds Are Against Them — But Not Impossible
Let’s put the 12-game streak in proper historical context, because the numbers are both damning and slightly less hopeless than they first appear.
No team in MLB history has made the postseason after losing 12 consecutive games. That’s the headline stat, and it’s a brutal one. But there are nuances worth exploring.
Only four teams in the entire history of Major League Baseball have made the playoffs after losing 10 or more consecutive games. The most recent example is the 2025 Cleveland Guardians, who survived an early-season double-digit losing streak and still reached the postseason. Before them, the 2017 Dodgers lost 11 straight and went on to win the NL pennant.
The key difference between those teams and the current Mets is pitching depth. The 2017 Dodgers had Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, and one of the deepest bullpens in baseball. The 2025 Guardians had a starting rotation that kept them in games even when the offense was struggling. The 2026 Mets have a pitching staff that’s been part of the problem, not the solution.
Still, it’s only April 23rd. There are 139 games remaining. The Mets’ talent — when healthy — is undeniable. Soto is a generational hitter. Alonso can carry an offense for weeks at a time. The rotation has arms capable of dominating. But potential and performance are different things, and right now the gap between what this team should be and what it actually is has never been wider.
The next two weeks will tell us whether this is a team that can channel the adversity into fuel, or one that’s already mentally checked out of a season that was supposed to be special. The margin for error is gone. Every game from here forward is a must-win — not in the cliche sense, but in the mathematical one.
The Signal
The Mets aren’t a bad team. They might not even be a mediocre team. But right now, on April 23rd, they’re a broken one — and the pieces that need to be repaired go far beyond just getting Soto back in the lineup.
The closer is unreliable. The depth is nonexistent. The clubhouse dynamic is uncertain. And now Lindor might be joining Soto on the treatment table.
This franchise spent $370 million to contend. Through 23 games, the return on that investment has been the worst record in baseball and a losing streak for the history books. The path back to relevance starts today — but it’s a path that gets narrower with every loss.
Stay locked in. We’ll be tracking every development as the Mets try to prove the first three weeks were the exception, not the rule.
