New York Mets skid reaches 10 Games despite $500 million payroll

Early. We are just at the beginning of the 2026 Major League Baseball season.

That’s the mantra New York Mets fans should be repeating to themselves, given what’s happened to baseball’s second-most expensive team in the first three weeks of the regular season.

The Mets started the season 7-4 through the first 11 games, taking three of four games from the San Francisco Giants. This series win came despite losing Juan Soto to a calf injury on April 3. They then won their fourth straight game by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was April 7th. The wheels have since come off.

And it culminated in a stunning 10-game losing streak that was extended thanks to a 4-2 defeat against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday afternoon.

New York Mets Are Already Out of Controversy

They lost the last two games of the series against the Diamondbacks by a combined score of 14-3. They then lost to the Athletics at Citi Field, scoring just six points in three games and being shut out twice. New York then traveled to Los Angeles for a three-game series against the Dodgers. This got worse.

The Mets lost 4-0, 2-1, then saw their closer Devin Williams implode in an 8-2 loss to end another hitting streak. After a day off, they headed to Chicago to play the Cubs. And they fell behind 16-6 en route to losing the series, extending their losing streak to 10 games.

New York even briefly took the lead on Saturday thanks to Mark Vientos’ solo home run to take a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Sure enough, the Cubs tied the score at the end of the second quarter. And Carson Kelly took the lead when he hit a three-run homer in the sixth.

Remember, this is a team with a luxury tax payroll of roughly $381 million, plus an estimated tax bill of $126 million for a total payout of $507 million. They are now 7-14, have lost 10 straight games, find themselves in last place in the National League East, have the second-worst series differential in the NL at -24, and are tied for last in all Major League Baseball numbers.

Early. Right? Yes, to some extent, but the Mets’ brutal start has already severely impacted their prospects for the rest of the season. According to Fangraph’s projected playoff odds, the Mets came out on top on March 27 with an 89% chance of playing postseason baseball. Just three weeks later, that number had dropped to 47.5%.

Now the Mets are more likely to miss the playoffs than they are to reach the playoffs. They are already 6.5 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves and 5.5 games out of the wild card spot. Those deficiencies can be closed, but this gap they created is rapidly becoming serious.

Miss Met hugs Zohran Mamdani at Citi Field before the game between the New York Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks on April 9, 2026 in New York City. (Caean Couto/Getty Images)

Almost no one on the team shoots. Top prospect Carson Benge is hitting .150 with a .217 slugging percentage. The big free agent signing Bo Bichette struggled mightily. Jorge Polanco is hitting .179. Brett Baty’s on-base percentage is .197. Marcus Semien, who replaced Brandon Nimmo, has just one home run and a .577 OPS. They are so desperate on offense that they signed Tommy Pham. The Dodgers have 138 weighted runs as a team, plus 38% better than the league average. New York? Entering Saturday, their team’s wRC+ was 81 points, 19% worse than the league average.

They scored 18 runs during their 10-game losing streak, just 1.8 points per game. It’s so ugly.

Yes, the Mets can bounce back and salvage their season, especially with Soto expected to return within the next 7-10 days. But this is a stark reminder that building a team, even with a massive payroll at or near the top of the league, is not an exact science. The Dodgers make it easy. The Mets are making it look tough. Oh, and the funniest part? It’s all Zohran Mamdani’s fault.