Cohen’s $331M Mets Spiral Into June Swoon Despite Soto Surge

A summer of powerhouse baseball in New York is not quite working out as expected, as the Mets and Yankees are finishing up June not living up to their World Series aspirations. 

The Mets fell Sunday in Pittsburgh in an ugly 12–1 loss, with the last-place Pirates pulling off the unexpected sweep. It was the most lopsided series loss in Mets history, with Pittsburgh scoring 30 runs over three days to New York’s four. The Mets have lost 13 of their last 16 games, and the ongoing slide prompted the team to have a players-only meeting Saturday as New York’s June swoon deepened, though the session failed to produce any immediate on-field effect. 

“There’s a sense of, ‘Yeah, we’re frustrated that we’re not winning,’” said Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor. “It’s just part of the adversity that we’re dealing with right now. We’ve got to stick together and play as hard as we can to come out of it. Hopefully, once we’re out of it, we don’t go back to something like this.”

The ongoing slide has also cost the Mets the lead in the National League East division, with the Phillies grabbing the top position that New York had held for much of the season. The Mets and owner Steve Cohen had far greater aspirations, particularly as they hold a $331 million luxury-tax payroll that trails only the Dodgers among MLB clubs.

“Tough stretch, no sugarcoating it. I didn’t see this coming,” Cohen said early Monday in a social media post. “I’m as frustrated as everybody else. We will get through this period. … Keep the faith!”

Soto Rebounds

Despite the team’s slide, outfielder Juan Soto, signed last offseason to a record-setting $765 million contract in free agency, has improved considerably in the last month. That marked turnaround comes after a particularly tough start to the season brought him widespread boos from fans and suggestions he didn’t even want to be on the Mets.

Soto will be a serious candidate for National League Player of the Month as he has hit .317 with 12 home runs and slugged .713 in his last 30 games.

“Credit to him … he still looks like the same person,” Lindor said of Soto. “He didn’t ride the wave of being bad or the wave of being good. He stayed the course.”

Yankees Improve—Somewhat

The crosstown Yankees, meanwhile, completed a series win at home Sunday over the Athletics, prevailing 12–5 in a game that included two long Aaron Judge homers. The Yankees, however, have gone just 13–13 so far this month, a stretch that included a six-game losing streak earlier this month and countered an 18–13 run in March and April and an even-better 17–9 one in May. 

More fallow stretches in the early- and mid-summer periods have become a hallmark of the Aaron Boone–led Yankees in recent seasons. The Yankees are the league’s No. 3 payroll spender at $310 million.