2019 New York Mets season

2019 New York Mets
League	National League
Division	East
Ballpark	Citi Field
City	New York City, New York
Record	86–76 (.531)
Divisional place	3rd
Owners	Fred Wilpon[1]
General managers	Brodie Van Wagenen
Managers	Mickey Callaway
Television	SportsNet New York PIX 11 (CW affiliate) (Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez)
Radio	WCBS 880 AM (English) New York Mets Radio Network (Howie Rose, Wayne Randazzo) Que Buena 92.7 (Spanish) (Juan Alicea, Max Perez Jiminez)
← 2018 Seasons 2020 →

The 2019 New York Mets season was the franchise's 58th season and the team's 11th season at Citi Field. Despite improving on their 77–85 campaign from last year by 9 games with an 86–76 record, they were three games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for a wild card spot and thus missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season. Their division rival, the Washington Nationals, went on to win the World Series.

The Mets had a decent spring training with a record of 13–13–2, having equal wins and losses with two ties.

The Mets began the regular season on March 28, 2019, facing the Washington Nationals away at their home opener, winning 2–0. They won the next game and finished the last game with a loss, taking 2 out of 3.

The Mets started the month strong by sweeping the Miami Marlins in three games. However, the rest of the month proved to be a rollercoaster of wins and losses with division rivals the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Phillies. Along with splitting the series (2–2) with the Atlanta Braves. Pete Alonso took home Rookie of the Month honors, as he hit nine home runs, drove in 26 runs, and finished the month with a .291 batting average.

The Mets started the month of May off slowly, losing 5 of their first 6. However, that one win was an impressive one, with Noah Syndergaard throwing a 1–0 shutout against the Reds, with a Syndergaard home run being the only run of the game. The Mets continued their slumping May, culminating in being swept in three games by the lowly Miami Marlins. However, they immediately followed that with a 6–1 homestand against the Nationals and the Detroit Tigers.

After coming home from a disappointing West Coast trip that saw the Mets go 2–5 with two blown leads of 4 runs in the 8th inning, the Mets went 4–2 on their homestand against the Giants and Rockies. The Mets then split a day-night doubleheader with the Yankees in the first leg of the 2019 Subway Series. On June 20, the Mets fired pitching coach Dave Eiland and bullpen coach Chuck Hernandez, replacing them with Phil Regan and Ricky Bones respectively.^[2]

On July 23, Robinson Cano became the third Met to hit three home runs in one home game at Citi Field. The previous two were Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Lucas Duda, who both did so in July 2015; Cano also became the first Met to hit three home runs in any game since Yoenis Cespedes in April 2017. He is also the oldest second baseman in MLB history to hit three home runs in one game.^[3]

On July 28, the Mets traded pitching prospects Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Marcus Stroman.^[4]

The Mets finished the month strong, winning the last six games of the month.

The Mets continued their hot play to begin the month, winning 9 of their first 10 in August, including eight in a row and 15 out of 16 stretching back to July 25—their best 16-game stretch since 1990.

By August 7, the Mets had a record of 19-6 since the All-Star break, the league's best record in that time, and were within one game of a wild-card playoff berth.^[5]

On August 18, Pete Alonso hit his 40th home run of the season in an 11–5 win over the Kansas City Royals, setting a new National League record for home runs in a season by a rookie, breaking the previous record of 39 by Cody Bellinger in 2017.^[6]

On August 27, Alonso hit his 42nd home run of the season in a 5–2 loss to the Chicago Cubs, setting a new record for home runs in a season by a New York Mets player. This is also the first time any MLB rookie has set a franchise record for home runs in a season since Johnny Rizzo did so for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1938.^[7]

The Mets' wild card chances took a hit after back-to-back series sweeps against the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs,^[8] but the team closed out the month with two consecutive wins against the Philadelphia Phillies.^[9]

August saw the continued improvement of the Mets bullpen, which had struggled prior to the All-Star break, but had a 3.79 ERA in the second half of the season as of the end of August, ranking fifth in the major leagues.^[9]

Mets catcher Wilson Ramos had a career-best 26-game hitting streak through September 4.^[9] It was tied with David Wright in 2006–07 for the second-longest streak in Mets history,^[10] was the longest ever for a Mets catcher,^[11] and was the longest in the MLB since Freddie Freeman's 30-game streak for the Atlanta Braves in 2016.^[10]

The Mets suffered a historic loss on September 3, surrendering a 6-run lead in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Washington Nationals in an 11–10 loss.^[12][13] The Mets had a projected 99.7% chance of winning heading into the bottom of the ninth,^[13] and before the loss, MLB teams in 2019 leading by six runs of more in the ninth inning had a perfect 274–0 record, and the Mets had an 806–0 franchise record when leading by six or more in the ninth.^[12] Edwin Díaz allowed a three-run walk-off home run in the game.^[12][13] As of September 6, Díaz had allowed 14 ninth-inning home runs in 2019, tying Francisco Rodriguez of the Milwaukee Brewers in 2014 for the most allowed in a season in MLB history. The Mets had allowed 31 total ninth-inning home runs in 2019 as of September 6, the most by any team in league history.^[14]

On September 18, with Alonso's 49th home run of the season, the team broke their single-season franchise record for home runs, surpassing the 224 hit by the 2017 team.^[15]

Similar to their collapse in 2007 and collapse in 2008, the Mets lost a critical game to the Miami Marlins. As the Nationals and Brewers both won on September 23, the Mets fell behind 6–0 to the 54-101 Marlins and lost 8–4, making one Brewers win enough to eliminate them from playoff contention.

Despite beating the Marlins 10–3 on September 25, the Mets were eliminated from the playoffs that day due to the Brewers beating the Reds to clinch a wild card.

On September 27, Alonso hit his 52nd home run of the season off of Braves pitcher Dallas Keuchel, tying Aaron Judge's rookie record set in 2017. The next night, Alonso broke the record, hitting his 53rd home run off of Mike Foltynewicz.

The Mets finished the season in 3rd place at 86–76, 11 games behind the Braves and 3 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the second wild card spot. The Mets went 46-26 after the All-Star Break, which was the second-best record in the National League behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers (46-24).

Note: Team batting and pitching leaders in each category are in bold.

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; OPS = OBP + SLG (On base + slugging percentage)

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; OPS = OBP + SLG (On base + slugging percentage)

Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; IP = Innings pitched; SO = Strikeouts; WHIP = Walks and hits per inning pitched

Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GF = Games finished; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; SO = Strikeouts; WHIP = Walks and hits per inning pitched

• 2019 New York Mets season Official Site^{[dead link‍]}
• 2019 New York Mets season at Baseball Reference