Yankees And Mets In Historic Free Fall To Begin 2026
- Dominic Konareski
- Apr 13
- 5 min read
Pin-Stripped After Hot Start
The New York Yankees are losers of five straight and so are their borough counterpart Mets. It’s safe to say that April has not treated New York baseball well.
After yesterday’s one run loss, the Yankees dropped to 8-7 and lost sole possession of first place in the AL East, as they are now second and overall in a three-way tie for first when it comes to win-loss records. Baltimore is shown as the ALE leader with New York second and Tampa Bay, who just swept New York, in third.
The Yankees last win needs to be traced back to April 7th, where they beat the Athletics 5-3. In the series finale versus the A’s, New York went back to the 1950s. A 1 hit shutout for the A’s, which saw the team only plate one run in a slim 1-0 win over New York on April 9th. This game marked the first time since September 20th, 1958, that the Yankees lost 1-0 with one hit or fewer.
Frankly, the entire Yankees offense to begin the season has been a guy who has a brand deal with Ben’s Rice and the other being someone who physically can’t even open a bag of rice by himself.
Ben Rice and Giancarlo Stanton have been the Yankees backbone all season thus far. When it comes to everyday players, Rice and Stanton are the only ones hitting above .250, batting .356 and .300 respectfully. Ahmed Rosario has been getting consistent at-bats lately due to Ryan McMahon’s sub .125 struggles, as Rosario is hitting at a .292 clip across his first 9 games.
The New York Yankees as a whole are hitting .202 as a team, just .002 above the dreaded Mendoza Line.
$22 million dollar man Trent Grisham is hitting .133, Jazz Chisholm is hitting .179 with 0 home runs and 6 stolen bases after saying he is going for a 50-50 season. To add on you have Jose Caballero, who the starting shortstop job fell into his hands, is hitting .146 with 16 strikeouts and 5 stolen bases. Ryan McMahon may be starting to get his swing back after being the season under .100, as he is now hitting that .114 clip, but overall has produced a -0.4 WAR.
Aaron Judge has gotten off to one of the worst starts ever in his pro career. His 19 strikeouts in 54 at-bats leads the team. 4 home runs are nice, but his inability to produce with small ball play and chasing early on has turned him into a .218 hitter.
Randal Grichuk hit over 60 career home runs against the Yankees, and now he may not even record a lone hit as a Yankee. The former Blue Jay is 0-for-12 in 8 games this season with a walk. Grichuk shocked many when he made the Yanks’ opening day roster over a potential Triple-AAA demotion.
Yankees pitching has been fantastic, but the bullpen has been used a lot to begin the campaign. Nonetheless, a team ERA of 2.78 and a 2.8 WAR puts Yankees team pitching in the top five across the entire league. If The Yankees can figure out how to hit again and pitching stays this good and consistent, then you will see quite possibly one of the best stretches over recent years.
LOLMETS In 2026 Has Begun?
Unlike the Yankees, The Mets never really got off to a great and powerful start.
The Mets stand alone all by themselves at the bottom of the NL East with a sub .500% 7-9 record. The only team with a winning record in the NLE currently are the Atlanta Braves at 10-6, so New York can gain a lot of ground fast as their last place standing to second-place Miami is separated by just one win.
Losing Juan Soto early on is quite possibly the biggest blow the team will face this season, but Soto will return likely by the end of April. Soto was hitting at a .355 clip with a .928 OPS before going on the 10-day IL with a right calf strain.
Bo Bichette has pulled himself partially out of the hole he dug himself in, going from being hitless through his first several games as a New York Met to now hitting .235 on the season and overall .333 in his last 5 games (6-for-18).
Francisco Alvarez is tied with Soto for the largest WAR on the team (0.6) as through 14 games, Alvarez has been on fire. His 1.016 OPS paces the team and he is hitting .300
Tyrone Taylor, Marcus Semien, Francisco Lindor, Jorge Polanco and Carson Benge have all struggled to begin the season, which is what has held back New York’s lineup offensively and frankly has doomed their pitching staff with needless errors.
Taylor is hitting .211, Lindor has had fielding problems and is hitting a buck 88 with more strikeouts (13) than hits (12). Semien isn’t fairing any better with a .190 average, but at least he has a home run, and then Polanco has been an easy out.
Carson Benge has been straight up disappointing – I know that likely isn’t the best journalistic way to describe him, but it is true – Benge has a -0.3 WAR and is 6-for-46 (.130) with 14 strikeouts and 2 fielding errors, which leads all of baseball. The good part about Benge is that he is 23-years-old and there is still time to have him develop. Nonetheless though, considering he is a former first round pick (19th overall) it is frustrating to see him play this poorly to say the least.
The Mets promoted Tommy Pham over the weekend for some outfield help and an offensive boost. New York signed Pham to a minor league deal on Opening Day and appeared in five games with Low-A St. Lucie.
Pitching wise, the Mets have dealt with such inconsistent pitching to begin the year. A team ERA of 3.60 has New York mid-tier across the league. Devin Williams has been the go-to arm and hasn’t allowed a run in any of his five appearances (5.0 IP) this season. Clay Holmes has been a brilliant starter with a 1.50 ERA in 18 innings across 3 starts. Meanwhile Kodai Senga and David Peterson both have ERA’s above 6.00 after three starts each and have combined for a -0.7 pWAR.
Both the Yankees and Mets need fixes in their own ways. Will we see poor baseball from both teams throughout these entire 140+ remaining games? No. No we will not, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried though about how both teams are right now due to how uncompetitive several players have been to begin 2026. There will be trades, and that is for sure.
This is the first time in history that both the Yankees and Mets have lost five straight games at the same time. Back in 1962, the Mets and Yankees did go 0-10 in a five game stretch, but that was with 6 Mets losses and 4 Yankee losses. This time in 2026 marks the first pure 0-5 and 0-5 in five days for each team.
Three things are guaranteed in life: taxes, being ghosted after you go on a date with your Tinder match and a struggling player being sent out of New York via trade.
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