Mets and Atlanta are on divergent paths after successful 2022 seasons
Pete Alonso of the Mets bats during the fourth inning against Atlanta in the first game of a doubleheader at Citi Field on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Mets and Atlanta each won 101 games last season.
Other than both teams still being in the NL East, the similarities end there.
Atlanta, with a 75-41 record after sweeping the Mets in a day-night doubleheader at Citi Field on Saturday, is cruising to its sixth straight division title.
The Mets, who started the season with an MLB-record $377 million payroll, are 52-65 and 23 ½ games behind Atlanta after losing 21-3 in Game 1 and 6-0 in Game 2.
Yes, 21-3.
After their deadline teardown trades, and with Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor banged up and Francisco Alvarez being saved for the nightcap, the Mets’ Game 1 lineup included two regulars in Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil. The rest of the lineup was mostly a who’s who of “who’s that?”
Nimmo and Lindor started Game 2. It didn’t matter. The gruesome totals for the first three games of this series: Atlanta has outscored the Mets 34-3.
Yes, 34-3.
In Saturday’s opener, Atlanta hit six home runs (two off infielder Danny Mendick) and the Mets were held to four hits in seven shutout innings by 27-year-old righty Allan Winans, a former Mets farmhand making his second big-league start.
In the nightcap, the Mets were held to five hits by Spencer Strider and two relievers. Jose Quintana pitched well (six innings, one run) but fell to 0-4 with a 3.03 ERA.
Atlanta scored its second run when Ozzie Albies came home from first base in the eighth on a double error by second baseman Mendick (let a ball get by him) and centerfielder Tim Locastro (overran it). That opened the door to a three-run inning.
Atlanta’s lineup for Game 1 was so deep that it had All-Star catcher Sean Murphy hitting seventh and 2022 National League Rookie of the Year Michael Harris II batting eighth.
Harris went 2-for-3 with two runs and Murphy hit his 19th homer, a shot into the Home Run Apple off Josh Walker in the eighth. Walker was replaced by Mendick, who retired Forrest Wall on an inning-ending pop-up before allowing eight runs and eight hits in the ninth.
If All-Star shortstop Orlando Arcia hadn’t been given Game 1 off, all nine starting Atlanta batters would have had at least 11 home runs. Arcia’s .213-hitting replacement, Nicky Lopez, went 4-for-6 with five RBIs and a three-run homer off Mendick.
Staked to a 21-3 lead, Lopez pitched the ninth for Atlanta and closed out an embarrassing game for the home club.
Arcia is having a career year (.293, 13 homers, .810 OPS) after replacing Dansby Swanson, the homegrown shortstop whom Atlanta let leave for the Cubs as a free agent. Swanson signed for seven years and $177 million.
Atlanta, to use a favored phrase of Mets general manager Billy Eppler, “repurposed” that money into other players.
The Swanson saga is similar to how Atlanta let franchise staple Freddie Freeman leave as a free agent before last season and immediately replaced him in a trade for Matt Olson, who has 42 home runs and 105 RBIs after hitting a three-run homer and a solo shot in the opener.
Atlanta has turned into a model franchise. The Mets have stumbled in trying to become that in year three of Steve Cohen’s ownership.
The Dodgers often are cited as the example Cohen wants to emulate (deep pockets, fertile farm system, always in the World Series conversation), but Atlanta would be a pretty good organization to copy, too, with a stockpile of young studs who are signed to long-term, team-friendly contracts.
“Harris is a pretty good player,” manager Buck Showalter said on Friday when asked to assess the Atlanta roster. “The big move they made is at shortstop with Swanson being gone. The job [Arcia’s] done at shortstop. Guy at third base [Austin Riley] is pretty good. They have two catchers [Murphy and Travis d’Arnaud], they’re All-Star caliber.
“I think the one move — when they traded for Murphy last year, that one stung. That was like, one of the best all-around catchers in baseball, to add him with d’Arnaud. Pretty good guy in rightfield [Ronald Acuna Jr.].”
Showalter didn’t even get around to Olson or Ozzie Albies or the pitching staff (3.91 ERA, third-best in the NL entering Saturday), but you get the point: Atlanta is stacked and should be a thorn in Cohen’s paw for years to come.
The Mets? They tore down their disappointing and expensive big-league roster and are repurposing Cohen’s money to restock the farm system. In a recent letter to season-ticket holders, Cohen promised to field “a formidable team” in 2024 while building “a pipeline of high caliber talent in our farm system that will fuel our major league team for years to come.”
Atlanta manager Brian Snitker was asked Friday about the divergence in the states of the clubs. This was before Atlanta won the series opener, 7-0.
Snitker was magnanimous.
“Doesn’t feel any different, really, to me,” he said. “I mean, I look at the [Mets’] lineup. Still really good lineup. All these games are tough. Everybody you play is tough. All the series you play are all big series.”
Atlanta versus the Mets was a big series. Now, in less than a season’s time, it’s not.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
