Yankees’ Trade Disappointment Joins Mets As Season Hits New Low

The New York Mets suffered a brutal sweep at home courtesy of two back-to-back losses to the Colorado Rockies on Sunday.

Now, with the team reeling and searching for answers as it prepares to take on the division rival Washington Nationals, the Mets seem to have hit a new low.

“It is frequently tempting and often unwise to label anything in baseball that happens in April ‘rock bottom,’” Tim Britton wrote for The Athletic. “But Sunday’s doubleheader sweep by the Colorado Rockies at home, in which the New York Mets scored a total of one run, sure better be the worst it feels at Citi Field in 2026.”

With the team searching for answers, though, there seems to be little that the front office can do to turn things around at this point. After the team missed the playoffs last year, president of baseball operations David Stearns has already overhauled the roster and fired many of the team’s coaches.

Virtually the only significant move left available would be a change at manager and calls for Carlos Mendoza’s job are certainly getting louder. In the meantime, though, the team has turned to a recent castoff from the crosstown rival New York Yankees.

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Shortly after Sunday’s double-header, news surfaced that the Mets had signed outfielder Austin Slater, who played for the Yankees last season after they acquired him shortly before last year’s trade deadline from the Chicago White Sox.

As the Yankees pushed toward the playoffs, Slater slashed just .120/.120/.120 with three hits and 16 strikeouts in 25 at-bats with the team. He did not factor into the Yankees’ playoff run and the team cut ties with him in the offseason.

Slater signed a minor-league deal with the Detroit Tigers for this season and was released shortly afterward, then he joined the Miami Marlins just before Opening Day before being released on Sunday.

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Now, as the Mets look for some kind of jolt to save their season, it seems the team is hoping the Yankees’ castoff can be a positive replacement for outfield veteran Tommy Pham, who was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

“Pham and Slater are both right-handed hitting outfielders, and Slater has more of a reputation as a lefty-masher even though his numbers against southpaws have been average to mediocre over the last three seasons,” Mark Polishuk noted for MLB Trade Rumors. “Slater should slide right into Pham’s role as the complement to the left-handed hitting Carson Benge, who has yet to get going at the plate in his rookie season.”

Still, with the season in crisis, the addition of a new platoon option in the outfield is hardly the kind of change that many Mets fans are calling for.