This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. MLB.com writer and researcher Jared Greenspan wrote this edition. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Is there hope left for the 2026 Mets?
That’s not the sort of question anyone expected to be asking this early in the season.
New York executed a bold and sweeping offseason makeover that brought with it a familiar set of expectations. Many anticipated the Mets to make the postseason, a fate that narrowly eluded the club last year thanks to a two-month skid. At the onset of the 2026 season, FanGraphs gave the Mets a 79.5% chance to make the playoffs, the third-highest odds in MLB behind only the Dodgers and the Mariners.
Those odds had dipped to 41.3% as of Monday morning, with the Mets' losing streak stretching to 11 after they dropped their series finale at Wrigley Field. It’s the franchise’s longest losing streak since an 11-game skid in 2004, a year that saw the club win just 71 games. Despite outward confidence from president of baseball operations David Stearns that the club’s fortunes will soon change, issues persist.
And yet, it’s still April. Does this sort of losing streak really spell the end?
To borrow a famous quote from then-Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora: “Playoffs? Don't talk about -- playoffs? You kidding me?"
Well, at least for today, we're going to talk about playoffs.
The Mets will try to join the 1951 New York Giants, 1982 Braves, 2017 Dodgers and 2025 Guardians as the only teams to reach the postseason despite a 10-game losing streak at any point in the year. In the Wild Card Era -- since 1995 -- five teams to lose at least nine straight games have still qualified for the postseason; all five instances have happened since 2010.
Let’s take a further look at the five teams to make the playoffs while also having a nine-game losing streak in the same season in the Wild Card Era to see what sort of parallels might exist with the Mets.
2017 Dodgers -- 11 games
Sept. 2-11
The same team that took the vaunted Astros all the way to Game 7 of the World Series suffered a rather stunning 11-game skid in Sept. 2017. The circumstances were far different from those facing the Mets: Before its losing streak, L.A. looked like a juggernaut, playing to a .717 clip and building a 21-game lead in the NL West on Aug. 25. Then the losing streak hit.
Here’s what Clayton Kershaw had to say at the time: “When you’re losing, it feels like no matter what you do, you can’t dig out of it. Changing those trends is a hard thing to do.” When the Dodgers finally snapped their skid, they clinched a postseason berth on the same day.
2025 Guardians -- 10 games
June 26-July 6
Cleveland is the most recent example that the Mets can look to for reassurance. The Guardians’ 10-game skid bridged June into July, a tenuous time for teams to start stacking losses, considering front offices have to evaluate the roster and determine an approach at the Trade Deadline. Cleveland’s lineup mounted just 15 runs across these 10 games. An improbable turnaround followed, as the Guardians chased down the Tigers for the AL Central crown on the final day of the regular season.
2023 D-backs -- 9 games
Aug. 1-Aug. 11
Here’s another NL West team that won the pennant despite a bumbling late-season slump. Arizona sure didn’t look like a World Series-caliber team when it opened August -- right after the Deadline -- on a nine-game skid, falling two games below .500. But a resilient D-backs team mounted a response, winning 84 games and capturing the third and final NL Wild Card spot, enough to kickstart a lengthy October run.
2012 Athletics -- 9 games
May 22-June 1
Much like the Mets, the A’s struggled to hit during their losing streak, notching a team-wide .511 OPS with just 12 extra-base hits in the nine-game funk. The club’s ninth straight loss dropped their record to 22-30 on the season. But the A's did not lose much the rest of the way, going 72-38 across their final 110 games. Much like the 2025 Guardians, the A’s seized the division crown on the final day of the regular season, ripping it away from the Rangers. A few fan favorites in Queens -- Bartolo Colon and Yoenis Cespedes -- played key roles.
2010 Braves -- 9 games
April 21-29
The 2010 Braves might be the most apt historical comparison, considering the timing of their skid: They lost nine straight games at the end of April, before their season could really get off the mat. Much like the Mets, the Braves endured a nightmarish 0-7 road trip. These early-season losing streaks tend to carry a different tenor, because there’s no barometer regarding how good the team might actually be. But Atlanta reversed course, winning 91 games to capture the National League’s lone Wild Card spot.