The 2026 New York Mets have lost 12 straight games for the first time since the 2002 New York Mets. That 2002 team certainly wasn’t good, and I’m sure most folks don’t have fond memories of it, but for some reason, I have Mo Vaughn and Roberto Alomar bobbleheads from that team. Look, if you’re a Mets fan, you know what pain feels like, and to cope with that, I always collected oddball stuff. I still have a Jason Bay bobblehead and a white Kaz Matsui shirsey.
The current Mets squad is tough to watch, and we’ve all talked at length about what they should do to turn the season around. Instead of doing that again, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane to remember another bad Mets team.
After a promising 2000 season that saw the Mets finally back in the World Series, 2001 was filled mostly with disappointment and an 82-80 record. Similar to when the 2024 Mets made a run before they ran into the buzzsaw that is the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, and then completely failed to live up to expectations the following season. That made Stearns a busy man this offseason, swapping out a ton of longer tenured players for new faces via trade and free agent signings.
Mets GM Steve Phillips did much the same as he was headed into the 2002 season.
And, well, he did certainly make multiple moves. Check out this huge list.
- In December, the Mets traded Alex Escobar, Matt Lawton, Jerrod Riggan and two players to be named later (Earl Snyder and Billy Traber) to Cleveland for future Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar, Mike Bacsik and Danny Peoples.
- Six days later, Phillips gave out a four-year, $18 million deal to former Met Roger Cedeño.
- On the same day, the Mets signed reliever David Weathers to a three-year, $9.4 million deal.
- The following day, they traded David Justice to the A’s for Mark Guthrie and Tyler Yates.
- The Mets had traded Robin Ventura to the Yankees just the week before to acquire Justice.
- Phillips made another move during that time, sending Desi Relaford and Tsuyoshi Shinjo to the Giants for starter Shawn Estes.
- Phillips went the trade route again a few days before the New Year, when he sent starting pitcher Kevin Appier to the Angels for slugger Mo Vaughn.
- In January, Phillips made another big trade, this time involving two other teams. The Mets traded Benny Agbayani, Todd Zeile and cash to the Rockies. They also sent Lenny Harris and Glendon Rusch to the Brewers. The Mets received former Met Jeromy Burnitz, Lou Collier, Jeff D’Amico and the wrong Sweeney, Mark.
- He also brought in starting pitching help when Phillips signed veteran right-hander Pedro Astacio to a one-year, $5 million deal that could become a two-year deal if he pitched a certain number of innings.
- Phillips made a number of other smaller deals including: purchasing the contract of Satoru Komiyama from the Yokohama Bay Stars, signing John Valentin to a minor league deal and trading for Kane Davis. Right before the season started, he dealt Collier to the Expos for Jason Bay and Jimmy Serrano.
- And because Phillips couldn’t help himself, he made another trade during the first week of the season. He sent Bruce Chen, Luis Figueroa, Dicky Gonzalez and a player to be named later (Saul Rivera) to the Expos for Scott Strickland, Phil Seibel and Matt Watson.
All the wheeling and dealing looked like it might work; the Mets went 16-10 in April. They went 13-15 in May, then 11-15 in June, and then they had a little push after the All-Star break to put them back in the race (4 1/2 games out of a Wild Card spot). Phillips dealt Jason Bay, Josh Reynolds and lefty Bobby M. Jones to the Padres for veteran reliever Steve Reed and Jason Middlebrook. The Mets also traded Jay Payton, Mark Corey, and Robert Stratton to the Rockies for starter John Thomson and outfielder Mark Little.
Following the trade deadline, the Mets would go on to lose 18 of their next 21 games, including a 12-game losing streak that went from August 11 to August 23. During that streak, during the waiver trading period, the Mets traded Shawn Estes to the Reds for Elvin Beltre, Pedro Feliciano and two players to be named later (Raúl González and Brady Clark). The losing streak killed any hopes the Mets had of making the playoffs in 2002.
Outside of Mike Piazza and Edgardo Alfonzo having their typical strong seasons, the offense struggled. Vaughn had good stretches but was bad in August with a .688 OPS, and his defense all season was brutal. Alomar ended his streak of 12 straight All-Star appearances while having the worst offensive season of his career. Burnitz, along with Vaughn, were both top 15 in the NL in strikeouts.
Rey Ordóñez dealt with wrist and rib injuries that led to one of his worst seasons. Cedeño stole only 25 bases after swiping 55 the year before and saw his OPS drop 70 points.
On the pitching side, Astacio, D’Amico and Estes all struggled. Komiyama was even worse.
Then there were multiple stories of Mets players smoking pot.
In addition to the overall 12-game losing streak, the 2002 Mets lost a National League record 15 straight games at home.
The brutal season cost manager Bobby Valentine his job. Fred Wilpon decided to fire Valentine a few days after the season. There seemed to be a disconnect between Valentine and Phillips, but Phillips was the one who got to keep his job.
That didn’t make Valentine very happy, and he was never one to hold back his words. “Nobody in this organization has done more for the community than I have. Steve Phillips has done nothing in the community. I went to his church for a father-son night, his church, and he was late.”
The biggest difference between the 2002 team and the current team is the 2026 Mets are having their potential season ruining losing streak early in the year. The 2026 Mets still have time to turn it around, but how do they do that? Does Stearns pull a Phillips and make an early season trade, bring up a hitter like Ryan Clifford or does Carlos Mendoza suffer the same fate as Valentine?
