We’ve seen this movie before. A heroic performance in Game 161, followed by disappointment in Game 162. Both Clay Holmes and Edwin Díaz did their best to carry the Mets into the playoffs, but most of the rest
of the pitching staff had mixed or poor results in the final week of the season.
| Player | Last week | This week |
|---|---|---|
| Huascar Brazobán, RHP |  |
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| Edwin Díaz, RHP | |
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| Ryan Helsley, RHP | |
|
| Kevin Herget, RHP | — | |
| Clay Holmes, RHP | |
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| Dicky Lovelady, LHP | |
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| Sean Manaea, LHP | |
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| Nolan McLean, RHP | |
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| David Peterson, RHP |  |
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| Brooks Raley, LHP | |
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| Tyler Rogers, RHP | |
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| Gregory Soto, LHP | |
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| Ryne Stanek, RHP | |
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| Brandon Sproat, RHP | |
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| Jonah Tong, RHP | |
|
We don’t know yet whether Edwin Díaz will be on the Mets next season, but if this was his last week as a Met, then he went out with a bang. This last week of the 2025 season was a Herculean effort by Díaz. He appeared in four of the six games and pitched six scoreless innings across those four appearances with seven strikeouts. He earned a six-out save in the comeback victory in the series opener in Chicago, retiring five of the six batters via strikeout. He then earned another save in the series finale against the Cubs with a scoreless ninth inning. He pitched the ninth inning in the Mets’ only victory in Miami in Game 161 and then turned around and pitched two scoreless innings the next day in Sunday’s all hands on deck effort.
Clay Holmes was also nothing short of brilliant with the season on the line. He allowed just one hit over six shutout innings on Saturday against the Marlins, walking three batters and striking out two. He joins John Maine and Johan Santana in the Hall of Forgotten Heroes of Mets Collapses. What perhaps makes the outing even more impressive is that Holmes was forced into service in Wednesday’s loss in Chicago. He allowed an unearned run—partially due to his own mistakes—but that doesn’t take away from Saturday’s performance.
Holmes was forced to pitch on Wednesday because Jonah Tong lasted just two-plus innings in what was unfortunately another rough start to end his rookie campaign. He got out of the first inning thanks to a fantastic play by Tyrone Taylor and then bounced back with a quick second inning. But things unraveled for him quickly in the third and all told he was charged with five runs without recording an out. Dicky Lovelady ate up two innings in relief of Tong and allowed two additional runs, but only one of them was earned. Lovelady was designated for assignment after the outing. Kevin Herget was called up in Lovelady’s place and pitched a scoreless eighth inning in Friday’s loss to the Marlins. He too was then designated for assignment.
Wednesday was also Sean Manaea’s throw day since he had been piggybacking with Holmes, so he also pitched in that contest and allowed a two-run homer that put the game further out of reach for the Mets. The Mets had clawed back two runs, but Manaea gave them right back. Of course, Manaea also started the final game of the season, but he was really more of an opener since it was a must-win game. He threw a 1-2-3 first inning, but then two walks in the second resulted in him departing from the game after 1 2/3 innings of work. Manaea struck out three in his final start of what amounts to mostly a lost season for him.
Huascar Brazobán came in the game in relief of Manaea on Sunday and ensured that no damage was done as a result of the two walks by inducing an inning-ending groundout. He then recorded the first two outs of the third inning as well. That capped off a strong final week for Brazobán, who has been up and down a lot in September, but really found a groove in the final weeks of the season despite that fact. Brazobán also played the role of settling the game down in Tuesday’s win in Chicago and deserves a huge amount of credit for help keeping the Cubs where they were and allowing the Mets a chance to get back into the game. He struck out two and allowed one hit and one (unearned) run in 2 2/3 innings of work in that outing. Brazobán also pitched a scoreless seventh inning in Friday’s loss.
Brazobán had to throw in long relief on Tuesday because David Peterson had a dud in his final start of 2025. The offense bailed Peterson out, but he got shelled for five runs in just 1 1/3 innings with the season on the line. Though the Mets ended up winning the game (in part because of the quick hook on Peterson), Peterson’s early exit meant the bullpen did a lot of heavy lifting and it really torched them for the whole rest of the week, which makes Peterson’s poor performance arguably the most damaging of all.
Somewhat lost in the shuffle because the Mets fell short of the playoffs is that Ryan Helsley seemed to finally figure things out in the last couple of weeks of the season. He was the only Mets reliever besides Díaz and Brazobán to have a clean sheet across multiple appearances in this final week. He pitched two scoreless innings with two strikeouts to close out Wednesday’s loss and a scoreless eighth inning on Sunday in the season’s final day.
It was an uglier final line that it should have been for Nolan McLean on Thursday, but he did still earn the victory to finish his rookie campaign at 5-1. The Mets gave McLean six runs of run support early and McLean started racking up the strikeouts, including striking out the side in the second inning. But the strikeouts also ratcheted up his pitch count. McLean allowed a solo homer in the fourth and in the fifth, but was still cruising until one out in the sixth when a walk, a double, and a three-run homer meant that McLean ended up being charged with five runs over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out eleven Cubs hitters in the outing. But luckily the Mets had built enough of a cushion to hang on for the win.
Ryne Stanek recorded the final two outs of the sixth inning on Thursday without further damage. Stanek also pitched a scoreless fifth inning in Tuesday’s victory. But unfortunately his final outing of the season wasn’t a good one. He came in the game with one out in the fourth inning on Sunday and allowed the first two Miami runs on a pair of doubles and was eventually charged with two runs because the second of the two doubles would come around to score as well.
The first of those two runs was charged to Brooks Raley, who ended up taking the loss in the final game of the season, though that hardly represents his body of work for the week or for the season. Raley recorded the final out of the third inning and the first out of the fourth inning on Sunday, but then he allowed a single to Connor Norby before making way to Stanek, who allowed the RBI double that plated Norby for the game’s first—and it turns out decisive—run. Raley earned the win on Tuesday for striking out Pete Crow-Armstrong in a tie game for the final out of the seventh inning with the go-ahead run in scoring position. The Mets went on to take the lead on Francisco Alvarez’s two-run homer in the eighth, setting the stage for Díaz’s two-inning save. Raley struck out the side in the seventh inning in Thursday’s win. Raley also earned his tenth hold of the season for a 1-2-3 seventh inning in Saturday’s shutout victory, contributing to the combined one-hit effort.
Tyler Rogers was a part of Saturday’s combined one-hit shutout as well, pitching a 1-2-3 eighth inning to finish his season with 32 holds. But it was a mixed bag in the final week of the season for Rogers. Despite not being charged with any runs in the series opener in Chicago, he certainly didn’t have a clean outing. With the Mets leading by just one run, he came in the game with two outs in the sixth and a runner on first. He walked a batter and then allowed a single to plate the game-tying run before getting out of the inning. He came back out for the seventh and recorded the first two outs, but couldn’t complete the inning, allowing a single and then issuing a walk, necessitating Raley to come in and strike out Pete Crow-Armstrong in the big spot. Rogers did, however, pitch a scoreless eighth inning in Thursday’s victory. But Rogers combined with Stanek to bear responsibility for the Marlins’ four-run inning in the final game of the season that ended up dooming the Mets’ playoff hopes. After Stanek allowed the pair of doubles, Rogers came into the game and allowed a triple and then a soft single that plated two more runs, one of which was charged to Stanek. To be fair to Rogers, the Mets were ultimately shut out, so it’s not like these insurance runs mattered much anyway. But nonetheless, they turned the fourth into a big inning for Miami. On the whole, Rogers probably performed the best out of any of the Mets’ trade deadline acquisitions, but his already low strikeout rate fell even further and a contact-oriented pitcher is not one who thrives with as poor a defense behind him as the one fielded by the 2025 Mets.
Fellow trade deadline acquisition Gregory Soto did not have a positive week to end his season either, though he did work around two hits to pitch a scoreless eighth inning on Sunday to give the Mets a chance to stage their very first ninth inning comeback victory of the season, which they failed to do. Soto’s other two outings in the final week of the season were not clean ones. The tying run that crossed the plate in the sixth inning of Tuesday’s game was charged to Soto, who allowed a single after recording the first two outs of the inning. But Soto’s worst performance of the week came in Friday’s loss. With a two-run lead having turned into a one-run deficit in the fifth inning, Soto came in the game to calm things down and poured gasoline on the fire instead, allowing Agustín Ramírez to steal second base, and then third base, and then score on a single. Pinch hitter Connor Norby then dealt the back-breaking blow: a two-run homer that capped off a six-run inning for the Marlins and gave them a four-run lead.
That disastrous inning began with Brandon Sproat allowing three runs to cross the plate to erase the Mets’ two-run lead. Sproat had been cruising before that, pitching four scoreless innings with two strikeouts. But things snowballed on him in the fifth and Soto could not stop the bleeding. Ultimately, Sproat was charged with four runs in 4 2/3 innings of work and took the loss. He finishes his rookie campaign with a 4.79 ERA.
