2007 Mets Offer Advice as 2025 Club Slips Toward Late-Season Collapse
Former players urge focus on small-ball and one-game-at-a-time approach as New York endures a seven-game skid with a precarious wild-card hold.
Members of the 2007 New York Mets — the roster most closely associated with the franchise’s most infamous late-season meltdown — have been reaching out to the current club, urging short memories and simpler baseball as the 2025 Mets slide toward the postseason.
The 2025 Mets entered play Saturday just a half-game ahead of the San Francisco Giants for the final National League wild-card spot after surrendering a five-game lead as recently as Sept. 2. New York has lost seven straight and has cooled sharply after being baseball’s best team through June 12, prompting comparisons to the 2007 collapse in which the Mets led the NL East by seven games with 17 to play and then lost six of their final seven games.
“I'm way, way past that,” Willie Randolph, who co-managed the 2007 club, said Saturday. Randolph and several former teammates described the 2007 experience as both painful and instructive but declined to lay blame on effort for the current skid. “I think [manager Carlos Mendoza] and the team is going out and playing hard every day,” Randolph said.
Catcher Paul Lo Duca, a member of the 2007 club, said the team then was consumed by tension and by looking backward, a pattern he warned the 2025 Mets to avoid. The 2007 club lost five straight and finished 12-17, its season extinguished by a seven-run first inning by Tom Glavine and the Florida Marlins on the final day of the regular season.
“Whatever happened in the [last] game, just leave it there,” Jose Reyes said of advice he would give to the current roster. Carlos Beltrán, now a special assistant in the Mets’ front office, urged players to be aggressive and to stop “limiting” themselves, while Carlos Delgado counseled, “Don't scoreboard watch. Just one day at a time, one at-bat at a time. Let’s win today.”
Lo Duca offered concrete, tactical suggestions that mirror traditional late-season small-ball strategies: move runners, play base to base and avoid swinging for the long home run in each at-bat. “When you go through this type of stretch, you’ve got to play the game a little bit different,” he said.
The current skid has deepened questions about how a roster that was elite during the first half can stumble so markedly. Through June 12, the Mets were among baseball’s best clubs; since then, their results rank near the bottom of the league. Players and coaches have publicly maintained that effort and preparation remain in place even as performance has lagged.
Mendoza, the team's manager, has not publicly offered a detailed explanation for the downturn beyond reiterating the club's focus on playing hard and correcting mistakes. Veterans who lived through 2007 urged the players to control what they can and to avoid letting past failures become a burden.
“It's hard to explain,” Randolph said. “I know the fans are frustrated and all that good stuff, but to me, I think they’re going out and playing hard every day.” Beltrán stressed mental reset and urged the Mets to avoid timidity: “Don't be timid. Just be aggressive, be who you are. At the end of the day, you are in a position where you’re fighting for a playoff opportunity.”
The stakes are immediate. A wild-card berth is within reach but fragile, and the franchise carries the memory of 2007 as a cautionary tale. Several members of the 2007 team expressed confidence that a quick turnaround remains possible. “As quick as it turned, it can turn the other way like that,” Randolph said.
The 2007 collapse concluded with recriminations and an excruciating finale; the current club faces a simpler prescription from those who lived it — do not let yesterday determine tomorrow. With a handful of regular-season games remaining, the Mets must either arrest the skid and secure a postseason spot or risk joining the roster of teams whose late-season fall became part of franchise lore.