Really not much of an October surprise that Mets are gone

The Mets always had us believe there was more time. Another game, another inning, another out. At a cost of $341 million, their roster was too expensive to fail. Ultimately, Carlos Mendoza & Co. would figure things out, just as they did for last season’s magical ride, and if it took until Game 162, well, the more amazing the story, right?

Here’s the part the Mets somehow overlooked. They still had to win.

And by late Sunday afternoon, needing just one more victory to put this slow-motion car crash in the rearview mirror and start fresh in the playoffs — incredibly, a ticket that required only a measly 84th win — the Mets finally had to   admit t hey weren’t capable of finishing the task.   

Of course it was the Marlins who delivered the fatal blow, because what good is a franchise-shaking collapse if we can’t dredge up some familiar demons to drop the hammer?

Yes, the same stinking Fish who took joy in pulling the trigger on the Mets’ epic September implosions of 2007 and ’08 somehow regenerated that villain energy to humiliate them again Sunday, this time by the score of 4-0 at loanDepot park.

As for the gory details, this loss was nothing that we hadn’t seen on numerous occasions since June 12, when the Mets went from having baseball’s best record (remember all that Subway Series talk?) to going 38-55 in their final 93 games, a .409 winning percentage that was the fifth-worst in the majors during that stretch.

The difference? The Rockies, Twins, Nationals and White Sox never had any illusions of making the playoffs. They’re a collection of $100 million rosters who played on autopilot for 3 1/2 months. The Twins even sold half their players at the deadline.

So what’s the Mets’ excuse? After coming within two wins of getting to the World Series last October, they not only kept the same core from that beloved team but added Juan Soto, the offensive engine of the Yankees’ AL title push the previous year and a perennial MVP candidate.

 The Soto Factor  alone is difficult to fathom, and think of how owner Steve Cohen’s head must be spinning. He spent $765 million to outbid Hal Steinbrenner in a move that he figured would virtually guarantee the Mets’ return to the playoffs, along with a high-percentage chance at bringing the Commissioner’s Trophy to Citi Field.

And the Mets got worse. But not in a statistical sense. That’s the truly mind-boggling part. Cohen’s so-called Fab Four all had career years, with Soto (.921 OPS) falling two stolen bases short of his first 40-40 season,    Pete Alonso  having a better contract drive (38 homers, 126 RBIs), Francisco Lindor slugging 31 homers to go with an .812 OPS and Brandon Nimmo reaching career bests with 25 homers and 92 RBIs.

If we were presented that scenario in spring training, our assumption would have been that the Mets would cruise to the NL East title. Instead, the rest of the team — and especially David Stearns’ budget rotation — crumbled around them.

“I failed at the job, the mission,” Lindor said. “It was on us — me and the players — to get it done. And we didn’t execute.”

It was Lindor who ended Sunday’s loss, bouncing into a double play that sent all of Metsville into shocked disbelief. While everyone knew this could happen — the Mets are a franchise expertly skilled at worst-case scenarios — there still was a strong conviction during the past few months that that catastrophe eventually would be avoided.

But Sunday’s script was like a disaster movie you’d seen a dozen times before. Watching the relievers’ erosion during those early innings, as Mendoza put the bullpen carousel in motion, was just confirmation of every Mets fan's most desperate fears.  What could be more fitting than the Mets’ season being torched by a pair of Ryne Stanek’s hanging sliders?

Or even Alonso’s potential game-turning 116-mph bullet, with the bases loaded in the fifth inning, seemingly being pulled by magnets into the outstretched glove of sprinting leftfielder Javier Sanoja to kill the threat.

There were a handful of near-misses during Sunday’s shutout, but that was just the 2025 Mets staying on brand. Always coming close and yet never delivering. That’s a brutally painful epitaph for this high-cost crew, with the autopsy by Cohen and Stearns still forthcoming.

“Even if you have a great team on paper, nobody’s going to bring it to you,” Soto said. “You gotta go out there and get it.”

The Mets looked every bit a World Series contender through mid-June, and shockingly enough, they did it by relying on the best-performing rotation in the majors. The Fab Four lineup didn’t really kick in as a group until after the All-Star break, but when it did turn into MLB’s most dangerous offense, that’s when the pitching staff faltered, along with Stearns’ deadline acquisitions not having the desired impact.

The season just kept slipping away, and too few of these Mets banded together to grab the rope.

“There’s no words to describe what we’re going through,” Mendoza said. “It’s pain, it’s frustration. We came in with a lot of expectations and here we are going home. Not only did we fall short, we didn’t even get to October.”

Now the Mets will have plenty of time, an extra-long offseason, to try to figure out why.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.