MLB insider watched Mets being pitched ‘disrespectfully’ — and teams aren’t even hiding it

There’s struggling, and then there’s what the Mets are suffering through right now.

Eleven losses in a row. A lineup that can’t do damage against a fastball right down the middle. And perhaps most damning of all — opposing pitchers aren’t even trying to be clever about it anymore.

On Tuesday, MLB insider Buster Olney joined Dave Rothenberg and Rick DiPietro on their ESPN New York show, and what he had to say after watching the Mets take on the Dodgers in person should be concerning.

“The thing that really jumped out to me in seeing them in person in LA was how disrespectfully they were being pitched,” Olney said, via YouTube. “There’s that sense of... they’re throwing so many fastballs — the Dodgers were, then the Cubs — and it’s like, we’re going to throw you fastballs and you can’t hit it, and even if you did hit it, it’s not going anywhere.”

Olney didn’t stop at the eye test. He reached out to an expert to get the hard numbers behind what he was seeing, and the data is brutal.

The Mets are 30th out of 30 teams in OPS against fastballs with a .642 mark. They’re also last in the league in damage against fastballs clocked at 97 mph or above.

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Dead last. In both categories. Out of 30 teams.

What makes it even more alarming is the compounding effect. The Mets don’t just struggle to hit fastballs — they also struggle to work counts and draw walks.

As Olney pointed out, even with the automated ball-strike system in play this year — which has generally caused walk rates to rise across baseball — the Mets still aren’t getting on base for free.