The New York Mets (32-21) welcome the Chicago White Sox (17-36) to Citi Field for a three-game set that begins on Memorial Day. These two teams will forever be connected with the Sox taking over the ‘worst record of the modern era’ title from the Mets last season. But beyond that, both are seen as the little brothers of their respective cities who, along with the Angels, make up the triumvirate of teams that average fans think of as geographically secondary.

The Mets are coming off a series win with the Dodgers, who are clinging on to first place in the National League West. The Mets had a very real chance to sweep the series with Los Angeles, but will gladly settle for taking two of three from the reigning world champions.

On Friday night, a rain delay knocked Griffin Canning out of the game early and saw the Dodgers take a big lead when play resumed. Despite fighting back and tying the game in the ninth, neither team could get its offense working in extra innings, stranding the Manfred Man in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth innings. Like the Baseball Project once said, thirteen’s never lucky, and the Dodgers broke through against Huascar Brazobán for a late night victory.

Game two saw David Peterson out duel Tony Gonsolin, as well as see Juan Soto line a double off the wall to drive in a pair, en route to a 5-2 win. Peterson was excellent, and the only blemishes against him can be chalked up to weak contact and luck. Edwin Díaz continued his recent run of success with a dominant four out save and, along with Peterson, saved a totally depleted bullpen who had emptied the tank in their extra-innings loss a day ago.

Sunday night’s finale saw the battle of the Japanese stars, as Shohei Ohtani took Kodai Senga deep to lead off the game with a solo home run. After that, Ohtani didn’t allow another runner, going five and a third strong innings. A rested Ryne Stanek, Max Kranick, and Reed Garrett locked down the remaining three and two-thirds innings. A two-run home run by Pete Alonso and an RBI groundout put the Mets over the top, bringing the Mets back to 11 games over .500 and two back against the Phillies in the National League East.

With Frankie Montas making his first rehab start over the weekend, and the recall of Jared Young and Brandon Waddell, the look of the Mets’ roster over the next few weeks looks like a transitional one. Soto has shown a few signs of life as of late, and Alonso and Francisco Lindor, though colder than they were a few weeks ago, are helping to hold down the lineup. Catcher, second base, and third base are still somewhat question marks, but Carlos Mendoza has been doing an excellent job of balancing the workload for multiple positions across players like Jeff McNeil, Luisangel Acuña, Starling Marte, and Mark Vientos.

With the emergence of Brett Baty looking real (again), the infield picture may clear up a little bit, especially if Vientos can start producing more from the designated hitter spot, leaving McNeil and Acuña to share time at second base and McNeil get a few starts in center field. Of a greater question is catcher right now, with Luis Torrens continuing to impress on both sides of the ball and Francisco Alvarez simply looking lost at the plate most nights. Alvarez is still young, is recently back from injury, and is still doing fine defensively, but to have a more offensive presence behind the plate and in the lineup could do wonders for the bottom of the Mets’ lineup.

Anything you can say about the 2025 White Sox is underlined by the fact that things could be much worse. After a record setting 2024 season (a 41-121 record), there was nowhere to go but up for the ChiSox. While April saw the team lose 12 in a row and collect just 3 wins in 26 games, May has been far kinder to the South Siders.

The White Sox have won series against the Astros, Marlins, Reds, and Rangers this month, good for a 9-14 record. That’s still not very good, but compared to last season, especially with the team trading their ace, Garrett Crochet, to Boston, it looks positively optimistic. Does the fact that the new Pope is a White Sox fan account for the fact that they have gone 7-9 since he was elected? Of course not, there’s no correlation at all between the White Sox and Pope Leo XIV. But Sox fans need to put their hope in something, so why not the new pontiff?

The biggest issue facing the White Sox is their offense. Their pitching has remained near middle the pack this season, with Shane Smith’s rookie campaign, Jonathan Cannon’s sophomore season, and Davis Martin looking like he’s figuring himself out each giving the team some cause for optimism for this season and beyond. But offensively, the team has racked up 0.0 fWAR thus far in 2025. The Mets, no one’s example of offensive power at this point, already have 8.1 fWAR, for reference.

Rookie shortstop Chase Meidroth, in addition to having a Star Wars-ass name, has been their best hitter by a fair margin so far this season, though he’s not doing it with much power (.069 ISO). But he’s stealing bases, slapping hits, and walking at a decent clip. Luis Robert Jr. continues his skid from 2024 with a paltry .563 OPS. Lenyn Sosa and Matt Thais are hanging with OPS+s around 100, but neither is putting up eye-popping numbers.

The reality is that this is a team that is still very much rebuilding and, if not for the abysmal Rockies, the White Sox would still be considered the worst team in baseball, though there would be some competition from the Orioles and Pirates on that front.

Monday, May 26: Clay Holmes vs. Adrian Houser, 4:10pm on SNY

Holmes (2024): 54.2 IP, 53 K, 20 BB, 5 HR, 3.13 ERA, 3.59 FIP, 79 ERA-

After a rough start in the rain against the Pirates on May 14, Holmes bounced back with a decent start against the Red Sox last week. ix innings, four hits, five strikeouts, three walks and two earned runs would be considered a fine start if the Mets didn’t fall into an offensive black hole in mid-May. Holmes has not gone less than six innings in May, and hasn’t gone less than five since his second start of the season. While it is a little early to declare the Holmes experiment an unqualified win, the Mets and Holmes have done a nice job with the transition thus far.

Houser (2024): 6.0 IP, 2 K, 3 BB, 0 HR, 0.00 ERA, 3.91 FIP, 0 ERA-

Old friend Adrian Houser appeared in 23 games for the Mets in 2024, coming over in the same deal that brought Tyrone Taylor to the club in December of 2023. Since then, it’s been quite the rollercoaster for Houser. He was signed by the Cubs as a free agent in August of 2024, released by them three weeks later, signing with the Orioles on the same day, electing free agency at the end of the season, signing with the Rangers in December and then being released by the Rangers in May, all of this happening without another big league appearance.

However, Houser made his first start in nearly a year last week, going six shutout innings against the Mariners, allowing just five baserunners (2 hits, three walks) alongside two strikeouts. Before everyone gets too excited about the Houser Cy Young tour that’s coming, in 39.1 innings in Triple-A this season, he’s put up an ERA over 5 with eight dingers.

Tuesday, May 27: Tylor Megill vs. Shane Smith 7:10pm on SNY

Megill (2024): 48.0 IP, 66 K, 23 BB, 3 HR, 3.56 ERA, 2.83 FIP, 90 ERA-

The Tylor Megill story is built on strong Aprils and poor Mays and when his first three starts in May also saw four earned runs allowed and not one appearance in the sixth inning, it looked like history was repeating itself. The ship was slightly righted with the series finale in Boston where, despite only going four and two-thirds innings, he struck out twelve, walked just one, and allowed an earned run. He was cruising until the fifth, where he got BABIP’d to death. Hopefully this is a sign of a turnaround coming and, with a limp lineup to oppose him, hopefully Megill can continue his march towards a good June.

Smith (2024): 53.1 IP, 49 K, 18 BB, 3 HR, 2.36 ERA, 3.32 FIP, 59 ERA-

It is rare that undrafted free agents that played college ball at a good school amount to much in the big leagues, but after signing with the Brewers after Tommy John in 2021, Smith joined the White Sox via the Rule 5 Draft last offseason. His 2.36 ERA in ten starts should already be considered a win for a Rule 5 starter, but a look a little deeper under the hood shows even more reason for optimism. He’s limiting hard contact, is striking out nearly three times as many batters as he’s walking, and while his FIP is almost exactly a run higher than his ERA, the abysmal White Sox defense (-87 Defensive Runs Saved) can be blamed for most of that.

Wednesday, May 27: Griffin Canning vs. Sean Burke 7:10pm on SNY

Canning (2024): 50.0 IP, 47 K, 21 BB, 6 HR, 2.88 ERA, 4.02 FIP, 73 ERA-

Due to rain, Canning only pitched two and two-thirds innings against the Dodgers on Friday evening. His stat line says he gave up three earned runs that night, but there are multiple caveats needed here, including a tagging up rule that no one seemingly was aware of, and a rain delay that saw Canning not return and Max Kranick was recipient of a slick infield leading to suboptimal fielding and the Mets winding up in the hole. Canning has been consistent and surprising all season and, removing that strange start, the Mets have won every one of his starts save his first of the season against the Astros.

Burke (2024): 54.0 IP, 39 K, 30 BB, 9 HR, 4.33 ERA, 5.69 FIP, 109 ERA-

After a brilliant season debut, April hit Burke hard, allowing 18 earned runs in 20.3 innings. May has been considerably better, except when the crosstown Cubs spanked him for five earned runs in four and two-thirds innings two weekends ago. But like so many of these Sox pitchers, Burke is young and is doing what he can to keep the team in games, but the -49 Run Differential makes it hard for the team to win games, even when pitchers like Burke are giving them cromulent starts.