Nick Castellanos' take on Mets' collapse aged like milk after Phillies crumbled

The New York Mets' collapse in the regular season will be talked about for a long time. The 2025 Mets were supposed to be considered World Series contenders with their second-highest MLB payroll, but instead turned in an 83-79 record. They were also bumped from postseason contention on the last day of the regular season.

It might seem like old news by now with the NLDS over after just four games, but the takes by Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos and former Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth certainly didn't age well.

All of Philadelphia has a plethora of questions and what-ifs after the Phillies' early exit from the NLDS after their Game 4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. There's certainly a rivalry between the Phillies and Mets, but talking about the Mets' shortcomings falls on deaf ears now that the Phillies are in the same spot just a couple of weeks later.

Phillies' Nick Castellanos couldn't believe that the Mets missed the playoffs

After the regular season, Castellanos appeared on the Foul Territory podcast, interviewed by former Phillies catcher Erik Kratz. He asked Castellanos if there were any teams that didn't make the playoffs that surprised him. Castellanos did not disappoint with his response.

"You're always a little bit surprised when a team goes out and spends $760 million on one player and doesn't make the playoffs," Castellanos said, obviously referring to the Mets' signing of Juan Soto. "Am I surprised? I don't know, because baseball is very hard. Not talking s--t or anything, but usually when an acquisition like that is made, a team does better than when they did in the past."

Castellanos was referring to the Mets handing out the richest deal in MLB history last offseason when they signed Soto to a 15-year, $765 million deal contract. They acquired him with every intention of making him the piece they needed to get over the hump of 2024, when they lost in the NLCS.

It turns out that shelling out three-quarters of a billion dollars couldn't fix the rest of the roster. Castellanos was like most baseball fans when it comes to the shock of such an expensive team still not being enough to even play meaningful baseball in October.

Jayson Werth loved watching the Mets' regular-season collapse

Werth, a former Phillies World Series champion, was also asked by Jon Marks on 97.5 The Fanatic if he still gets pleasure out of watching the Mets fall after they were eliminated from playoff contention. All these years later, Werth still enjoys watching their fall from grace.

“I mean, doesn't everybody? I think it's funny,” Werth said. “You know, it's something to laugh about, but I mean, when you play in the NL East for 10 years and you gotta listen to Mets fans for that whole time and now still when I'm horse racing up at Saratoga, they still like to run their mouths. So it still brings me joy to laugh at them.”

Werth was an integral part of the 2008 club that brought home the team's second World Series title. After a couple of years with the Toronto Blue Jays and Dodgers, Werth spent four seasons with the Phillies before spending his final seven years in the majors with the Washington Nationals. Even with a lot of his career away from Philadelphia, Werth has love for Phillies fans, as does Castellanos.

The headline of the Mets missing the playoffs was a good laugh for a few days while the Phillies were awaiting their turn in the postseason.

The Phillies fell to the Dodgers in four games, quickly joining the Mets on the sidelines for the rest of October. It's never a bad time to poke fun at a division rival, but occasionally it comes back to bite you. This was one of those times.