Hello and welcome to the latest edition of The Athletic’s weekly mailbag. I have been away for the past few months on parental leave. What did I miss?Let’s see … Shohei Ohtani has still got it. Kyle Schwarber is still swinging for the fences. Jacob Misiorowski still throws quite hard.As for the rest of the sport? Well, looks like I have some catching up to do. To wade back into the 2026 season, I’ve got some questions from readers. Let’s get to it.The questions have been edited for clarity.How have the Mets fallen this far down? — Daren M. I was not completely off the grid during my parental leave. I still own a phone. I can still receive text messages. I can still read stories. I was aware that the Mets’ season had been disastrous. But it is still somewhat shocking to open the standings on the final day of June and see the team at 15 games under .500 and on pace for a 67-win season.For a team with an estimated payroll of $365 million, that translates to $5.4 million per victory. Not exactly what owner Steve Cohen had in mind when he lured David Stearns out of his advisory role with the Brewers and into the top baseball operations gig in Queens. I picked the Mets to win the National League East. Instead, they will be contemplating yet another roster overhaul — and Cohen will consider overhauling the front office, too.To answer your question, the “How” is relatively straightforward. It is the other questions — like what could have been done differently, or what comes next — that offer more intrigue. Let’s lay out the problem first. Much of this has been written already, so we’ll try to be brief.