The New York Mets did everything they could do to sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Everything.
Steve Cohen flew his private jet to meet him in Japan. He hosted him in his home. He also offered him the largest ever contract for a starting pitcher.
12 years. $325 million. Opt out after five years.
Short of hypnosis, the Mets did all they could. They went above where even the New York Yankees were willing to go. They just couldn’t overcome Yamamoto wanting to join Shohei Ohtani.
The Los Angeles Dodgers matched the Mets offer, and now, Yamamoto chose the Dodgers. If the Dodgers didn’t match, or the Mets were given a chance to match, who knows how this ends?
While we can guess, in the end, Yamamoto is a Dodger. Worse yet, the Mets offseason was structured as Yamamoto or bust. The Mets busted.
The question is where do the Mets go from here. There’s mid rotation options like Jordan Montgomery. Blake Snell is also available, but he isn’t an innings eater.
If the Mets want everyone to forget about the failed Yamamoto pursuit, they could give Pete Alonso an extension. Other than that, the fans will be up in arms over this failed pursuit.
They can also do what they were going to do all along. Cohen waited years for David Stearns, and it’s now time to see what he can do.
Whatever he does, he will be doing it without Yamamoto. Maybe that’s a good thing considering that cost and complete and utter lack of MLB experience.
Yes, that’s sour grapes.
That doesn’t mean the Mets can’t contend. There are still players here. An 84 sim Arizona Diamondbacks team went to the World Series. Just get in, and anything is possible.
That all said, the Mets did all they could. Doesn’t matter. Yamamoto is a Dodger.
The Boston Red Sox have been massively disappointing to start the season, and as a result, World Series winning manager Alex Cora was fired. He was replaced by Chad Tracy.
The Philadelphia Phillies have been massively disappointing to start the season, and as a result, pennant winning manager Rob Thomson was fired. He was replaced by Don Mattingly, who happens to be the father of the GM.
The New York Mets might just be the most disappointing team to start the season. Despite calls to fire Carlos Mendoza, Mendoza’s job appears safe for now.
We can speculate why Mendoza has kept his job while Cora and Thompson did not. There are legitimate reasons why Mendoza is still employed.
Juan Soto was hurt eight games into the season and missed 16 games. Francisco Lindor was hurt soon after Soto’s return, and he is poised to miss the remainder of the first half, perhaps more. That also discounts how Lindor was returning from hamate bone surgery to start the season.
With both Soto and Lindor in the lineup, the Mets were actually 5-4, which seems unsatisfying, but that is a 90 win pace. Yes, take that with a grain of salt.
The injuries are a major reason why the Mets have faltered to start the year. Soto has missed 16 games, and the Mets were 3-12 in his absence. The Mets have been 1-3 with Lindor out of the lineup.
Those are not the only injuries of consequence. Jorge Polanco has been injured most of the year before needing to land on the IL. The Mets are 3-11 in games he has not played.
Those are three significant bats that are out of the Mets lineup. Of course, they are going to struggle. However, that’s not the only reason the Mets have struggled.
While the offense has understandable struggled, so has the pitching. Unfortunately for the Mets, there are no injury concerns there to explain these struggles.
Notably, after the Mets fell apart to end the 2025 season, Stearns parted ways with Jeremy Hefner. Hefner is a well regarded pitching coach, who did not remain unemployed long.
Hefner is with the Atlanta Braves now, and the Braves pitching staff has an MLB leading 3.13 ERA. Keep in mind, that is without Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, and Raisel Iglesias.
Meanwhile, the Mets have seen David Peterson fall apart. Kodai Senga seems to have suffered a fate worse than that. The current Mets pitching coaches have tinkered with Sean Manaea’s mechanics, and he can’t regain his velocity,
That’s nothing to say about Devin Williams being terrible as the closer. Luis Garcia was so bad he was released after just six appearances. Luke Weaver has a 4.91 ERA.
What could have helped was better defense. Believe it or not, the Mets pitchers have a 3.77 FIP, which is the sixth best in baseball. To that end, the Mets have a 1 OAA, which is tied for 13th in baseball. That’s not exactly the transformative defensive impact Stearns promised.
Joining Hefner on the Braves staff was Antoan Richardson. He was the well respected first base coach who had the Mets running the bases much better. Soto LOVED him.
Currently, the Mets have stolen 16 bases, tied for 7th worst in the majors. They’ve been caught 6 times, which is tied for 15th worst. Overall, they have a 72% success rate, far below their 89% success rate last year.
Looking at the returning players, nearly everyone is performing worse. You may want to attribute some of that blame to Mendoza, but in reality, he’s surrounded by a completely new coaching staff. Is it more likely Mendoza got worse, or the coaching staff got worse?
That’s the inherent issue. Stearns not only changed the lineup, defense, and bullpen. He also changed the entire coaching staff basically leaving just Mendoza.
Stearns’ hands are all over this Mets team. To be fair to him, there have been so many impactful injuries. Also, the only player who did not return that has performed well has been Brandon Nimmo, and if you look, he has been quite bad the last two weeks.
The heat is already on Stearns for this season falling apart. However, at this moment, that heat is shared by Mendoza. Once Mendoza is gone, all the attention goes to Stearns.
That makes Mendoza a shield for Stearns. That doesn’t mean that is the reason Stearns is keeping Mendoza. It could be Stearns acknowledges what has gone wrong, and he realizes Mendoza is not at fault. It could be that there are no obvious replacement candidates. After all, reports are Cora does not want an immediate return to coaching. ‘
Whatever the case, Mendoza is taking on the burden of shielding Stearns from total blame. There is no obvious answer as to when would be a good time to replace him, so at the moment, the only thing we can hope is he will be rewarded by this team righting the ship like it did in 2024.
Seemingly since taking over as the president of baseball operations for the New York Mets. David Stearns has heavily pursued Luis Robert Jr. It’s a bit of an overstatement, but Stearns did pursue Robert for multiple years and deadlines before landing him.
The fascination has been rather odd.
In 2024, Robert had an injury prone year. He had a 1.3 WAR and an 84 wRC+. Now, you may want to attribute that to an off injury plagued year.
That’s fair, but then, he essentially repeated the year. In 2025, he had an injury plagued year with a 1.4 WAR and an 84 wRC+.
In his hubris, Stearns thought the Mets could revive Robert’s career. He looked like a genius when Robert hit .308/.460/.462 over the first two weeks while showing much improved plate discipline.
Since then, well, he’s been Robert. Over his next 12 games, he’s hitting .152./188/.217 bringing his season mark to .224/.327/.328. Right now, he’s at a 94 wRC+, and we can assumed he will remain below the 100 mark the rest of the year.
Now, you can live with that in exchange for elite defense. While Robert has been good, we can’t quite say he’s been elite in center. Certainly, his throws haven’t been.
In reality, Robert hasn’t been elite in center for years. In 2023, he was the second best center fielder with a 12 OAA. He hasn’t been that again.
Since 2024, Robert had an 8 OAA. That ranks him as 22nd overall in baseball. There are 30 teams in baseball. These are not elite numbers.
Notably, Harrison Bader ranks higher than Robert. Bader has a 13 OAA in the same time frame. In that time frame, he also has a 98 wRC+.
This makes Bader the better player. It must be why he’s had a 4.5 WAR since 2024 while Robert has had a 2.9. Taking everything into account, it gets worse.
Bader was productive for the Mets in 2024 for a $10.5 million. Instead of re-signing him, Stearns thought he could do better by trading for Jose Siri, who was hurt and bad. He’s now playing for the Los Angeles Angels Triple-A team.
For Siri, the Mets gave up Eric Orze. Orze has been an effective reliever the past two years in his limited MLB time. That’s notable for a Mets team struggling to put together bullpens in Stearns’ tenure.
For Robert, the Mets gave up Luisangel Acuña. Being fair, Acuña has been awful for the Chicago White Sox. That said, Francisco Lindor is hurt, and the Mets don’t have a real shortstop option.
Moreover, the Mets are paying Robert $20 million. After the year, they either pick up his $20 million option or give him a $2 million buyout.
Since leaving the Mets, Bader has made $15 million. Put another way, Bader has made $5 million less over two years and has been the better player.
Stearns gave up assets and had Steve Cohen pay $20 million to get worse at the position. This was done in the name of defense and the belief the Mets can make players something they’re not offensively.
Stearns made the Mets worse in center field. He gave up prospects, and the Mets are paying $20 million to be worse.
Bader was not a long term solution. He was a part time player. It behooved Stearns to improve and find a long term solution. Fact is, he hasn’t.
Instead, Stearns chased Robert. It was an unnecessary pursuit. Hopefully, it won’t prove to be a blunder.
Whatever the case, Stearns wasted resources trying to improve from Bader. He’s failed miserably and compounded it by wasting money and prospects. As Mets fans know, we could be talking about Robert or any number of Stearns’ decisions.
The New York Mets twelve game losing streak is finally over. Mark Vientos went from embarrassingly running through a stop sign to a go-ahead RBI single.
This magic was brought to us by Bark in the Park Night. Dogs and Mets games. Sounds like the 2000 Mets blaring “Who Let the Dogs Out” during their pennant run.
That’s right. As Timo Perez caught the final out, and the Mets players swarmed NLCS MCP Mike Hampton, “Who Let the Dogs Out” blared across Shea Stadium.
The song wasn’t exactly embraced, and there was the blight of the Baha Men on the Mets dugout in the World Series. We can all forget the Z100 trying too hard version of “Who Let the Mets Out.”
However, we’re two years removed from the 2024 magical run to the NLCS. That team was left for dead only to rally around Grimace and OMG. Sometimes, you need these goofball things to get you going.
The 2026 Mets broke the 12 game losing streak with the dogs at the ballpark. The 2000 Mets were powered by that song to a pennant. Let’s embrace this same spirit that worked so well in 2024.
Time to dust off “Who Let the Dogs Out” even if no one wants to hear it.
Make no mistake, Brett Baty is not the reason the New York Mets lost 12 straight games. Rather, it is the thought process that has led to Baty’s consistent playing time that is the reason the Mets have grossly underachieved.
This season, Baty is has a 36 wRC+. He’s hitting .209/.214/.284. He was the last qualified hitter to draw a walk, and he’s 2-for-his last 26. He’s bad.
Here’s the dirty little secret: this is no outlier. This is who he is.
At the trade deadline last year, the Mets reportedly refused to send Baty to the Chicago White Sox for Luis Robert Jr. At the time, Baty was hitting a robust .277/.284/.404.
That led to the Mets pivoting to trade for Cedric Mullins, who hit .182/.284/.281 for the Mets. While we can point to Robert’s numbers that year, Mullins was equally bad with no real hope of upside.
The Mets set part of the stages for their collapse by holding onto Baty who didn’t even have a .700 OPS. Moreover, entering the 2025 season, Baty had a career .607 OPS.
The obvious justification for the Mets decision is going to be Baty’s August. From August 2 – September 2, Baty hit .346/.418/.519. It seemed like promise FINALLY fulfilled.
Digging through the numbers, Baty had a highly unsustainable .407 BABIP. His 91.7 MPH exit velocities were roughly Major League average, and he had a 61.9 GB%.
These numbers screamed regression risk. We saw just that at the end of the season. From September 3 – 26, Baty hit ..255/.296/.471. Even more troubling, those numbers were buoyed by a .345 BABIP.
Instead of focusing on all of Baty’s career, his numbers before the trade deadline, or the final 18 games of the season, the Mets focused on that sweet, sweet 24 game sample size.
It is the epitome of conformation bias. The Mets looked at some underlying data, and they decided those 24 games were indicative of what Baty is whole disregarding the other 278 games.
Relying on their confirmation bias, the Mets handed Baty an everyday role, albeit one that saw him move between three positions. He was handed a job based off a great 21 game stretch.
The other 109 games were of zero consequence. There were people in the Mets organization who believe in Baty, and they used 21 games to justify giving him a starting role.
The end result has been the worst hitter on the Mets. We have seen him bad in right and worse at first base. He can’t hit enough to hit for a pitcher, so DH is out.
Looking at all the numbers, Baty has a bad career 7.3 BB%. He’s got an awful 26.2 K%. There’s no underlying exit velocity hope as Baty has a terrible 19.8 LD% and 51.7 GB%.
And yet, the Mets couldn’t wait to sideline Mark Vientos off a 27 HR season to play Baty last year. They entered this year guaranteeing him an everyday role.
The 2025 Mets were a massive disappointment. This year seems poised to be worse. It’s not Brett Baty’s fault. The fault is the process being utilized to determine Baty is an everyday player who should not be removed from the lineup no matter the results.
On MLB Central, former player and WBC manager Mark DeRosa gave this thoughts on the New York Mets slow start. As seen in the clip below, he blames the GM and the players, not Carlos Mendoza:
After the WBC, I’m not sure how anyone can take him seriously anymore, especially with his take on managing. This is the same guy who didn’t know the WBC tiebreaker rules, and he’s the same guy who used Garrett Whitlock, who was on absolute fumes in the eighth inning of a tied championship game.
Put another way, when it comes to managing, DeRosa has no credibility. His opinions need to be viewed through the prism of how poorly he paid attention to game management and all the details a manager needs to handle.
If we don’t want to use his own history against him when it comes to his managerial analysis, he spoke about how the Mets miss Pete Alonso. So far, they really don’t, and moreover, the people following the Baltimore Orioles feel Alonso’s contract may prove to be an absolute disaster.
DeRosa really has shown that being a quality Major Leaguer doesn’t necessarily make you a good manager. Being a former Major Leaguer who speaks well also doesn’t make you a good analyst.
There are a lot of reasons why the Mets are struggling now. DeRosa really didn’t mention any of them, and he just threw out some talking points. He wasted everyone’s time much like he wasted Team USA’s loaded WBC roster.
David Stearns hasn’t instilled belief in New York Mets fans. That was the opinion before the 2025 collapse. The ensuing offseason made things worse, and the 11 game losing streak is only exacerbating matters.
Mets fans are apoplectic, and they are screaming that Stearns was an idiot for breaking up the core. No one wants to hear this right now, but Stearns instincts have so far been proven correct.
If your immediate reaction is to scream small sample size, you’re not wrong. That said, it works both ways. Can’t criticize Stearns while failing to recognize the other side of the ledger.
Everyone’s favorite Pete Alonso has not gotten off to a good start in Baltimore. Through 22 games, he’s hitting .207/.323/.341, and Orioles fans are already comparing him to Chris Davis.
Alonso’s good friend Jeff McNeil was sent to the Athletics. McNeil is hitting .266/.351/.341. McNeil is getting on base at a level he hasn’t since 2022, but his slugging has also never been this low.
The Mets did want Edwin Diaz back, but the Los Angeles Dodgers outmaneuvered the Mets to get him. They may be regretting it as Diaz wasn’t even this bad in 2019. His velo is down, he’s getting shelled, and at least for now, he’s seemingly lost the closer role.
Now, the Brandon Nimmo trade has (predictably) turned out bad. Returning to the leadoff spot, Nimmo has been a force for the Texas Rangers hitting .311/.386/.522. Even if Nimmo wasn’t this with the Mets, he’s always been a productive player.
With Nimmo, it wasn’t so much the production as it was the contract. With a potential salary cap looming, the Mets were looking to move Nimmo. Whatever the justification, they need Nimmo now.
If you want to “yeah, but” this, feel free. It still doesn’t mean the Alonso and Diaz contracts look like absolute disasters right now. Most fans believed it was time to move McNeil. Again, Nimmo was an open debate.
Remember, Juan Soto is hurt, and most of the Mets players are slow starters. The team will turn things around. We just have to hope they don’t turn things around before it’s too late.
Regardless of the losing streak and disappointment the 2026 Mets have been thus far, Stearns instincts to break up the core was correct. It’s just the execution wasn’t there . . . at least not yet.
After getting swept by the Athletics of indecipherable geographic origin, the New York Mets have fallen under .500. There are people who want to pretend this is reason for grave concern so as to fit an anti-Mets narrative.
However, if you want to be fair and logical (most don’t), this wasn’t completely unexpected. While we can dig through small sample size data, tbd truth is the Mets were partially designed this way making this somewhat expected leaving real hope for the rest of the season.
On that note, here are reasons why the Mets are struggling.
- Juan Soto, their best hitter, is on the IL.
- Unless you’ve missed the past five seasons, Francisco Lindor is a slow starter who takes off in the second half.
- Lindor had hamate bone surgery, which usually robs a player of power for months after the surgery.
- Bo Bichette is a slow starter. He has a career .693 OPS in March/April only to see his numbers jump in May and beyond.
- Bichette is a slow starter who is playing for a new team on a large contract while learning a new position.
- Marcus Semien is a slow starter. He has a career ..691 OPS in March/April, and typically his OPS increases each month of the season.
- Jorge Polanco is a second half player.
- Polanco is playing through an Achilles injury.
- Mark Vientos is a slow starter (sensing a theme here), who usually takes off around Memorial Day (for those that tracked him as a minor leaguer).
- Carson Benge is a rookie bouncing between center and right.
- Brett Baty has a career 86 wRC+, and most of the hope around him centered on an excellent August that buoyed his stats.
- The first month of the season is usually the first or second worst for Kodai Senga.
- Senga is coming off an injury plagued year and is finally being asked to adapt to a five man rotation.
- The first and last month of the season are historically the two worst for David Peterson.
- They’re biding time in the bullpen until A.J. Minter can return.
- It’s a completely new staff and revamped roster around the embattled Carlos Mendoza.
- It needs to be restated that Soto is hurt, and Lindor is a slow starter coming off hamate bone surgery.
- For the returning position players, there is still more undoing of the Eric Chavez nonsense that needs to be done. That can’t all just happen after a few weeks of the season.
- Weird stuff usually happens in the first month of the season in World Baseball Classic seasons.
- It’s only April, and things have to unfold. It was awful in 2024, and that team went to the NLCS. It was great in 2025, and we had one of the most disappointing seasons in Mets history.
Yes, there are reasons for concern. Ljndor does seem off, and the Mets not carrying a back-up shortstop to give him a day seems like failed roster management.
All that said, this was a roster built with players who typically start slow, and that’s before we look at new homes and positions. Soto being hurt just makes everything seem worse.
Right now, Mets fans just have to suffer through it and wait for better baseball ahead. Trust me, it’s coming.
There were many reasons the 2024 New York Mets came back from the dead to make it to Game 6 of the NLCS. One of the biggest was Mark Vientos.
While he kept giving that team reasons to give him a job, they kept holding him back. Finally, when they had no other choice, Vientos grabbed a job and didn’t let go.
In 2024, Vientos had a 132 wRC+, which if he qualified, would have been the best along National League third baseman. If you didn’t believe there, he followed up with a great postseason.
Unfortunately, he struggled in 2025. There were injuries. There was a change in his successful approach and just about all things Eric Chavez. There was also the fact once he faltered the Mets just jumped at the chance to give the job back to Brett Baty.
It’s no secret Vientos isn’t a David Stearns style player. After all, he is a poor defender. However, Vientos has game changing offensive ability, and you could argue that was one of the many things missing during the 2025 Mets collapse.
Vientos showed some glimpses, and he did force the issue for the vacant DH spot. However, Vientos wasn’t the same player, and entering the offseason, he was a purposeful afterthought.
Vientos was relegated to be nothing mouse than a platoon bat. It was so absurd that when a right-handed pitcher entered a game, Vientos was automatically lifted for Baty.
The man once floated as Pete Alonso’s replacement was a non-factor once Alonso actually left. A bad WBC and Spring Training didn’t help matters.
Much like 2024, the Mets were doing all they could to not give Vientos a job. Like 2024, with injuries, opportunities are presenting themselves to Vientos, and he is more than earning a job.
Trying to figure out playing time at first and DH is tough when you have Baty, Jorge Polanco, and Vientos. For the short term, it’s easy because Vientos is the only one healthy. In the long term, Vientos can again make it easy by hitting like he can.
Vientos has the potential to be the Mets hitter not named Juan Soto. At the plate, he has 30+ HR power and can post a wRC+ above 130. That’s the type of bat that needs to be in this Mets lineup.
Vientos can hit. He can be a game changer. We saw in 2024 he can take the Mets to another level. We are again seeing that player, and as a result, he needs to be in the lineup everyday even when everyone is healthy.
Well, no one is whining over losing Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, and Jeff McNeil. David Stearns has drastically and dramatically remade the New York Mets into possibly the best team in baseball.
They recently made huge additions with Bo Bichette and Louis Robert Jr. (two moves requiring overdue posts). Stearns then took a big swing trading for Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers.
People will say Peralta was needed because the Mets rotation was bad. They were very wrong. That said, Peralta is a very good pitcher, and when you can add a very good pitcher, you do it.
Peralta makes the Mets rotation better in so many ways.
He was 24th in the majors in innings pitched, and he’s made 30+ starts in three consecutive years. He was 17th in the majors in FIP and 15th in WAR. He was seventh in ERA and eighth in ERA+.
While you may uncomfortable calling him an ace, he’s a number one starter. It’s a fact. When there are 30 MLB teams are you’re top 25 and better in most categories, you’re a number one.
When a team adds a number one starter, it dramatically improves their outlook. Go back to 2000. Mike Hampton wasn’t an ace, but he was a true number one, and he was a big piece that helped the Mets win the pennant.
Peralta may not even be the Mets best starter. That is probably Nolan McLean. It’s hard to find a better 1-2 in baseball than Peralta-McLean . . . or McLean-Peralta.
Speaking of McLean, this makes him and the whole rotation better. At the moment, the Mets have six starters. This gives McLean an extra day of rest to help him get through his first full MLB season.
Kodai Senga has been better with an extra day of rest, and now, he gets it. David Peterson and Clay Holmes wore down from the increased workload, and now, they also get an extra day. Sean Manaea also gets a needed extra day.
They just didn’t get better by adding Peralta. They got better because the six man rotation makes the entire rotation better. They’re getting the best out of all their starters, which is very bad news for the National League.
Senga and Peterson have been All-Stars. Manaea was a top of the rotation pitcher for a team that went to the NLCS. McLean’s ceiling is as high as we’ve ever seen. They’re now all positioned to be at their best making them arguably the best rotation in baseball.
Keep in mind, Peralta was not the only pitcher the Mets obtained. They also received Myers, a pitcher who is not even arbitration eligible until after the 2027 season.
Myers has been a dominant reliever in his brief Major League career. If you go back to that 2024 Game 3, he absolutely dominated the Mets and appeared to be the game winning pitcher until Alonso did what he did.
Myers may still yet be a starter. He could be a future closer. He’s the Mets 2026 version of Seth Lugo. That’s a dangerous pitcher to have on your staff, and Myers is probably better.
Now, the Mets paid an understandably steep price for Peralta and Myers. In fact, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel explains the Mets trading Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat moved them from the top farm system to sixth best. Ironically, the Brewers moved from sixth to first.
There will be some who try to nitpick the prospects. We can point to Sproat’s struggles at Triple-A and his four Major League starts. We shouldn’t be doing that.
Sproat has a bright future ahead of him. After all, he made his MLB debut a year after being drafted. He could’ve been a big piece for the Mets in 2026.
Williams is a top prospect. He has a real future at second, short, or CF. He’s got speed and power in his bat. Losing him hurts, and it takes away insurance for the 35 year old Marcus Semien and injury prone players like Bichette and Robert.
The Mets can soon come to regret this trade, especially with Peralta being a year away from free agency. That makes this a real gamble and a worthwhile one at that.
Peralta improves the Mets rotation and improves the entire pitching staff. Myers makes the Mets deeper. If Myers is in the bullpen, this could be the best staff in the entire Major Leagues.
The Mets officially went all-in. They’ve built a team better than the 2025 Mets, and it could be the best this century. Time will tell. Whatever happens, it’ll be because the Mets made the very bold move to add Peralta to make the Mets the one team who can dethrone the Dodgers.
We were not in the New York Mets clubhouse in 2025, so we can’t know just how bad things were. In fact, we don’t even know if it was bad.
However, there have been signs. The vibes were different from the OMG Mets. Juan Soto talked about how Starling Marte was the true leader.
The team was just different, but perhaps not. There was the famous story sparking the 2024 turnaround. J.D. Martinez said the Mets needed to recall Jose Iglesias to change the vibes and get the Mets to turn their season around.
Usually, that’s just talk. Chemistry is a talking point. It’s something to talk about to explain why teams aren’t performing to their expectations. However, with the 2024 Mets, the chemistry change actually worked.
Something was off, and it seems David Stearns traded Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil to change the clubhouse. In the announced sake for run prevention, the Mets added Marcus Semien, who is a great defensive second baseball and a renown clubhouse leader.
Again, we can question the decision to trade Nimmo and McNeil. We just can’t know how necessary it was. Let’s take Stearns word for it that trading them was absolutely necessary.
The real problem here is Stearns hasn’t fixed the outfield, and he’s running out of options.
For a moment, let’s overlook how he has been pushing run prevention while also having aggressively pursued Tucker. Nimmo was a -1 OAA in left, and he is getting slower.
Tucker was a -2 OAA, and he’s slower than Nimmo. While Nimmo played nearly everyday, Tucker is becoming increasingly injury prone. Tucker is a much better hitter, and he is younger.
Tucker was not the great fit for a team who is harping on run prevention. However, when you get rid of a left fielder to fix team chemistry with no real plan in place, you offer $60 million per year for an imperfect to bad philosophical fit.
That’s also the result of few options on the free agent market. There were few options on thf trade market. The deeper we get into the offseason we see the plan was to change the chemistry without a definitive plan to actually address left field.
Nimmo was the left fielder. He is gone. With Semien aboard, McNeil moves to left where he has been good. He was an All-Star left fielder. He’s gone.
Right now, for the Mets, it’s Cody Bellinger or bust. Bellinger is younger and better than Nimmo. He’s arguably better than Tucker. He’s the most versatile. He might’ve been the best fit overall.
However, he wants a seven year deal. Stearns doesn’t like going to five years, and with the Mets, he’s proven sheepish to go to three years. Bellinger has a five year $150 million offer from the Yankees, who also need him desperately.
The Mets are in a bad place trying to replace Nimmo in left field. Things are worse when you consider they also need to solve center. Maybe they get Bellinger. Maybe there’s a trade candidate we haven’t heard be linked to the Mets.
Whatever the case, the Mets have two massive holes in the outfield. The options are dwindling, and the closer we get to spring training, the more it seems the Mets can’t fill both holes.
Stearns might’ve been right about needing to fix the clubhouse chemistry. The hope is he didn’t sacrifice 2026 to do it.