Juan Soto
We all know the negotiation between Pete Alonso and the New York Mets after the 2024 season was tense. Steve Cohen spoke out about it and called it worse than the Juan Soto discussions.
We were all prepared for Alonso to leave a year before he did. Alonso came back because he wasn’t getting comparable offers, and Cohen left the door ajar:
I’m being brutally honest. I don’t like the negotiations. I don’t like what’s been presented to us. Listen, maybe that changes. Certainly, I’ll always stay flexible. If it stays this way, I think we’ll have to get used to the fact that we may have to go forward with the existing players that we have.
Well, learning what we know now, Cohen might’ve been sugarcoating things a bit. Jon Heyman of the New York Post gave Alonso’s side of the story. During the interview-person negotiation, Alonso dropped this gem:
When my career is being evaluated for the Hall of Fame years from now, you’ll still be fiddling with your [fucking] formulas.
Look, at first blush, Alonso got the better of that exchange. Certainly, we can all buy that narrative given the fact Alonso was re-signed.
Truth is, Alonso’s comments were a hilarious failure to prove his point.
Look at it again, Alonso asserts when his career is over, David Stearns will still be working. Seriously, why else would Stearns be fiddling with his formulas?
In essence, Alonso is saying he’s a great player, but Stearns will continue to be a GM/POBO for well over 20 years. Only the true great front office executives last that long.
If Stearns lasts that long, his methodology has to be correct. Ipso facto, Stearns is correct in his evaluation of Alonso and similar players.
Those “formulas” are part of why Stearns was successful with the Milwaukee Brewers. It’s why he’s with the Mets now. It’s why Stearns will be with the Mets for years to come just like Alonso conceded.
Sick burn there, Pete.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In case you haven’t been paying attention the last two years, the New York Mets have been signing former New York Yankees left-and-right. The latest example was the Mets signing Luke Weaver to a two year deal.
Weaver will be setting up for former Yankee Devin Williams. Certainly, they will pitch in relief of former Yankee Clay Holmes.
The pitching changes will be made by former Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza. Mendoza will fill out his lineup card with former Yankee Juan Soto.
You may see a pattern here. Certainly, Yankees fans are noticing and are trolling the Mets and their fans.
To hear Yankeee fans, this is a new development that only works one way. The irony is the Yankees helped build a dynasty off former Mets players.
The Yankees manager was Joe Torre. Torre finished his playing career and began his managerial career with the Mets.
Torre’s pitching coach was Mel Stottlemyre. Stottlemyre was a well known Yamkees pitcher, but he began his career as a pitching coach with the Mets.
Torre’s first base coach was Lee Mazzili. Mazzili was a beloved Mets player. He did play very briefly with the Yankees after a 1982 trade.
Another coach. Jose Cardenal played two years for the Mets. Interestingly enough, he actually played for Torre.
Aside from the coaching staff, the Yankees roster was full of Mets during those dynasty years.
One of the Yankees big game starters was former Met David Cone. Cone was joined in that Yankee rotation by Mets legend Dwight Gooden.
We’d see those Yankees teams use some former Mets relievers in the bullpen. Those pitchers included Wally Whitehurst, Paul Gibson, and Allen Watson.
The Yankees had Darryl Strawberry, who was a significant contributor and mentor. He should’ve been the 1996 ALCS MVP. He was great again in the 1999 postseason.
When the Yankees beat the Mets in the 2000 World Series, it was former Met Jose Vizcaino who had the 12th inning walk-off single to win Game 1. Cone had a big strikeout of Mike Piazza in Game 4.
Look at the current Yankees team. They just re-signed Amed Rosario. Last year, they also had former Mets Marcus Stroman, Paul Blackburn, Carlos Carrasco, Rico Garcia, Geoff Hartlieb, Pablo Reyes, and former Mets draft pick Allan Winans. The Yankees also had former Mets Adam Ottavino, but to be fair, Ottavino was a former Yankee when the Mets signed him.
Put another way, the Yankees love former Mets. They don’t seem to even care if that former Met was good or not. Ability comes second to a history with the orange and blue.
You can honestly say this has been a two way street. It has, but that’s also the point. The Mets aren’t doing anything different than the Yankees do.
They love each others former players and go out of the way for them. The Mets signing a few relievers this offseason only highlights this.
In reality, the Mets signings shouldn’t lead to mockery of the Mets for signing former Yankees. Rather, the Yankees should be mocked for losing so many quality pieces to the Mets.
If this was 2024, the New York Mets should have given everything they had to get Tarik Skubal. He is the best pitcher in the game, and when the best pitcher in the game potentially becomes available, you do all you can to go out and get him.
Short of Nolan McLean, there should not be one untouchable for the Mets in a pursuit of Skubal. He could be what Mike Hampton and Johan Santana were. He’s the left-handed ace that puts the Mets in position to make the postseason (yes, I know the 2008 Mets collapsed, but Santana was brilliant in Game 161).
That all said, the way the Mets have operated this offseason, there is no way this team should pursue Skubal. It would be a massive mistake.
Since taking over as the President of Baseball Operations, David Stearns has been restrained in handing out long-term deals. So far, the longest contract he has handed out to a pitcher has been the three year deal given to Sean Manaea.
Take Juan Soto out of the equation. He was a once in a generation free agent, and he was someone whose contract was handled at the ownership level in conjunction with Stearns. Soto was an outlier and should be treated as such.
Taking Soto out of the equation, Stearns has not handed out one contract longer than three years. Most of the deals have been two years with a player option.
Stearns holding to three years has been impacting the Mets this offseason. Pete Alonso left for a five year deal when the Mets wouldn’t go past three. The Mets unwillingness to go to four years was a reason Edwin Diaz went to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
If the Mets are stuck in that mindset trading for Skubal is a non-starter. He is going to have a prospect cost that will require you to sign Skubal to an extension. That is just not going to happen.
First and foremost, Skubal is represented by Scott Boras. Boras does not typically allow his free agents to sign an extension prior to hitting free agency. If you are going to convince Boras and his players to sign an extension, you are going to have to blow them out of the water.
Certainly, we saw with Francisco Lindor and Soto that Steve Cohen is willing to do that. However, we have also seen with Cohen he is willing to mostly sit back and let Stearns do what he wants.
That is not a criticism of Cohen. It is a strength. We see all the years other New York teams have been encumbered by ownership interference. Cohen’s willingness to open his checkbook and listen to the advice of those he employs is why we are lucky to have him running the Mets.
However, with Stearns, there are limitations. That limitation is signing marquee free agents who are not in their early prime. Looking at his entire history as a GM or president of baseball operations, Stearns is not going to give Skubal, a soon to be 29 year old pitcher who has had Tommy John and flexor tendon surgery, the 10 year deal Skubal is going to demand.
If you are not going to go all out to sign Skubal, why drain the farm system you’ve worked so hard to build? It simply doesn’t make sense.
Stearns has been inflexible not giving out more than three years. It’s at the point where they trade away five years of Brandon Nimmo for three years of Marcus Semien even if Nimmo will be the same age Semien will be when their contracts are over.
We an have the discussion over how prudent Stearns’ position has been. We can talk about how it helps or hinders the Mets. At the moment, we just have to acknowledge how that position should mean the Mets cannot pursue Skubal. ‘
Hopefully, with McLean, the Mets have the ace they need. We can envision a rotation led by McLean and buttressed by Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong. With any luck, they can do what Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, and Noah Syndergaard did in 2015.
Just like in 2015, that group will need a veteran leader to lead the staff. They most likely won’t have a Skubal or other pitcher of that ilk as they would command too many years.
It’s time to abandon that pipe dream . . . at least until Stearns is ready to show some flexibility in his approach in dealing with giving out contracts.
David Stearns’ New York Mets were worse in year two than they were in year one. They failed despite adding Juan Soto, which is just baffling.
Every fan and pundit is going to point to the starting pitching. Obviously, the starting pitching was a failure, but at some point, you have to actively say there’s only so much one man can do.
Right off the bat, Stearns made a massive mistake signing Frankie Montas instead of bringing back Luis Severino. Montas was a disaster, but he was also broken. It’s fair to question just how much of that was something that happened with the Mets, and whether the team physical missed something.
Looking at Severino, he was not good in 2025. He had a 1.0 WAR and a 92 ERA+. It’s possible he could have been better with the Mets, but based off what we saw, he was a below average pitcher whose strikeout rate dropped. Still, his 29 starts averaging 5.2 innings would have been more than welcome.
Aside from that mistake, Stearns had Kodai Senga and David Peterson returning to the rotation. He re-signed Sean Manaea, the ace from the 2024 staff. Right there, the Mets had as good as a top three as anyone in baseball.
Like with Montas, something either happened or was missed with Manaea. We looked at him as someone that could be an ace to someone battling through injury barely able to give you three quality innings. ‘
Senga was pitching at a Cy Young level. That was until Pete Alonso made one of his horrendous throws to first base leading to a Senga injury. After that throw, Senga went from a 1.47 ERA to a pitcher who had a 5.90 ERA over his last nine starts.
Peterson was great in the first half. He was an All-Star. Who knows what happened to him after July 20. After that start, he was 3-2 with a 6.34 ERA. The hope is it was the extra workload, but based on the missed injuries we saw with Montas and Manaea, a potential injury can’t be dismissed.
Joining that group in the rotation was Clay Holmes. Holmes had a good first year as a starter with a 114 ERA+. If starters didn’t drop like flies, he might’ve been able to be transitioned to the bullpen late in the season. Alas, that opportunity never arose.
Tylor Megill was quality starting pitching depth again. He had a 3.95 ERA over his 14 starts. Unfortunately, he needed Tommy John and will miss all of 2026.
Adding to the depth, Stearns signed Griffin Canning. He was a revelation of his 16 starts. At one point, he was on the outskirts of All-Star discussion, and he finished his season with a 107 ERA+ before he suffered a fluke ruptured ACL tear.
Look over that list again. In theory, the Opening Day rotation was supposed to be Manaea, Senga, Peterson, Montas, and Holmes. Behind them was Megill and Canning. That’s seven quality starters who should have been able to get you through the season.
Behind them, the Mets farm system did a great job developing Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat, and Jonah Tong. McLean will enter next season as the ace, and Sproat should be in the conversation to join the Opening Day roster. Tong clearly needs more time in Triple-A.
Without making any trades, the Mets had 10 different starting pitchers that were capable of winning games. That is all even before we consider the Paul Blackburn disaster.
Sometimes you are just snakebitten. Obviously, there is a curse that is in the Citi Field bullpen. Either that, or the Mets need to address how they review physicals and keep pitchers healthy.
If Stearns goes into 2026 with this level of starting pitching depth, things will be better for the Mets next season. Stearns had a good philosophical approach to the staff, but he did not have the luck he had in 2025.
And before anyone starts, no, the Mets don’t need to go buck wild spending on free agent starters. The Opening Day rotation will have McLean, Peterson, Manaea, Senga, and Holmes. That is great. ‘
Behind that group, they will have Sproat and Tong ready to go. Possibly, Will Watson will be ready at some point in 2026. It would be nice to see if they can bring back Canning.
Think about this for a second. Even with the Montas blunder, Stearns did enough last offseason to build a formidable rotation for 2026. He did his job very well. He just now needs to figure out the health and possibly a way to better keep these pitchers healthy.
Weird things happen in the MLB postseason. Since the expanded postseason format, things rarely, if ever, goes as planned.
The first expansion was in 1969. The New York Mets shocked the world that year. Even though the Mets had won 100 games, they beat the favored Atlanta Braves in the first ever NLCS.
The Mets went on to shock the world by beating the 109 win Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.
Four years later, behind the Tug McGraw mantra of “Ya Gotta Believe!” the 1973 Mets won the NL East with only 82 wins. That team beat the Cincinnati Reds in five games (back when the NLCS was five games) to advance to the World Series.
To hear Howie Rose tell it, if Yogi Berra pitched George Stone in Game 6 instead of Tom Seaver, that team likely wins the World Series. Still, an 82 team in the World Series highlights how crazy things can happen.
In 2015, aided by a Washington Nationals choke job (insert Jonathan Papelbon–Bryce Harper joke), the 2015 Mets won the division. Daniel Murphy became Babe Ruth, and the Mets trio of Jacob deGrom–Matt Harvey–Noah Syndergaard led the Mets to the pennant.
If not for Terry Collins, the Mets win the 2015 World Series. He was as bad as you can be, and the Mets largely didn’t win because of him.
It’s also worked against the Mets.
The Mets dominated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1988 season. However, Orel Hershiser would come up huge, and he’d help the Dodgers with a huge upset. Fueled by Kirk Gibson’s shocking homer in Game 1, the Dodgers beat what could’ve been seen as an all-time great Oakland Athletics team.
In 2000, the Mets had some luck with the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Atlanta Braves. That cleared the way for the Mets to beat the Cardinals and win the pennant.
In the World Series, they faced off against an 87 win New York Yankees team, who ended that season on the verge of an epic collapse to miss the postseason. If Todd Zeile’s ball bounces over the wall, or Armando Benitez throws a strike who knows?
The less said about that World Series, the better.
In 2006, the Mets were the best team in baseball and seemed destined to win the World Series. El Duque got hurt warming up the NLDS, Billy Wagner faltered in the postseason like he always does, and Carlos Beltran struck out looking.
Meanwhile, we watched on with horror as the 83 win Cardinals beat an imploding Detroit Tigers team to win the World Series.
No matter the win total, if the Mets make the postseason, they will be sputtering in. Who cares?
This is still a team who can win a World Series. Everything they need is here.
Nolan McLean is a real ace, and Edwin Díaz is the best closer in baseball. As we saw with the Dodgers last year, you can win getting 2-3 innings from everyone.
We’ve already seen that Clay Holmes–Sean Manaea piggyback work well. It can certainly work with the rest of the staff.
Pete Alonso and Juan Soto had series winning homers last postseason. Francisco Lindor led the way like he’s doing during the current stretch run. Mark Vientos shook off late season struggles to be the Mets best player last postseason.
This Mets team can win the World Series. They have what it takes. They just need to get there. Even if you’re still skeptical, just look at past postseasons to look at how crazy things get.
When you look at the New York Mets offense, it seems everyone is worse than they were last year. The fans are starting to point fingers at Eric Chavez again. As is usual with hitting coaches, they shoulder the blame . . . fair or not.
Chavez or not, two players make you question how good Chavez has been – Mark Vientos and Francisco Álvarez.
Vientos came up from Triple-A Syracuse and raked. He had a 133 wRC+. Among Major League third basemen, only Jose Ramirez was better offensively. That success carried into the postseason where Vientos was great.
That success hasn’t carried forward into this year. There’s a number of reasons including inconsistent playing time and injuries. All told, he’s at an 81 wRC+.
There’s enough there, including a sophomore slump, where you don’t have to even consider Chavez. That brings us to Alvarez.
Like Vientos, Álvarez struggled out of the gate. There were also reasons like a new swing and being injured entering the season. Being a first time father also shouldn’t be discounted.
Since Álvarez has options remaining (Vientos didn’t), he was sent down to Syracuse to work with hitting coach Rick Guarno to get his swing right. He was also there to get his defense back on track.
Álvarez fixed his swing and defense in Syracuse. Since being recalled, he’s hitting .278/.395/.500 with three doubles, a triple, homer, and four RBI.
It’s telling that Álvarez couldn’t get the help he needed at the Major League level. That’s not unusual for young players. That said, looking at him and Vientos, it should make you at least question what they’re doing right in Syracuse that’s not translating in Queens.
Again, it may not be Chavez’s fault. Different messaging helps. On that front, it’s notable Pete Alonso is having his best year since 2022.
The 2022 season was Chavez’s first as the Mets hitting coach. In the subsequent two years Alonso had a significant drop-off. He’s now back at his 2022 level of production. Part of the reason is his agent Scott Boras:
For the first time in his seven-year career, Alonso is using external help to assist him with research, digest data and create personal plans against pitchers. The information comes from people affiliated with his agent, Scott Boras, and from people at his Tampa, Fla.-based workout group, Diesel Optimization, among others. He explained it as something like a front office just for him.
The Athletic, Will Sammon
It’s telling Alonso went outside the organization to get the assistance he felt he needed to get back to his level of production. It’s more telling that it worked.
Seeing how the outside help brought Alonso back to his best, we should at least look at some of the Mets other hitters.
Juan Soto had a 181 wRC+ with the New York Yankees. He’s now at a 143. That 143 would be his worst season mark since his first full professional season.
Soto is still awesome. He’s just a little less awesome than he’s been over the past four years.
Brandon Nimmo was an elite leadoff hitter with a great walk rate. In 2022, he had a 132 wRC+ (down from the previous two years) and a 10.5 BB%. He’s now down to a 117 wRC+ and 8.0 BB%.
Francisco Lindor finished second in MVP voting in 2024. He had a career best 137 wRC+. Being fair here, Lindor has been his best at the plate with Chavez as hitting coach.
Yes, Lindor is having a down year at the plate, but we all saw a drop off after the broken toe. You can’t pinpoint that on anyone.
Looking at the Mets top players, it appears only Lindor has been at his best with Chavez at the helm. Young players like Alvarez and Vientos were better working with the Triple-A hitting coaches.
Moreover, we’re not seeing Brett Baty or Ronny Mauricio develop into the hitters they were promised to be. Coupled with Álvarez and Vientos, something is just off here.
That’s not to say Chavez is at fault. It’s possible what he’s conveying is helping, but it’s also clear there’s a gap where players aren’t getting what they need to produce at the levels we’ve seen them produce.
At some point, Chavez is going to have to be addressed and scrutinized. The Mets offense is too talented for these results. The best hitters have seen a drop off in production working with Chavez.
Something is very wrong here. If it’s not Chavez, it’s something. It’s well past time the Mets figure it out.