Aug 28, 2025; New York Metropolis, New York, USA; New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso (20) reacts after a fielding error on a floor ball hit by Miami Marlins catcher Liam Hicks (not pictured) throughout the seventh inning at Citi Discipline. Obligatory Credit score: John Jones-Imagn Pictures
Did the Mets actually need to hold Pete Alonso? That query was answered on Wednesday once they let the franchise’s all-time house run record-holder stroll to the Baltimore Orioles on a five-year contract that they didn’t hassle to attempt to match.
On the identical time, one might properly ask if Alonso actually needed to maintain the Mets. When the Orioles introduce him at a press convention, he will certainly say all the suitable issues — he beloved enjoying in New York and the Mets followers generally.
The truth, nevertheless, is that ultimately, Alonso answered by taking the cash and working to Baltimore, which is his prerogative. Not solely did he take the cash and run, he couldn’t wait to take it; this Mets fan will lengthy do not forget that Alonso instantly exercised his opt-out proper after the Mets misplaced the 162nd recreation of the season to the perennial pain-in-the-neck Miami Marlins.
Alonso didn’t watch for the corpse of the 2025 Mets season to get chilly; the rigamortis hadn’t even set in on that grim final day of a disheartening marketing campaign when he informed the franchise he would train his choices.
Many Mets followers, together with this one, are seething in the meanwhile with the state of the franchise. Inside two days, Alonso and star nearer Edwin Diaz, who additionally opted out of his deal, bolted for greener pastures. Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns appeared to barely shrug; the workforce’s billionaire proprietor, Steve Cohen, basically informed followers to maintain the religion, an inconceivable process provided that they only noticed two of their most beloved stars stroll out the door.
The state of the Mets franchise is instantly bleak. Stearns swears there’s a methodology to his insanity, and letting your workforce’s best home-grown house run hitter stroll with out a lot as making an attempt to counteroffer is really an act of insanity for any franchise. Such insanity normally tends to backfire.
David Stearns, President of Baseball Operations for the New York Mets, is talking to the media throughout a press convention earlier than the baseball recreation at Citi Discipline in Corona, N.Y., on August 16, 2024. (Picture by Gordon Donovan/NurPhoto)
Nonetheless, to play the satan’s advocate, this Mets workforce — which had one of many worst information in baseball the final 4 months of the 2025 season and frittered away a scorching begin — wanted main change. It was basically flawed in each approach — beginning pitching, protection, Stearns’ beloved run prevention, clutch hitting (or lack thereof).
Stearns himself shares a part of the blame due to the strikes he made after the workforce’s inconceivable, feel-good 2024 postseason run — and particularly together with his bullpen-focused commerce deadline offers that blew up in everybody’s faces.
Altering the workforce dynamics after 2025 is crucial — however was this severely one of the simplest ways to do it?
As issues stand proper now, the 2026 Mets would probably have Jeff McNeil at first and Devin Williams closing video games. It’s the uninspiring stuff of a Wilpon Period nightmare for Mets followers, and Stearns owes it to the followers to behave boldly now to persuade them that he, in reality, desires to place a profitable workforce on the sector in 2026.
Bringing in free agent sluggers like Cody Bellinger and/or Kyle Tucker would assist. Buying and selling for a chief younger arm just like the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal would even be a significant increase. It’s arduous to switch a more in-depth of Diaz’s caliber with a man just like the Padres’ Robert Suarez or the Brewers’ Trevor Megill (Tylor’s older, extra profitable brother), but it surely should be performed now.
And Stearns should abandon his rigid place on long-term offers, particularly on the subject of beginning pitching. The Mets might use a dependable, wholesome, profitable arm within the rotation of the likes of the Astros’ Framber Valdez or the Diamondbacks’ Zac Gallen. They don’t seem to be going to get both on a 2- or 3-year, incentive-laden deal.
The 2026 season is now extra important than ever for the Mets, and for baseball. The darkish clouds of an impending labor dispute between MLB and the gamers’ union are gathering. Animosity between either side has reached a excessive not seen since 1994, and there’s nice concern amongst followers that if the league imposes a lockout for the 2027 season in pursuit of a wage cap the union won’t ever settle for, there won’t be a season to play in any respect.
It ought to behoove Stearns and Cohen now to place the most effective workforce doable on the sector for 2026 in pursuit of the workforce’s first world championship in 40 years. They’ve the assets to do it. They nonetheless have the muse to do it with the likes of Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Nolan McLean.
The one query is, have they got the need to do it?
What Stearns, Cohen and the Mets do subsequent will reply that almost all important query.
Disclaimer: The views expressed on this column aren’t essentially these of New York News or its employees.
