The difficulty of writing from the other side of the planet is time zones. My Monday morning column is actually Monday evening for me here in Malaysia. Consequently I cannot write with praise nor pulverization for how the Mets season ended as Game 162 has not yet been played. All I can do is reflect on key Mets needs going into the 2026 season which will indeed happen whereas the playoff roster is still pure hypothesis at this point. So, moving forward regardless of the Sunday outcomes (in Miami and in Cincinnati), let’s instead take a look at the job David Stearns and his staff will have for the next baseball season.
Pending Free Agents
- Pete Alonso — Available Opt-Out Clause
- Nick Madrigal — Contract Ends
- Starling Marte — Contract Ends
- Cedric Mullins — Contract Ends
- Jesse Winker -- Contract Ends
- Griffin Canning — Contract Ends
- Edwin Diaz — Available Opt-Out Clause
- Ryan Helsley — Contract Ends
- Brooks Raley — Contract Ends
- Tyler Rogers — Contract Ends
- Gregory Soto — Contract Ends
- Ryne Stanek — Contract Ends
Under Performers
- Luisangel Acuna — Never achieved consistency
- Ronny Mauricio — Recovery season lackluster and limited playing time affects output
- Jeff McNeil — Batting title is long behind him and he finished 2025 very poorly
- Tyrone Taylor — As a fourth outfielder he’s credible but not enough bat to start
- Mark Vientos — The power returned but he was way too inconsistent with defensive struggles
- Huascar Brazoban — He was up and down between the Mets and Syracuse
- Sean Manaea — An ERA of over 7.60 to finish the year is untenable
- David Peterson — He went from rock solid to sinking like a stone
- Brandon Sproat — He showed flashes of brilliance but is still a great unknown
- Jonah Tong — Perhaps the biggest shock, the Mets best minor leaguer did not look the part
Long Term Injuries
- Reed Garrett — Elbow injury
- Max Kranick — Tommy John Surgery
- Tylor Megill — Tommy John Surgery
- A.J. Minter — Abdominal Surgery
- Frankie Montas — Tommy John Surgery
- Dedniel Nunez — Tommy John Surgery
- Christian Scott — Tommy John Surgery
- Drew Smith — Tommy John Surgery
- Danny Young — Tommy John Surgery
Who’s Left?
- Luisangel Acuna
- Francisco Alvarez
- Brett Baty
- Francisco Lindor
- Jeff McNeil
- Brandon Nimmo
- Juan Soto
- Tyrone Taylor
- Jared Young
- Luis Torrens
- Mark Vientos
- Huascar Brazoban
- Clay Holmes
- Sean Manaea
- Nolan McLean
- David Peterson
- Dylan Ross
- Kodai Senga
- Brandon Sproat
- Jonah Tong
It’s a lot to digest but if you somehow felt the remaining folks on the roster were all due back it would add up to 20 spots with 6 vacancies to fill. It also suggests that the Mets need to choose carefully among those active 20 players to decide who deserves to come north from Florida or who is more valuable as a trade chip to fulfill other needs.
The Needs
- Center Field — The incomers are gone with Jose Siri already DFA’d and Cedric Mullins a free agent. There is no starter on the roster with Tyrone Taylor not providing enough offense.
- Backup Outfielder — Unless you consider Jeff McNeil in this role they need someone else there.
- Second Base — Who gets to play here?
- Starting Pitching — Right now you have Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, Nolan McLean and Kodai Senga returning. The club is most definitely missing an ace.
- Relief Pitching — Almost everyone is gone and it goes from bad to worse if Diaz hits the road.
- Designated Hitter — At this point they don’t have anyone for this role.
- Bench — No one knows who will reside here given the lackluster performance of many substitute players this past season
Yup, David Stearns has a lot of work on his plate. Let’s just hope he doesn’t plunge into hopeful cases no one understands like Frankie Montas or else waits until late July to make changes for the outcome of the 2026 season as he did in 2025.
Evening Reese
ReplyDeleteMorning everyone else
Today is the first day of tomorrow
For now, all the Mets can do is begin negotiations with players that ended this season as a Met. My guess none of the big names will make any kind of decision until they can test the financial waters elsewhere.
What they can do is make some decisions on who are the brains running the dugout.
We have to be REAL now. Acuna had no homers. Mauricio had 10 RBIs. Big changes are needed. Will they be able to do that in 2026? I hope they can figure it out, because they sucked for the last 60% of the season. Daunting task.
ReplyDeleteJett Williams is my future Mets second baseman, but he will not be ready on OD 2026. He also could be part of a package for a premier starter. either way, Jeff McNeil would be my bridge second baseman either way. I have always slated Acuna as a sub and, frankly, thisnhasn't worked out offensively... however, utility players would excel in defense first.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, Mauricio can play second and was ranked in the top 10 3B DRS producers this year, way ahead of Baty and Vientos
Want no part of Mauricio on this team. Mack, how can you possibly want this guy. He has absolutely no baseball instincts. The only plus feature is his arm. He can't hit rightly. Can't hit the low breaking ball lefty. He doesn't know how to run the bases. Anything else, yeah he can't field.
ReplyDeleteTake Vientos with him. How many off-speed pitches is he going to flail at before he hits the ball. Can't field, can't run.
The open positions on this team have to be filled by players who can make contact, get on base, run well and play defense.
I can't watch this brand of baseball anymore.
Joe
DeleteI don't want to keep Mauricio. I just wanted to post the facts about his defensive skills this season
By keeping Mauricio on the 28 until the end, the Mets preserved another option year for him. I'd like to see him start the year upstate, give up SH'ing, and perhaps learn CF.
DeleteThe injuries have delayed the "fish or cut bait" year. Too soon to quit on him.
How pathetic was the 2025 season?
ReplyDeleteYou have one game remaining in a 162 game season that demands a win..
And you put up a bullpen game
it was brutal to watch. They played with no heart. It was so disappointing.
ReplyDeleteMack, I did say that the Marlins hated the Mets and wanted nothing more than to sink their season. They did.
ReplyDeleteBut for a team that was 20+ games over 500 to not make it to the post-season, they need to go home and look at themselves in the mirror with few exceptions. That should include Stearns as well.
If I am Alonso and the Yankees come calling, that's where I would go. Diaz? I need a drink in my hand before I can sit to watch him walk the first hitter who will then steal 2nd and 3rd.
Mauricio? I would have him play in the Dominican winter before making any decisions on him. Lets not forget we used to think the same about Vientos and Baty.
The Mets are stuck in a hard place. They can either let Diaz and Alonso walk, get cheaper, open up more options for prospects or throw more money into the team. Sometimes you need to take a step back in preparation to move forward with the right prospects in place. That's what the Braves are doing and so are the Mets killers Marlins.
Is going to be a long winter.
I'm curious about what Stearns says today
DeleteMy biggest fear is that Stearns makes more desperation moves to try to save his job, screwing up the franchise for years to come.
ReplyDeleteThis should be an interesting off season to say the least. I am also a big proponent to taking a step back and trying to reset. But honestly, I can't see them doing that.
Taking a step back is exactly what the Mets need. Have you ever seem a more incomplete team with a payroll of over 350 million?. Even if they throw more money into it, what happens to the promising players in the minors right now if they are all blocked by expensive free agents signings?. At that point, why would you even need a minor league system?
ReplyDeleteBut are willing to live with a sub-par 2026 to set up 2027?
DeleteSetting up a proper team for 2027 is better than having one that chokes on a yearly basis. How many times have the Marlins done this to the Mets at year end?. It feels like the groundhog day movie except it never ends.
ReplyDeleteUncle Steve probably re-decorated his house with a baseball bat.
After Mendoza’s insult of the Marlins by putting Torrens in to finish a game that the Mets were up by 14 runs, the Marlins have won 4 out of five games and were loud in their desire to keep the Mets out of the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteBaty is a better second baseman that he is a third baseman. He lacks the reflexes to play the hot corner.
Mauricio was outstanding for the month of July as he improved every month. Then, he sat for two months. Stupidest move by Mendoza/Stearns of all.
We can’t hang everything in Mendoza. Don’t forget, Stearns himself says that they work together.
I feel the Mets have enough signed for next year and as I wrote yesterday, I’d like to see them reset the tax. I don’t have an answer for CF, but I can see them signing the Yankees guy to platoon with Taylor.
What about Murakami?
DeleteI don’t know anything about the player…
DeleteTwo very thorough articles by Britton in The Athletic this morning. A small excerpt:
“ What rankles even more about 2025 is that, in other late-season swoons, the Mets have at least been tracked down by an adversary. The ’07 Phillies and Rockies, the ’08 Brewers, the ’22 Braves — those teams earned postseason berths with sparkling play late. No offense to the Reds, but they caught the Mets with a 14-11 September, a 33-32 second half, a 48-45 record since they were a season-worst 10 games behind New York in June.
They caught the Mets despite losing on Sunday in Milwaukee — the result the Mets needed to sneak into the postseason themselves.
“That one,” Brandon Nimmo said while holding off a grim chuckle, “was a nice little cherry on top for the sting, knowing it was within your grasp and all you had to do was win that last game.””
Briton’s main points was:
the defense was terrible overall. The Mets allowed the most unearned runs in baseball over the last three month.
the Mets lacked the energy guys they had last year.
the Mets seemed to expect “their immense talent” to get them through it. It didn’t.
The Mets should send Mauricio to the Dominican winter league and let him play CF. He has the speed and arm. If not, you can always platoon McNeil and Taylor while you wait for a prospect to be ready by year end. The Mets need to get faster and not rely simply on homeruns to manufacture runs. They need players who can get on base and steal bases and contact hitters to drive them in. By next year they may need a manager with a brain too.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I’d like to say: in the article it says that Soto graded out by far as one of the worst defenders in baseball. I didn’t see that. I don’t know about all the stats and opinions going into these results, but Soto has a very strong and acurate arm and seemed better than Nimmo looked out there. I thought McNeil at second base wasn’t too mobile, and Lindor made errors on easy plays.
ReplyDeleteAs for Soto’s leadership, leadership comes in many forms. When a guy takes a young player like Mauricio under his tutelage to show him how to be patient and help him be better, that’s leadership. When a guy does his job doesn’t lose focus where he can’t stop swinging at sliders low and away, that’s a leadership by example. Whatever Soto got paid, it didn’t stop the Mets from either bringing in a certain player or paying the rest of them. To me the BIGGEST failure by far was the pitching staff. They sucked, and they know it.
Add the poison pen too.
ReplyDeleteCan’t believe how this all panned out. Brutal.
ReplyDeleteI have faith that at least 2 of our veteran SP will regroup and have a good season next year. Senga can reset and try and not get hurt and derail. Manea can get that loose body removed from his elbow. Holmes can take the lessons learned and be a bit more consistent and not injury limited. Peterson… well he has a contract to play for next year. Some will set up.
Mclean can start in the majors with tong and sproat ready to come up after some AAA dominance to take the soot of whoever is hurt or in effective. If canning is ready to come back sign him up for depth.
The pen… it just needs to be-reworked end to end.
You need to resign Pete. Make it happen.
Baty starts at 3rd. Mcneil at 2nd (acuna on the bench for late inning pinch running and defense).
DH - that’s vientos last stop but it would be a place to upgrade as well.
CF - need to sign of more likely trade for someone better than Taylor to start. Taylor can be OF4. This new player can then move to OF4 when Benge js ready to come up. Just need someone with good defense in CF that is solid average offensively. Taylor can be shopped, dropped or kept as OF5 at that point.
If we can re-sign pete, get that good D average bat CF and keep Mcneil at 2B until Jett is ready I’d be ready to roll with this team assuming we totally revamp the pen.
Dan, you are talking about bringing back the exact same team as last year. This is not a good team right now. They need wholesale changes.
ReplyDeleteGus my man, the Mets have by far the worst defensive outfield in the majors. Forget Taylor, he's a defensive replacement.
Soto is a brutal outfielder. Like Mauricio, his one good attribute is his arm. You have to catch the ball in order to showcase your arm. He has no range. He is a pussy and won't get anywhere near the wall. He gets to the routine flyballs and nothing else. He won't dive for a ball, God forbid.
Next is noodle arm Nimmo, the worst arm in baseball.
We have 5 DH's
Soto, Nimmo, Vientos, Mauricio and Pete (if he returns)
I'll save what Soto did to the clubhouse for our off-season discussions.
I watched Stearns' conference, and he must have brought up "run prevention" (pitching and defense) 15 times in 30 minutes. He also made a point to say that integrating young talent is how you win. I don't think you'll see Vientos at 3B again for this team. Either they keep him as their nearly FT DH, or he's part of a package for a pitcher. Mauricio was kept on the 26 all season so they could hold on to an option year. He's already shown he can rake in AAA when healthy, but he missed most of two seasons, and I would bet that the plan is to start him in Syracuse and hope he hits enough there and recoups enough value to make him a big piece of a deadline trade. I'm guessing that Baty is their answer at 3B in '26, since out of the 3 "3B" they ended the season with, he's easily the best defender. I also think they'd like to upgrade defensively at 2B, and guessing they see Jett Williams as that upgrade. He did struggle a bit when he got to AAA, but it was late in a season after missing much of the previous, and he did heat up at the very end. I think he gets every chance to win the 2B job out of camp, making McNeil a true utility player. Clearly they need a CF, and if they see Benge as that guy, which I'm guessing they do, they won't bring anyone in to block him. I think he also gets a shot out of camp, but if he doesn't look ready, Taylor is a top 5 defender in the NL in CF, and is a better hitter than he showed for a long stretch this season. He'll start there waiting for Benge to arrive.
ReplyDeleteOn the pitching side, I highly doubt they break the bank and invest years in what looks like a weak crop of FA pitchers. I do think they will look for a trade for an actual #1 or #2 that is still under control for a year or two. Vientos would likely be part of that package. They could also sign a long-reliever/possible starter as insurance, but with a post-surgery Manaea, a rested Peterson and Holmes, a hopefully healthy Senga, and likely at least two of the three kids ready to start the season, none of those guys are getting pushed aside for a reclamation project or middling starter. I think they go after Alcantra, or someone at or close to that level.
Let’s be objective.
ReplyDeleteMauricio was 3 for 36 batting righty. NO MAS.
4 for 34 RISP. NO MAS.
IF he is retained, plan to start him in AAA. And play winter ball, righty hitting only, and NO BASE STEALING.