With great fanfare and after a long courtship, the Mets hired David Stearns as president of baseball operations a little more than two years ago. Seems like a lifetime ago. Many fans are questioning whether he is the right person for the job.
Certainly, there have been missteps along the way, beginning with the hiring of Carlos Mendoza as manager. Mendoza’s mishandling of the pitching staff was the prime reason the Mets failed to make the playoffs. His tendency to pull starters early led to an overworked pen that fizzed out due to exhaustion. Also, got to wonder what Stearns was thinking when he signed Jose Siri and Frankie Montas to contracts. The Montas signing for two years at $34 million is especially troubling. Sometimes you wonder if he realizes he is not in Milwaukee anymore.
Now that the winter meetings are over with few positives, the question remains are we heading in the right direction. Trading away Brandon Nimmo was probably the right move. It opens a roster spot for prospects who are close to being major league ready while improving defense at second base.
While I hated seeing Pete Alonso depart, I could not justify offering him a five-year contract. Hope he does well in Baltimore and helps them take down the Yankees.
I’m really surprised that Edwin Diaz ditched the Mets for the Dodgers. The offers were comparable. Seems the lure of Dodgertown was too hard to pass up. Gosh, I hope he breaks a leg so to speak.
There’s still a lot of work to be done. Signing Devon Williams and Luke Weaver to the pen are moves in the right direction.
Lots of smoke about the team talking to the Padres to acquire Mason Miller and an outfielder. The cost would be high, but we have good prospects to offer plus young, seasoned veterans such as Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio. Adding Mason Miller would immediately transform the pen into one of the best in the majors.
Losing two hundred RBIs and sixty plus homers from Nimmo and Alonso will not be easy to replace. The expectation is that improvements from Baty, Alvarez and Polanco will make up most of the difference. Also, Carson Benge and Jett Williams will likely make their debuts in 2026. I’m not worried about our offense.
There’s a lot of speculation that the Mets will add a solid starting pitcher over the winter. At this stage, barring trades, we have a lot of bodies, young and old competing for spots. Here we are with the top farm system and getting better with news that top international prospect Wanry Asigen will be joining the organization. We are being built for long-term success.
Mr. Stearns is doing what he was hired to do. · Lowering costs by avoiding long term contracts. · Building a strong pipeline of prime talent. · Improving run prevention through a strong defense. · Developing position players who are more contact oriented.
Personally, I like the direction Stearns is taking the team. We will definitely be a strongly competitive team in 2026.
This is my last column as an 84-year-old. In a few days, I’ll be much older at 85.
Ray December 14, 2025 | 
8 comments:
Happy birthday, Ray and Great peace written. I couldn’t agree with you more on everything you said let the man do his job and we’ll see where it goes.
Yes, but no more Frankie Montas and Jose Siri signings please.
Ray, agree 100%. This work is dirty & hard but David Stearns is dismantling the last of the 30 year Wilpon cultural & operational legacy. Every move will not pan out but the direction & strategy are 100% clear. HBD too!
Ray, may God give you many years. Happy birthday.
Stearns hasn’t been perfect, but he hasn’t hurt the club long term. More importantly, he has succeeded in providing sustainable talent through a built up minor leagues. I feel the Mets need a pitcher that can swallow up innings more than they need an ace. I don’t want to trade for anyone that will be a free agent next winter, but you could sign those because the talent won’t be lost.
Michael King had a QO attached to him so combined with the surgery he had to have been given lower offers. The QO means a second round and fifth round pick: steep for someone you aren’t sure about.
A very calming read:
https://defector.com/theyre-outta-here
Ray, I read this and I agree. Some tend to forget how utterly brutal the Mets organization was at drafting and developing hitting talent after David Wright and (undrafted) Jose Reyes came along. A good 15 years of dreck drafting.
The talent now is brimming, both in prospect pitching and (to a somewhat lesser, but fine, degree) in prospect hitting. The transition and upswing is underway.
If the Mets could have kept Alonso for 2 years at $75 million, I would have been for that. Nimmo and his contracts are too far down the age decline road. We may see that with Lindor over the remaining 6 years of his deal.
Anybody else have trouble with the format of this article? It's spread out too large to read.
Gosh, wonder what's happening with the format here. I've done nothing different. Also, some of my recent responses have not been posted.
Hey Ray, Tom here. I reformat it, and when I opened it, it was the wrong font, and there was no image at the top of the article. As I have many times before, I went to fix the article, but when I change the font, it pushed the print off the left side of the page. So I copied it to Microsoft Word to fix it, and I stuck in in a box because it wouldn’t come over correctly, even from Microsoft Word, it was still not showing on the page’s left side. I then pasted it in. It looked fine on my computer. But I’m not sure if it’s looking correct on phones. So that’s kind of where it’s at.
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