If you are regularly reading Mack’s Mets, you were fortunate to read the seven piece series by RVH that decomposed the team performance as they went from the thrill of a great start to the collapse at the end. You saw that the Mets covered their weaknesses well until the house of cards collapsed under its own weight. This looked totally predictable using the lens of hindsight, but at the time it was a confusing, frustrating, slow-motion train wreck that was emotionally trying.
This off-season, we have been on another interesting ride. The demolition of the long-standing Mets’ core and reconstruction with an intriguing mix of young and old new faces has left us with many questions. What are the last few moves? How will the newfound redundancies be addressed? What about those holes that have not yet been filled?
I don’t have the answers to those questions, of course. Only the top of the Mets organization knows what the last steps in the plan are, and even they are not in control of their own destiny as witnessed by last week’s unhinged Kyle Tucker auction.
I know that the Mets’ leadership is very committed to building a winning team. I know that they have embraced a strategic approach over the more unguided approaches of previous administrations. That approach will pay off when all the pieces are in place. But I also know that it not only takes time to build this team right, but it also takes time to integrate the new pieces once built. So even if the Mets were to obtain all of the players they desired in “Plan A” (they didn’t), it still would take some time to get all the players on the same page.
Let’s state the obvious – last year’s team was a great team on paper. They never got on the same page. The re-build is an attempt to fuse together enough pieces that have the qualities to get on the same page but that experiment doesn’t begin for another 30 days when everyone has reported to spring training.
The 2026 Mets are going to have some learning time to undergo. What needs to happen?
1. The almost all-new coaching staff under returning manager Carlos Mendoza needs to communicate the strategy and establish expectations and processes for communicating.
2. Roles and responsibilities will have to evolve as players learn the skills and limitations of their new counterparts.
3. Competitions for positions in the field and the batting order will have to be resolved through on-field performance and team-first behaviors.
4. On-field and clubhouse leaders will evolve as relationships and bonds of trust develop.
5. Adjustments will have to be made to the elements above as both players and coaches recognize strengths and weaknesses.
6. Performance begins to align with expectations.
The time to go through these steps is not going to be measured in days or even weeks from the beginning of spring training. The Mets are not going to get off to a fast start, and most likely will not be seeing “team wins” until mid-season. Their win total will be dominated by individual performances from talented players.
Then it will click. The team will gel, the roles will crystallize, and the momentum will build. This team will not win their division in 2026, but if there are no exploitable holes remaining after the trade deadline it will be a dangerous wild card team.
So my message to the Mets fans who lamented the end of the 2024 playoff run and lived through the disappointment of the 2025 collapse is this: set your expectations low for the beginning of this season but don’t give up on this team.
10 comments:
I will enter this season as the 21st season I have written about them on Mack's Mets. I have never felt more uncertainty than this one.
In the past, I know when this team both sucked and were great. I feel neither right now.
I need two things to happen...
1. wait and see what the finished product is going to be on opening day
2. Give them April and then make an initial judgement.
Oh...
love the picture here
I did an article on Saturday that points out what I believe was the key problem plague in the 2025 season
. Essentially, the Mets lost two of their top five starters in spring training, and their return to pitching was at first significantly delayed, and then upon return was disastrous, with one of them getting injured with Tommy John.
They were doing well until June despite that, until Senga got hurt on a weird play, and Canning got hurt on an even weirder play.
McGill went from pitching very well toexperiencing major arm problems.
While left with Peterson and Holmes, I’m not quite sure how you plan for in effect an entire starting rotation to go down and not hit massive turbulence.
When Senga returned, he was lousy. When Manaea finally made his debut, he was lousy for the rest of the year.
Basically, the starting rotation got hit by a tsunami.
I think very few people wanted Montas, and that was a major mistake by Sterns, but otherwise, I think he built one of the strongest starting contingent I had ever seen for the bats in terms of depth, but when the tsunami hit there went the depth.
If the starting pitchers had just average health last year, the Mets probably would’ve won the division. So while we consider how 2026 could go, we have to pray that another tsunami doesn’t hit the team this year, because tsunamis do major seasonal damage that’s hard to overcome.
I certainly hope that no one strains an oblique, or tears some lateral muscles, this spring training. That to me seems like totally avoidable injuries, the kind we never used to hear about. They can totally screw up a season. There are avoidable injuries and unavoidable injuries. Obliques and lateral tears and strains seemed to me to be totally avoidable with normal baseball conditioning.
I’ve written about the various cycles (player age, payroll, developing mlb players & farm promotions) aligning.
This year will pull may if these cycles together - throughout the year.
There will be several phases to this year’s rhythm: remaining offseason, May/June promotions, trade deadline. This team will evolve & we will see changes as things unfold.
Usually, some of these moves happen as a reaction to circumstances that happen each year. This year these moves will be proactively taken as the pieces mature & the cycles align.
It will be a fun year. Just different.
Had to set the bar low for this season.
I hope the fan base is patient with this year's team. With all the dynamics, there will be some struggles until they all align. September should be much more fun to watch than last year!
Last week, nobody envisioned Bo Bichette bringing his considerable talents to the New York Mets. So I agree with you totally on number one above: let’s see what else David does. He may do amazing things.
It will again come down to, in my opinion, whether it out they can as a team come well under the 46 pitchers the Mets used last year, breaking that major league record, out of sheer desperation. St Louis used 23, or half the number the Mets used. If the Mets go over 35 pitchers this year, the season will be in trouble.
Paul, patient? You know how hard it is to read comments on this team with the considerable bitching about Stearns from these crybaby fans? They are either all out trolls, or they don’t understand that they aren’t the GM. It’s one thing to disagree (as I did for the trading deadline as it was happening) and it’s quite another to keep bringing it up and not seeing anything good.
I fully believe the professionalism of the players brought in will help everyone get along, it would be hard to expect immediate results before May or June, especially since many will be gone due to the WBC and exposure to each other will be lessened.
I’m confident that the combination of Bichette, Semien, and Polanco are going to change the vibe and personality of this team significantly for the better. I do expect it to take a bit, but I also expect this team to gel in a way that last year’s clearly did not. The highly respected Semien already inviting the young guys - Baty and Acuña - to work out with him in Texas? Sign me up.
(Cue in the Lennon music) All we are saying, is give Stearns a chance.
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