Reese Kaplan - 2026 Disappointments

Whether it is formal baseball historians, beat writers, bloggers or a bunch of baseball fans commiserating over an unreasonable quantity of beer, there are going to be a lot of hours spent trying to deduce what exactly went wrong with the 2026 Mets season.  You can point to any number of player decisions but in no particular order let’s consider a great many of them.

Pete Alonso returned to Citifield this past week and there is no evidence from the Mets fan base that they missed the big slugger immensely.  I’m not going to debate the rationale behind the decision not to try to match the offer made by Baltimore but the performance provided by their new first baseman certainly confirms he’s not over the hill nor on the way out of the game.

Edwin Diaz departing for Los Angeles was pretty much strictly about money.  Given his lackluster season fraught with injury it doesn’t hurt quite as much as it might otherwise have had he gone onto All Star level performance for the left coast wunderkinds.

Devin Williams, of course, was an unimaginative and uninspired acquisition after his implosion with the Yankees.  Yes, David Stearns knew him at his best so the decision was somewhat understandable but it also showed a tremendous lack of imagination bringing in a player who was tatooed regularly on the mound simply because you were familiar with him.  He was only slightly better for the Mets and now in the middle of a multiyear deal get used to seeing him in the pen.

Jorge Polanco being signed as a first baseman was bizzarre to say the least given his lack of experience at the position.  He has had a long history of injury issues keeping him off the field which made his more than ⅓ lower salary than what Pete Alonso would earn seem doubly baffling.  Needless to say his 2026 season was a lot more reminiscent of his IL stints than what he did on the field or as DH.  You’re stuck with him again next year, too.

Freddy Peralta was another example of David Stearns digging onto the shallow entries of his planning ledger since he was very familiar with the man during their shared days in Milwaukee.  He never quite put everything together for the Mets and after a rocky few starts for Tampa he seems to have started reasserting himself as a top-level starting pitcher.  So does that mean that the Mets coaching staff is insufficient?

Marcus Semien used to be a very good ballplayer.  He still seems an ultimate professional.  What he’s not anymore is a starting quality player.  Yes, the club did save some payroll dollars over what Texas is now paying for the privilege of having Brandon Nimmon in the lineup but the positive signs are most definitely not there.

Luis Robert was a mystery in Chicago as he put together one incredible season for the White Sox and then spent most of the rest of it injured or making his way back during recovery.  When he arrived in Queens it was no different and except for a small late August flurry of home runs he didn’t show himself to be worth anywhere near what he was being paid.

Francisco Lindor has been a tremendous player for the Mets since his acquisition, but the combination of under performing and injuries left his 2026 value well below his salary level.  There are already people clamoring for the Mets to try to trade him during the offseason but to be fair to the man one bad year does not indicate his talent is gone forever.

Brett Baty can play a lot of positions other than at the plate as a hitter.  Wave goodbye to the man.

Mark Vientos is in a similar state.  His bat is a little more lethal (particularly against lefties) but he’s dangerous as a fielder anywhere but DH.  Being out of options means he’s a bench player or he’s pushed out the door.

Kodai Senga (as a Starter) was horrible.  I had suggested early on he be tried in the pen and surprise, surprise he has excelled there.  The issue is that he has been vocal about wanting to return to the rotation.  With Devin Williams not looking like a closer it would seem ill advised to remove the man from where he’s had success.  Expect other teams to be interested in taking a one remaining year gamble on the man.

Craig Kimbrel was at one time a tremendous relief pitcher but age has caught up to him and he’s bounced around not just with the Mets but elsewhere.  Granted the Mets were down with bullpen injuries in the early part of the season so rolling the dice was not completely insane but he proved himself no longer a dominant pitcher. 

Carlos Mendoza seemed to have a good rapport with the media but not nearly as much skill managing the 26 players and developing them into a contending team.  Someone needed to be the scapegoat for the last place season and in the hierarchy of baseball the manager can’t fire the POBO, so you knew who was being pushed out the door.

David Stearns is where you have the root of many of the 2026 problems.  Granted he doesn’t swing the bat nor throw from the mound but he is responsible for choosing the people who do.  You can see from this rather long list which omits a great many more less significant disappointments that he did a very poor job in trusting his staff to identify worthwhile players and then did even less when it was clear from mid-May that the team was indeed going nowhere.  With the exception of the earlier David Peterson trade, in typical Stearns fashion he awaited the formal summer trade deadline to begin to make significant changes.  Many people are advocating either firing Stearns for his unconscionably bad performance or reinforcing him with a hired GM to help take over the parts of the game that Stearns repeatedly gets completely wrong.