• Both Kevin Long and John Mallee are no longer candidates for the Mets coaching staff (NY Post | ESPN)

Off-Season Outlook 📈

This winter, the Mets have no players with unconditional expiring contracts, and only one where a player option may or may not be considered. The club has no team options to consider, but will need to decide whether or not to tender contracts to ten different arbitration-eligible players by mid-November.

In addition, the Mets could choose to non-tender players who are pre-arbitration eligible if they no longer have any minor league options available.

The Mets could also attempt to trade any such player they’re considering not tendering a contract to before the mid-November deadline.

PENDING FREE AGENTS

None

TEAM OPTIONS

None

PLAYER OPTIONS

• Bo Bichette: $42 million opt-in with a $5 million buyout (ineligible for qualifying offer if he elects free agency)

ARBITRATION ELIGIBLE PLAYERS

• Francisco Alvarez

• Brett Baty

• Reed Garrett

• Tylor Megill

• Christopher Morel

• Dedniel Núñez

• Cristian Pache

• Cionel Perez

• Mark Vientos

• Austin Warren

PLAYERS KNOWN TO HAVE NO MINOR LEAGUE OPTIONS LEFT

• Mark Vientos

• Christopher Morel

• Cristian Pache

• Daniel Duarte

• Tobias Myers

• Austin Warren

• Robert Stock

• Chayce McDermott

• Ronny Mauricio

MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS ELIGIBLE FOR RULE 5 DRAFT EXPOSURE

• Catchers: Chris Suero, Kevin Parada, Ronald Hernandez

• Infielders: Ryan Clifford, Randy Guzman, Estarling Mercado, Jefferson Rojas, Jacob Reimer, Nick Lorusso, Marco Vargas

• Outfielders: D’Andre Smith, Yohairo Cuevas

• SPs: Gary Gill Hill, Jack Wenninger, Irving Cota, Noah Hall, Dakota Hawkins, Joel Díaz, Jose Chirinos, Jonathan Jimenez, Wyatt Hudepohl

• RPs: Zach Franklin, Ben Simon, Felipe De La Cruz, Douglas Orellana, Calvin Ziegler, Saul Garcia, Luis R. Rodriguez, Bryce Jenkins, Cristofer Gomez, Ryan Ammons, Juan Arnaud, Ernesto Mercedes, Gregori Louis, Austin Troesser

Key Off-Season Dates 📅

• Free agency begins - November 3

• Deadline for qualifying offer to free agents - November 3

• GM/Industry Meetings, Las Vegas - November 9-12

• Owners meetings, New York - November 17-19

• Non-tender deadline - November 20

• December 1 - expiration of current collective bargaining agreement

• MLB Winter Meetings, Orlando - December 7-9

• MLB Draft Lottery - December 8

• Rule 5 draft - December 9

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The off-season is here - let’s get weird! ✍️

Silly season in Major League Baseball is upon us!

The World Series is over (congratulations to the Milwaukee Brewers on their first championship), which means players will begin filing for free agency today, and all clubs and players will begin mapping out what 2027 might look like for them.

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• Major League Baseball named Francisco Lindor the recipient of the 2026 Robert Clemente Award - he was honored in a pre-game ceremony at Tropicana Field before Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night (MLB.com)

• Mariano Duncan is joining the Major League coaching staff for 2027 (NY Post)

On Francisco Lindor and the Roberto Clemente Award ✍🏻

As a kid growing up in Puerto Rico, Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor was deeply educated on the career and life of Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente—a man revered decades after his passing for his work both on the field and off of it.

Yesterday morning, it was announced that Lindor would be this year’s recipient of one of the most meaningful individual awards Major League Baseball presents.

Given to the player who best embodies sportsmanship, community service and involvement, as well as philanthropy, it’s a recognition that really matters to the league’s brethren—particularly those that hail from the island of Puerto Rico.

Lindor is the 5th Puerto Rican-born player to be honored in this way, joining Edgar Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, and Yadier Molina.

A commitment to humanitarian work is nothing new for Lindor, who has been the Mets’ nominee for the award every year since 2023.

He’s consistently supplied financial support for Hurricane relief, established a scholarship fund to provide financial means to students that otherwise would not have the same opportunities as their classmates, and has donated more than $1 million to the middle school he attended in Florida to develop state-of-the-art classrooms and athletic facilities.

This year he launched “Lindor’s Leaders,” a program in Bayside committed to developing the High School’s sports medicine capabilities. With a focus on mental health, Lindor’s Leaders gave him resources to mentor students in an effort to build confidence and skills to become the future leaders of their communities.

He also recently partnered with Seen to provide support and assistance for families with children suffering from physical disabilities, and give those kids a day out at Citi Field.

In 2026 he also continued his partnership with New Balance to supply backpacks and school supplies to hundreds of children.

Lindor is the 5th Met to win the Roberto Clemente Award, joining Gary Carter (1989), Al Leiter (2000), Delgado (2006), and Curtis Granderson (2016).

Lindor spoke about the honor yesterday, which you can hear here (SNY), and he was presented with the award prior to Game Three of the World Series last night in St. Pete.

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The Mets have so many issues to deal with in what could be one of the most bizarre off-seasons the game has ever experienced.

On one hand, there’s a belief a frenzy in free agency is coming ahead of the collective bargaining agreement expiring on December 1, during which teams will rush to sign most of the available top free agents before that date and what is considered to be an inevitable and long lockout of the players by the owners in Major League Baseball. Such a phenomenon occurred after the 2021 season leading up to the expiration of that collective bargaining agreement, during which there was a period of time free agents were signing—for big money at that—at a rate never experienced in the sport, akin to a signing period similar to what transpires in both the NBA and the NFL.

On the other hand, there are those that believe the looming lockout and economic uncertainty in the sport—with so much conversation about the owners wanting a salary cap and the players not even willing to have such a conversation—that clubs will be hesitant to commit so heavily into free agency until the suspected lockout is over, whenever that might be.

Then there are those like me who expect something in between the two, but I only think that because this isn’t a strong class of free agents that’s about to hit the open market. It might be top-heavy, and it might contain some undervalued free agents as well, and those players could be the ones that get security before December 1.

And all of that uncertainty could put a hard freeze on the trade market as well, and it’s that market I truly believe the Mets specifically will need to delve into to solve a lot of their problems before their next regular season game, whenever that is.

And the date of that next regular season game will be determined by the perceived haves and have-nots and what I believe is a failed argument over what they believe is a flawed economic system which greatly benefits the product of the game at a harsh expense to the controlling party of the game.

Now, it’s not that I don’t think there’s a flawed economic system and rule set. It is deeply flawed and it does need to be fixed, whether you think there’s a need for a salary cap or not. But if this World Series is any indication, the argument that there are the haves and the have-nots and it’s those that have that always win has now proven to be absurd.

First off, every single one of these owners is a billionaire. Yes, some have more billions than others, but they’re all billionaires. They can all afford every single player that hits the free agent market. The smaller market clubs receive enough in revenue sharing to be able to offset any financial deficit created in signing any player in the game.

Until now, doing so has been a choice. Since there is no real salary cap, teams like the Mets, Yankees, and Red Sox seem to think that spending money on the major league roster and satisfying the overly simplistic false need of their fanbases that the more a team spends, the more likely they are to win championships. And since there is no real salary floor, teams like the Pirates and A’s simply cry poor, essentially say they cannot compete in this marketplace and more or less pocket their revenue sharing money for another day.

Then there are teams like the Dodgers, who have found a loophole in the economic system in an effort to lower the average annual value of new deals and lower their luxury tax obligation (they still pay a ton in tax every year, for what it’s worth), arguably mortgaged the entire decade of the 2030s (and maybe a part of this one) to satisfy their short-term desire to become a perennial powerhouse, but they’ve done so not just by making ludicrous and wild investments into their major league roster, but have also done so behind the scenes through organizational and cultural building.

A different kind of argument of an argument can be made for teams like the Rays, Guardians, and Brewers, the last three teams standing in 2026, all of whom are routinely in the bottom third in major league payroll. I think that argument is the most sound of all as they spend the minimum yet are able to extract maximum value out of their major league rosters with savvy external acquisitions and a strong investment in culture building. They always seem to be there in the end, maybe not to this extent, but they’re usually in the postseason thanks to savvy, clever roster and organizational building. Somehow, they’re always able to play with the varsity payrolls and, in most cases, beat them year after year, having truly found hidden value and an ability to extract a certain and collective overachievement from players on their roster thanks to a promoting, underlying culture.

Now, how this should all look in a new collective bargaining agreement, I don’t really know. I don’t have a law degree; I don’t have a degree in economics. I also am not a billionaire, so I don’t truly get the politics these people chew on all day and all night.

I tend to side with the politics of the players, though. That’s where I fell during the economic squabble in 2020, the last CBA and lockout in 2021–2022, and based on my scribble above, I think that’s where I am falling in 2026–2027. I also know that the house always wins here, as in the owners will get more of what they want than the players will when the dust settles.

I also believe that whatever rises from the rubble and the inevitable embarrassment both the owners and the players endure from the lockout, there won’t be immediate changes to the economic system, especially if there is to be a cap and a floor implemented into the policy (which I don’t really believe can just happen in this sport). It’s going to take at least a year, if not longer, for the new policies to take.

With that said, we have spent most of the last 3–4 weeks here discussing the problems the Mets must solve if they want to get good again. Now, believe it or not, the moves they made ahead of the trade deadline in early August might help solve some of those needs, help them hedge against some of their own potential free agents walking, and help create new opportunities in the trade market as well.

Over the last week, I’ve thought about five players specifically who would help get the Mets back on course. Some are pretty obvious, but some you might not have considered.

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• The Mets are hoping to interview John Mallee for coaching one of their coaching staff vacancies in addition to Kevin Long (MLB.com)

The Mets pipeline of arms ✍🏻

As the Mets’ farm system continues to evolve, plenty of names have moved to the forefront of our collective fan consciousness. And though many of the most exciting prospects in the pile are readying themselves for a big-league debut in the field and at the plate, quite a few guys are toeing the rubber in orange and blue who deserve attention and hype.

Fans are likely well acquainted with names like Jonathan Santucci, Jack Wenninger, Dylan Ross, and Ryan Lambert by now, but there are several other arms in Binghamton and Brooklyn that are worth your attention in the coming calendar year.

Let’s meet the staff:

Daviel Hurtado, LHP (#23 prospect, 21 y/o, High-A)

2026: 2.93 ERA, 86.0 IP, 89 K, 27 BB, 1.03 WHIP

Daviel Hurtado started making a name for himself in 2025, and his 2026 campaign cemented the sterling reputation he’d worked hard to build. After a 2.70 ERA season in Low-A last year, Hurtado did the same at High-A this year, posting a 2.69 ERA over 77 innings. His strikeout numbers weren’t the flashiest (24%), but he cut his walk rate and got better at keeping the ball on the ground against elevated competition. He also held opposing hitters to a sub-.200 average, and maintained a 1.01 WHIP over his 17 outings for Brooklyn.

The 21-year-old southpaw’s appeal goes beyond his results. Hurtado’s fastball sits around 93–95 mph and can touch 96, but it’s the way he uses his mix throughout the zone that makes him hard to hit well. He deploys a gyro slider and a hammer of a curveball that both elicit swings-and-misses, his heater operating primarily as a setup pitch up top that he can use to generate weak contact if needed. All three pitches grade out positively in scouting reports (50+ grades for each), and his ability to locate bodes well for his continued development.

Though Hurtado also has a changeup in his bag of tricks, he’s not quick to use it; fair enough, as he’s been successful enough against hitters on both sides of the plate to this point to not really need to work on developing it much. However, as he approaches the next phase of his evolution as a starting pitcher with eyes on a big league rotation spot, his efficiency is undoubtedly going to be challenged — having a weapon that he can use to directly attack lefties will only make him harder to hit. If he can figure out how to turn his gifts for tunneling and location into increased whiffs, we could have another fast riser here.

Channing Austin, RHP (24 y/o, Double-A)

2026: 2.26 ERA, 55.2 IP, 66 K, 31 BB, 1.15 WHIP

Channing Austin quickly emerged as one of the Mets’ more interesting pitching breakout candidates in 2026. An unranked and largely unknown name entering the season, Austin made noise among prospect watchers almost immediately, eventually turning a strong stretch at Brooklyn into a promotion to Double-A. The 24-year-old right-hander went undrafted out of USC before signing with the Mets in July 2024, and his development has accelerated considerably since then. Across 15 starts between Brooklyn and Binghamton, Austin recorded 66 strikeouts in 55.2 innings, holding opponents to a .169 batting average while allowing just two home runs.

Austin’s pitch mix is extra intriguing because of the movement and spin he generates across his arsenal. Kudos where it’s due: Thomas Nestico of TJStats had Austin clocked as a 2026 breakout candidate this time last year, pointing specifically to the quality of his raw stuff as a reason for optimism. Austin’s mid-90’s fastball carries “significant movement” through the zone that pairs perfectly with a slew of mid-80’s offspeed offers, namely a “fading changeup” that’s played particularly well for him to date. The clear and primary concern with Austin is command: he issued 31 walks in his 55+ innings, perhaps illustrating some similar issues Nolan McLean initially had controlling his most aggressive pitch shapes. Austin’s also another Mets pitching prospect who spent significant time on the shelf due to injury, including a season-ending oblique issue that put a premature end to his breakout.

Austin’s definitely a bit of a late bloomer, and it remains to be seen if his recent health issues end up stunting his development in any way. But his demonstrated high-strikeout potential and promising repertoire definitely make him worth monitoring, especially considering his unranked roots. A healthy 2027 season with vastly improved control could help firmly establish him as a legitimate MLB option in the not-too-distant future.

Felipe De La Cruz, LHP (25 y/o, AA/AAA)

2026: 2.87 ERA, 47.0 IP, 59 K, 21 BB, 1.32 WHIP

Felipe De La Cruz delivered one of the more encouraging turnaround seasons in the Mets’ system, posting a sub-3.00 ERA across 41.2 Double-A innings after an inconsistent 2025 split between Binghamton and Syracuse. Signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2021, the lefty started his minor league journey as a starter, logging over 100 innings in both 2023 and 2024 to less-than-stellar results. He transitioned to the bullpen in 2025, where he found far more success at Double-A, but struggled at the next level, maintaining his strikeout numbers but losing control of the zone more frequently against better hitting talent.

In 2026, De La Cruz was the best version of himself, posting a 2.87 ERA with 59 strikeouts in 47 innings across 36 total appearances, spending most of his time with Binghamton before making another quick trip to Syracuse. Characteristic of most Mets pitching talent, he’s a primary sinkerballer that sits mid-90s (though he’s flashed upwards of 99 mph) with exaggerated movement, a pitch that played heavily into his 82% groundball rate this season. He also offers a gyro slider that’s turned into an effective out pitch with a lot of whiffs (30% K rate), and a changeup that he, like Hurtado, uses infrequently — though in relief, a groundball/strikeout combo is really all he needs. As with Austin, what remains to be seen with De La Cruz is whether or not he can gain complete control of the strike zone: for all the flashy numbers, he also finished with a 1.32 WHIP, issuing 21 walks in his 47 innings, which will come back to bite him quickly in the upper levels if it’s not remedied soon.

Entering his age-26 season, the 2027 campaign will be a crucial one for De La Cruz to prove himself deserving of the ultimate promotion. He fared better in limited looks at Triple-A in 2026 than he did in 2025, and bullpen help from the left side is something the Mets always seem to be in need of. If De La Cruz puts together a strong start next season and maintains his 2026 baseline while establishing control of the zone, a September cup of coffee isn’t out of the question here.

Irving Cota, RHP (22 y/o, A+/AA)

2026: 2.30 ERA, 31.1 IP, 21 K, 6 BB, 0.99 WHIP

Irving Cota may be the name that intrigues me most on this list, if not in the entire Mets system. An injury significantly limited his opportunity to build on what had been an encouraging developmental track: the then-21-year-old right-hander was excellent in 2025, throwing 98 2/3 innings across three levels while continuing to establish himself as a dependable strike-thrower. He opened this season in similarly encouraging fashion, allowing just eight earned runs across 31 1/3 High-A innings.

Cota’s profile reminds me a lot of Zac Thornton’s: not a ton of strikeouts, but he keeps the ball on the ground and limits walks to an absolute minimum; he’s also not prone to giving up the long ball when the ball does go into the air (5.6% HR/FB). He relies on movement and command more than overpowering velocity. With a sinker in the mid-90s, his upper-80s changeup and high-spin curve are critical weapons that help him spread the zone and maintain a wide velocity spectrum. It’s his ability to consistently attack the zone while limiting hard contact that’s helped him find success despite a lack of overwhelming firepower.

Though a summer injury cost him most of his season, Cota made some rehab appearances and went to Binghamton for a very brief stint in September. To build on that progress, he’s one of eight Mets prospects playing in the Arizona Fall League. He’s performed well out of the gate in the desert, allowing three runs (two earned) on one hit and three walks in his 7.2 innings, with 12 strikeouts over that span. Reports suggest he’s been throwing his sinker harder since his rehab started; if Cota is tracking toward a higher average velocity while maintaining the control and strikeout ability he showed in limited opportunities in 2026, next season could see him leaping through minor league levels at Thornton speed.

Now, it would be foolish of me to sit here and say that all four of these guys are locks to take the reins of the Mets’ rotation in the next couple of years; for all we know, none of them will even be on the farm after another trade deadline or two.

But it feels like more than a fluke that the Mets have multiple arm talents showing their potential early and often through all levels. Beyond the four guys here, Triple-A saw Jonathan Santucci rack up 163 strikeouts over 125 innings while Zach Franklin emerged as a legitimate bullpen option upon arrival from the White Sox and Gary Gill Hill slotted into the system seamlessly. Even Miguel Mejias and Zack Mack down in St. Lucie put together seasons worth looking at.

While the upper levels are more rife with position-player talent that’s flashed more readily-available big league potential in recent months, and thus gotten the lion’s share of attention from the media, the Mets have quite a few arms to be optimistic about as well. And though many of the more intriguing ones might still be a little ways away from an MLB debut, it’s worth paying some extra attention in 2027 to see how they continue to develop — and who might be next to erupt.

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Jefferson Rojas. Émilien Pitre. Sammy Stafura. Billy Amick. Elian Peña. (Chris Suero.) Mets fans are likely well-acquainted with these names and others at the top of the team’s Top 30. But plenty has been written about those guys by now, and this past minor league season saw ample movement up and down the development pipeline.

So today, we’re going to talk about five (arguably) under-the-radar players in the Mets’ system that I’m especially excited to watch in the coming year.

D’Andre Smith, OF/2B

(25 y/o, Triple-A)

Though he’s been with the organization since the Mets took him out of USC in the fifth round of the 2022 draft, D’Andre Smith’s name is one that I admittedly wasn’t all that familiar with entering this year. In his final year with the Trojans, Smith hit .286/.380/.471 with eight home runs, and though that same level of production hasn’t shown up over the course of his amateur career to date, his short Syracuse stint to close out 2026 flashed plenty of what he has to offer.

Over 32 games with the Triple-A team, Smith hit .294/.389/.505 with six home runs and 12 stolen bases, good for a .398 wOBA and a 132 wRC+. His .211 isolated-power mark over that span reflected a significant jump in what has notably been a more latent part of his game — with a history of defensive flexibility (he covered four positions in 2026) and a burgeoning speed tool (20+ steals in ‘25 and ‘26), an uptick in power only makes him that much more valuable to a locker room that’s consistently skewing younger, faster, and peskier in all aspects of the game.

The question, of course, is whether Smith can maintain the changes that led to his power outburst upstate. The ability to steal bases and play anywhere in the field speaks for itself, but his career MiLB slash (.255/.325/.391, 23 HR, 8 3B, 69 SB) points towards a more contact-oriented approach. The thing is, he hits a lot of balls on the ground — for someone who pulls 40%+ of their batted balls, consistently elevating the ball is the key to making the most of that contact. If Smith can keep this particular bottle uncorked and flowing, next season could be the one that ultimately maps the course of his career.

Marco Vargas, SS/2B

(21 y/o, Double-A)

Originally signed by the Marlins as an international free agent in May 2022, Marco Vargas came to the Mets in July 2023 as part of the return for David Robertson, alongside catcher Ronald Hernandez. He was a well-regarded prospect upon his arrival in the org, with FanGraphs ranking him among the Marlins’ top 10 talents at the time. Since hitting just .208/.369/.238 in an injury-shortened 2024 season with St. Lucie, Vargas has spent the last two years demonstrating exactly what us nerds have seen in him all along.

In 2026, the 20-year-old hit .282/.363/.407 with three home runs and 28 stolen bases in 53 Double-A games, missing roughly two and a half months with an injury. Before going on the injured list, Vargas hit .210/.331/.290; after returning, he hit .349/.395/.514 over his final 27 games. That late-season stretch included three home runs and 16 steals, giving the Mets a welcome reminder of what Vargas can do when he’s healthy. His .403 BABIP is a clear reason not to take the batting average at face value, but the improved extra-base production is encouraging.

Vargas has long been an appealing defensive prospect, with the ability to play both middle-infield positions and enough speed to create opportunities on the bases. His 28 steals in 29 attempts last season at Double-A are proof positive of his ability to dominate the basepaths and maximize scoring opportunities; similarly, his 11.3% walk rate suggests that he has more of an ability to control the strike zone than he’s demonstrated to date. He cut his chase rate down significantly, but his overall contact rate went with it: Vargas struck out 68 times in 209 at-bats, so there’s still some work to do to fit all the pieces neatly together. Still, there have been enough sustained improvements at the plate in just the past calendar year that the franchise should feel confident in this particular talent.

Corey Collins, 1B/LF

(25 y/o, Double-A)

Like Smith, Corey Collins’ name is one that I was completely unfamiliar with entering this last season — I was educated quickly. There was a non-negligible stretch of time this season where it felt like I was seeing Collins’ name pop up in every single ‘Down of the Farm’ section of the newsletter I’d put together. That’s for good reason: Collins had one of the more promising offensive showings in the Mets’ system in 2026. The Mets selected Collins out of the University of Georgia in the sixth round of the 2024 Draft. The Bulldog broke out in his senior season, hitting .354/.574/.772 with 20 homers, a level of offensive efficiency he finally started to show at the pro level in his 2026 campaign.

Over 111 games, Collins hit .238/.387/.446, totaling 18 home runs and 81 walks over 455 plate appearances for Brooklyn and Binghamton. That’s right: 81 walks in 455 trips to the dish, good for a 17.8% rate. That walk total powered a ridiculous .387 on-base clip despite Collins hitting below .240, the latter of which can largely be explained by a 27% K rate. The good news, though, is that he finished the year productively in Double-A, hitting .250/.380/.522 with 10 home runs in 43 games there, so it’s not like he fell off a cliff when the heat got turned up. As a matter of fact, his strikeout rate went down.

The next step for Collins is seeing whether he can make enough contact to turn that power and patience into a sustainable profile. The strikeouts are a legitimate concern, especially as he faces increasingly advanced pitching, but the combination of home run production and walks gives him a foundation worth developing. Collins is a first baseman and occasional corner outfielder, so his bat will have to do most of the work, but his base profile as a disciplined slugger should translate well across levels, as it’s already started to prove. A little more discipline in the box could help this guy go a long way.

Randy Guzman

(1B/3B/OF, 21 y/o, High-A)

Randy Guzman is someone that I’d imagine even passive Mets prospect watchers have likely heard of. The Mets’ #21-ranked prospect (the only one of this batch currently in the Top 30) was a fun bat to follow this season, as he flew through three levels of the system from complex play to High-A. The Mets signed Guzman out of the Dominican Republic in September 2022 — in his time with the franchise, he’s compiled a 260/.359/.456 line with 28 homers and five triples across 214 minor league games. Not a bad return for what was reportedly just a $10,000 bonus.

This season, Guzman hit .274/.377/.514 with 12 home runs at Single-A St. Lucie before a brief stint in Brooklyn in which he went 7-for-16 before his season was ended prematurely by injury; he also missed six weeks in the summer due to a strained quad. While his season was limited to just 72 games, his .240 ISO mark at St. Lucie is particularly tantalizing, as are his 11.3% walk rate and increased stolen base productivity.

His scouting profile is what makes those numbers especially intriguing. Guzman has the strength to drive the ball a long way, and MLB Pipeline has graded his power as a 60 on the 20–80 scouting scale. His biggest issue lies in his approach — he loves to chase (34.4% in 2026), and there isn’t exactly a ton of contact coming with all the extra hacks; that’s extra maddening considering he’s swinging at more than half the pitches he sees (52.5%). He’s going to need to hit far more than 80% of pitches he sees in the zone for his bat to actually play on a big stage. However, the totality of the player package Guzman provides as a primary corner infielder with plus defense and developing speed is substantive enough for fans and franchise officials alike to buy some stock in his upside.

Trey Snyder, 2B/OF

(21 y/o, High-A)

Trey Snyder is a little different from the other hitters on this list, which is why I watched his name like a hawk all season long. Snyder was drafted by the Mets out of Missouri’s Liberty North High School in the fourth round of the 2024 Draft, taking a shot on a young infielder whose polish and all-around tools stood out among the high-school class (*cough* A.J. Ewing *cough*).

To be clear, I’m not saying Snyder’s a lock to be the next A.J.-level success story, but the style of his game should complement Ewing’s and Carson Benge’s quite well. His offensive approach is built exclusively around contact and speed rather than raw power, as is reflected in his plate output in 2026. Over 75 games and three levels, he hit .289/.348/.388 with four home runs and 28 stolen bases. His best stretch came at Single-A, where he hit .306/.358/.435 in 36 games before moving up to Brooklyn. The production dipped a bit at High-A, where he hit .264/.324/.341, but he still stole 11 bases in 33 games. That paints a pretty clear picture of what Snyder can do when he’s on the field.

It goes without saying that Snyder needs to build up his power production if he’s going to make any big league waves. His .077 ISO in Brooklyn shows how little extra-base damage he was producing at that level, and the next step is finding a way to drive the ball more consistently without sacrificing his contact skills. His speed and defensive versatility give him a solid foundation for the organization to build upon, though, and if the bat can develop into something serviceable, Snyder might be primed for a breakthrough with a full, healthy campaign.

The Mets’ farm system entered 2026 as one of the lowest-ranked in baseball; after the trade deadline and a group of particularly strong second-half performances across levels, their prognosis entering 2027 appears positive.

With position players and pop-potential bats in the upper levels and what looks like a wealth of pitching in the lower levels (more on that in a few days), a timeline and pathway towards the next era of a David Stearns-built franchise is beginning to materialize. Though he deserves no credit for the Brewers’ run to the World Series, his fingerprints are still all over that roster: over half the pennant-clinching team was originally drafted, signed, or acquired via trade by Stearns during his eight-year tenure in Milwaukee. Building a true contender takes time, and it happens at all levels.

After the Dodgers were sold to the Guggenheim group in 2012, it took them eight years to win their first championship under new ownership. (Granted, that period also saw Andrew Friedman's installation as the new PoBo…but let’s not get distracted.) The Mets are entering year seven of the Steven Cohen era, and year four of the Stearns era. Despite the team’s first last-place finish since 2003, they managed to replenish a severely depleted, top-heavy farm at the trade deadline with talent that largely immediately performed well. The organization also demonstrated that the roots of a successful development/training pipeline are in place, in several ways:

• Carson Benge and Nolan McLean both started their seasons on the Opening Day roster and turned in award-worthy performances in their first full MLB campaigns;

• There were plus-value performances at the plate, in the field, and on the mound from a multitude of later-season rookie call-ups;

• They were able to successfully deploy two completely different bullpens, in each half of the season, the latter of which was helmed by two guys coming back from elbow surgery and — huh, wouldn’t you know it — a rookie.

Oh, and Mets rookies posted the most valuable season of any class in team history, with roughly 14.0 total bWAR shared by five players.

Perhaps all is…NOT lost?

As cliché as it may be, it is true that good things take time, and they often prove to be worth the wait, as annoying as that wait may be. Mets fans have obviously been waiting a very, very long time, and there aren’t a ton of good things to remember from last year to distract ourselves with as we head towards an inevitable lockout.

But if exciting prospects keep making good on their potential, I suppose there are worse ways to wait out the trophy drought.

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Over the first few weeks of the off-season, I’ve routinely been asking myself, “How worried am I about Francisco Lindor?”

Believe me— I don’t want to be asking that question. I don’t want to worry about him, as I’d rather just look at 2026 as an injury-riddled blip of a season which was derailed before Valentine’s Day due to a hamate bone issue, coupled with a calf injury that cost him any chance of a Lindor-like season.

After all, we are talking about a generational player at his position and a likely future Hall of Famer in Lindor. He has learned how to be a better player, a better professional, and a better professional in New York through his own mistakes; he has provided some of the biggest moments in the last ten years and demonstrated an unwavering ability to carry this team on his shoulders during the times it has mattered the most.

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Sure, the road has been bumpy at times. There was the thumbs-down thing in 2021, there was the spat with Jeff McNeil, and a reported spat with Juan Soto which has since been resolved. He has said things at times which might suggest he knew he needed to be better. But he has always turned those negatives into positives and, again, he has demonstrated an ability to grow from those moments to become one of the greatest players to ever put on a Mets uniform and unquestionably the best shortstop this franchise has ever had.

But there were things in 2026 that were hard to ignore with Lindor which has me wondering about him.

Now, we cannot completely dismiss the injuries. Yeah, they messed his season up, but remember, Lindor is now on the wrong side of 30 and even if we put aside the hamate bone injury and the absence of consistent offense which comes with it postoperatively, the calf injury which sidelined him for two months in 2026 was a soft tissue injury, and those tend to become more prevalent as players age.

And the greatest predictor of future injury is past injury.

I am not remotely suggesting Lindor is injury-prone. He isn’t. In fact, he has played through broken bones and all sorts of things I am sure we don’t know about and still been a peak performer throughout his Mets tenure.

What I am saying is, however, that he’s entering his age-33 season in 2027 at a premium position and, for the first time in his career in 2026, outside of his rookie year in 2015 and the COVID-shortened season in 2020, he played fewer than 125 games. He also posted a 2.2 fWAR, which is the lowest mark of his career outside of 2020, a career-low .733 OPS, and a shockingly low .309 on-base percentage.

But his offense isn’t what has troubled me the most. After all, his exit velocity was still in the 88th percentile, and his hard-hit rate in the 91st percentile. His bat speed actually improved year-over-year from 2025 to 2026 as well.

He posted -4 defensive runs saved at shortstop and a .967 fielding percentage, both being the lowest marks of his career. He also showed diminished range at shortstop combined with reduced overall foot speed.

Now, the foot speed issue might be attributed to the calf injury. It could be attributed to aging. It could be a combination of the two. But, whatever we want to believe about the effects of the hamate bone, next to no spring training, and the impact of the calf injury, Lindor made mistakes at shortstop this year he almost never made, that which appeared to lack concentration and focus. I am talking about clanking routine ground balls, mental mistakes on the infield, things like that.

Those problems are what diminished his value in 2026 above everything else from my seat.

With players learning two new positions on the infield in 2026, the Mets needed at least one steady hand on their infield, and Lindor was supposed to be the one on the field that offered the least amount of concern, if any at all. But, it’s no secret that, between the injuries and the unexplainable lapses on the field, his defense just poured fuel on an out-of-control infield fire to the point that Bo Bichette— a minus defender historically who had never played third base before— was the Mets’ best infielder in 2026.

Now, to be clear, the Mets aren’t trading Lindor. He is going to be their opening-day shortstop if he’s healthy, and he is expected to have a normal off-season, normal ramp-up to Spring Training, and a normal Spring Training. That is unlike anything he experienced last winter. So, there’s nothing to even consider here short of the Mets finding a viable backup that isn’t Bichette, Brett Baty, or anyone who isn’t a plus defensive shortstop. That is probably not terribly difficult to find in the external markets, nor should it be particularly expensive for them.

They simply need to ensure they have an insurance policy for Lindor, which they didn’t have after they traded Luisangel Acuña to the White Sox for Luis Robert Jr. last winter.

Even so, this past season should offer everyone some pause and serve as a reminder that Lindor isn’t getting any younger, and the Mets probably need to find a formula that can help keep him fresher and potentially healthier in the near term, while starting to think about a succession plan in their pipeline at shortstop for the suddenly not-so-distant future.

That could be where prospects such as Sammy Stafura, Mitch Voit, and Jefferson Rojas could come into play in the future, if one or more of them aren’t traded to solve other problems over the same span of time.

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• OF Carson Benge, AJ Ewing and Luis Torrens are finalists for NL Gold Glove Awards

• Former Mets manager Carlos Mendoza is joining the Phillies coaching staff for 2027 (FanSided)

An honest evaluation on the old baby Mets ✍🏻

In sports, the formula is generally simple, although these days it has gotten more scientific— if you have good players, you’re going to have a good team. If you don’t, you won’t have a good team.

That simple formula applies to all levels of sports of all ages. It’s about talent in the end. The science and the metrics help us understand why a given player is talented or not, what specific areas of whichever game they’re playing they’re good and not good at.

Sure, players who weren’t good before might be now, and the same is true in the reverse. For some, the candle burns for a decade or longer. Others, they’re lucky if they get five years in before being shunned from their respective sport. And that is mostly true at all levels, whether it’s for a youth athlete or one that ends up in the professional ranks.

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For the Mets, this couldn’t be more relevant. Between Mark Vientos and Marcus Semien specifically, they had two of the worst 20 baseball players in the sport on their roster, with Vientos taking the cake with a -1.1 fWAR, tied for the worst in baseball.

It was these poor performances, in part, that contributed to the Mets’ poor season.

We already talked about Semien here; we know what Stearns is thinking on this date anyway with second base, so we will leave it at that.

Then there is Brett Baty, who for the first five months of the season was also in the conversation for being among the worst players in baseball, by fWAR’s measurement anyway. But, like he always seems to do, Baty gave the Mets a taste of what he is capable of being in this league over the season’s final month. His ascent this year started later than it did in 2025, when he had a strong 3–4 months stretch to close out the season. From August 22 through September 27, a span of 30 games to end the season, Baty hit .352/.427/.592 with eight doubles, three home runs, and 18 RBI, ranking him the 37th best player in the game during that stretch.

The problem for Baty was what he did before August 21, which of course spanned most of the season.

Over his first 113 games of the season, Baty hit .212/.285/.327 with 14 doubles, a triple, eight home runs, and 38 RBI, a span of 391 plate appearances. He had a 0 fWAR through August 20, ranking him the 10th-worst player in MLB by that measurement (min. 350 PA).

Combine that with Semien’s -0.4 fWAR through August 20, and that’s two of the bottom ten players in the game for nearly five full months of the season.

So, which one is it at this point? Quite frankly, nobody really knows. Even David Stearns said at the end of the season they need more consistency out of Baty if he’s going to be a regular player. That consistency has been largely absent for him since he arrived in the Major Leagues in 2023.

Through the end of August, it just felt like Baty’s time was running out with the Mets. He is heading into his first year of arbitration and, again, he was among the least valuable players in the game heading into the last month of the year. And while nobody should ever read into a player’s performance in September, especially that of Baty, who just hasn’t been that good in the big leagues, he probably earned himself another shot in a utility role in 2026. He demonstrated versatility at all four infield and two outfield positions this past year, although the only positions he demonstrated positive fielding run values were at second and third base, the latter being his natural position.

The question I had all year long about Baty was how much bouncing around the field might have been affecting his performance at the plate. Of course, there’s no real evidence he can sustain any sort of consistency in this league yet, but he was being asked to learn a bunch of new positions at the same time and evolve as a Major League hitter as well. To be fair, Baty put himself in a position where he has to find playing time at multiple positions due to his inability to show any consistency at any single position, but it’s fair to wonder about his ability to do all of these things well at the same time.

After all, being a utility player isn’t for everyone. It’s not for most people at that.

It’s hard to believe the Mets had three of the worst players on the field at the same time for long stretches of the season, but given that, it’s completely unsurprising the Mets were one of the worst teams in baseball for most of the year.

Even so, if I were to bet, I would expect Baty to be on this team in 2027. I am not sure how much more rope he has left, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to non-tender him this fall.

As for Vientos, that’s an entirely different story.

As I said, if the players are good, the team is good. And if the players are bad, the team is bad. Short of five months in the big leagues, Vientos has not been a good player, and his performance on both sides of the ball, whether he is at third base or at first, is making it really, really hard to keep him around.

His power is unquestionably tantalizing. The problem is, that’s pretty much the only thing he does well, and he seems to only do that well against left-handed pitching. He did produce an .513 slugging percentage against left-handed pitching this year, but only a .308 (!!!) slugging percentage against right-handed pitching.

He chases way too much, he swings-and-misses way too much, he doesn’t walk a lot, he strikes out a ton, he can’t get to anything down in the zone, he can’t hit a breaking ball, and he can’t lay off breaking balls running away from him, either. He produced an OPS+ of 81, 19 points below league average with a .212/.258/.394 line with 11 doubles, 13 home runs, and 41 RBI with 15 walks and 71 strikeouts over 295 plate appearances.

What’s worse, there has been no growth, no adjustment, nothing.

None of that even touches on his defense, either, which is just unplayable and that’s only being fair. At first base, he produced a -8 fielding run value and -9 outs above average in 2026.

Vientos was unplayable to the point Andy Green told him when he came back from the injured list late in the year that he was going to have to earn his way back onto the field. That pretty much spells it out as far as where Vientos stands even on a broken roster on this date. Where will he stand when the Mets make external acquisitions this winter?

The part that bothers me the most about the Vientos situation is that the Mets knew exactly what they had in him not only after the 2024 season, but after the 2025 season as well. Sure, he was a dynamic power source for them down the stretch and into the playoffs in 2024, which is what earned him an opportunity in 2025. But, again, they knew he was a minus defensive player then, yet they were still considering him as a replacement for Pete Alonso when they didn’t want him the first time. Then they did it again after Alonso walked, combining Vientos with Baty, Jorge Polanco, and whoever else has played baseball before as options at first base.

As I’ve said many times, that’s exactly what they thought of Alonso. But I digress.

At any rate, the point is the Mets aren’t exactly innocent as far as overexposing Vientos is concerned. I appreciate they were trying to recreate what he was between June and October in 2024, but it was pretty clear early in the 2025 season that was an anomaly. They should’ve seen what everyone else saw and mitigated it after the 2025 season, with or without Alonso. If he hadn’t been out of options in 2025, he probably would’ve been in the minor leagues then.

In short, I’d be super surprised if Vientos was a Met by Thanksgiving. There’s just no place for him anymore if the Mets are truly endeavoring to solve first base and find more value for this critical roster spot. At a minimum, they need a better and more well-rounded designated hitter option, and certainly it would be ideal to replace Vientos with an actual first baseman, although that is another thing that is going to be very hard to do this winter.

Vientos is entering his first year of arbitration this winter, and he is out of minor league options. Sure, he’s going to be cheap by MLB standards— he might get $1 million next year. But even at that salary with respect to his skillset combined with where the Mets stand from a payroll perspective, it would seem foolish to keep Vientos around considering he pretty much represents everything the Mets haven’t been good at in two years on the diamond and in the lineup all in one package.

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• Former Mets coach and advisor Guy Conti passed away at the age of 84 (NY Post)

What to do with Francisco Álvarez? ✍🏻

Among the many problems the Mets had— on either side of the ball— was behind the plate in 2026.

No, I am not referring to Luis Torrens, who has emerged as arguably the best backup catcher in baseball right now.

I am referring to Francisco Álvarez, who by the end of the season was a general liability for the Mets both behind the plate and inside the batter’s box.

Now, before we get into the weeds on this, it’s worth mentioning Álvarez once again had to deal with another injury-riddled year and specifically to his knee as he underwent mid-season surgery to repair a torn meniscus. He did come back sooner than expected but was still absent for about a month between mid-May and early June.

Even so, whenever a catcher’s legs are affected by an injury, it’s going to affect their performance. Slap a surgical procedure into that, and it doesn’t matter who the player is— there’s no way he was 100 percent when he came back, might not have been 100 percent for a while after he came back, and unquestionably was building leg and game strength back while he was playing when he came back.

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To be fair to Álvarez, he was generally fine at the plate throughout the month of June to the tune of a .265/.306/.515 line. And he was better than generally fine at the plate from June 9— the date he returned from the injured list— through August 10, a span of 45 games played during which he hit .268/.364/.477, or an .841 OPS.

But then it all began to crater for Álvarez. He began to chase way too much, he began to miss hittable pitches in the zone, and he was largely unplayable down the stretch because of that coupled with his poor defense, which we will get into next. From August 11 onward, a span of 31 games played, Álvarez hit just .176/.224/.296 with only seven walks against 48 strikeouts over his final 116 plate appearances, a whopping 41.3 percent. He posted 43 wRC+ and -0.4 fWAR after August 10, both of which were the fourth-worst mark among all catchers with at least 100 plate appearances.

The total body of work was problematic for Álvarez in 2026. He finished with a sub-.400 slugging percentage, a far too low on-base percentage, a below league-average OPS, and a career-high 129 strikeouts. His final line was .233/.311/.399 with 14 doubles, 16 home runs, and 43 RBI with a 99 OPS+ and 104 wRC+. His 99 OPS+ was one point below league average for all positions, and his 104 wRC+ was four points above league average.

How does all of that mediocre offense stack up against the rest of the catchers around the league?

Major League catchers averaged a .230/.304/.382 line with 91 wRC+. So by that measurement, Álvarez finished as an above-average catcher in this league. But, if he hadn’t cratered in mid-August, he might’ve finished as a well above-average catcher in this league, at the plate anyway.

Now, there are parts of Álvarez’s defense which improved from 2025, such as his pitch framing and his pop time. The metrics would suggest he was at least respectable in those areas, as he was in the 67th percentile in both. But, his blocking was flat-out atrocious and we all saw it. He sometimes stabbed at balls in the dirt, didn’t appear to be very mobile, and that equated to the first percentile in that category for Álvarez, which only led to extra bases for the opposition and run-creating opportunities against the Mets as well.

One could argue the knee injury played a role in his poor blocking, but Álvarez has historically been a poor blocker over the course of his career— he was in the 11th percentile in 2025, second percentile in 2024, and 43rd percentile in 2023.

So, that’s not it.

Right now, Álvarez can only be viewed as an offense-first catcher only, and again, his offense is concerning at best even if he’s still young. That doesn’t mean that as he gets older, his defense won’t improve. But there’s no way to predict if that will ever happen, and the Mets have to be primarily concerned about what he is today with respect to where the team is with this version of Álvarez. To be fair, Álvarez’s defense has been a detriment, and it can only be concluded— without even considering the catcher’s ERA - it has adversely affected their pitching overall.

By the way, if you’re someone who considers the ERA for pitchers with specific catchers behind the plate, Mets pitching had a 3.74 ERA when Torrens was catching, a 4.54 ERA when Álvarez was catching. The team allowed 91 more runs in only two more games with Álvarez (88) than Torrens (86).

In totality, it was his defense which made him unplayable at the end. After August 10, his offense was absent to the point that his defense was no longer tolerable— Torrens emerged as the better player for this team and pitching staff in particular. He sank to being the 27th worst player in the game after that date (min. 100 PA).

The question for the Mets going forward revolves around patience. How much more time can or should the Mets give Álvarez to become a competent catcher? They can unquestionably deal with the highs and lows of his offense— again, as frustrating as his offense was at the end of the season, his marks were above average for the year among all catchers in the game. He has to become more disciplined, his approach needs to be more consistent, and he does need to hit for more power overall, but all of that might be a baseball maturity issue more than anything else.

But they can’t deal with these offensive extremes if he is unplayable behind the plate. And we seem to have this conversation about Álvarez’s defense specifically every winter, and he will be entering his fifth full season in the big leagues in 2027, and is eligible for arbitration for the first time as well.

Now, just to get this out of the way, the Mets will tender Álvarez a contract this fall. They aren’t going to non-tender him and let him walk— they don’t have a full-time alternative on their roster. Yes, Torrens is great, but he is only great in this role. He should not be this team’s full-time catcher. That’s not what he is here to be.

But that shouldn’t stop the Mets from exploring alternatives, at least until that is exhausted. And I say that because the market for free agent catchers doesn’t really offer anything that would make the Mets that much better.

Unless the Mets can trade for an upgrade— which is the marketplace they’re going to have to look— it’s going to be hard to solve this problem this winter.

I would’ve said Liam Hicks might’ve been an ideal trade candidate this winter, but the Marlins moved him to the Rays this past season, and I see no reason why the Rays would off-load him given his current production with respect to controllability.

Adley Rutschman would combine youth with a balance of plus defense and above-average offense. Baltimore just moved him to Boston at the trade deadline, and he still has one more year of control before being eligible for free agency. It’s not clear if Boston would even consider unloading him as a rental, but they gave up a big package of minor leaguers to get him, and they probably won’t sniff that value in a return if they decided to move him this winter, regardless of how good he is.

There’s Hunter Goodman in Colorado, who, like Álvarez, is an offense-first catcher, and while he has 30–40 home run power, he’s a low on-base, high-strikeout guy. One might immediately conclude Goodman is a Coors Field product, but his home/road splits are surprisingly even, and he has hit more home runs in his career away from Coors than he has at home, albeit four more. He is under team control through 2030 and is already a two-time All-Star and Silver Slugger Award winner, so given the state of the Rockies and their latest attempt to rebuild, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for them to move Goodman unless they’re blown away with an offer.

Arizona’s Gabriel Moreno profiled as the best catcher in the league in 2026, but it’s almost impossible to see the Diamondbacks even entertaining a move for him even as he is very likely to get more expensive through arbitration. He posted a 5.4 fWAR, led the league in hitting with a .311 batting average, posted a 143 OPS+, and will presumably win a second Gold Glove behind the plate in 2026. It would be nice for sure if the Mets could put together a comfortable package for this kind of catcher, but unless they’d be willing to give up two top-five prospects for an elite player at a premium position, Moreno will be nothing more than a pipe dream.

As you can see, there’s no easy path forward for the Mets to upgrade over Álvarez. They may need to stay patient for another season with him, hope he stays healthy, and at least make him competent so he can be a playable catcher end-to-end in 2027.

If he isn’t and they’re contending, perhaps they can entertain a trade next summer.

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Perhaps he should’ve listened to the character portrayal of Ron Washington, and not that of Billy Beane.

At any rate, the noises of all of Stearns’s failures over the past year are at first base. We all know that— we have talked about it exhaustingly here, it’s been talked about during the TV broadcasts, radio broadcasts, endlessly chronicled in the media, and then put on full demonstration during the Orioles visit to Citi Field in September, when Pete Alonso more or less shoved it into the faces of the front office, which in turn caused a public protest on the matter by the fans at Citi Field.

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In the end, Stearns and his front office dehumanized the impact Alonso had on the fan base and even his own roster and organization not just last year, but the year before as well. Remember— it was Steve Cohen who intervened on the negotiation at a meeting with Stearns and Alonso at his house just before the start of the 2025 season, and helped facilitate a deal to bring Alonso back for that season. It was the first clear moment that demonstrated the Mets front office simply didn’t want Alonso, didn’t really value Alonso all that much, and felt that almost anyone could be better than Alonso at first base.

All of that became a reality just ten months later, when Alonso bolted for Baltimore without even a sniff from the Mets. They didn’t want him, this front office never wanted him, and they thought a combination of Jorge Polanco, Jared Young, Brett Baty, and Mark Vientos— all of whom were not first basemen by trade— would be better than Alonso.

Now, you and I knew that wouldn’t be the case. Sure, Alonso is an offense-first player, although he was much-improved at first base this past season in Baltimore. But I wrote a year ago that Alonso’s defense was watered down by the fact that the defense at second and in right field had been so bad in 2025, that it couldn’t do anything other than over-expose Alonso’s issues there. Flanking him with better defensive players would in turn help Alonso defensively.

Of course, we never got to see that unfold, and Marcus Semien, as we all know by now, might not have helped the matter, either.

In 2026, Mets first basemen produced a .231/.287/.380 line with 29 doubles, 18 home runs, and 77 RBI with 40 walks and 135 strikeouts. The -1.4 fWAR from Mets first basemen was, by far, the worst in MLB. Their 85 wRC+ was 29th in MLB, their 18 home runs were 24th, their 6.2 percent walk rate was 29th, their .380 slugging percentage 25th. They needed eight different first basemen to produce those marks as well.

The problem is, again, this wasn’t entirely unpredictable. If you’re in the camp that’s ok with letting Alonso go, that’s perfectly fine, but everyone in both camps can agree that after letting Alonso go, they needed to replace him with an actual first baseman. And there were plenty of alternatives— albeit lesser ones— available in free agency and trade last winter.

Now, one of the things people should realize is the Mets probably wouldn’t have been a lot better than they were if they had retained Alonso. They wouldn’t have been much better with any other first baseman in the league. This just happens to be the poster child for everything that went wrong for the Mets in 2026, but we all know their defense was terrible, they didn’t hit a lot overall, and their starting pitching wasn’t good enough, either.

Now, it absolutely contributed to their problems, but it wasn’t the problem that held the Mets back in 2026. Look no further than the 2025 Mets, which had Alonso and other better players, plus peak seasons from both Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, and they still were essentially a .500 team in the end and on the outside looking in.

So, enough about the past. It is what it is now. Where do the Mets go from here?

One thing that has been clarified at least is that it would appear the days of hyping up Vientos at first base are in the past. Of course, I never truly understood why the Mets even entertained the notion of Vientos at first base, a foreign position to him after failing at third base.

Another thing that’s been clarified is, at least for now, it seems like the notion that Polanco can be even an irregular first baseman is not on the table. They need to get this guy healthy before they can even consider putting him anywhere on the field, and Stearns said during his end-of-year press conference that Polanco would only be in a baseball progression phase when Spring Training begins in February. What that means is anyone’s guess, but until proven otherwise, nobody can expect anything from Polanco— he is a “seeing is believing” guy right now for this club after they signed him to a two-year, $40 million contract last December.

They need power. They need a steady presence. They need stronger defense. That entire package is going to be hard to find in totality. There will need to be compromises.

They don’t have anything viable at the top of the organization, either.

Ryan Clifford, who is currently at Triple-A and is the 14th-ranked prospect in their system, was a catastrophe offensively in 2026, so much so that he found himself on the development list towards the end of the year. He struck out 174 times in 470 plate appearances this year and produced a .180/.277/.363 line for Triple-A Syracuse. Strikeouts have always been Clifford’s undoing, but this year, if you watched him even for a single game, you saw he was totally lost at the plate. He would’ve undoubtedly been with the Mets at some point if he was a competent alternative, but that wasn’t the case at all and he’s going to have to show a lot next year in the minors to factor in at all in the big leagues.

The Mets did acquire Cole Mathis for David Peterson in June, but Mathis is still pretty far away and not a factor at the major league level yet.

It’s pretty obvious the Mets are going to the external markets for a first baseman this winter. That typically excites people, but I have some bad news for those looking towards free agency— there aren’t really a lot of options for the Mets to consider, and certainly no sure things in that market.

Jake Bauers, Alec Bohm, and Ty France headline the free agent first base market. There’s also Paul Goldschmidt, Rhys Hoskins, and Nathaniel Lowe, but this is as thin of a menu as there’s been at the position in a while.

Bauers is coming off a career year with the Brewers, during which he hit .266/.389/.874 with 22 doubles, 26 home runs, and 86 RBI, the latter two marking new career highs for the 30-year-old first baseman. He produced an OPS+ of 140, which is by far a new career high for Bauers. He actually seems like a candidate to be retained by the Brewers since he shouldn’t be terribly expensive, even after coming off a big year. He had bounced around for most of his career between the Rays, Guardians, Mariners, and Yankees from 2018–2023 before finding a home in Milwaukee over the last three years, and didn’t come into his own until this season. AS such, his track record is concerning and, for the Mets, too risky if you ask me to consider.

Bohm, 29, picked a bad year to have a bad year. He started as the Phillies’ third baseman, but moved to first base when they picked up Luis Arraez for the stretch drive. Bohm doesn’t strike out a lot, but he doesn’t walk a lot either and is a poor defensive player no matter where he is out there.

Goldschmidt, 38, has had two nice years with the Yankees but is probably not an everyday solution anymore. Lowe is coming off an up-and-down season with the Reds and Guardians but still produced a .761 OPS as a below-average defensive player, and France, 31, is coming off a big year with the Padres but had been worth 1.3 bWAR between 2023–2025 combined. He’s intriguing and could very much be on the table for the Mets since he’s a strong defender with proven upside offensively, but falls into that “risky” bucket. Perhaps the Mets would consider bringing France in if they mitigate their issues and risks in other areas of the roster first, so we will see.

As far as trade candidates go, this is always hard to read so early in the off-season. Spencer Torkelson is a name that has floated around the trade winds over the last year or so, so perhaps the Mets might see what it would take to pry him away from the Tigers. He is still two years away from free agency, and at age 27 produced a .230/.331/.435 line with 26 home runs and 77 RBI in 159 games with the Tigers. Torkelson strikes out a lot— he fanned 194 times in 612 plate appearances and has struck out 738 times in 2730 plate appearances over his five-year career. He plays every day, walks a lot though, and doesn’t chase, although he is another below-average defensive first baseman.

Rangers 1B Jake Burger potentially fits the profile for what the Mets need, with a combination of power and strong defense, although it’s unclear if Texas would even entertain a trade for Burger, who is still cheap and under control for two more seasons. He did hit 28 home runs, drove in 90 but he doesn’t get on base a lot— over the last three years, Burger has produced a .293 on-base percentage.

But, again, it’s worth a call on Burger and Torkelson at a minimum, as the Mets are at rock bottom at this position right now.

There are always trades that we aren’t thinking about or would even consider. And this isn’t to downplay their dire need to upgrade at first base, but I could see this playing itself out into the latter portion of the off-season too. Trades tend to take longer to put together, especially the bigger need kinds of moves like the Mets have with mostly undesirable options available in free agency.

In other words, we may have to be a little patient in their pursuit for a resolution at this position.

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Happy Saturday, Mets fans – the latest Patreon exclusive episode of The Just Mets Podcast has dropped!

This week, Rich MacLeod reacts to a successful October hate watch as the Phillies, Braves and Yankees all got eliminated within a week of each other.

Enjoy a free preview of this week’s episode on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

For access to full bonus episodes, become a paid subscriber here on Substack or over on Patreon.

If you’re already a paid subscriber to Just Mets, you can watch/listen to this week’s exclusive full episode below…

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Before the 2026 season, the Mets signed Devin Williams to a three-year, $51 million contract. $5 million per year has been deferred until 2036, during which he will be paid $1.5 million per year through the 2045 season.

The Mets seemingly signed Williams with the intention of having him as insurance in the event Edwin Díaz signed elsewhere, which he did shortly after the Mets inked Williams to his three-year contract. But the Mets didn’t pivot to find another closer, which left Díaz the closer and, suffice it to say, Williams, who had a similarly perplexing first year in New York with the Yankees in 2025, struggled to find consistency end-to-end with the Mets in 2026.

Now, the metrics of course would have you believe Williams pitched with a lot of bad luck. That’s probably true to an extent— his FIP was 3.05 in 2026 compared to his 4.43 ERA. That suggests the defense behind him was poor, and we all know how many issues the Mets had defensively at shortstop, second, and first base throughout the year, no matter who was playing on any given day. His chase rate, swing-and-miss rate, strikeout rate, and hard-hit rate were all elite in 2026 too.

While in Milwaukee, Williams’s FIP was consistently higher than that of his ERA, which was incredibly low for his first five full seasons there. Yes, their defense is perennially better than either the Yankees or the Mets, and it’s therefore fair to conclude Williams, who unquestionably has an elite change-up, benefits more from a stronger defense as he is less reliant upon missing bats than other closers around the game.

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The problem for Williams is that the bad luck argument can only go so far, as that was the same conversation, or at least partly anyway, Yankees people were having about his equally disappointing season with them in 2025. After all, I don’t think Williams wants to go down as the unluckiest closer in New York sports history. And good defense can’t help his walk rate, which has averaged above four per nine innings over the last two seasons and was closer to five than it was four with the Mets in 2026. Couple that with a lower strikeout rate— albeit excellent at 11.5-ish over the last two seasons— and it just adds to his inability to perform as a closer.

These are the quantifiable issues with Williams as a closer, which, again, were generally problems for him with the Yankees as well. Having missed a month or so with a shoulder problem late in the year further devalued Williams, although it did give the Mets a chance to look at Kodai Senga as their closer in his absence, for better or for worse.

But there’s always the possibility, as David Stearns spoke about during his end-of-year press conference, that Williams’s adjustment to playing in New York has been a challenge, which quite possibly has impacted his overall performance.

Now, I am not going to get into the validity of that. Only Williams knows the truth on the matter, but he chose to stay in New York after his first year with the Yankees, effectively making this a four-year trip to the Big Apple. So like it or not, and whether he performs or not, or whether he can ultimately deal with pitching in New York or not, he’s here and he’s going to be here for another two years.

But that doesn’t mean the Mets should simply accept the status quo with Williams. If anything has been demonstrated over the last two years, it’s that he might be more valuable as a setup man and a contrasting figure to a more traditional closer figure in the ninth inning.

Again, the Mets clearly intended to have Williams set up Díaz before Díaz bolted for the Dodgers, so it’s not as if this is a novel idea for the club.

The need is probably more apparent now than it was a year ago to at least find an insurance policy to Williams, which might be why the Mets were taking a hard look at Senga in that role.

Now, that does not at all mean Senga will be a short reliever. I don’t really think he showed a lot to inspire confidence he can do it, especially since he remains steadfast in his desire to be a starting pitcher. That’s not to say his heart isn’t in a bullpen role or he can’t eventually become a meaningful part of a Major League bullpen, but while he showed glimpses, the Mets probably still need to go out to the external markets to solve this problem.

I don’t ultimately know where that would leave Senga, who just isn’t a Major League starting pitcher at this point either, and an awfully expensive middle reliever if he is on the roster out of Spring Training (don’t forget Sean Manaea, who might be in a similar boat).

Back to Williams— what can the Mets do?

If the Mets decide Williams is not going to be their closer next year, the alternative might not be in the organization, which means they’re going to have to go to the external markets for an answer to this problem.

Among the free agent relievers who profile as closers are David Bednar, who has been the Yankees’ full-time closer over the last year and has recorded 45 saves with them since he was acquired in late 2025. There are clearly no issues for Bednar, who will turn 32 on Saturday, pitching in New York, as he has a 2.39 ERA in 86 appearances with the Yankees over the last 1 1/2 years. His fastball has averaged 96.1 mph this season, which is in the 77th percentile. He has an elite chase rate at 38.4 percent thanks to a devastating splitter. So, he’s unquestionably a strong fit to strengthen the ninth inning.

There’s Pete Fairbanks, who signed with the Marlins before the 2026 season, but did not exactly thrive outside of the Rays system of excellence players perform under there. Walks were a big problem for Fairbanks, who had a 6.31 ERA in 46 appearances for Miami in 2026. But Fairbanks, who will turn 33 in December, still throws hard and gets a lot of swing and miss. He could be an interesting flyer guy, but I am not sure the Mets will want to assume a risk on Fairbanks in this roster spot at this time.

Raisel Iglesias, the scraggly veteran closer for the Braves, is still very effective and will be a free agent after this season as well. He had 34 saves and a 2.55 ERA in 59 appearances for Atlanta in 2026. I’d bet on Iglesias returning to Atlanta, but if he doesn’t, then this is someone for the Mets to consider as well.

Kenley Jansen saved 22 games for the Tigers in 50 appearances in 2026, to the tune of a 3.20 ERA. He still doesn’t walk a lot of batters, and his strikeout rate was actually up from his age-37 season with the Angels in 2025, although still below his career average (as expected, given he’s 38). The Tigers hold a $12 million club option on Jansen, so it remains to be seen if he becomes a free agent.

Andrés Muñoz is coming off a down year with the Mariners as their closer, but he still saved 28 games in 61 appearances. He had a 1.73 ERA with 38 saves in 2025, but his ERA ballooned to 4.24 in 2026. He became more hittable thanks to reduced slider effectiveness, but Muñoz throws hard, he gets a lot of chase and swing-and-miss, and induces a lot of groundballs. He could be an interesting option if the Mariners decline his $8 million option. I’d be surprised personally if that happened given his track record and team-friendly option, even after a down year. But the Mariners need to make changes, and we all know their GM, Jerry DiPoto, loves to move pieces around.

There are others, not to mention the possibility of a trade. Given the strong performances late in the year from Jonathan Pintaro, Daniel Duarte, Nate Lavender, Dedniel Núñez, and with Reed Garrett returning along with hope that Jefry Yan and Dylan Ross might be able to emerge as effective relievers eventually, the bullpen seems like a less urgent need this winter than it has in the past, which could bode well for the chances the Mets make finding a closer a point of emphasis, since they don’t have to budget as much for this area of the roster.

That is, of course, assuming they still believe they need to make a change in the ninth inning.

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• Jeff Albert (director, major league hitting), Danny Barnes (QA coach), Kevin Mahoney (batting practice pitcher) will not return to the major league coaching staff in 2027

The state of the Mets rotation ✍🏻

So far, I have discussed the impact Bo Bichette can have on the Mets’ off-season with his opt-out decision looming, as well as the deep abyss at second base and what the Mets seem poised to do about it.

Another point of emphasis David Stearns discussed in his end-of-year press conference was the club’s starting pitching, and their intention to pursue upgrades to their rotation over the course of the winter.

The calculus for the starting rotation has unquestionably changed from the early part of the season to now. On Opening Day, this rotation consisted of Freddy Peralta, Clay Holmes, Nolan McLean, David Peterson, and Kodai Senga. Sean Manaea was in the bullpen, Christian Scott wasn’t ready to return to the major leagues, and nobody was really talking about Zac Thornton, both of which not only were injected into the Mets rotation over the course of the season but both performed and changed the trajectory of their entire rotation heading into future seasons.

Then, of course, there’s Jonah Tong, who made a pretty strong and encouraging case for himself during the final month of the regular season as a member of the rotation after an up and down season at Triple-A.

Now, Peralta is gone, as are Holmes and Peterson. Senga is a bipolar short reliever right now, and for the time being anyway, Manaea is a member of this rotation. There’s also Tylor Megill, who missed the entire season while he recovered from Tommy John Surgery but is expected to have a normal off-season and be in competition for a spot in the starting rotation during Spring Training. For now, anyway.

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And I say for now on Megill—which also applies to Manaea and Senga—because, again, Stearns said he intends to find more starting pitching this winter. In fact, he spoke more directly about finding additional starting pitching (without naming names, of course) than finding upgrades for any other area of need on the roster. So, this is clearly a priority for the club this winter.

So, to recap, here’s the rotation today in no particular order:

• Nolan McLean

• Zac Thornton

• Christian Scott

• Sean Manaea

• Pray for rain

Yeah, they don’t really have a fifth starter at the moment, and I’d argue Manaea is seriously on the bubble in the rotation right now as well. It’s not even clear yet how they view Thornton or Scott, although both were truly excellent under the circumstances and I’d pencil them in at the moment.

In 2026, Mets starting pitchers threw to the tune of a 4.47 ERA, which was 23rd in the game. That actually seems surprising considering how good McLean, Thornton, and Scott were in the second half and how good Holmes was for the first two months of the season for the club, but the numbers are what they are and it’s a testament to how poorly everyone else pitched for them. The rotation recorded 791 innings (4.88 IP per game), 22nd in the sport, and provided 54.8 percent of the entire staff’s overall workload. Walks were once again a problem for this rotation—they walked 3.56 batters per nine, which was the sixth-worst mark in the game, and the 10.4 fWAR produced by the rotation was the 11th-worst mark in baseball.

It’s safe to say this rotation was victimized by poor defense throughout the year with their 4.18 FIP, which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the club’s defense was pretty bad at three infield positions and the rotation produced a 41.3 percent ground ball rate, which was middle of the pack.

But again, this was a tale of two seasons for the Mets rotation.

This version of the starting rotation for the Mets wasn’t in place full time until July 12 which, conveniently, is the approximate date the Mets began to play better in 2026. Before July 12, the Mets rotation had a 4.59 ERA in 96 games. In the season’s final 66 games, the rotation pitched to a 4.32 ERA, but a lot of that was inflated by Manaea, Robert Stock, a few more bad starts from Peralta, and a bunch of bullpen games as a result of simply not having enough starting pitching.

If we split out the starting pitching for the entire season, the combination of McLean, Thornton, and Scott, and Tong combined for a 3.44 ERA. Every other starter for the Mets (min. 10 IP in that role)? A 5.28 ERA. And that includes Clay Holmes’ 2.39 ERA over 52.2 IP through mid-May.

So, it stands to reason why Stearns wants to pursue starting pitching this winter. At the top of the depth chart, the Mets need two legit major league starting pitchers. But they need more at the bottom too. After all, if you’re betting the Mets are getting through 162 games with six or even seven starters, just hand me the money now and save yourself the stress next spring and summer.

The question is, are his pursuits going to be more of the same, as in reclamation projects, pitchers coming off a down year or years, and stocking quantity at the expense of quality? Or will it be more top-end solutions to the problem?

From my seat, it has to be a little bit of both.

When Steve Cohen spoke with the media after the trade deadline, he spoke out about the need for Stearns and the front office to be less risk-averse in their player acquisition strategy. Now, I think it’s ok for any GM to see a player’s upside and gamble on it, but only if they have surer things to support the risk of failure with that player. Stearns said it himself during his end-of-year press conference that the front office did a poor job protecting their gambles from last winter, which pretty much encompassed all of their external acquisitions from failing, which in turn caused what could only be viewed as an endless free fall for the team.

Now, that’s not to say even the lowest-risk moves won’t burn the Mets. Peralta specifically was seen as a great get for the top of the rotation, albeit an expensive one in prospect currency, and it just didn’t work out simply because the front office probably missed on Peralta’s inability to thrive in New York, thrive inside their pitching system, or both.

The problem is, most of Stearns’s external acquisitions did not work out, and most of that wasn’t unpredictable, either.

Now, I don’t know how most players might profile in New York. Especially starting pitchers when the spotlight is squarely on them every 5–6 days. And the Mets, for whatever reason, have this dynamic to them that makes it especially difficult for players to adjust to their environment. Maybe its the media, maybe its media relations, maybe its their organizational culture, who knows. But this hasn’t changed with their new owner, either.

The free agent starting pitching class is headlined by Tarik Skubal, who I have said many times the Mets have to do what it takes to sign with them. He could cost north of $400 million over a very long term, but Stearns basically said on Monday that, like they did with Juan Soto two years ago, they’re willing to flex their financial muscle for the right players.

Now, would Stearns be willing to break completely out of his comfort zone by giving out a long-term contract to a pitcher and get into what could be a high-stakes bidding race against the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, and other teams hungry for a two-time Cy Young Award winner about to turn 30? Skubal is pitching in Los Angeles, is going to pitch on the national stage in the playoffs for the most scrutinized team in the game today. If he can see this through, that would leave little doubt about his ability to thrive in New York.

The next tier of starting pitching would include Kevin Gausman, Clay Holmes, Sonny Gray, and Michael King if he opts out (he will presumably do so), and Nick Martínez $20 million mutual option), among a few others potentially.

The Mets were interested in King last winter to an extent before he signed back with the Padres, and he is coming off a season in which he set a career high in innings pitched (185) and starts (32). His strikeout rate was down from 2025, but his home run rate improved along with his WHIP and hits per nine rates. He’s not a big veto guy, but his sinker/change-up combination makes him hard to hit, which is demonstrated in his 32.7 percent hard-hit rate allowed along with the 87 mph opposing exit velocity, both of which are in the top 15th percentile in all of baseball.

King would be an ideal target if they cannot land Skubal for sure, as would Holmes, who might ask for fewer years than King, considering Holmes is coming off an injury-riddled season and struggled a bit after the trade to the Cubs.

Martínez, who just turned 36, is always someone who flies under the radar but is very, very good and could be had on a shorter deal. He made 31 starts for the Rays in 2026 but can be a swingman if needed with a history of being both a starter and a reliever. He doesn’t throw hard, but everything else about Martínez is just good— his sinker, cutter, and change-up all remain elite; he doesn’t walk guys, doesn’t give up a lot of home runs, and is just always quietly excellent for every team he plays for. Martínez is not an ace, but if the Mets signed him to be a starter, they could plug him into the middle of their rotation and use him as a reliever if needed over time.

Then, of course, there’s Gausman, who will be 36 next season but still doesn’t walk a lot of guys, gets a lot of chances, and to this point anyway, can be trusted to go every fifth day. He probably projects more towards the back of the rotation at this point in his career given the metrics, as he’s become more hittable over the last year than he did while with the Blue Jays during their championship run in 2025. I wouldn’t view Gausman as a risk per se, but if the Mets were to sign him, he wouldn’t be solving their problem in the rotation entirely, even if he helps mitigate their bases on balls issue, a problem which seems to plague this team year after year.

Regarding Gray, he’s been great pretty much everywhere except for his time with the Yankees. That scares me from a player profile perspective with respect to playing in New York, but he was brilliant in Boston this past season and has had a generally solid 14-year career as a mid-rotation starter. He’s another one though that would help fix the problems that plagued the Mets pitching staff as far as walks and home runs allowed are concerned, but it’s hard to get past his problems with the Yankees a decade-ish ago.

On the trade front, perhaps Seattle would be willing to part ways with one of their starting pitchers. They already have shown a willingness to do that after trading Luis Castillo away, although that was more in an effort to free up a spot for Kade Anderson, who is a top prospect for the Mariners. But we all know Mariners GM Jerry DiPoto loves to move pieces around, so maybe he’d listen seriously for offers on Logan Gilbert or area native George Kirby, the latter of which was originally drafted by the Mets in 2016.

Would the Giants listen on Logan Webb? He had a meh year in 2026 but is only entering his age-30 season, has a track record of being a top of the rotation starter, is under control for two more years at a modest price point at $23 million in 2027 and $24 million in 2028.

There are others, but for now we can leave the discussion there to get you all thinking.

As for the rest of the starting pitchers, it’s important to note that the Mets feel as though they have more depth inside their minor league system than they have in the past. It’s hard not to agree with that to a degree, although it is questionable at best.

There’s Megill, who again is coming off Tommy John Surgery. He will be ramping up as a starting pitcher this winter, but he has yet to enjoy any consistency as a starter. There have been glimpses and some small stretches that make one believe he can do it, but then he falls off a cliff out there and he gets right back to square one. He has shrunk his repertoire, he has tweaked his delivery, and has done everything he can to try and become an effective starting pitcher, but it has yet to happen for him over any length of time, which makes Megill unreliable until he proves otherwise.

There is, of course, Manaea, but needless to say, he is probably in a position where he is going to be competing for a spot in the rotation in camp as well. And, if he doesn’t make it, I truly wonder if he will fit on the roster at all. He’s making some serious coin, so DFA’ing him is a tough pill to swallow. But, in the end, if the Mets are going to be a better ball club, they need better players than what they have now. It’s as simple as that.

The same can be said about Senga, who probably has less of a role on this team than Manaea does going forward. He was lost as a starter, showed signs he could be an effective reliever at times down the stretch of the 2026 season, but then would barf up some appearances which just made everyone scratch their heads about him. He wants to start—he has been clear about that—but there’s just no runway for him to do that here. However, Stearns did indicate Senga will be in camp with the Mets in February, but it’s fair to wonder if he could be at the end of his line with the team, especially after they retool this roster this coming winter.

Among the minor league hopefuls at the top of the organization, there’s Jonathan Santucci, the club’s top pitching prospect currently, Jack Wenninger, and recently acquired area-native Gary Gill Hill, who the Mets got from the Rays for Peralta.

So yes, I do agree the Mets have more in their pool than they normally do, but there are no slam dunks here to make the rotation. If I were the Mets, and they do end up having an open spot in the rotation, I’d be more inclined to lean into Santucci, Wenninger, or Gill Hill than any of the veterans, but that all depends on where they are five and six months ago with respect to the rest of the rotation.

This is going to be a big test for Stearns and his willingness to balance risk with more predictable performances. And with one pitcher that’s available who is particularly unique, it may be time for him to cast aside his reservations, take a chance, and see how he fares.

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Nobody holds a more important key to the Mets’ off-season plans than Bo Bichette.

He holds an opt-out with a $5 million buyout at the conclusion of the World Series, at which point he would become a free agent and vacate third base. The Mets could then try to negotiate a long-term contract with Bichette and attempt to retain him (or do that right now, actually), or he could immediately become arguably the best free agent position player available in a weak free agent class and a potential bonanza in free agency ahead of December 1, the day the collective bargaining agreement expires between Major League Baseball and the Players Association.

For Bichette, though, neither decision is a no-brainer.

When taking a look at his entire body of work, Bichette’s first season in New York was average to slightly below. If you didn’t follow Bichette’s full-season journey, and just watched him in the first two months of the season, you saw a terrible player. If you didn’t start watching until mid-May, you saw the player the Mets envisioned when they signed him.

Of course, if you watched the season from beginning to end, you probably saw a player who had a difficult time adjusting to two things at the same time—third base and New York—but eventually figured it out and looked like himself.

From Opening Day through May 17, Bichette, who will be 29 on Opening Day, hit .210/.262/.269 with 39 hits, five doubles, two home runs, 18 RBI and 19 runs scored. He had struck out 34 times and walked only 14 times in 202 plate appearances over his first 46 games. He was generally competent defensively at first base while slumping through his first 46 games of the year, but the signing through mid-May looked like a square peg in a round hole.

BButMay 18 brought the winds of change for Bichette.

Over his final 114 games of the season, Bichette hit .281/.332/.440 with 20 doubles, two triples, 16 home runs, 60 RBI, 127 hits, and 57 runs scored. He struck out 93 times with 35 walks over his final 494 plate appearances.

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Now again, Bichette’s struggle over the first two months of the year can be attributed to adjusting to a new position and New York at the same time. In fact, David Stearns spoke during his end-of-year press conference about Bichette’s adjustment period this past season, and how that generally needs to be examined for all players they have on their whiteboards.

At the same time, when evaluating Bichette’s potential free agency and his price point, the first two months cannot simply be dismissed by any club, if he enters the open market. At the end of the day, Bichette produced 2.0 fWAR, which is fine but not $42 million fine, and his 96 wRC+ was four points below league average.

Interestingly enough, Bichette’s strikeout rate was around four percent higher than it was in 2025 while with the American League champion Blue Jays, but still lower than his career average by a full point. And, while you might’ve thought he was striking out at a higher rate over the first two months of the season, he was actually striking out at a higher rate after May 17.

As for his defense, Bichette was generally dependable at third base, which was an entirely new position for him in 2026. It was a little concerning in Spring Training and in the very early part of the season, but overall, he was a plus defender as far as outs above average (2) and fielding run value (1) are concerned. He did have -8 defensive runs saved at third, which, when combined with the rest of the defensive messes on the infield, is less than good. BButI can’t complain about Bichette’s body of work at third base, all things considered.

The problem for Bichette and free agency was his 2.5 fWAR and 117 wRC+ from May 17 on equated only to 2 fWAR and 96 wRC+ for the year. That’s how bad his first two months of the season were for him.

I am not trying to criticize Bichette by any means. I have every bit of faith Bichette will look more like the post-May 17 version of himself next year than not, wherever he ends up. But the question he has to ask is, given his overall performance in 2026 with respect to his salary, can he top the two years and $84 million he is signed for right now in a longer-term deal? It would seem incredibly unlikely he could even approach the $42 million salary, but would another team in need of a third baseman out there, such as the Yankees, who could conceivably move Ryan McMahon to second base if they let Jazz Chisholm Jr. walk, be willing to give Bichette the $28.5 million per year over even five years the Phillies reportedly offered him last winter before he bolted for the Mets?

Now, again, in a weak free agent class, anything is possible, Especially when it’s slim pickings out there. And, even two months ago, I would’ve said Bichette would’ve been wise to opt into his $42 million salary and bank on a more consistent season before considering opting out again after the 2027 season, especially with economic uncertainty ahead with the expiring collective bargaining agreement.

But I am not as confident Bichette will stay on this date simply because he was so good after May 17, free agency is extraordinarily weak this winter, and the potential for a free agent frenzy in late November.

It’s also worth mentioning that, because Bichette received a qualifying offer from Toronto a year ago, he cannot get one from the Mets. So, it makes his free agency that much more attractive for potential suitors even in what can only be considered an inconsistent year at best.

And if he leaves, it just creates another problem for them on an already problematic infield.

Leaving Francisco Lindor’s defensive issues out of it for a moment, the Mets were dead last at both first (-0.8) and second base (-0.7) by fWAR in 2026. At second base, their -5 outs above average was 21st in MLB, their -5 fielding run value was 26th in MLB. At first base, their -14 outs above average was tied for 30th, their -10 fielding run value was 28th.

Meanwhile, their three outs above average at third base was the eighth best, and their 2 fielding run value was 11th best in the game. In other words, Bichette offered an element of stability to their chaotic infield mess, which helped lead to their demise in 2026.

Internally, the Mets could consider taking Brett Baty out of the equation at second base and shifting him back to third, which is his natural position and the place he has given the Mets the most consistency on both sides of the ball. However, as Stearns indicated during his end-of-year press conference, the Mets would like to see more consistency from Baty end-to-end in a season. In other words, it sure doesn’t sound like the Mets are willing to entrust Baty with a starting role at this time. If they did this, however, they would unquestionably need to sign or trade for some kind of solution in free agency, as they cannot depend on Marcus Semien being competent or lean into any one of their top prospects (yet, anyway).

There’s also the possibility the Mets could keep Baty in a super-utility role or have him compete with top prospects Jefferson Rojas in camp at third. Given their issues at second base, this might be a less desirable outcome, though, at least at the beginning of the season. They would unquestionably need major league insurance there, but again, this might fall into the “too risky” bucket, that which Steve Cohen clearly wants the front office to avoid where possible and logical.

On the free agent front, the alternatives to Bichette are not that appealing. There’s Chisholm, who has been the Yankees’ regular second baseman, then Alec Bohm, who has been at first base for the Phillies since the trade deadline after being largely terrible at third base throughout his career (he could be an option at first base, which we can talk about another day, for what it’s worth). There is Mauricio Dubon, who has been a utility infielder throughout his career but average to slightly above recently at third base for the Braves, but spent the bulk of his innings at shortstop for Atlanta this past season. He could be an interesting get for the Mets as someone they can float around the infield while providing solid and dependable, contact-centric offense, and that could be where Baty fits in over there in that scenario.

But aside from that, there really aren’t any viable free agents on the list. And again, it just adds to the mess pile the Mets have to clean up on their infield if Bichette leaves.

So yeah, as you can see, Bichette’s decision is a pivotal one for the Mets this winter, and something they’re going to know about very quickly. The Mets are better with Bichette than without him, they have fewer uncertainties with him than without him, but in the end, he holds the key to so many things for this club going forward.

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It took me a while to decide where to start my series of posts on where the Mets are, and where do they go from here. There are a lot of good things, but a lot of bad things too and a lot to digest from David Stearns’s end-of-season press conference on Monday.

I decided it really didn’t matter where I began. There are so many topics, and so many things that are connected and intertwined that the beginning can start almost anywhere. So, while things quiet down for the Mets and the 17 other teams that are not at the October dance, I’ll begin with a discussion around the Mets situation at second base.

Now, I believe a lot of what the Mets do at second and at first for that matter hinges on what Bo Bichette decides with his opt-out (which I will discuss on its own in the next chapter). If he opts out, the Mets need to address three problems on their infield. If he stays, they have two.

Needless to say, Marcus Semien was generally atrocious for the Mets this season. To be fair, we all probably didn’t expect much from Semien offensively, but expected him to at least approach the Gold Glove defense he gave the Rangers in 2025. None of us expected Semien to have -9 outs above average and a -8 fielding run value, both of which were the second-worst among all qualified second basemen in the game in 2026. His -2 defensive runs saved was the fifth-worst in the game.

When that poor defense was combined with his .620 OPS, Semien became unplayable, although he continued to get regular playing time despite his poor performance. The team’s -0.7 fWAR at second base was by far the lowest mark in all of baseball, and Semien, simply put, was largely responsible for that major gap on the field.

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The problem, of course, is they produced -0.8 fWAR at first base, which was also the worst in the sport. But we will talk about first base another day.

As for Semien, Stearns was clear that he is not committing to Semien as the full-time second baseman in 2027. He’s entering his age-37 season and has two years left on his seven-year, $175 million contract he signed with the Rangers before the 2022 season. He is now a less-is-more player at best for this team and could conceivably be a DFA candidate after the 2027 season if he doesn’t provide some value to the club next season. But he doesn’t profile as a right-handed designated hitter option, his defense at this point in his career doesn’t warrant being a late-game replacement, and he hasn’t hit enough for a long time to be a starting player, either. So, it’s hard to see how this version of Semien fits on the major league roster. But, he’s here, at least for now, and Stearns basically said Semien will be among the options at second base heading into camp.

So, in addition to Semien, what can the Mets do at second base?

For starters, it looks like Brett Baty, with his timely late-season resurgence, has earned his keep on the roster, so he could factor in at second base, especially if Bichette opts into his contract (which we will assume for the sake of this argument right now). The Mets also have numerous options at the top of their minor league system now, which Stearns alluded to in his September 28 press conference, presumably referring to Jefferson Rojas and perhaps Mitch Voit. There’s also Sammy Stafura, but he might be a little further away than either Rojas or Voit, with Rojas being the most obvious and immediate candidate to have a shot in early 2027.

But if Rojas specifically were to make the team, he can’t be in a platoon, can’t be in a part-time role, can’t be jerked around. He is their top prospect and has to play every day, just like Carson Benge and AJ Ewing did in 2026. If Rojas is the best option at second base, that means neither Semien nor Baty should be there on Opening Day. It’s as simple as that.

It’s hard to envision the Mets going external at second base considering the options the Mets have here already with respect to the attention they need to have on other big needs. The free agent market for second basemen is actually reasonably strong at the top of the market, however, with Luis Arraez, Jazz Chisholm Jr. (doubt the Mets consider him) headlining upgrades defensively specifically, with Arraez once again demonstrating he is one of the best contact hitters in the game. But it’s pretty weak behind those two, and Arraez would be the best external option if they chose to go that route, which, once again, I doubt they do right now.

Arraez, 29, signed a one-year contract with the Giants before the 2026 season and was traded to the Phillies at the trade deadline. He finished just short of another batting title in 2026 hitting .310 with a .765 OPS, the latter of which was the sixth-best mark among all qualified second basemen in the game. His 110 wRC+ was seventh-best, and his 4.3 percent strikeout rate was the best mark in the game among not just second basemen, but all qualified players. He posted a fielding run value of 10, which was the fourth-best mark in the game among all qualified second basemen, and his 12 outs above average was tied for fifth.

The question, of course, is what kind of contract Arraez would be in the market for this winter. He will surely do better than a one-year deal, and the Mets have to be cognizant of what’s in the pipeline at second base with Rojas and Stafura specifically, especially since neither will be playing shortstop for the Mets anytime soon with Francisco Lindor there.

Oh, and they’re paying Semien $26 million in 2027 too, and both Chisholm and Arraez will likely get qualifying offers after the World Series.

It wouldn’t make a lot of sense for the Mets to trade for a second baseman when you consider they have top-shelf, close-to-big-league-ready prospects who could very well slot in as starters in six months. It just seems counterintuitive to trade for something they might have already traded for.

In other words, while Arraez and even Chisholm are unquestionable major league upgrades for the Mets at the position, it may be unwise to allocate their resources here and instead focus on graduating options internally to fill their need.

For me anyway, I’d much prefer the Mets go that route and offer opportunities to the Rojas’ of the world, and even give Baty an opportunity to play steadily at one position if Rojas isn’t ready at the beginning of the season.

After all, as Stearns once again basically said during his press conference, championships are born internally, and not on the external markets with second-generation contracts.

Now, call me skeptical, but what can the Mets really expect out of Baty?

For the second consecutive year, Baty finished the 2026 season strong, although it would be unfair to characterize it as the same kind of finish he had in 2025, when he was excellent for the final three months of the season. He is undoubtedly one of this team’s biggest mysteries and has been since he arrived in the major leagues in 2023. He sometimes shows flashes of living up to his potential and promise, but most of the time he looks generally lost at the plate. Stearns did say they have seen an improved mindset from Baty recently, and that might be in line with his strong finish to the season. But really, for the first time, Stearns basically indicated a larger sample of consistency is now needed if Baty is going to be offered significant playing time going forward.

To be fair to Baty, the Mets might have overplayed the versatility card with him this past season. He has always looked the most comfortable when playing third base, but the Mets took that away from him when they signed Bichette last winter. If Bichette opts out, maybe they’ll take a look at Baty again strictly as a third baseman, but it always seems Baty is at his best when he knows what position he is going to play on a daily basis. I often wondered this past season how much the moving around and needing to work on competency at so many unnatural positions might have impacted his offense. Some stability would go a long way for Baty as he enters his fifth season with the club.

By the way, Baty will be arbitration eligible for the first time in 2027. So, he’s getting a raise from his $775,000 salary in 2026.

All told, while the Mets were terrible at second base in 2026, the solution might already be here in some form. It may be one of those positions that looks entirely different a year from now than it does on Opening Day, but that would probably be a good thing for this organization.

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What’s Up with the Mets? 💭

• Could the bidding war for Dodgers LHP Tarik Skubal surpass $400 million? (SNY)

Rumor Mill 🔎

• The Marlins reportedly don’t plan to trade RHP Sandy Alcantara this offseason (Miami Herald)

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On the latest edition of the Just Mets Podcast, Rich and Andrew recapped the final week of the season for the Mets and previewed the uncertain off-season ahead for the Mets.

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Final Thoughts on the 2026 Mets ✍️

Michael Baron

There’s hope. That’s not a guarantee things will turn around for the Mets, but right now, considering how the last 15 months have gone for this franchise, there’s at least hope.

It was a tale of two seasons for sure. The first half was just flat-out embarrassing, but the tide seemingly turned at the end of June when the Mets hired Andy Green to replace Carlos Mendoza as the team’s manager. Whether he deserved it or not or you agree or not, the team clearly went stale under Mendoza, and Green deserves a ton of credit for rebooting this team and getting the most out of a broken roster with many missing parts to it.

There’s work to do. There’s a ton of work to do, actually. There are some easy decisions to be made along with some tough ones. And they have to fix a lot of these problems on the external markets. Free agency will be the way for a few moves, but probably not most of their moves.

No matter what they do this winter, and no matter how you choose to look back on this disappointing season, perhaps it will serve as a new beginning for David Stearns and this franchise. This young core of Mets has injected life into the franchise and has made me excited for what’s ahead in both the short and long term for the organization. It’s going to take time; it’s going to take the emergence of several of the prospects they’ve recently acquired and drafted, but if the White Sox are any indication, a quick turnaround is not just possible, but doable with the right moves and roster mindset.

Going 40–41 with a fractured roster was no easy task for Green. But they did it with a clear culture shift, excellent young pitching in their rotation, and excellent young pitching in their bullpen, not to mention the emergence of two young outfielders, one of which was a star player for the bulk of the season in Carson Benge.

What can Green do with a healthier Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, improvements from their homegrown players, more graduating prospects, and some help on the external markets?

I am excited to see that in 2027, if they play, of course.

Rich MacLeod

Well, that sucked.

Back-to-back seasons where the Mets dramatically underperformed their expectations. And, unlike last year when their fate came down to the final Sunday of the season, this one was over early. Very early.

I predicted this team would win 93 games, a 10-game improvement over their 2025 record, and win the National League East. One could say I was just a smidge off there, as the Mets season effectively ended after a 12-game losing streak in April, and they finished 20 games out of first place in the division.

In retrospect, I probably should’ve anticipated more turbulence for this team than I initially foresaw. There was a massive upheaval of the roster and coaching staff in the winter prior, a lot of guarantees (yes, Pete Alonso) being swapped out for total shots in the dark (Jorge Polanco, Luis Robert Jr., etc.), and they were led by a lame-duck manager who should’ve just been put out of his misery with the rest of his staff after the prior season’s collapse.

Even with all that being considered, this mess isn’t solely on the President of Baseball Operations – even if he was the main perpetrator.

There was still more than enough talent for this team to at least have been competitive rather than completely bottoming out in the first month of the year and finishing with the sixth-worst record in all of baseball. The roster building, leadership, and decision-making absolutely need to be better going forward, but the players still need to perform up to expectations, and that happened for pretty much no one on this roster other than the young players who became the only thing worth watching down the stretch.

And that last bit is the one reason that I somehow leave this season feeling a lot more hopeful than I did a year ago today. Last year was about the destruction of an old core, but this season ultimately became about building up a new one.

There is much work to be done in the months ahead, but a team anchored by veteran stars Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor alongside a group of exciting young players like Carson Benge, Nolan McLean, A.J. Ewing, Christian Scott, Zac Thornton, and a completely revamped minor league system… yeah, that’s a team that’s seriously got something cooking.

Now, they just need to actually build around the damn thing properly.

Drew Van Buskirk

90-72, I said. NL East champs, I said. “Polo signing good move,” I said. Oh, brother.

The 2026 Mets were one of the most atrocious baseball teams I’ve ever watched…until they weren’t.

This was a weird year. In a way, it felt like two partial seasons in one.

I will admit that even for my usually bullish self, my preseason predictions were a bit overly optimistic, if not in some cases mildly delusional. I had truly convinced myself that Carlos Mendoza being fired wouldn’t do anything to help the team, that Pete Alonso would prove more replaceable than we believed, that all the new faces and position changes would prove easily navigable among a roster of veterans. I was abysmally wrong on quite a few fronts.

However, despite the ample negatives, there were still, amazingly, quite a few positives to be found this season as well, and they’re worth remembering despite the last-place finish. (Optimism!)

For example, after one of the most awful introductions I can ever remember a Mets free-agent acquisition having, Bo Bichette’s season ended up pretty okay — it was the second-worst offensive season of his career in totality, but his second-half resurgence was plenty encouraging that he’s adjusted to his new surroundings. He also graded out well defensively at his new position, posting the best full-season OAA (+2) and FRV (+1) scores of his career. Should he stick around (which I anticipate he will), the hot corner should be in good hands for at least a little while longer.

There’s also the now-permanent presence of Andy Green as this team’s leader going forward. Whether it’s the likes of Christian Scott singing his praises or vets like Bichette and Francisco Lindor issuing votes of confidence (Bichette recently called Green his “favorite manager to play for”), the Mets are ending an underwhelming season with a clear sense of direction and what appears to be genuine excitement to get back in the room and firmly cement this team’s new identity. Green has proven an even-keeled, thoughtful leader who is as frequently praised for his skills as a communicator as Mendoza was. The clear difference already, though, is that Green is also cited as a man who holds his locker room to account, one who gets “stern when he needs to,” per Scott. From early (and acknowledged) missteps managing in San Diego to steering a development system that’s produced multiple quality major leaguers in a short period of time, it appears Green has a real feel for how to steer an organization on all levels. It’ll be fascinating to see that play out over a full season.

And on that note of development, what’s left to say about the rookies that I haven’t said all season long? This is easily the best rookie class the Mets have ever had — WAR agrees. But even without the metrics, just the eye test confirms that this group of young talent is a special one. The rapid ascensions through the system are one thing, but for those players to also see immediate success at the big league level is another thing entirely. From Nolan McLean building on a successful debut in 2025 to Scott and Zac Thornton announcing themselves to the league in big ways to the psychopathic, pulchritudinous, splendiferous play of Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing, the future is plenty bright in Queens, even if it required navigating some choppy waters to finally get a glimpse of the proverbial horizon.

Benge should be the NL Rookie of the Year, by the way, and it shouldn’t really be much of a discussion. First NL rookie to ever record 20 homers, 20 steals, and 50 walks? Vastly better second-half stats than either presumed ‘front runner’ in Wetherholt or Stewart? Come on. Even Juan Soto gets it: when asked recently about what gives him confidence about this team’s ability to compete in 2027, he simply replied, “Carson Benge.” Exactly.

The 2026 season started as horribly as any Mets season I’ve been alive for. Thankfully, it didn’t end that way. That’s at least something to feel good about. This team was all but dead in the water by June, yet they refused to roll over. That speaks highly of this team’s current locker room chemistry and culture, and I cannot wait to see what this group looks like with a season’s worth of runway.

Despite the team’s first last-place finish since 2003, Mets fans still have plenty of reasons to show up in full force on Opening Day next year. And you better believe they will — whenever that ends up being.

Andrew Steele

The 2026 season was an unmitigated disaster for the New York Mets, and there is no getting away from that. There are no excuses for this team finishing last in the division for the first time since 2003 and for being as bad as they were for a large chunk of the season.

The entire franchise will need to wear the stink of this year for quite some time.

It is also important to remember that what happened in 2026 was an extension of the epic implosion at the end of the 2025 season. This franchise hasn’t been able to get out of its own way for a while now, and we saw that manifest itself in embarrassing fashion this year.

David Stearns is now firmly on the clock, and he’s got his work cut out for him when it comes to correcting his mistakes from last offseason, while trying to surround what is a talented core with enough high-end pieces to ensure that the Mets get back to being a playoff team in 2027.

Fixing the mess at first base after not properly replacing Pete Alonso last offseason has to be a top priority. The Mets simply have to figure out the right side of the infield overall, as they were at the bottom of the tank in all of baseball. I think the middle of the lineup is crying out for a big bat, while the front office needs to decide what to do with the Baby Mets once and for all. The team can’t afford to waste another year hoping that Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, and Francisco Alvarez can finally figure it out. That school of thought is just foolish at this point. Plus, there will be lots of work to be done with both the rotation and the bullpen, too.

Of course, there is hope now going into the offseason. Andy Green more than proved his credentials by pulling this group together and getting them to show some fight down the stretch. He seems great with both the young players and the veterans, and getting him to agree to become the manager on a full-time basis before this season was even finished was a significant box ticked. Now the focus can be on fixing the roster and adding to the pieces already in place.

Carson Benge looks like a future franchise player, and he could very quickly become the heartbeat of this team. A.J. Ewing showed in 2026 that he belongs and can be an impact player at the Major League level. I’m convinced that Francisco Lindor will be much better offensively and defensively next year. We all know what a healthy Juan Soto is capable of. Bo Bichette looked like an elite offensive player over the final couple of months, and the top of the lineup will be all but set if he decides not to opt out. There are some pieces in the bullpen to like, including Nate Lavender. And, of course, I’m feeling better about the state of the rotation thanks to the emergence of Zac Thornton and Christian Scott, not to mention Nolan McLean proving that he can pitch like an ace.

Granted, the glimmers of hope we witnessed post-All-Star break don’t change the fact that there is still a lot of mess to be sorted out. With that said, the building blocks are in place; now it is just up to the front office to fix the flaws and fill the holes to ensure that this team is ready to return to contention status in 2027.

Whether the Mets have the right people up top to do that, however, remains to be seen, and we should all be skeptical and a little cautious in the wake of what was an overall failed year.

Linda Surovich

The 2026 season was a series of unfortunate events. A couple of bad decisions led to an avalanche of losses that buried the team. No amount of good stories in the second half of the season could get them out of the cellar. I’m not going to relitigate the offseason, which has been done and overdone at this point. Pete Alonso is gone, and there is no point in rehashing it.

The bigger issue than letting Alonso walk was not having a better backup plan. Jorge Polanco was always an awkward fit, and relying on Mark Vientos as a Plan B to Polanco was where a lot of the issues stemmed from. And now here we are again, facing another offseason where they need a first baseman. Jared Young showed some potential, but can you trust him in the short amount of time they saw him at first?

The bigger issue was how long they waited to fire Carlos Mendoza. Both the Red Sox and Phillies didn’t wait to fire their managers, and they are both in the playoffs. Their 0–12 stretch was the death knell on the season, but they waited two months after that to finally part ways with Mendoza. One of the things Francisco Lindor stressed when Andy Green was given an extension was how he preached accountability. It was hard to take this organization seriously when they kept Mendoza on after last year’s collapse and the poor start this team got off to in 2026. Granted, Mendoza was in a tough spot managing a lot of new faces, but with how things went, he wasn’t the man for the job. From an outsider’s perspective, he seemed to rather be everyone’s friend than their manager, and the team played like they were just there to hang out and go home. He never challenged them, and it was reportedly Freddy Peralta who helped smooth things over between Lindor and Juan Soto. By the time they did finally fire Mendoza in June, it was too little, too late, but so far it seems Andy Green was the right man to take over.

Green certainly challenged the young pitching staff with good results:

• Nolan McLean: 12–10 with a 3.16 ERA

• Christian Scott: 4–5 with a 3.85 ERA

• Zac Thornton: 5-6 with a 3.42 ERA

• Jonah Tong: 2-2 with a 3.81 ERA

Having the opportunity to push these young starters in a lost season could pay dividends down the line. They are a solid core to build around, especially if the Mets make a push for Tarik Skubal.

On the offensive side of the ball, A.J. Ewing and Carson Benge are another good core to build around. When Soto was asked following the last game of the season what makes him confident the team can contend next year, his answer was simple: “Carson Benge.” That is certainly high praise for the youngster from a perennial All-Star.

It’s no secret the Mets are in a better place now than they were at the beginning of the year, which gives me some hope for the 2027 season as long as there is no lockout. David Stearns has some work to do and tough decisions to make this offseason. But hopefully the 2026 season will be remembered not as a failure but as pain the organization needed to go through to move on to better things. And even if that fails, well, at least it won’t be worse.

Justin Mears

Welp. That certainly was not how we drew it up, was it?

After a tumultuous offseason of change, it was reasonable to expect things would take a while to click in 2026, but I don’t think any of us could have foreseen what a disaster the first third of the season would truly be.

Essentially every controversial decision David Stearns made last winter blew up in his face, and the meaningful portion of the season was almost over before it started.

But despite all of the early negativity, there are plenty of positive takeaways now. For starters, despite waiting far too long to let Carlos Mendoza go, this club seems to have found a legitimate leader of men to manage the club going forward in Andy Green.

Carson Benge should win the NL Rookie of the Year award and looks like an ascending star, A.J. Ewing is a cornerstone building block, and the team’s young starting pitchers all took meaningful leaps forward.

What stands out most to me is how well this team played over the final two months after every available veteran had to be traded away at the deadline. It would have been easy for the established stars on this team to essentially fold their tents, and it was impressive to me to see the way the team came together at the end.

The biggest question surrounding the Mets roster heading into the winter is the status of Bo Bichette. After a slow start on both sides of the ball—which wasn’t entirely unexpected—for the better part of four months he showed he is still one of the premier offensive players in the sport. If he chooses to stay and doesn’t opt out, the Mets offense has a legitimate core with him, Francisco Lindor, and Juan Soto, to go along with the two previously mentioned young guys.

Francisco Álvarez and Luis Torrens are a plenty good enough catching tandem, and some of the young prospects the Mets got back in their deadline deals—particularly Jefferson Rojas and Billy Amick—project to impact the team early in 2027.

There’s a lot to like in the rotation, but it would still be uber beneficial to add a legitimate number one ace to the crop of young arms, and Tarik Skubal would certainly fit the bill. The bullpen also needs reconstructing after the summer trades, and it will be interesting to see what roles the team envisions for guys like Devin Williams and Kodai Senga.

All in all, the 2026 season started bad, devolved into apathy, but redeemed itself at the end. Stearns and company will be under enormous pressure to get it right this time around, but the later part of the campaign at least helped establish some semblance of an identity to build around.

Around the League 🚩

• The Phillies suffered a heartbreaking postseason loss (yet again) as they blew an 8th inning lead to the Braves and lost 5-3 after a two-out, three-run home run by 3B Austin Riley

• The White Sox defeated the Astros by a 6-3 score and are now one win away from their first playoff series win in 21 years

• The Yankees routed the Red Sox 9-0 in game 1 of their Wild Card series thanks to DH Ben Rice’s five RBI and and 6.1 shutout innings from Cy Young favorite RHP Cam Schlittler

• RHP Michael King fired seven shutout innings and the Padres slugged three home runs in their 8-0 game 1 victory over the Cubs

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• David Stearns said on Monday he is open to adding more to the front office after bringing on Derek Falvey last week, but didn’t think adding a general manager under him was critical

• Stearns said the Mets have not had any conversations with Bo Bichette regarding his opt out yet

• Neither Stearns nor Andy Green have made any decisions on the future of the coaching staff - they will have conversations about that this week with decisions coming soon

• RHP Tylor Megill is expected to be among the starting pitchers competing for a spot in the rotation during spring training

Injury Updates 🏥

• Jared Young (concussion) is recovering well, but considering the degree of his on-field collision, the team is remaining extremely cautious

• Tylor Megill and Reed Garrett (recovery from Tommy John Surgery) are expected to have a normal off-season and be 100 percent heading into Spring Training

• Jorge Polanco (foot surgery) will be in a baseball progression phase at the beginning of Spring Training

The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️

On the latest edition of the Just Mets Podcast, Rich and Andrew recapped the final week of the season for the Mets and previewed the uncertain off-season ahead for the Mets.

SUBSCRIBE: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

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David Stearns’s end-of-year presser 🎤

Here’s essentially what David Stearns said during his end-of-season press conference on the Mets:

1. He is retiring the phrase, “run prevention.” He said it wasn’t good in the first half, was better in the second half

2. There will be options at second base next year. It sounded like those options - at least right now - are here, either on the major league roster or in the minor leagues. He would not commit to Marcus Semien being the primary second baseman in 2027

3. For the moment, Kodai Senga will be with the Mets, at least into Spring Training in 2027. Stearns said Senga wants to start, but his role will be determined over the course of Spring Training

4. The Mets will be searching for starting pitching. He passed on a targeted question regarding Tarik Skubal, but said they’d love to add to the top of the rotation, as all clubs would. They feel like there are more options in the minor leagues than there were in the past

5. On Jorge Polanco, he’s recovering from his foot surgery, but they have to wait to see where he’s at in Spring Training. He thinks he can be a contributor, but they’re not counting on him for a meaningful contribution right now

6. It sounds like the Mets will look externally to upgrade at first base - he seemed to show some regret on the Pete Alonso situation as well

7. Ronny Mauricio will compete for a spot on the roster in Spring Training. He is out of options - he has to make the team in some capacity to remain with the team in 2027

8. They were encouraged by Francisco Álvarez’s second half, both offensively and defensively

Actions speak louder than words ✍🏻

Considering how badly things have gone for David Stearns over the last couple of years with the Mets, I think Monday’s press conference was one of his better days as President of Baseball Operations for this club.

Now, I am not going to pretend this was a good day for the Mets. They are, once again, one of 18 clubs that went home on Sunday. And they played out the string over the weekend in what were three absolutely meaningless games on the schedule short of offering opportunities to players like Jonah Tong, Ronny Mauricio, and some of the other roster candidates for 2027 to continue making a case for themselves heading into the winter.

Sure, that has a lot of value and merit, but again, as Stearns essentially said on Monday, this past weekend was miserable. It was like watching the eighth inning of a late February Spring Training game, only 27 times over three days.

Well, I suppose it was fun seeing Francisco Lindor hit his 300th home run, and Carson Benge continue to emerge as a “superstar,” as Juan Soto put it on Sunday.

Even so, here we are, with the quiet of October setting in for the Mets once again.

But, like I said, Stearns’s presser on Monday was one of both honest reflection and ownership of what has transpired for this franchise over the last 365-ish days, inclusive of some good things but mostly bad things, and I would expect even the media appreciated some of the humanization that he displayed.

No, he didn’t go in front of the microphone weeping. But he admitted his own failures; he admitted his own philosophies and roster strategies were deeply flawed, going as far as to say the risk he took more or less created a bottomless downside which caused the team to crater early in the season.

Of course, he wasn’t getting out of the room without addressing the Pete Alonso situation which unfolded all year long in front of him and then literally blew up in his face at Citi Field two weeks ago when the Orioles were in town.

Now, whether you agree or disagree with the fan reaction to Alonso at Citi Field during that series, it’s hard to ignore what happened for anyone, inclusive of Stearns and Steve Cohen. When the whole stadium is cheering loudly for a former player in one form or another, which was then followed by numerous “FIRE DAVID STEARNS!” chants, it’s hard for him or anyone in that office building to move on without saying something.

Now, again, he didn’t beg for forgiveness or offer any platitudes that could really fix the mess that was created at first base by letting Alonso go. But he did say he isn’t allowed any “mulligans,” which was, for the first time, an offering of regret on the matter.

When he said that, I was amazed.

Remember, he and this front office made it clear after the 2024 season they really had no genuine interest in retaining Alonso. It was Steve Cohen who had to intervene in February at a meeting in Florida with Stearns and Alonso to make it happen for 2025. Then, it happened again the following winter, only this time Alonso was coming off a typical Alonso year, and his free agency was very short and it did not include any interaction with the Mets.

So for Stearns to basically say he made a mistake without using those words specifically was, to me, anyway, borderline stunning. GMs, especially someone like Stearns, who comes off as among the most transactional baseball executives in the sport, was incredible to me.

But again, I appreciated Stearns showed some vulnerability on this topic, among others, which included the difference in how he needs to go about his business as an executive with the Mets compared to how he has in the past in other markets.

As for what’s coming, Stearns of course couldn’t offer a lot of specifics, but he did make specific references to three areas of need: starting pitching, first base, second base.

I will be getting into the specifics myself over the coming days and weeks, but I found his perspective on second base the most fascinating, mostly because they stunk there from day one and that they’re not committing to Marcus Semien as a starter in 2027.

In addition to that, they seem intent on going to the external markets to find first-base help, although there’s no obvious fit in free agency. That probably means they’re going to have to find a trade partner to solve that equation.

Then, of course, there’s the rotation. Again, I’ll be doing a deep dive on this later, but Stearns got into the various ways the club could augment their young core of starting pitchers. He talked about how any team would love to add to the top of the rotation, but then, of course, dodged a specific question about pursuing Tarik Skubal. He also talked about second-tier options and building depth, noting a team needs 10–12 starting pitchers to get through a season.

So, this is going to be very, very fascinating over the next couple of months specifically.

Now, while I think it’s a no-brainer and a must for the Mets to be all in on Skubal, I know that’s easier said than done for any team given the likely demands and the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, and pretty much every big-market club being in on the derby.

Seeing is also believing with Stearns, who has been reluctant to take long-term risks on starting pitchers, which at this point has become ironic considering how much risk he has absorbed with fractured players on short-term deals, most of which have been busts over the last two years.

The Mets would also likely have to blow the doors off with any sort of final offer to Skubal to land him, considering the state of their franchise with respect to that of the Dodgers, Yankees, and Red Sox specifically.

Having said that, he did say, again without referencing Skubal or anyone else specifically, the organization is willing to make these kinds of moves for the right kind of players. Now, that might simply be GM speak, lip service, and even an offering of a fake Rolex, so to speak.

But it leaves the door open until it is closed (by the Dodgers, am I right?).

So, we will see. It is time for the Mets to go to work. Again, I appreciated the humanity and humility Stearns showed on Monday. But actions speak louder than words. Does he make adjustments? Does he take fewer risks, as Cohen would seem to want from him this winter? Can they bolster their areas of need in meaningful and generally predictable ways?

Again, seeing is believing. As encouraging as the second half was for this club, there’s a lot of work to do to fix and undo the problems created by Stearns’s (self-admitted) mistakes.

But he’s here, and it’s the right call by Cohen to keep him on at least through the term of his contract in an effort to build and demonstrate stability with the organization. So, like it or not, he has to be given a chance to right the ship.

Around the League 🚩

• After rolling his ankle in the final week of the season, Luis Arraez will not be on the Phillies roster for the Wild Card Series

• Aaron Judge, who is dealing with a moderate calf strain, took live BP at Yankee Stadium on Monday with hopes of being active for the Yankees Wild Card Series against the Red Sox

• Corey Seager may need elbow surgery to address a bone spur (ESPN)

• Alex Bregman, who has multiple fractures in his cheek after being hit by a foul ball on September 20, took groundballs at Petco Park on Monday and could be available to play third base in their Wild Card Series against the Padres

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• The Mets lost to the Nationals on the final day of the regular season by a score of 6-4 (box)

• LHP Sean Manaea started for the Mets and had a disappointing day - he coughed up a 4-1 lead and ultimately allowed five runs over six innings

• SS Francisco Lindor finally broke through with his 300th career home run - he is the only shortstop in MLB history to record 300 home runs and 200 stolen bases and his 300 home runs are the seventh-most in MLB history among Puerto Rican born players

• OF Carson Benge had a three-hit day, and INF Ronny Mauricio homered again as part of a two-hit day

• The Mets finished in last place in the NL East for the first time since 2003, and their 74 wins was their lowest mark since 2017, although they went 34-31 in the second half of the season and 40-41 since Andy Green took over as manager in late June

Roster Moves 📰

• RHP Jonathan Pintaro placed on the 15-Day Injured List with an illness

• LHP Jefry Yan recalled from FCL Mets

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Play of the Game ⭐️

Francisco Lindor had gone homerless over his last 13 games, but on Sunday, he finally broke through, cracking his 300th career home run to left field.

292 of his 300 home runs have come as a shortstop, which is tied with Miguel Tejada for third-most in MLB history.

The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️

On the latest edition of the Just Mets Podcast, Rich and Andrew recapped the final week of the season for the Mets and previewed the uncertain off-season ahead for the Mets.

SUBSCRIBE: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

NL Rookie of the Year race 🏆

Carson Benge’s 4.3 fWAR was the second-highest among National League position player rookies in 2026, 0.2 points behind JJ Wetherholt. Wetherholt had missed a couple of weeks but was recently activated from the injured list:

Meanwhile, Nolan McLean leads all National League pitchers by a significant margin with a 3.5 fWAR:

With a ton of work to do, the Mets may have found their North Star ✍️

Well, it’s finally over. It’s actually been over for a few months now, but another sour season for the Mets is finally behind us.

But while the Mets went 74-88 this year and finished in last place with nearly 90 losses, there’s a lot of good that happened over the final three months that record will not appreciate.

Now, I am not going to pretend what transpired in 2026 generally was good, and sitting here in another season where it seems almost harder to not make the playoffs than it does (just ask the Phillies, who did everything possible over the final week to go home on Sunday), but it’s not as if the Mets are going home for the winter staring into the dark abyss.

If you had asked me July 4 what I thought things might look like over the next few years, I might have sung a different tune for you. After all, the Mets were 36-53 on that date and had just lost for the 12th time in their last 14 games. Yeah, Andy Green had been at the helm for about a week by then, but the Mets were a walking disaster in a season that had gone horribly, but not necessarily surprisingly, wrong.

But by then, Bo Bichette had righted a seriously concerning first couple of months of his season, Nolan McLean had made his mid-season adjustment on the mound, Carson Benge and AJ Ewing were putting on clinics in the outfield, and between that and Green’s reboot on the roster, there was a different vibe with the club, even if it didn’t seem that way on the field.

And, over time, the results on the field began to change for this team even as the Mets began to unload their roster ahead of the trade deadline. It was too late to turn the season around for sure even as the Mets began to play better in July, but perhaps the beginning of turning this franchise around after basically a full year of terribleness.

I do wonder if this group began to play well after the All-Star Game once they actually realized the season had gotten away from them and the front office decided to cash out on their expiring contracts. I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing even as the results improved because ultimately, seasons are defined by a club’s ability to perform under pressure and in its biggest moments, and the Mets have failed to do that time and time again over the course of 2025 and 2026.

But, in the end, it would be unfair to dismiss what transpired over the season’s final 81 games under Green, who unquestionably deserves credit for at least picking up the pieces from a broken team, identifying those pieces which were fixable, changing the tone and tenor of a lost season and re-steering the franchise back on a path where there is at least some valid hope going forward.

When I take the 30,000-foot view on the Mets on the day when there’s the most distance in between games that count, I can’t help but look at McLean, Ewing, Benge, Jonah Tong, Zac Thornton specifically and the suddenly top-heavy part of their minor leagues and be excited for what’s ahead. I don’t think it’s fair to expect all of it to work out over time— it never does for any team. But, the Mets have at least positioned themselves strategically to feed their major league roster with premium young talent over the next few seasons, which is the true key to building championships.

Perhaps this front office found their North Star.

Yes, they need to roll out the red carpet for Tarik Skubal. They have albatrosses on their roster in Sean Manaea and Marcus Semien. Bichette potentially holds the key to their entire off-season and how they proceed with finding infielders - what is he going to do with his opt out? They have to decide among Nate Lavender, Daniel Duarte, Jefry Yan, Dedniel Núñez, Jonathan Pintaro who will be parts of their next bullpen, and figure out how Devin Williams and Kodai Senga fit as well (if the latter fits at all).

These are all critical questions that must be examined and answered, and perhaps quickly with the collective bargaining agreement expiring on December 1. Will there even be a Winter Meetings? Will there be a signing bonanza like there was before the last CBA expired in 2021? And, how many games will this next bargaining process cost Major League Baseball?

All of that plays into the calculus for the Mets, who need to take the progress of the last 81 games of the 2026 season and translate that into contending again in 2027, or whenever they play again.

Of course, there’s that and then there’s the under-discussed issue with Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto in 2026.

No, I am not talking about their past clubhouse problems, which both of them and Steve Cohen insist are in the rearview mirror.

I am talking about the combined 108 games they missed in 2026 due to calf injuries, and Lindor specifically who came into camp in early February with a messed-up hamate bone and never actually got his season right on either side of the ball.

For Soto, it’s probably less worrisome because he’s 27. He has been very hard on himself lately because of the calf injuries and has vowed to put a focus on his lower half this winter in an effort to stay healthier and on the field. The Mets went 54-57 with Soto this year, 20-31 without him.

But, Lindor will be entering his age-33 season in 2027. The hamate bone situation in February unquestionably derailed his season, and while it was expected his power might be absent for a while once he got back, he pulled up lame with a calf injury that cost him two months of the season in late April, which messed him up even more, and things just never were totally right for him offensively or defensively.

I do think 2027 will be better for Lindor, but even he acknowledged after Sunday’s game he needs to work on his strength this winter. Perhaps that’s an acknowledgment about his overall preparation for 2026, perhaps that’s an acknowledgment that he isn’t getting any younger and he has to train differently and smarter at this stage of his career, or perhaps it’s a bit of both. Either way, we all know that as a player gets older, especially one who plays at a premium position, their performance changes. It’s not something the Mets can do a lot about today, but the Mets might need to consider a different rest and recovery plan for Lindor going forward and maybe have him DH more while getting him more off-days.

We will see how that ultimately transpires, but I am pretty sure that while the Mets won’t acknowledge any of that publicly, they’ll consider a different playing map for Lindor to keep him healthier and fresher in future seasons.

No matter what they do this winter, the Mets cannot have both Lindor and Soto absent from the field for so much time. The team cannot function without them being healthy and productive.

We have plenty of time to discuss all of these good things and bad things over the next month or so during the playoffs. For now, we can sit back, reflect, and just rest our brains on what was nothing short of a tiring season which proved fruitless once again.

Around the League 🚩

• The Phillies snuck into the playoffs on the last day of the season, eliminating the Diamondbacks from the Wild Card race with a 7-3 win over the Rays

• The Astros routed the A’s 9-0 to win the American League West and eliminating the Rangers

• RHP Max Scherzer won what could have been his final start of his career as the Blue Jays cruised to a 5-1 win over the Reds

• The Mariners beat the Angels 7-3, which was Los Angeles’s 100th loss of the season

• The Dodgers won their 100th game of the season in a bullpen game against the Giants, who lost 97 games in 2026

• Although their 162nd game was canceled due to rain, Pete Alonso became the first player in MLB history to win an RBI title in both the AL and the NL

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• The Mets won their penultimate game of 2026, beating the Nationals 7-1 (box)

• RHP Jonah Tong was excellent in his final big-league start of the year, allowing just one run on three hits while striking out nine in his five innings

• RF Carson Benge added another three-hit game to his resume, notching his 22nd double of the season and scoring two runs

• 2B Ronny Mauricio and CF A.J. Ewing provided most of the day’s offensive firepower with three homers and six RBIs between them

• Brett Baty got the first start of his career at shortstop while Francisco Lindor handled DH duties; both went 0-for-4

• LF Juan Soto left the game after getting in the hand by a pitch from none other than Dicky Lovelady; his X-rays were negative

• The bullpen was characteristically excellent, combining for four perfect innings of relief save for a baserunner incurred on an error; RHP Dedniel Núñez came away with the win

Roster Moves 📰

• RHP Chayce McDermott recalled from Syracuse

• LHP Jefry Yan outrighted to FCL Mets

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Plays of the Game ⭐️

Ronny Mauricio hit two homers. A.J. Ewing homered. Carson Benge was Carson Benge. Tong dealt. The bullpen was nails. They scored seven runs in the final three innings.

I couldn’t pick a single play of yesterday’s game. Just enjoy them all.

The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️

ICYMI: Rich and Andrew got together on the latest JM pod to take some accountability for their worst preseason predictions.

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NL Rookie of the Year race 🏆

Heading into Game 162 on Sunday, Carson Benge’s 4.1 fWAR is the second-highest among National League position player rookies, 0.4 points behind JJ Wetherholt. Wetherholt was recently activated from the injured list:

Meanwhile, Nolan McLean leads all National League pitchers by a significant margin with a 3.5 fWAR:

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (74-87) at Nationals (76-85)

Where: Nationals Park - Washington, DC

Starters: LHP Sean Manaea (6-7, 4.67 ERA) vs. LHP DJ Herz (0-1, 9.00 ERA)

When: 1:05 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

Assessing Sean Manaea’s value heading into the winter ✍️

Remember this quote?

“I consider myself a starter. To not be that is frustrating. But at the end of the day, I'm going to let my pitching do the work in whatever capacity that is and go from there.”

—Sean Manaea, March 21, 2026

Well, well, well. Guess who’s starting Game 162?

Several years into one of the most turbulent love-hate relationships I can remember existing in this fanbase, the trials and tribulations of Sean Manaea are well known to Mets faithful.

That’s not without reason — the precipitous fall-off of Manaea’s performance from his 2024 campaign to today is well-documented. He didn’t make things easy for himself: in his first season in New York, Manaea put together his best big-league season, posting a 3.84 ERA with a 1.08 WHIP and 184 strikeouts over 181.2 innings. His performance helped him garner the first Cy Young votes of his career and propelled the team to the NLCS.

It has been a much different story since. Over the last two seasons, Manaea’s pitched to a 4.95 ERA over 205.1 innings in 47 games played, with 30 starts in that time. That’s alongside a 4.43 FIP and 1.27 WHIP, good for an ERA+ of 82. Some of that’s due to injury, of course, but safe to say it’s a far cry from what was expected when he signed for three years and $75 million in December of 2024.

And yet…I just can’t quit this guy. Maybe it’s my lefty loyalty talking, but even when he’s been at his worst, I’ve never wanted to stop hoping that this dude would find just a little more gas somewhere in his tank.

Entering 2026 Spring Training, Manaea told a story about sending a league-wide email that offered chess meetups whenever other interested players were in town. Steven Kwan was reportedly the only one to respond.

However, while his initial outreach may not have fetched much interest among other vets, Manaea was able to capture the attention of some certain youngsters in camp: Carson Benge, Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, Christian Scott, Ryan Clifford, Jacob Reimer, Jack Wenninger.

Huh…there are some big leaguers in there. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

If they weren’t playing chess, they were talking shop at Manaea’s locker. If they weren’t doing that, they were probably playing Super Smash Bros. Manaea’s clubhouse energy has been described as many things, but ‘infectious’ is probably the most common descriptor affixed to him. That’s a key quality in a veteran clubhouse presence regardless of who’s in the room with them, but especially when your roster is the eighth-youngest in baseball and only skewing younger.

Through all his struggles, Manaea remained a beacon of positivity, effective leadership, and professional work ethic. He built his velocity back up, earned his starts (18), and finished the season with 144.2 more innings under his belt. His 4.67 ERA certainly may not be anything to write home about, but his minuscule 6.9% walk rate is at least nice to look at.

Despite the setbacks, though, Manaea ended up turning in a fairly standard Sean Manaea season. While it got off to a slow start, his season mostly ended up looking a lot like his 2022 in San Diego: comparable strikeout and walk rates, nearly identical ground ball and homer rates, both 1 fWAR seasons; you get the picture. That’s the sort of statistical stability Manaea’s made his career on, and I don’t think it’s crazy to suggest it’s left an impression on some key members of the aforementioned rookie chess club.

It’s not lost on me that two of those names in those spring training chess sessions ended up being key role players on this Mets team. Despite the doldrums, fans were treated to an all-time franchise rookie season from Carson Benge and a very promising full-time debut on the mound from Christian Scott. Both Benge and Scott spoke glowingly of Manaea’s welcoming presence upon arrival in Florida last February, and Scott spoke specifically last winter about the importance of consistency in the day-to-day and in the clubhouse, regardless of whether you’ve had a good day or not. Jonah Tong has spoken of how Manaea emphasized the cruciality of trusting yourself and sticking with process in moments of doubt.

If consistency in the face of adversity isn’t emblematic of Sean Manaea’s entire ethos, I don’t know what is.

So, am I largely crediting this historic group of Mets rookies’ success to my fellow left-hander? No, of course not. But I do think it’s worth acknowledging that even in a season where his on-field value was often in flux, he remained a vital piece of this clubhouse and was directly involved in making the team’s most successful players this season feel immediately welcome among the big leaguers from the moment camp started.

Who’s to say that extra level of veteran attention isn’t already starting to pay dividends?

Around the League 🚩

• Former Met Justin Verlander called it a career on a very emotional day at Comerica Park; he allowed just two runs on five hits (two homers) over 5.1 innings with six strikeouts (MLB.com)

• Former Met Max Scherzer will take the mound for the Blue Jays’ final game of the season, just 10 strikeouts shy of Verlander’s 3,560; he has yet to decide on retirement, and said he won’t do so until later in the offseason (MLB.com)

• Following a brutal 12-1 loss at home, the Phillies are on the brink of completing the second-worst collapse in franchise history; with one game left to play, they have a one-game lead over the Diamondbacks, who own the tiebreaker

• The Guardians clinched their seventh AL Central title in the last 11 seasons, including their third straight under manager Stephen Vogt

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Happy Saturday, Mets fans – the latest Patreon exclusive episode of The Just Mets Podcast has dropped!

This week, Rich MacLeod responds to YOUR comments/questions surrounding the close of the Mets disappointing season, how they fix this pitching staff, Tylor Megill's whereabouts, and the impending lockout.

Enjoy a free preview of this week’s episode on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

For access to full bonus episodes, become a paid subscriber here on Substack or over on Patreon.

If you’re already a paid subscriber to Just Mets, you can watch/listen to this week’s exclusive full episode below…

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• The Mets opened up their final series of the year with a 7-6 loss to the Nationals in Washington on Friday night (box)

• Thanks to Friday night’s loss, the Mets will finish last in the NL East for the first time since 2003

• RF Carson Benge hit his 20th home run of the year in the fifth inning to become the first Mets rookie in franchise history to join the 20/20 club. Benge went 2-for-4 with a run scored, one RBI, and two walks

• DH Mark Vientos finished with a double and two RBIs on the night, while 3B Bo Bichette went 2-for-4 with an RBI double and a solo home run, representing the bulk of the Mets’ offense

• LHP Jefry Yan, who served as the opener, allowed two earned runs on three hits with two walks and one strikeout over 1.2 innings, before RHP Jonathan Pintaro gave up three earned runs on three wild pitches to give the Nats a 4-3 lead

• LHP Cionel Pérez allowed one earned run on one hit over one inning of work, RHP Justin Hagenman delivered four innings of one-run ball but gave up a back-breaking home run, and LHP Nate Lavender closed it out with a scoreless ninth inning

Roster Moves 📰

• RHP Justin Hagenman recalled from Triple-A Syracuse

• RHP Jack Weisenburger optioned to the FCL Mets

• RHP Xzavion Curry outrighted to the FCL Mets

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Play of the Game ⭐️

Wins and losses don’t matter, so let’s focus on a positive from last night’s self-enforced loss to the Nationals.

Carson Benge stepped to the plate in the fifth inning with two outs and proceeded to go long, hitting his 20th home run of the year.

That solo blast was hugely significant because it meant that Benge officially joined the 20/20 club, becoming the first-ever Mets rookie to do so.

In what has been a very disappointing year, Benge’s stellar rookie season has given all Mets fans something to be excited about and proud of.

The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️

In the latest edition of The Just Mets Podcast, Rich MacLeod and Andrew Claudio show some accountability by reacting to and roasting their worst Mets take from before the 2026 season started.

SUBSCRIBE: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Who’s Hot? 🥵

• Over his last seven games, OF Carson Benge is hitting .423/.516/.731 with two homers, six runs scored, four walks, and six RBIs

• Over his last seven games, OF Juan Soto is hitting .357/.455/.607 with five runs scored, two home runs, five walks, and seven RBIs

Down on the Farm 🌾

All Mets minor league affiliates have concluded their seasons

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (73-87) at Nationals (76-84)

Where: Nationals Park - Washington, DC

Starters: RHP Jonah Tong (2-2, 4.21 ERA) vs. LHP Connelly Early (7-5, 3.44 ERA)

When: 12:35 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

The 2026 season will now forever belong to Carson Benge ✍️

Just two more games to go, and then we can officially close the book on the 2026 season.

Thank goodness.

Especially because, thanks to last night’s loss, the Mets will officially finish in last place in their division. The franchise will have to wear the stink of that for a while.

However, while I’m sure the vast majority of fans and folks connected to the Mets will want to throw this season in the dumpster and move swiftly on, I will actually look back on 2026 with fond memories because of one man:

Carson Benge.

The ascending star put the exclamation point on a truly special rookie season on Friday night by becoming the first rookie in Mets franchise history to join the 20/20 club after blasting his 20th home run of the year.

Benge also did everything he could to power the offense in just a frustrating loss, finishing the game with two walks, an RBI single, and a run scored. It has now become almost routine to see the outfielder just take over games offensively.

Now, Benge also became just the eighth player in MLB history to record a 20/20 season in their rookie year, which I’m sure will sway some voters when it comes to deciding the NL Rookie of the Year. My gut still says that Reds first baseman Sal Stewart will end up winning the award considering that he has blasted 32 home runs with 111 RBIs in his rookie year in Cincinnati.

Granted, the race is probably a little closer now given Benge’s dominance in all areas. While Stewart’s success has come at the plate, Benge has impacted games in multiple ways thanks to his smarts on the basepaths and his elite skills defensively. He entered Friday’s game with a 3.7 bWAR and a 3.7 fWAR, and some new-school voters may be more inclined to vote for Benge’s all-round excellence.

Regardless of who ends up actually winning the award, though, nothing can take away from Benge’s truly special rookie year, and nothing can change the fact that he has all the tools needed to become both a really important and beloved franchise player for the Mets.

That’s what I want to really focus on today. Not the Rookie of the Year race. Not the stats. Not any of the underlying metrics.

No, I want to take a moment to just reflect on how Benge has given an entire fanbase a lot of hope for the future.

It would be so easy to just erase this season from the memory books and move swiftly on, but that would be doing a severe injustice to Benge and the many, many, many memorable moments he’s given all of us throughout 2026.

Watching Benge this year has almost given me a sense of déjà vu, because I remember experiencing the same feelings when Pete Alonso exploded into our hearts in 2019. Just the rush of excitement that we were witnessing something really special, and what that could mean for the future.

Of course, Alonso and Benge are entirely different players, but they are very similar in how much they care and how they both know just what it means to pull on that uniform every single day.

Alonso showed his passion through hitting moon shots and his lovable, goofy personality. Benge shows his passion by playing the game with all the joy of a kid playing Little League.

He can make things happen at the plate in an instant. He puts the ball in play at a high clip. He is a menace on the basepaths. He can give you a jolt of excitement thanks to his highlight-reel ability in the field, both with the glove and with the arm. And, finally, Benge just plays with so much heart, so much spirit, and so much hustle.

He’s an absolute pleasure to watch every single day.

One of my most beloved times spent following this team was watching Alonso win our hearts in real time in 2019. I haven’t really felt that level of excitement or kind of affinity for a player since.

Until this year with Benge.

I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve gone back and just watched Benge highlights from certain games. He’s electric to watch, and is just so easy to root for.

We as sports fans have a tendency to fall in love more quickly with homegrown players, and I think it is fair to say that Benge has captured our hearts and provided all of us with a lot of joy in a season devoid of it.

Of course, who knows what will happen in the future because tomorrow isn’t promised to nobody. But, based on everything we’ve seen this year, it isn’t hard to envision Benge getting even better and growing further into being a key player for this franchise. He certainly seems to possess the hunger and the desire needed to improve year after year.

No matter what happens, however, Benge has provided some memories that will last forever in a season that has largely been forgettable.

For that, 2026 will always belong to Benge, our very own rookie phenom.

Around the League 🚩

• The Red Sox beat the Cubs 4-3 in the first game of a doubleheader to secure a showdown against the Yankees in New York in the Wild Card Series, before winning the second game, 2-0

• Orioles 1B Pete Alonso blasted a pair of home runs in a 10-2 win over the Yankees and leads the AL in homers (43) and RBIs (113), while the Yankees won the second game of the doubleheader, 6-3, on the day they retired CC Sabathia’s No. 52 jersey

• The Phillies were shutout 2-0 by the Rays, while the Diamondbacks beat the Padres 11-4 to move to within one game of Philadelphia for the final NL Wild Card spot

• 1B Munetaka Murakami blasted two home runs to help the White Sox beat the Rockies 6-1 and stay in the race for the AL Central

• RHP Eury Pérez tossed a complete game shutout with eight strikeouts in the Marlins’ 3-0 win over the Braves

• LHP Tarik Skubal threw seven scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts in the Dodgers’ 2-0 shutout win over the Giants

• The Astros lost 6-5 to the A’s, while the Rangers lost 10-2 to the Twins, meaning that the two teams remain tied for the AL West with only the division winner able to secure a playoff spot

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