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The Mets are hiring Johnny Washington, who had been with the Braves minor league staff, to become their co-hitting coach (NY Post)
The organization will honor the late Jerry Koosman with a memorial patch on their jerseys throughout the 2027 season
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Don’t try outsmart yourself, David Stearns ✍️
All is quiet across the MLB landscape… for now.
But as we lie in wait for the Mets to make their first move of significance in this young offseason, I can’t help but think about the one thing that I want to ask of David Stearns this winter.
No – this isn’t about any one particular move. I’m not here to say SIGN TARIK SKUBAL AT ANY COST (even though they should). I’m not here to say FIGURE OUT THE DAMN FIRST BASE SITUATION (even though they should).
We’ve had plenty of newsletters already – and I’m sure we’ll have plenty more – calling for the actual roster moves that this team should make. But that is not my intention this morning.
All I’m here to ask for right now is for David Stearns to not try and outsmart this fanbase or himself.
Though I’m sure he’s never set out to do this, far too often in his time with the Mets has Stearns done that exact thing. He’s attempted to thread the needle on an unconventional, out-of-the-box move with major boom-or-bust potential.
To give him some credit, that has occasionally worked for him in the past. There were the Sean Manaea and Luis Severino reclamation projects prior to the 2024 season that paid major dividends on the way to a surprise NLCS appearance. And signing Clay Holmes, a career reliever, to become a starting pitcher proved to be one of the savviest moves of his career.
But in this case the bad has far outweighed the good for Stearns when it comes to this category.
Two winters ago he jumped the market to sign Frankie Montas, a frequently injured and oftentimes inconsistent pitcher who’d already failed spectacularly in New York with the Yankees, to a two-year contract that very few (if any) other team would’ve been willing to give him. He made nine appearances in two years with a 6.28 ERA and was paid $17 million this past year to not pitch after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
There was the trade of Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Semien, which, yes, in theory made sense as a salary-dumping move to get off of Nimmo’s albatross five-year deal… but this deal was also made with the belief that Semien had something left in the tank. In year one of his remaining three seasons under contract, Semien hit .215/.280/.340 with a 74 wRC+ and a -0.5 fWAR all while having the worst defensive season of his career (-2 DRS, -9 OAA) at second base. And, for some reason, he was the Mets’ everyday second baseman for almost the entire season.
Perhaps more infamous than either of those moves was what Stearns did at first base last season. He let Pete Alonso walk in free agency – a move that may very well follow him for the rest of his baseball life. But there was still a chance to make that move appear to make more sense had he brought in a legitimate replacement at the position. Willson Contreras (151 wRC+ and 4.0 fWAR in 2026) would have been a great option in the trade market, as could have Christian Walker (29 HR and 1.6 fWAR). There were also some really intriguing options at first base in free agency, as Munetaka Murakami (35 HR, 129 wRC+, 2.9 fWAR), Ryan O’Hearn (109 wRC+, 0.6 WAR), Kazuma Okamoto (33 HR, 113 wRC+, 3.0 fWAR) and Ty France (21 HR, 141 wRC+, 3.6 fWAR) were all out there to be had.
But instead, the Mets President of Baseball Operations went against conventional wisdom and signed Jorge Polanco, an injury-prone 32-year-old who had never played a single inning at first base in his career, to man the position on an everyday basis.
In the first year of his two-year, $40 million contract with the Mets, Polanco played a grand total of 20 innings at first base and appeared in just 37 total games, hitting .148/.201/.230 with two home runs, six RBI, a paltry 20 wRC+ and an impossible -1.4 fWAR – the worst mark in all of baseball despite only having 145 total plate appearances.
The move made little-to-no sense at the time, and it only looks even more absurd today.
This is the exact thing that David Stearns cannot afford to do this offseason. I don’t want to stifle the man’s creativity – he has uncovered some gems before – but he also needs to balance that without trying to thread the needle as often as he has in recent years. The Mets need to take fewer risks and go for more sure things.
And yes, while there are no sure things in this sport, there are certainly moves that give you better odds at succeeding than others (go scroll up to all the different first basemen I listed vs. Jorge Polanco if you need another reminder).
The Mets desperately need a starting pitcher at the top of this rotation to lead a young staff – so don’t go out there and try to sell everyone on an injury-prone Brandon Woodruff or Shane Bieber, or a Zac Gallen reclamation project. Go sign Tarik Skubal or Clay Holmes or trade for Drew Rasmussen.
When it comes to first base, don’t you dare try to sell us on Alec Bohm or any of the options that the Mets already have in-house – go out there and find yourself a real, legitimate player at the position.
After back-to-back wildly disappointing seasons that have seen the Mets on the outside looking in for the postseason, they cannot afford to take as many risks.
Sometimes the obvious moves are the obvious moves for a reason. Now stop screwing around and go make some.