NYP: Details and insight into the Mets off-season trajectory

Plus, the Mets are different, and that alone might make them a better ball club for 2026

What’s up with the Mets? 🍎

• The Mets signed RHP Craig Kimbrel to a minor league contract with an invite to MLB spring training (NY Post)

• The Mets feel top prospect Carson Benge projects better as a left fielder (SI)

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Roster Moves 📰

• Traded RHP Cooper Criswell to Seattle Mariners for cash considerations

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Rumor Mill 💨

• RHP Max Scherzer could wait to sign a contract until after Opening Day (Athletic)

• The Pirates are open to re-signing OF Andrew McCutchen (Post Gazette)

• The Nationals shut the Giants down on their pursuit of SS CJ Abrams (Athletic)

• The Tigers are showing interest in RHP Lucas Giolito (NY Post)

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What I’m Reading 📰

• Inside the Mets off-season overhaul (NY Post)

  • The Mets got indications it would take their top five prospects to get Tarik Skubal from the Tigers

  • They believe they were the runner up to trade for Edward Cabrera (Cubs), they were among 8-10 teams trying to get Ryan Weathers (Yankees), and they were in on several arms from Pittsburgh, including Johan Oviedo (Red Sox)

  • If they hadn’t signed Bo Bichette, they would’ve been willing to give Ranger Suárez the same five years, $130 million the Red Sox gave him

  • The Brewers had been asking for a third prospect since they began talking to the Mets about a trade for Freddy Peralta, but then the trade began to evolve into Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, the latter of which many people in the Mets organization will ultimately be a back-end starter

  • The key point of their off-season maneuverability was their ability to trade Brandon Nimmo, that which they were uncertain about considering his contract/no-trade clause

  • The toxicity between Marcus Semien and Corey Seager made the Rangers more willing to take on five years of Nimmo so they could jettison Semien, who’s contract was more movable than Seager’s

  • A 10-team no-trade clause and fewer years owed to Semien makes him easier to trade than Nimmo if they have to

  • The Mets were worried about having Nimmo and Juan Soto in the corner outfield spots, as both possibly project as designated hitters in the near future

  • Once the Mets were able to trade Nimmo, that allowed them to pursue Kyle Schwarber and then Kyle Tucker once they couldn’t get Schwarber

  • The Mets were deep in negotiations for Schwarber, but once the Phillies offered five years and $150 million, the Mets felt they would need to blow the doors off of that to get him

  • Stearns loved the idea of signing Tucker, but once the Dodgers topped their bid at four-years, $240 million with their opt outs, it was “game over” for the Mets

  • Stearns and the front office recommended against giving Pete Alonso a five year deal - they didn’t think he would get such a long contract from the Orioles and felt they could get him on a 3-4 year deal

  • The Mets feel Jorge Polanco will be better defensively than Alonso, even though Polanco has never played first base before

  • Brett Baty should be able to find 500 or so plate appearances in left field, first base, second base, and as a designated hitter, which is what Stearns told him after they signed Bichette

  • Luke Weaver was a fallback to signing Brad Keller, who went to the Phillies on a similar deal

  • The Mets thought they were close to bringing back Tyler Rogers for three years, $36 million, but they would not give him the same vesting option the Blue Jays did

  • Another Mets universe had the Mets pursuing a trade for Brendan Donovan and trying to sign Chris Bassitt or Zac Gallen for the rotation this winter

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The Mets are now different in the ways they needed to be different ✍️

AP Photo

If you think all the way back to David Stearns’ post-mortem on the 2025 season, you’ll recall a long press conference in which, for the first time, you didn’t once see David Stearns smile.

Of course, there wasn’t anything for anyone to be smiling about at the time. The Mets had just completed another collapse to end their season prematurely, only this time it was an inability to make a 12-team tournament, or a tournament in which 40 percent of the teams qualify, with a $350 million-ish payroll at that.

It was notable because in seemingly all of Stearns’ other press conferences to that point in his tenure as the club’s President of Baseball Operations, he always had some sort of smile attached to most of his responses to questions.

I don’t think there was anything built into that. A lot of people actually criticized him for having a certain smugness to him because of that smile, which of course I found silly. That’s just who he is, it’s a part of his public-facing game.

But on that day, I remember taking that immense seriousness away from his remarks and his demeanor specifically. He was not happy with his club, he was not happy with the performance of the staff, and he did in fact drop hints that day wholesale changes were coming, if you go back and listen closely.

I think a lot of us - including myself - perhaps missed some of those remarks, chose to ignore or not believe some of those remarks, or both. So when we go back to the initial moves (and non-moves) of this off-season, like the trade of Brandon Nimmo, their general disregard of signing Pete Alonso back, and the trade of Jeff McNeil specifically, and everyone - including members of their beat - not knowing what direction Stearns was taking this franchise, we need to think back to that initial press conference, as well as the remarks he made at the GM Meetings shortly after that press conference in mid-November.

Notice how I left Edwin Díaz out of that - I still think Stearns would like to have that one back.

To refresh your memory, he essentially spoke about improving the teams’ “run prevention” capabilities, being deep in the starting pitching markets, and not running back the same failed product from 2025.

Now, improving the starting pitching and fixing their “run prevention” problem were always going to be cut from the same cloth. People though took that as simply improving their defense, and didn’t think Stearns would make an impactful upgrade to their rotation because there’s a belief he is unwilling to give out long-term contracts to pitchers. That’s partially true, but it applies to what the industry terms as second-generation contracts, which are basically contracts to players in their thirties (there’s more to it than that, but fine for this purpose today). Recall - he was willing to sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a long contract, but he was in his mid-20s, ie a first-generation contract.

It’s also why a trade for that impact starting pitcher always seemed inevitable, even if they considered a scenario in which they would reportedly sign LHP Ranger Suárez to a five-year contract. And while Tarik Skubal could’ve been the Mets’ white whale, they always matched up better for Freddy Peralta in a trade because of the inevitable difference in prospect capital going back. I am sure Stearns and Steve Cohen would much prefer to save the effort on Skubal for free agency and just throw money and draft compensation at that problem, even if they have to contend with the Dodgers for him. The Mets would’ve had to sell the farm system to get him now and there was next to no chance Scott Boras would negotiate a new contract for Skubal before November.

The one thing that always stood true throughout all the uncertainty in this off-season for the Mets is the train never left the yard.

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The Winter Meetings had minimal action, outside of Díaz signing with the Dodgers, Kyle Schwarber signing back with the Phillies, and Pete Alonso signing with the Orioles in large measure, and Dylan Cease signing with the Blue Jays a few days before. Since those were the headline moves of the meetings, that led to a quick burn in these parts. But the reality is, for whatever reason, the markets were predictably stagnant outside of a few deals being done over the first two official months of the off-season. There were plenty of players available in free agency and trade through the first half of January.

So while the Mets had work to do coming into and well into the winter, and even more work to do as they traded away parts and watched others depart for new clubs, there was plenty of time for them to take any of the numerous paths in front of them, even as the clock ticked down towards Spring Training, which is now just 2 1/2 weeks away from those first spikes being laced.

Fast forward to today, or really the last ten days, and on paper anyway, it’s all come together for the Mets.

This past weekend, Joel Sherman of the New York Post had a really insightful account of the Mets war room over the last few months. It provides details and context to everything Stearns outlined in public nearly three months ago. There’s nothing there that doesn’t follow that outline, but after thinking about all of this retrospectively, in order for him to do what he set out to do, it was simply not possible unless they took the PR risks they took by moving Nimmo, Alonso, and McNeil specifically.

Think about it - everyone knew their outfield defense was weak in 2025 between Nimmo’s poor arm in left field and Juan Soto’s generally subpar defense in right field. Everyone knew that between Soto, Alonso, and whoever was at second, including a diminishing McNeil who was still the most competent defender of the three, the defense on the right side of the field was painfully terrible. This isn’t some formula derived from statistical data, this isn’t some revelation a rival executive observed and shared with Stearns (even though he admitted he polled them for such feedback).

This was all in plain sight.

It doesn’t mean Alonso wasn’t an all-time great Met. It doesn’t mean the front office doesn’t love Nimmo and his grit and his hustle. It doesn’t mean they don’t provide value to a roster.

But it does mean that in order to get better than the bad team they were in 2025, which led to them not being even minimally good enough to be a part of the 40 percent that makes the postseason in this format, the front office had to make some really difficult and widely unpopular decisions. And, take on a lot of heat while risking all of their reputations, which they rebuilt the center of the team.

They needed to take different risks with players who fit the mold of a modern contender. That which is a team that makes more contact, plays better defense, and is far more athletic than the team they had even in 2024, which, to be fair at this point, was probably accidentally good.

They also clearly needed to improve the air in the room. The one common theme about the new players they’ve brought in is their reputations as people and as leaders. That was called into question over the last few years. As I have said before, this isn’t the primary component for winning. But, it is a workplace and it has to be functional among its employees. All of the players they’ve acquired have strong reputations - that isn’t an accident.

So, here we are. The new Mets with their new order. Its the David Stearns way.

Stearns checked his run prevention box - they are much stronger up the middle defensively with Marcus Semien and Luis Robert Jr. He found his front line starting pitcher in Freddy Peralta. They’re better at making contact with Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco. Their bullpen better supports the closer with Luke Weaver and perhaps Luis García along with Craig Kimbrel joining Brooks Raley and AJ Minter. Devin Williams is a question mark as their closer for sure, but this could be a more comfortable situation under Stearns’ umbrella for him than it was with the Yankees, and there are people in this bullpen who can close if Williams struggles.

AP Photo

I do think there is still work to do here, but the heavy lifting is probably over with. They could use a major league left fielder for sure, and Austin Hays or Harrison Bader fit the bill. I believe they have enough starting pitchers, between whom projects to be in the rotation on Opening Day coupled with their prospects and some likely depth signings, to at least get them to the trade deadline (with required rebounds among those arms), and I’d like to see the Mets bring in additional bullpen help on the medium-leverage level. But again, these aren’t top-of-the-roster moves.

Even so, this is now a roster - on paper anyway - which may seem lateral from an fWAR perspective, but different in the ways the Mets needed to be different, and therefore theoretically more competitive with the teams they’ll be contending with for the playoff berth they missed out on in 2025.

It comes with unquestionable gambles, most notably not knowing if it will all work since they have never played together before (in large measure). They’re also going to have two infielders at the corners in foreign positions, and while it may ultimately be fine, it’s not going to be pretty at times.

Rome wasn’t built in a day - it takes time to come together. And the Mets have had off-seasons with such wholesale changes in the past without success. Think back to 1992, 2002, 2003, 2009, 2023, just to name a few.

But, those off-seasons might not have had the same orchestration to them as this one has. That gives me hope at least this will all work out, even if it takes time to come together. I don’t know if it will lead to being better in the end - a lot of that hinges on the starting pitching behind Peralta.

But they’re built different now with players who are not only good, but good at the things a playoff team needs to be good at, which they were terrible at in 2025.

And for all of that, David Stearns is smiling again.

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Around the League 🚩

• Padres RHP Yu Darvish is considering retirement (Official)

• José Ramirez and the Guardians agreed to a seven year contract extension worth $106 million, with $70 million deferred. This new deal replaces the remaining three years, $69 million left on his original contract (z101Digital)

• The White Sox agreed to sign RHP Seranthony Dominguez to a two-year, $20 million contract (ESPN)