Oh, the (unnecessary) drama!
The Mets reportedly had some clubhouse rifts over the course of the 2025 season. Plus, some buzz on Kyle Schwarber and Kyle Tucker
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What’s up with the Mets? 🍎
Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil were once again at odds during the 2025 season, and Lindor apparently lost his grip on the clubhouse as well (NY Post)
Kodai Senga would like to stay with the Mets and not be traded (Athletic)
The Mets, Phillies, Reds, and Red Sox are among those “in the mix” for Kyle Schwarber’s free agency (ESPN)
Rumor Mill 🔎
The Marlins expect RHP Sandy Alcantara to be with them on Opening Day, and they’ve expressed interest in signing RHP Pete Fairbanks (Fish On First)
The Yankees are prioritizing bringing back Cody Bellinger over signing Kyle Tucker (NY Post)
Kyle Tucker is expected to get a contract in excess of ten years and $300 million, but his market could take a lot of time to evolve (ESPN)
Winter Leagues ⚾️
In 23 games so far this winter, Luisangel Acuña is hitting .276/.427/.553 with five doubles, two triples, four home runs and 16 RBI
A friendly reminder of what makes a baseball team good ✍️
Normally, I try not to dig too deep into the drama and gossip of a major league clubhouse. I am a firm believer that what happens in the office should stay in the office, and that room is a private space for rostered players on any given team.
But there comes a time over the course of a bad year for the Mets that this becomes a talking point whether it’s true, false or otherwise. And on this occasion, I will stand by my customary response but also offer some reminders and general perspective on workplace culture.
In the case of the Mets, there’s a report in Friday’s New York Post about the Mets clubhouse once again being a problem, which in turn makes everyone think that because there might have been or was in fact a problem in the room, that was the reason the Mets ended up flopping in 2025.
First off, in sports, I do believe that chemistry matters, especially in team sports and especially in team sports when all 26 players can factor into the daily outcome either positively or negatively. That’s how baseball is. It’s important for players to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their teammates, it’s important for players to gel, and it’s important for there to be symbiotic baseball relationships as that generally creates team-wide success.
Having said all of that, we are talking strictly about baseball relations. The clubhouse is not a wedding, it is not a bar mitzvah, it is not a New Year’s Eve party-scape. It is a workplace for professional players to act professionally. It is not necessary for players to pal around in that room in order to be successful. They can if they choose, of course. But it is not necessary for all of the players to like each other, be friends with each other, go to everyone’s wedding or kid birthday parties, or even get along on a daily basis.
These people spend a lot of time with each other over the course of a seven or eight-month season which includes spring training, a 180-day season and hopefully the playoffs, which the Mets miss more often than not.
Now, do the Mets miss the playoffs because of bad clubhouses?
No, they don’t.
They miss the playoffs a lot because they don’t have a lot of good players more often than not.
The Mets didn’t miss the playoffs in 2025 because Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, and/or Jeff McNeil did or didn’t get along, or had a disagreement, or were or weren’t friends when they left the ballpark. They didn’t miss the playoffs because Lindor might have been annoyed at a poor throw from McNeil, or a booted ball by McNeil, or because Lindor might not have been happy at the result of a play not made somewhere along the line through hundreds of plays over the course of a 162-game season.
Nope. Rather, the Mets didn’t make the playoffs because their pitching was flat out awful after June 12. There were too many plays not made, too many errors, too much lackadaisical play on the field, including but not limited to Lindor’s mistakes, which at times cost them an out, cost them at least one run, and cost them a game. On more than one, two, three, ten, or twenty occasions.
Lindor knows as well as anyone that it’s a long season. Things happen on the field, and things happen off the field. And I have news for everyone who is soaking up this narrative: things like that happened with the Dodgers too, and they won the World Series, albeit by the skin of their teeth.
Think about your own work situation for a second. How many people have annoyed you? How many people have done something which you didn’t think was right, didn’t think was professional, and thought was a barrier? Right or wrong, we all have been in that boat. It’s just part of being in a workplace with the same people every single day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. It doesn’t mean you and the people around you can’t be successful as long as you are good at what you do, are prepared and engaged, and want to cultivate a successful workplace.
It doesn’t at all mean that chemistry isn’t relevant. It is. It very much is. I think part of why the Mets wanted to inject Marcus Semien into the fabric of the team - aside from the upgrade he brings to the right side of the field defensively - is because he is known as a strong but positive clubhouse presence, and it’s clear this team might’ve drifted from their purpose this past season. But that chemistry is not usually created or destroyed because players have a workplace disagreement. I don’t think it’s fair to attribute individual issues in the room to the entirety of poor play on the field all the time. We don’t truly know what goes on behind closed doors with a professional sports team. We probably know up to five percent, and even that might be a generous estimate.
It doesn’t mean the report is wrong, either. But the issues that may or may not have existed in the clubhouse also don’t entirely explain why the Mets went bad in 2025.
In the end, good teams boil down to having good players; bad teams boil down to having bad players. And the 2025 Mets had too many bad players at premium positions, which is why they fell apart. Whether or not Lindor, McNeil, Soto, Pete Alonso, Carlos Mendoza, or anyone on the coaching staff liked each other or got along personally are distant and secondary situations.
Remember - minus Soto, these are mostly the same people that got to within two wins of the World Series just 13 months ago. And that clubhouse was supposedly great, wasn’t it? Yeah, it was missing JD Martínez, Harrison Bader, and José Iglesias, but again, their absences in 2025 did not make the Mets one of the worst teams in baseball over the season’s final 90 games. But their subtractions coupled with the front office’s clear inability to replace them properly might have something to do with it.
It’s funny - when teams are good, the clubhouse always seems to be good. When teams are bad, the clubhouse is usually bad.
Maybe that’s all true, but it starts with the talent, coaching, and athletic preparation. It always has and always will. And quite frankly, all of that being absent is what led to the Mets going bad.
If people want the Mets to be better, they need better players. Those players don’t need to be friends, go to each other’s weddings, or go to their kids’ birthday parties. They need to be good players who connect athletically.
Also - people love the drama. It’s why everyone with the team gets asked about the clubhouse and locker room all the time. It draws eyes and ears.
It’s all a distraction, and none of that is baseball.
Around the League 🚩
The Orioles signed RHP Ryan Helsley to a two-year, $28 million contract with an opt-out after 2026 (ESPN)
When 'Senga doesn't want to get traded' is the news of the weekend, you know the author has nothing to offer
I think Baron's take on this is accurate. There have been plenty of championship teams who were a boiling teapot. In contrast, I heard nothing but glorious things about the Mets clubhouse when David Wright was captain and that team won nothing outside of 2015. The reason? They had better players, including a young staff of pitchers who all blossomed, together. This was a poorly constructed team that still somehow managed to be within a win of a postseason berth. Hopefully, the lessons will be learned. The real question: who leaked to Puma? The timing suggests it was somebody recently let go. The answer may not be as obvious, too.