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)
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.
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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
A positive spin is that the team has a promising future, with some young stars showing what they can do.
Also, an early downfall took some stress out of the season. The team repeatedly gave fans angina with their ups and downs, including September collapses. We knew they were done early this time.
We know there is more. There were missteps and injuries. Growing pains that should have been factored in. Dubious moves.
I STILL want Boy Genius gone. Sorry. I don’t buy the “need consistency” bit. A manager was fired. What consequences did the other guy’s bad moves bring? A promise to keep him.
Meanwhile … White Sox win. Good luck.
Enjoyable group piece. I especially like Mr. Steele's take although what he said about Alvarez recalls the aphorism, "Hope is not a strategy". I'll let my inner John Simon loose: no matter how many sportswriters misuse it, the word "underwhelming" doesn't mean poor, bad, lousy, crappy, or any of those things. It means unimpressive.