Agree with stability. Has there been a culture change in the five years? Fans feel more positive about the owner and his involvement and his interest in paying big market money for a team. Stearns was a logical choice and has done a generally POOR job. How do we change the culture? Winning, of course, is the answer, Winning regularly and winning repeatedly. But how to get there? Leon Rose did it slowly and thoughtfully and it took 5+ years. Are there ex-Mets, associated with winning who can be involved with the team? Beltran is associated with Houston cheating so I have concerns there. Piazza is in Italy. Seaver is dead.
The owner and the GM need to talk about culture, manifest culture and create the "Mets way" from Single A ball to the Majors. That hasn't happened yet. I haven't seen leadership from Lindor at this level and Soto seems to like to do his own thing, hit baseballs, and leave. Nimmo and Alonso seemed to be Mets "culture" but that team didn't win (with McNeil, Peterson, etc.) and there were logical reasons to not keep them. But the alternatives (Semien, Polanco) have been far worse!
Lots of mistakes by Stearns in player assessment, injury history assessment, and player value. Bullpen is decent. Starting pitching is a disaster. Lots of work to do. Agree with firing Mendoza and keeping Stearns for now. But after the MLB-union deal is done, he's on a short leash of less than a year of showing he can find some quality players or develop them. Go Mets!
Best assessment of where things are. But, whether it's Stearns or any one else, the Mets roster needs to be almost completely torn down and the focus placed exclusively on rebuilding from within. Free agency at best is good for bringing in the last missing piece or two when you've solidified the foundation and culture. It's hard to do that in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately town like New York. But look at the Mets' history. The team has existed for 61 years, and the only time they won championships is when they built from within. There's just no other way to do it. Even the Dodgers did it before they went on a spending spree.
Get a GM. Keep Stearns to continue to build the organization as POBO.
I don't pretend to think I could run the Mets, but I did say in the winter to sign Okamoto to play 1B and Ranger Suarez to start. There was no need for Bichette and Polanco to be on the team. Nor Tucker either.
Stearns did put together a good bullpen and let Benge play on. And the injuries to Holmes (another good Stearns move) and others hurt our team. But two years in a row of depending on too many ifs for the starting rotation?!
As for Mendoza. How many times after games were lost by misplays in the field and crappy at bats, did we hear "we have to play better" etc.? Semien was never benched. Vientos and Baty misplayed ball at 1B and RF. Why were they out there so much?
I agree with the stability argument but the same can be said about the Manager's job. Andy Green, who may have been the closest guy in the C-suite ("hey you, what are you doing? Come in here.") when this went down, will stay for the remainder of the season in all probability but who would want this job?
The sad reality for our Mets is that we're looking, yet again, at a teardown and rebuild - and that takes time.
Well another scapegoat gone. The only one left is Lindor. Who in my opinion besides being overpaid over his head thru no fault of his own, helped push Jeff McNeil out the door which in turn opened the door for Semien who is no longer a legitimate replacement for him. Couple that with the “loss” of Alonso and viola we are where we are 😩
I’ve said it over and over again. Building a roster with so many question marks, what ifs, if only’s, rebound projects and declining veterans is incredibly long odds to succeed. As for prospects we always hear about, how do they stack up against their peers in the minors? Don’t just tout their accomplishments; how are they vs their future competition? There are people who spend their time analyzing that. Speak up.
Agree with your analysis and partially with your conclusion.
Il spare you another rant on Stearns and his absolute, sole ownership of the current state MY Mets debacle.
Seen my share of well funded, talent laden organizations that bring in a rock star leader who feels it necessary to amputate braintrust leadership and bring in otherwise competent newbies whose sole competence is to blindly execute without a whisper of dissent.
Yeah, this is the typical outcome.
Were I Cohen, I suspect I would read the next 28 months the same way you have, but I would also have a “come to Jesus” with Stearns telling him to find some lieutenants that will enable his talent but check his most bizarre impulses.
See you at Citi next month. I’ll be the guy on the Showalter shirt…
I agree that Mendoza should have been fired after last season. Coming off their 2024 OMG run to the NLCS, the 2025 Mets came out of the gates quickly and had the best record in baseball on June 13th. From that point forward, everything fell apart and I have a theory on why that happened.
June 13th was the date that Kodai Senga got injured, leaping for an errant throw from first baseman, Pete Alonso. He came down to the ground in a heap, clutching his hamstring. Senga exited the field and subsequently, was placed on the Injured List. To that point in the season, Senga, coming off a lost season in 2024, had been pitching like a Cy Young Award candidate.
Why that was a pivotal event in the fortunes of the 2025 Mets season is what I believe happened behind the scenes, out of public view, after the game, maybe even after the inning ended. I think Francisco Lindor, the de facto "Captain" of the team, confronted Pete Alonso over his poor throw, as it had been a recurring issue throughout his career with the Mets. Things got heated between the two players and Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil, Alonso's closest friends on the team, had to intervene to defend Pete. That created a rift in the Mets clubhouse that never quite resolved itself. That's where Carlos Mendoza should have stepped in and diffused the situation. Instead, he ignored it and allowed it to fester.
The Senga injury also began a stretch that saw the Mets lose three of their five starting pitchers, within a span of two weeks, as Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill were both lost for the season. Senga never returned to form and wasn't even on the big league roster down the stretch as the Mets, desperate for starting pitching, fought for a post season berth, and hasn't been the same since.
But, even prior to the rash of injuries, the 2025 Mets were destined to crash and crash hard, because of Mendoza's inability to manage his starting pitching staff. Throughout his tenure as manager, Mendoza had a penchant for removing his starting pitchers at the first sign of trouble, often before the sixth inning or 100 pitches. That puts an undue amount of stress on the bullpen, having to fill 4 or more innings on a nightly basis. That was unsustainable and the bullpen corps were burnt out by the end of June. And even after GM David Stearns replenished the bullpen at the trading deadline, acquiring Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto, Mendoza continued to coddle his starters and abuse the pen, with disastrous results.
That was all on Carlos Mendoza. Poor clubhouse management. Poor pitching staff management. Yet, David Stearns chose to fire the Coaching Staff and keep Mendoza as their lame duck Manager. It's a move that I questioned at the time and still don't understand the rationale behind it.
So, it comes as no surprise that the start of the 2026 season was a continuation of 2025. Mendoza was still pulling his starters early, instead of pushing them to "tough it out" and getting them to pitch deeper into games. Mets starters have become accustomed to being "rescued" at the first sign of trouble and it's only a matter of time before the bullpen, which has been a bright spot to this point in the season, is bound to implode.
As far as David Stearns is concerned, he was brought in to rebuild the organization from the bottom to the top. That takes time and patience. If you remember, 2024 was supposed to be a year of evaluation, with an eye toward competing for a title in 2026. The success of 2024 threw a wrench in Stearns' timeline for the rebuild. It made Cohen believe the team was one player away (Soto) from the World Series--and then he doubled down by re-signing Alonso. Given his druthers, I bet Stearns would have preferred not to sign either player and continue to fill the big league roster with low risk/high reward signings to keep the team competitive, while the draft picks in the lower levels of the farm system developed.
Agree with stability. Has there been a culture change in the five years? Fans feel more positive about the owner and his involvement and his interest in paying big market money for a team. Stearns was a logical choice and has done a generally POOR job. How do we change the culture? Winning, of course, is the answer, Winning regularly and winning repeatedly. But how to get there? Leon Rose did it slowly and thoughtfully and it took 5+ years. Are there ex-Mets, associated with winning who can be involved with the team? Beltran is associated with Houston cheating so I have concerns there. Piazza is in Italy. Seaver is dead.
The owner and the GM need to talk about culture, manifest culture and create the "Mets way" from Single A ball to the Majors. That hasn't happened yet. I haven't seen leadership from Lindor at this level and Soto seems to like to do his own thing, hit baseballs, and leave. Nimmo and Alonso seemed to be Mets "culture" but that team didn't win (with McNeil, Peterson, etc.) and there were logical reasons to not keep them. But the alternatives (Semien, Polanco) have been far worse!
Lots of mistakes by Stearns in player assessment, injury history assessment, and player value. Bullpen is decent. Starting pitching is a disaster. Lots of work to do. Agree with firing Mendoza and keeping Stearns for now. But after the MLB-union deal is done, he's on a short leash of less than a year of showing he can find some quality players or develop them. Go Mets!
Best assessment of where things are. But, whether it's Stearns or any one else, the Mets roster needs to be almost completely torn down and the focus placed exclusively on rebuilding from within. Free agency at best is good for bringing in the last missing piece or two when you've solidified the foundation and culture. It's hard to do that in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately town like New York. But look at the Mets' history. The team has existed for 61 years, and the only time they won championships is when they built from within. There's just no other way to do it. Even the Dodgers did it before they went on a spending spree.
Get a GM. Keep Stearns to continue to build the organization as POBO.
I don't pretend to think I could run the Mets, but I did say in the winter to sign Okamoto to play 1B and Ranger Suarez to start. There was no need for Bichette and Polanco to be on the team. Nor Tucker either.
Stearns did put together a good bullpen and let Benge play on. And the injuries to Holmes (another good Stearns move) and others hurt our team. But two years in a row of depending on too many ifs for the starting rotation?!
As for Mendoza. How many times after games were lost by misplays in the field and crappy at bats, did we hear "we have to play better" etc.? Semien was never benched. Vientos and Baty misplayed ball at 1B and RF. Why were they out there so much?
I agree with the stability argument but the same can be said about the Manager's job. Andy Green, who may have been the closest guy in the C-suite ("hey you, what are you doing? Come in here.") when this went down, will stay for the remainder of the season in all probability but who would want this job?
The sad reality for our Mets is that we're looking, yet again, at a teardown and rebuild - and that takes time.
Well another scapegoat gone. The only one left is Lindor. Who in my opinion besides being overpaid over his head thru no fault of his own, helped push Jeff McNeil out the door which in turn opened the door for Semien who is no longer a legitimate replacement for him. Couple that with the “loss” of Alonso and viola we are where we are 😩
I’ve said it over and over again. Building a roster with so many question marks, what ifs, if only’s, rebound projects and declining veterans is incredibly long odds to succeed. As for prospects we always hear about, how do they stack up against their peers in the minors? Don’t just tout their accomplishments; how are they vs their future competition? There are people who spend their time analyzing that. Speak up.
Mr Baron:
Agree with your analysis and partially with your conclusion.
Il spare you another rant on Stearns and his absolute, sole ownership of the current state MY Mets debacle.
Seen my share of well funded, talent laden organizations that bring in a rock star leader who feels it necessary to amputate braintrust leadership and bring in otherwise competent newbies whose sole competence is to blindly execute without a whisper of dissent.
Yeah, this is the typical outcome.
Were I Cohen, I suspect I would read the next 28 months the same way you have, but I would also have a “come to Jesus” with Stearns telling him to find some lieutenants that will enable his talent but check his most bizarre impulses.
See you at Citi next month. I’ll be the guy on the Showalter shirt…
Steve
I agree that Mendoza should have been fired after last season. Coming off their 2024 OMG run to the NLCS, the 2025 Mets came out of the gates quickly and had the best record in baseball on June 13th. From that point forward, everything fell apart and I have a theory on why that happened.
June 13th was the date that Kodai Senga got injured, leaping for an errant throw from first baseman, Pete Alonso. He came down to the ground in a heap, clutching his hamstring. Senga exited the field and subsequently, was placed on the Injured List. To that point in the season, Senga, coming off a lost season in 2024, had been pitching like a Cy Young Award candidate.
Why that was a pivotal event in the fortunes of the 2025 Mets season is what I believe happened behind the scenes, out of public view, after the game, maybe even after the inning ended. I think Francisco Lindor, the de facto "Captain" of the team, confronted Pete Alonso over his poor throw, as it had been a recurring issue throughout his career with the Mets. Things got heated between the two players and Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil, Alonso's closest friends on the team, had to intervene to defend Pete. That created a rift in the Mets clubhouse that never quite resolved itself. That's where Carlos Mendoza should have stepped in and diffused the situation. Instead, he ignored it and allowed it to fester.
The Senga injury also began a stretch that saw the Mets lose three of their five starting pitchers, within a span of two weeks, as Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill were both lost for the season. Senga never returned to form and wasn't even on the big league roster down the stretch as the Mets, desperate for starting pitching, fought for a post season berth, and hasn't been the same since.
But, even prior to the rash of injuries, the 2025 Mets were destined to crash and crash hard, because of Mendoza's inability to manage his starting pitching staff. Throughout his tenure as manager, Mendoza had a penchant for removing his starting pitchers at the first sign of trouble, often before the sixth inning or 100 pitches. That puts an undue amount of stress on the bullpen, having to fill 4 or more innings on a nightly basis. That was unsustainable and the bullpen corps were burnt out by the end of June. And even after GM David Stearns replenished the bullpen at the trading deadline, acquiring Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto, Mendoza continued to coddle his starters and abuse the pen, with disastrous results.
That was all on Carlos Mendoza. Poor clubhouse management. Poor pitching staff management. Yet, David Stearns chose to fire the Coaching Staff and keep Mendoza as their lame duck Manager. It's a move that I questioned at the time and still don't understand the rationale behind it.
So, it comes as no surprise that the start of the 2026 season was a continuation of 2025. Mendoza was still pulling his starters early, instead of pushing them to "tough it out" and getting them to pitch deeper into games. Mets starters have become accustomed to being "rescued" at the first sign of trouble and it's only a matter of time before the bullpen, which has been a bright spot to this point in the season, is bound to implode.
As far as David Stearns is concerned, he was brought in to rebuild the organization from the bottom to the top. That takes time and patience. If you remember, 2024 was supposed to be a year of evaluation, with an eye toward competing for a title in 2026. The success of 2024 threw a wrench in Stearns' timeline for the rebuild. It made Cohen believe the team was one player away (Soto) from the World Series--and then he doubled down by re-signing Alonso. Given his druthers, I bet Stearns would have preferred not to sign either player and continue to fill the big league roster with low risk/high reward signings to keep the team competitive, while the draft picks in the lower levels of the farm system developed.