Polar vortex
For many fans of the New York Mets, including this correspondent, last week exemplified disgust, disappointment and even dread about the upcoming 2026 season. Apparently, the Mets decision-makers opted against retaining the best closer — Edwin Diaz — in Major League Baseball and in the humble opinion of this corespondent and avid and arguably rather knowledgeable fan the best right handed clutch power hitter — Pete Alonso — in the National League. Plain dumb! No counter moves replace those player departures.
Mets baseball head David Stearns apparently has a plan but absolutely no plan makes up for failing to retain two of the best ever players to wear the Mets uniform. Baseball involves many moving parts and often relies on players achieving their potential and/or overachieving in any given season. That said, no other team sport “suffers” from the karma of bad decisions including letting players move on, signing the wrong players, lousy trades — you name it. One can only hope and pray no curse of an iced polar bear infects the team I root for.
My angst over the failure to retain the Mets’ all-time leader in home runs —following my team allowing its all-star closer to sign with the evil empire aka the L.A. Dodgers — led to me almost getting knocked off of X. It seemed that platform’s algorithms assessed me as non-human due to me decision to repost a large number of posts about Alonso leaving the Mets for the team 1969’s Miracle Mets defeated in that year’s World Series — the Baltimore Orioles. My repetitive comment: “Time to re-assess my @Mets #fandom — not sure ANY signing or trade will make ANY difference going forward!”
I take a small group Opening Day and run a much larger combined group from Gotham and my home Knights of Pythias lodge FDR 613 to the Subway series in May. Not sure if I knew what transpired last week before I made these arrangements if I’d bothered.
Comments
Casino Cohno
Casino Cohno
That seems his plan all…
That seems his plan all along. Bait ‘n’ Switch
Just terrible news last week…
Just terrible news last week for all Mets Fans.
Very much so
Very much so
same ol' Mets
same ol' Mets
Scary thought
Scary thought
The shock and dismay is real…
The shock and dismay is real and for good reason.
When a player is well-liked by your team’s fans AND very good at their job; Your job is to Keep Them…or at least trade them for a rare superstar.
Grading: Fail and Fail
Absolutely!
Absolutely!
I'm disgusted as well. …
I'm disgusted as well. Terrible for us Mets fans. After having some fun home grown and long-term guys to root for, it seems it's back to rooting for the laundry.
exactly!
exactly!
Mets: Mess or Masterplan?
I'm not saying I completely agree with the strategy - I'm a Met fan in my heart before I'm a Met analyst in my brain - but I think a few things are creating an "imperfect storm".
First, Stearns wants future roster flexibility, which means getting out from under 5 years contracts (Nimmo) and not setting for more of them (Alonso, Diaz). Soto / Lindor he's either stuck with or thrilled to build around, but either way, they're not going anywhere soon. Stearns also no doubt wants a younger/better D, maybe even faster lineup. Already 1B, 2B, LF are likely to be better defensively. McNeil's D flexibility matters less if Semien's playing every day. But he was good enough for a bench spot until his latest (verbal) altercation with Lindor.
Stearns also has a timing problem: Aside from the rookies, virtually the entire pitching staff is 30-somethings, while he's trying to "youth"ify the offense. To meet Stearns perpetual contention demands, Stearns has to protect the farm, which he's done, and not be saddled by guys you "have" to play: Diaz/Alonso/Nimmo would not be easily benchable if healthy, while Polanco/Semien obviously are, and have shorter term contracts.
The staff prob goes as is, with rookies able to come in by allstar break as needed, but someone has to play CF/LF (one prob rookie, one trade/FA) I'd love to have Bellinger in CF, Realmuto at C (although I doubt he'd come), and I'd trade Vientos + Acuna + Mauricio for the best 1B or CF I could get and play Bellinger at the other one.
PS Devin Williams just as good as Diaz. Last year was his only recent "not great" year, ironically followed by his only good postseason, while Diaz has been a post-season stud (so has Alonso been, while Nimmo had one of two good postseasons).
Plus RPs are overrated. Diaz had his best year, Devin his worst, yet the same % between them wasn't that big (80% to 90%?) In fact, Diaz had only the 6th best save % about something like the top 20+ all 80+ and up. Not that much difference.
Underlying this all, though, is that Cohen is letting Stearns do what he thinks'll win long term, rather than letting Cohen do what so many of us fans would love him to do: Keep the homegrown guys, so they can be in the rafters someday, come back for oldtimers games, etc. It's more fun winning with homegrown guys. But we finally have a GM who isn't going to "fanboy" it, and will build a winner. I hope.
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