What Is Happening With And To The New York Mets?

What has happened to the New York Mets? In a matter of weeks, the team that contended over the past few seasons has been stripped down, and the club that takes the diamond next season won’t look very much like the ones that previously played in Queens. And whether or not the new formulation is successful, the fans are none too pleased.

Goodbye Brandon Nimmo

In November, in what is commonly-referred to as a “challenge trade,” the Mets swapped their longest-tenured player, outfielder Brandon Nimmo, to the Texas Rangers in return for second baseman Marcus Semien. The deal saves New York some money in the long run, as they rid themselves of the five years and $101.25 million left on Nimmo’s eight-year deal he signed in 2023. Semien is owed just $72 million over the final three years of the seven-year, $175 million contract he signed with Texas in December 2021. The Mets also threw in an additional $5 million to offset the difference.

David Stearns, New York’s president of baseball operations, went into the off-season looking to improve the team’s defense. And although he has multiple prospects ready to play second base, he felt the move for Semien – at the cost of Nimmo – was the right choice. After the deal he was quoted as saying losing a fan-favorite like Nimmo “was something we had to think about, no question. That certainly makes decisions like this a little bit more challenging than they otherwise would be. But at the end of the day, I still felt like this was the right decision for the organization.”

Goodbye Edwin Díaz

On Tuesday, the back-to-back World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers signed closer Edwin Díaz to a three-year, $69 million contract, which, on its face, is three million more than the Mets offered their former closer. However, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the deal includes deferrals of $4.5 million per season, taking the deal down to $21.1 million per season for luxury tax purposes. Could the Mets, under the auspices of the richest owner in baseball, have managed to dig up another $3 million (and less than that on a pure cash flow basis) to keep Timmy Trumpets playing in CitiField for the next three seasons? That seems reasonable. Which raises maybe a larger question: Why didn’t Díaz give them a chance to match the offer? What does it say about the organization that he wanted to head west?

Goodbye Pete Alonso

On Wednesday, Pete Alonso, the team’s all-time home run leader with 264, departed to Baltimore on a 5-year, $155 million contract. The Mets, apparently, were not willing to go beyond three years for the slugger, so didn’t even bother to make an offer. Considering that the day before Alonso signed with the Orioles, fellow slugger Kyle Schwarber re-signed with the Phillies for five years and $150 million, and that he is two years older than the “Polar Bear,” and doesn’t play a defensive position, it is either shocking that the Mets let a franchise player go, or surprising that Philadelphia was willing to roll the dice so substantially. The former is a better analysis.

With Alonso out of the lineup and out of the clubhouse, New York loses the heart and soul of the club, the leader of the “LFGM” brigade, who never found a moment when he couldn’t or wouldn’t rip off his jersey and celebrate with his teammates. There was a real chance that he could have retired as a Met, and if he collected another 236 homers, potentially been the third player (after Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza) to enter the Hall of Fame with a Mets logo on his cap.

There Is Still Time

There are still two months before pitchers and catchers report, and Stearns still has a lot of wheeling and dealing to do. But that may not placate the fans. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic wrote this morning: “The irrational Mets fan, the long-suffering type who suffered through the years of the Wilpon ownership, now must wonder if Fred and Jeff are practicing voodoo on Stearns and owner Steve Cohen.”

With all of the losses (and the addition of Semien and new closer Devin Williams), the team still has not addressed its biggest need: starting pitching. The team set an MLB record for pitchers used by one team in 2025, including 17 different starters. Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez, and Tatsuya Imai are still available in the free agent market. Maybe the goodwill of acquiring Semien will help with the bad taste of losing Alonso, and uber-agent Scott Boras will direct Imai, the Japanese superstar, to Stearns and Cohen and help quiet the critics. Or, better yet, the team could reach deep into its prospects and some toss in some players on the major league roster, and pull off a blockbuster trade to bring two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal to New York. Stranger things have happened.

The team could still sign Kyle Tucker and let him fill the void in left field caused by the loss of Nimmo. And/or they could add Cody Bellinger, and allow him to become the center fielder they have needed for years, or slot him at first base to fill the Alonso-sized hole on the right side of the infield.

This much is true: the addition of Williams as a Yankees cast-off is not going to move the needle if that is their only major move. As Rosenthal wrote: “The rational Mets fan knows it’s Dec. 10. The irrational Mets fan doesn’t want to hear it.”