The road to being Dodgers East isn't freshly paved. It's muddied by memories of Wilpon-era madness and clouded by expectations of a run to the National League Championship Series.
In the end, the New York Mets broke down. A pitching staff running on fumes sputtered, and a lineup with the engine light on couldn't carry the load. There are no new adjectives to describe this descent, no framing that hasn't been attached to this franchise before. New York signed the best free agent in two decades and was the seventh-best team in the National League.
Steve Cohen has sent his apology to the masses. David Stearns held court on Monday. A fanbase in disarray and an industry in disbelief will overreact. The Mets might, too. But part of this slow burn felt inevitable, and as the dust settles on a disappointing season, New York has an unfortunate reality to reckon with.
The pitching's demise was always in the cards
Stearns emerged as one of the sport's best decision-makers by leaning on a series of models that work, regardless of market. Two of them can be found on the mound: starters break all the time, and relievers are inherently volatile.
He was never going to sign Max Fried, just like he was never going to extend Corbin Burnes with the Milwaukee Brewers. And if New York signed a 30-year-old Burnes to a $210 million deal, the Mets would have had their hazards on in June.
The rest of the starting pitching market wasn't much better. Luis Severino and Jose Quintana regressed outside of Flushing. Blake Snell made 11 starts. Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler struggled while Charlie Morton and Andrew Heaney posted ERAs over 5.00.
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There were wins, like Nathan Eovaldi (who wanted to return to Texas) and Nick Pivetta, but almost every team that spent on pitching struck out in 2025. Stearns doesn't deserve the ire of the fanbase for not participating.
However, that left New York with Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Sean Manaea, and two projects in Griffin Canning and Clay Holmes. The former looked like a typical discount-rack win before blowing his Achilles. Holmes pitched 165 innings of 3.50-ERA ball. His midseason struggles and underlying metrics make that messier, but for a converted reliever on a set-up man's salary, that's a win.
An oft-injured Senga saw his hamstring derail his season. Manaea's bone spurs spoiled what was already an abbreviated campaign. Peterson ran out of gas after setting a career-high in innings. None of those are indictments of the front office. They were left-tailed outcomes, and it's better to get those without wasting significant resources.
The Mets pulled the appropriate levers
In another act of good process, bad results, it's hard to point the finger at Stearns for his midseason management.
New York made four significant moves at the deadline, acquiring center fielder Cedric Mullins and relievers Tyler Rogers, Ryan Helsley, and Gregory Soto.
Rogers pitched to a 2.30 ERA in Flushing. Soto, through the bitter end, was his second-lefty-in-the-bullpen self. Helsley had the worst six weeks of his career after looking like a near-elite closer with the St. Louis Cardinals. That happens sometimes. And it's why New York didn't deal Nolan McLean, Carson Benge, or Jonah Tong for Jhoan Duran or Mason Miller.
Likewise, the smartest minds in baseball media liked the Mets' moves. They were one of MLB.com's six winners of the deadline. In Yahoo's top 50 trades, New York's transactions ranked fifth, sixth, 11th, and 12th. FanGraphs praised the trades, and ESPN -- the most critical of the bunch -- gave New York two Bs for Helsley and Mullins.
When the pitching went bad (and it went very bad), New York didn't hesitate to dip into its prospect pool, either. There's a real chance McLean starts on Opening Day, Brandon Sproat proved to be competent, and Tong flashed, although a north-south repertoire might be bullpen-bound without improvement. This was not an organization paralyzed by prior investment. Stearns said Monday that he wished he was more proactive in replacing injured players, but churning through a record-setting conveyor belt of pitchers means the Mets didn't sit on their hands.
New York pulled levers; plenty of them. I promise the front office would have pushed the "pitch better" button if it were available. At every turn, this became a season of misfortune, not mismanagement.
Things are going to look similar in 2026
The scope of the Mets' collapse demands action. Firings. Trades. Spending sprees. The masses want Cohen to bid on Kyle Tucker, to add the market-setting ace, to hold everyone accountable for such an enigmatically unpleasant season.
Good luck.
Stearns confirmed at his post-mortem presser that manager Carlos Mendoza would return in 2026. Mendoza, a perpetual side character in a baseball movie of his own making, certainly played a role in this team's demise. No manager is free of blame for such a prolonged descent.
However, the case for keeping him around is convincing. For one, it's hard to find high-level managerial candidates who would safely project to be a meaningful upgrade. It's even harder to acquire them, especially after firing a manager 11 months removed from a run to the NLCS. If we assume the totality of Mendoza's in-game decisions lost New York between one and three games in 2025, moving on is understandable. But the ripple effect of that decision has long-term consequences that aren't worth a (potential) improvement, especially without an obvious replacement already locked down.
Mendoza will be back, as will much of the current core. The Mets will be the favorites to sign Pete Alonso after he exercises his player option. Edwin Díaz will likely return, too. New York will find its bargain-bin pitching depth, roll the dice on a dozen AAA relievers, and take measured, good-process bets in free agency. They'll look like a 90-win team on paper, armed with a strong farm system and enough star power to remain relevant.
New York won't push the chips to the middle of the table in a Cohen-backed surge for every top free agent. Similarly, Stearns isn't going to blow up an elite collection of prospects on one-year rentals. This isn't 2022, and these aren't the George Steinbrenner-era Yankees.
The plan is to get to the playoffs every October and hope the odds are in their favor. Obviously, they fell short of that in 2025. It took the Dodgers eight consecutive trips to finally raise a banner and another four to win the World Series in a 162-game season. Los Angeles spends on the generational. New York just did. And while the Dodgers use the might of their spending to win every free agency, it's a pipeline of prospects and player-development wins that set the foundation for their continuous success.
In Cohen, Stearns, and Soto, the Mets have the bankroll, brains, and brawn to build a winner. It took divine intervention and a comedy of errors to keep this team out of October in 2025. For the New York faithful, the last two months were a cruel abuse of fandom, Metsian to the core and all too familiar, even while finding new ways to lose. And yet, it's the victories of this season that will justify the hype waiting for fans in February.
The harshest truth of this season is that life under Stearns is always going to look a bit like this, and when the Mets eventually do get lucky, it might be enough to win the World Series. For now, that'll have to do.
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