The Mets Worst Nightmare Is Coming True

The Mets Worst Nightmare Is Coming True

[Applause] And he pulls one on the ground. A chance for two to second one. Back to first. And the Mets agonizing three and a half month slow motion collapse is complete. It is after the off season, after the hope, the excitement, the new direction, the expanded postseason, the way that they started the year. It is unquestionably in my mind the most embarrassing season that the New York Mets have ever had. There have been plenty of implosions in baseball history, but what happened to the New York Mets this past season might be one of the most spectacular choke jobs in recent baseball history, and now the dominoes are starting to fall in all of the wrong places. This off season will define the next decade for Mets baseball. And if they don’t get it perfectly right, they could be in a billion dollar mess. Now, before we get to the video today, we are on the road to 50K subscribers, which means the giveaway is still active. If you aren’t already, please subscribe. Turn those notifications on. We’re giving away a jersey every single upload to someone who does. With that being said, this upload’s winner is Dimmitri Udinov 3351. Thank you for the support. Reach out to me. I will get you that jersey. Now, let’s get right into it. The Mets. Well, there you have it. The most heartless, gutless group of losers you’ve ever seen. What a miserable season. What a miserable season. Now, with the season finally over, the real drama begins. And it kicked off immediately when Pete Alonzo announced he would opt out of his contract just hours after the final game. No waiting period, no mulling it over. Boom, he was out. Alonzo’s situation is fascinating because this is his second time hitting free agency in consecutive years. Last winter, he struggled to find a market and eventually signed a 2-year, $54 million deal with the Mets with a front-loaded 30 million in 2025 and an opt out after year 1. Everyone knew he was going to opt out. The question was always whether the Mets would bring him back. Now, Alonzo is reportedly seeking a 7-year deal, and this time around, he actually put together a strong case. The guy played all 162 games and slashed 272, 347, 524 with 38 home runs and a league leading 48 doubles, driving in 126 runs. He also became the Mets all-time home run king, passing Daryl Strawberry in August with his 253rd career home run. And Pete drives one to deep right center field headed back toward the wall. It’s out of here. Out of here. Pete Alonzo stands alone. the polar bear on his own private iceberg. But here’s the problem. Despite all that production, there’s a serious question about whether the Mets even want to bring him back with the price he’s seeking. And then there’s the elephant in the room. Multiple reports have linked the Yankees to Alonzo. And John Haymon specifically noted that Alonzo shared a connection with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrer, both who are from Tampa, Florida, and both went to the University of Florida. Now, I’m not saying that’s going to make or break a deal, but the Yankees have been consistently mentioned as suitors alongside the Rangers, Red Sox, Mariners, and Astros. The Yankees were reportedly interested in Alonzo last off season before signing Paul Goldmid. Now, I will say though that the emergence of Ben Rice makes this fit a little bit less likely for the Yankees, and there’s still plenty of other teams that are definitely going to be in on the Petonzo sweep stakes. But here’s the kicker. Last off season, SNY’s Andy Martino reported that the Mets are holding the line with Alonzo on both the length and figures of the deal with Steve Cohen fully supporting David Stern’s approach. That’s not exactly the aggressive will do whatever it takes stance you’d expect from a team trying to keep their all-time home run leader. And listen to Alonzo yourself. Does this sound like a guy who’s going to be a Met next year or is everything he’s saying more past tense? I’ve loved playing here. Uh there’s some great guys in this clubhouse. There’s some great people in the staff. I mean, every single day it’s been a pleasure coming to work and putting on the orange and blue. To me, he does give a lot of love, but it is a lot of past tense. And on top of this, Alonzo isn’t the only one hitting the market. Edwin Diaz has also opted out of the final two years and $37 million remaining on his contract. Now, the expectation is that Diaz wants to return to the Mets and they want him back, too. He said just as much after the season himself. I love this organization. They treat me really, really good. And I mean, like, why wouldn’t they want him back? Diaz was absolutely dominant in 2025, posting a 1.63 ERA with 28 saves while striking out 98 batters in 66 innings. His advanced stats were elite, 99th percentile for XRA, X batting average, with percentage, and strikeout percentage according to Baseball Savon. But here’s the thing. Closers are expensive and Diaz will be 32 years old on opening day. With Josh her getting 5 years and $95 million from the Astros before the 2024 season, you can bet that Diaz and his agent are looking for something in that ballpark, and I don’t blame them. Now, the Mets have other options if they can’t afford Diaz. Available closers include Russio and Glaciius, Robert Suarez, and Kyle Finnegan. But losing Diaz would be another blow to a bullpen that already has zero stability. I mean, guys, the Mets literally used 46 different pitchers in the 2025 season. That’s an MLB record. The bullpen posted a 3.93 erra, ranking 15th in MLB with the ninth worst walk rate in the entire MLB. On the contrary, they were middle of the pack in strikeouts, sitting 14th with 8.79 Ks through nine. But the starting rotation was even worse, guys. The Mets went through a 62game stretch where David Peterson was the only starter to last six innings. Think about how bad your rotation has to be for that to happen on a team with World Series aspirations. Then you have the Frankie Monttos signing which was an unmitigated disaster. Montis signed a 2-year $34 million deal and the expectations were insane. Listen to Montas himself say the Mets should have the best rotation in baseball. I feel like this rotation has the potential to l pretty much throw in I would say five number ones every five days. Unfortunately, a strained lat in spring training forced Montes to ride the bench until June where I’ll be honest, he was terrible after surrendering seven runs over four innings to the Giants in August. He was done sporting a 6.28 erra in nine appearances. Then he underwent Tommy John surgery in September and essentially benching him for the upcoming entire season. Of course, Luis Severino, who had a solid 2024 with the Mets, left in free agency as well and signed with the A’s. Jose Quintana also departed. Shawn Mania, who had a great 2024 and was the only one to return to the Mets, signing a three-year $75 million deal, but guess what? He was the worst of the three and put up a negative war in 2025. Meanwhile, five relievers were lost to Tommy John surgery in 2025. You had McIll, Nunes, Reed Garrett, Danny Young, and Max Cranic. Now, there is a small possibility that Danny Young can return sometime in 2026, but the other four are all out until 2027. So, for the Mets, it was the perfect storm of injuries, underperformance, and bad luck, which brings us to where we are now with the Mets having a lot of decisions to make. The logical side of me says, “Okay, well, yeah, great. Steve Cohen has all the money. Go out and get these players.” Like I don’t think it’s a good investment to invest in Pete Alonzo long term. So let’s start with that. If Alonzo walks, what are the Mets’ options? Well, let’s break it down. Internally, we could go with Mark Vientos as the easy answer. Reports indicate the Mets have already told Vientos and Brett Batty to start taking grounders at first base during their offseason workouts. So that’s a pretty clear signal. Ventos makes sense in theory. He hit 27 homers in 2024 and had a standout playoff run. But here’s the problem. Viento struggled badly in 2025, making it difficult for the Mets to trust him as a long-term solution. He’s also not a natural first baseman and wouldn’t be a defensive upgrade over Alonzo. Now, luckily for the Mets, there are free agent options at first base for them. You can go with Josh Naylor, who was probably the best first baseman available after Allonzo. Naylor slashed 295, 353, 462 in 2025 and was stellar for the Mariners in October. He’s also a solid defender, but here’s the thing. Naylor’s career OPS is 80 points lower than Alonzo’s. And Alonzo’s worst career OPS plus of 122 is close to Naylor’s career high of 130. So you’re getting a clear downgrade offensively. Now Christian Walker received a qualifying offer from Arizona, which means the Mets would have to forfeit draft picks to sign him. I do think that could be an option. He’s solid, but he’s older and he comes with that penalty. If they do spring for him, I’d expect it to be a last resort panic type of situation. Another crazy option is that they go for Alex Bregman. Hear me out. The Mets could sign Bregman, let him play third base, and then slide Viento to first. This would improve defense dramatically while keeping the pop in the lineup. The problem is is that Bregman is Scott Boris’s client and after how we saw the negotiations went with Alonzo, does Cohen really want to deal with Boris again? I would not. So, probably unlikely. But here’s where the Mets could lose Alonzo and actually come out maybe on top. Kazuma Yakamoto is a sleeper free agent this season coming in over from Japan. And despite entering his age 30 season, I think his offense will translate to the MLB level much better than Munitaka Morakami. Plus, he’s already a natural first baseman who’s proven to be a solid defender. He’d be a solid Pete Alonzo replacement. When it comes to pitching though, this is where the Mets have to spend money. The pitching last year was just too bad not to make any tweaks. 46 different pictures this year. It was like musical chairs. They’d call up somebody, he’d go in there, if he was good, they DFA him, and then they bring up somebody else because he used too many pitches. Dylan Cece is the name everyone’s been throwing around. The former Scion candidate had a lackluster season in San Diego, putting up a 4.55 RA, but the advanced metrics seem great and he’s still got elite stuff. It’s only a matter of time until he puts results on the field. Personally, I’m a huge fan of Cease and he would obviously fit great on the Mets. The only thing is is that it’s reported the Yankees, Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Giants are all big bidders on this guy. So, there’s going to be a bit of a war. So, if the Mets don’t get Dylan CE, they’re probably going to go to what the Mets do best, right? And that’s target a second tier starter and hope to catch lightning in a bottle. Think a reaclamation project, bo candidates, guys coming off injuries. It’s worked for them before. For example, Shawn Maniah, right? He was one of those guys in 2024, but they just made the mistake of resigning him. The problem though is that the strategy works great when you’re trying to squeak into the playoffs. But when you’ve just collapsed spectacularly despite having a $675 million outfielder, can you really afford to cheap out on pitching? On top of that, Pete and Diaz aren’t the only free agents. The Mets could also lose eight other players to free agency. You have Stling Marte, Jesse Winker, outfielder Cedric Mullen, starting pitcher Griffin Canning, and relievers Ryan Stannic, Tyler Rogers, Gregory Sodto, and Ryan Hley. If that sounds like a lot of players, that’s because it is. And those guys were all impacts. Now, we can also always say, “Hey guys, trick school is going to be traded. The Tigers aren’t going to pay him what they want. Let Uncle Cohen come in, spend that money, and hey, the Mets also definitely have the farm system that can make that deal work. So, there are options on the table, but things need to get done. But now, we need to talk about the elephant in the room, and that’s Juan Sodto. You see, as we all know, the Mets signed Sodto to a $765 million deal with the expectation that he’d put them over the top. Instead, they had one of the worst collapses in baseball history last year. Now, to be fair, it’s not STO’s fault. The guy had a great year, and he definitely had some iconic moments in the Queens. Back goes Bellinger near the wall. It’s out of here. But perception matters in sports and right now the perception is that the Mets spent $760 million and got worse. They made it to the NLCS in 2024 before signing Sodto. And then in 2025 with Sodto, they missed the playoffs entirely. Again, I know it’s not STO’s fault. It’s not fair to put the blame on him. You can’t pin the collapse of an entire team on one player, no matter how much you’re paying him. But fair or not, that narrative is out there and it puts pressure on the Mets to get this train back on track. So if they lose Alonzo or Diaz and some of these other free agents while failing to adequately address the pitching and then miss the playoffs again in 2026 or they’re a first round exit, then what does that contract start to look like a bit of a disaster? I don’t know. But that’s where we are now. Will the Mets rebound in 2026 or are we about to witness an even bigger disaster? On one hand, you have to believe they’re going to be better because it’s hard to imagine that the pitching is going to be worse than it was in 2025. Plus, they still have a talented core. Sodto and Lindor are both elite players. Francisco Alvarez is a young and talented catcher. Brandon NMO is solid when healthy. If Kotena can stay healthy, he’s a potential ace. David Peterson showed flashes early in the season. So, this isn’t a bad group of players. But on the other hand, this team has some serious structural issues. The defense is bad. The pitching depth is non-existent. And to make matters worse, Brett Batty and Mark Ventos really haven’t taken that next step. And the Mets were so arrogant thinking that the playoffs were automatic that they built their team for October, forgetting that they need a October. And that’s what happened. Look, here’s my honest take. The Mets are at a crossroads and the decisions they make this winter will determine whether the Wanoto era is remembered as a success or a spectacular failure. The scariest scenario is that the Mets convince themselves that 2025 was just bad luck, that the pieces are there, that they don’t need any major changes, and then 2026 rolls around and the same problems roll their ugly head. At the end of the day, Cohen has the money to fix this. The question is whether David Sterns has the willingness to spend it because right now the dominoes are starting to fall and once they start falling in the wrong places, they’re hard to stop. The clock is ticking. The winter meetings are approaching. And somewhere in Queens, Mets fans are holding their breath, wondering if the team that collapsed so spectacularly in 2025 can somehow pick up the pieces and compete in 2026, or if this is just the beginning of an even darker era in their franchise’s history. One thing’s for sure, this off season is a major one for the Mets organization. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below. What do the Mets need to do in order to get back to World Series contention? or are there too many pieces on the table for them to pick up? That’s all for today, though.

The Mets are at a crossroads that will define the next decade of baseball in Queens. Today Im breaking down exactly what the situation is. I’m dedicated to bringing you Documentary style MLB deep dives as well as the latest in MLB news, rumors, and analysis. Let’s get to 50k Subs together!