David Stearns Has NEVER Been More Unpopular | Do the Mets HAVE to Sign Pete Alonso to Save Face?

David Stearns Has NEVER Been More Unpopular | Do the Mets HAVE to Sign Pete Alonso to Save Face?

As a fan base collectively, yesterday was doomsday with Edwin Diaz going to the Dodgers. The question now, how do they save face? [Music] You are Locked on Mets, your daily New York Mets podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hello to all you amazing Mets fans. You’re listening to Locked On Mets, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you for making Locked On Mets your first listen every day. And thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. On the show today, we’re going to keep talking about the Edwin Diaz situation. In the first segment, I want to go through Edwin’s side, the Mets side, and the fan side to this situation. Second segment, we’re going to talk about Pete Alonzo because that is the best way that the Mets front office can save face for the fan base is bringing back Pete. Then in the final segment, we’re going to go through all the other options. If the Mets aren’t spending on Pete, where are they spending this off season? Before we get to any of that though, I’m your host Ryan Ficklestein. I’ve been covering the New York Mets on this show since the 2019 season. This is the number one daily podcast on the New York Mets. You want to find any of my written work, you can do so over at justbaseball.com, where I work as the editorinchief. Today’s episode’s brought to you by FanDuel. Right on new customers can bet just $5. If your bet wins, you’re going to get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download FanDuel today. So, I already did a rapid reaction to the Edwin Diaz signing yesterday that I hope a lot of you already checked out where I, you know, broke down what we knew at the time. One clarification I want to start with before we even get into anything else. I said on this show yesterday there was no deferrals in the deal. I was wrong about that. There was deferrals that were reported after I recorded or maybe it was reported before and I never caught it. could absolutely have been the case as I was on the road uh for most of the day yesterday, but well, I’m actually it still counts as yesterday. We’re we’re past midnight. Regardless, the Dodgers are deferring $4.5 million per year on Edwin Diaz’s deal. And that’s going to take the luxury tax calculations from $23 million per to $21.1 million per, which is still the richest deal ever given to a closer. So, let’s start things off here with Edwin Diaz’s side of things. Edwin Diaz just got by AAV the richest contract ever for a closer. There has never been a relief pitcher that has gotten paid more per season than Edwin Diaz just got. But why did he leave the New York Mets? Was it just the money? Was it just because the Mets were not going to get close to matching the deal? or was there something else at play here that led to Diaz choosing the Dodgers? Jeff Passen has reported that the first thing that led to this breakup was that Edwin Diaz was caught off guard when the New York Mets signed Devin Williams and that’s when things started to fall apart. So if you are putting yourself in Edwin Diaz’s shoes, he felt that the Mets should have come to him to explain their signing of Devin Williams before they did it. Is Devin Williams my setup man? Why was I not consulted on this? Why was this not brought to me? He felt blindsided. And maybe he felt David Sterns, who’s running the show, got his closer back from the Brewers, that’s his guy. that’s who he wants. And maybe he felt insulted at where the Mets were at negotiations and that they were not trying harder to get a deal done, he was not being prioritized. So, while it was Edwin Diaz’s decision to leave and all the reporting has suggested that Diaz did not bring things back to the Mets at the end of the the day, he did not give the Mets an opportunity to match. if you feel like you’ve already been burned and you feel like it’s not close and I will say I believe it was the New York Post or actually no I think it was MLB.com article it says of note the Mets final offer was 3 years 66 million with deferrals according to a source although team officials made it known that they could still increase their offer Diaz chose the Dodgers before that happened a person with knowledge of his thinking indicated that the offers were not necessarily close despite the slim difference in realworld money, which is why Diaz’s camp didn’t feel obligated to circle back to the Mets at the end. Quote, “They had their chance,” the person said. So, if you are Edwin Diaz’s camp, and we don’t know the deferrals, but that changes the math on all this stuff because it can get reported that the Mets had a threeyear $66 million deal on the table. But if they were deferring of that $22 million he was getting a season, $10 million instead of the $4.5 million of the $23 million the Dodgers offered. If the deferrals were drastically different and the Mets Aav came out to 16, 17, 18 million, which is less than Josh her, which was a big thing here. There’s a lot of ego tied to top free agents. They want to set benchmarks. That’s always like the first thing that they’re trying to do. I want to set a new record. I want to be the highest paid closer ever. the idea that Edwin Diaz was going to take a deferred contract to help win with the Mets that that just was never going to happen. And if it was going to happen, it had to come on a 5-year deal. And the Mets did not prioritize him enough to give him a five-year deal. Nobody else in the market did either. And I will tell you this, I am never one to pretend that I have sources because I don’t. I don’t. I don’t have sources. I don’t aim to have sources. That’s not what I do. That’s not my strength. I don’t consider myself a reporter, okay? I am a professional fan. All right? I have hosted this show for years now. I have my way of covering the team. I love my show. That’s what I do. I don’t aim to pretend like I have any sources, but I happen to have a friend who does have some sources. and he did let me behind the curtain a little bit on where things were in the Eden Beniaz negotiations prior to the Dodgers deal that ended up coming to fruition. No team was going to five years. None. There was not a single 5-year offer. Everyone was coming in at four and all the four-year contracts were around the same closer money we have seen this off season. That 1617 million range. Risel Glacius got 16. Devin Williams, if you don’t factor in the deferrals, got 17. You factor in the deferrals, more like 15. Ryan Hellley got 14. So, if you look at it that way, a three-year deal at 161 17 million per actually is more than everybody else in the market. But if you’re trying to set a new benchmark, comes up a lot short. Well, the Dodgers change the math. They say, “You know what? Screw it. We’re printing money in Japan. It’s a completely different situation than the Mets with Steve Cohen. Even if fans don’t want to hear that, it is different because the Mets are, and I know, okay, I don’t want to cry poor for Steve Cohen, but I I’ll just say this, the Dodgers with the infrastructure that they have built over the years, the way that they’ve been able to have a farm season, this farm system that supplements their big league roster and how far ahead they got on everybody and now the way they open up that Japanese market with Joey Otani coming aboard. And then you add Yoshino Yamamoto as well. They are printing money in a way where they can just say screw it. We’ll give Edwin whatever it takes to get a deal done. And that’s ultimately what happened where Edwin Diaz is valued by the Dodgers to an extent that he says, you know what, that’s the team for me. That’s the team for me. The Mets were not prioritizing me. And so you can understand why Diaz chose to leave. But at the same time, don’t in the same breath say that Diaz loved the Mets and he’s heartbroken over this because if Edwin Diaz had such a connection to the Mets, if Edwin Diaz didn’t want to just win a World Series, he wanted to win a World Series in a Mets uniform, if he cared about his Mets legacy that much, he would really make it a a point of putting the ball in the Mets court, giving them the chance to match a contract offer. And if they didn’t, then flip the Mets double birds and go scorched earthf, okay? And and let everybody know what happened and how the Mets mistreated you. But it’s a combination of you start to feel that way because of how the Mets approach your free agency. You started to get that way. And so a team comes over the top with a contract offer that’s really attractive even with the deferrals, $21.1 million per season, most ever for a reliever. And you know that at the end of the deal, you can still cash in on another three-year contract potentially if you pitch well. Yeah, let’s go. Let’s go win a couple World Series and let’s see where I’m at in three years because I’m going to maximize my earnings as he has every right to do. So that’s Edwin Diaz’s side of it. And I’m realizing now I’m going to have to split up the Edwin Diaz portion of the show. We are going to get to Petal Lonzo. That’s going to be maybe the final segment. We talk about where you can spend your money. But I want to talk about the Mets side of it and the fan side of it in just a minute. First though, today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or you want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. And right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. [Music] [Music] Thank you for making Lockdown Mets your first listen every day. And thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. All right, let’s now talk about the Met side of things. So, there was one report and I don’t even know how sourced it was, but somebody suggested that David Sterns was happy to finish second on Edwin Diaz. And while I don’t know if I entirely buy that reporting because the Mets contract was still a pretty good offer all things cons, we don’t know the deferrals. That that that’s the one thing that’s throwing everything into whack. We don’t know the deferrals. But let’s go down the line of logic that the Mets were happy with this or not happy but okay with it. You signed Devin Williams first to a contract that I still will stand by. I said it on yesterday’s show. I’ll say it again. If you had to give me right now the chance to pick one, Edwin Diaz on his deal or Devin Williams on his, I would take Devin Williams deal every single time. It is the better contract. It just is. It just is. And I get that there is a fan attachment to Edwin Diaz. This core didn’t win anything. Nothing. Sure, they got to game six of the NLCS in a fever dream year fueled by Joseé Glacius, OMG, and Grimace. And now I’m I’m going back on my own take because I remember at the end of that season hating that everyone just equated it to this, you know, this crazy ride because of Grimace and OMG. But when we have the backdrop of the 2025 season, you just can’t take too much more stock into what happened that year. That was all this court has ever put together. One deep playoff run since 2019 with Edwin Diaz as your closer with Brandon NMO as a centerpiece with Pete Alonzo with Jeff McNeel. If David Sterns decides to scorch earth this thing, trade McNeel and not resign Pete Alonzo, well, you better be right with how you build your team. But you know what? Here’s the thing that I wouldn’t want. And it’s funny here. I don’t know why this movie just came to my mind, but if you’ve ever seen Draft Day, it’s one of the more ridiculous movies you’ll ever watch with Kevin Cosner, but there’s something fun about how at the end of the movie, he just says, “Screw it. It’s my team. I’m doing my thing.” and he pulls off the most ridiculous thing where the the the first overall pick that he traded, he somehow gets the guy that he wanted. He went avant Mack no matter what and he gets the Putney and it’s a funny movie. If you ever watch it’s not a funny, it’s a it’s a it’s a fun movie to watch. But regardless, if you’re David Sterns and you’re running your childhood team, you should not be cowering to the fan base. You should not be trying to win over the newspapers, the media, the podcast. You should be running the team the way you think is right. And if you think Devin Williams should be your closer and you think that it’s a waste of money and a waste of resources because resources are not infinite as much as Mets fans believe they are. If you think the best way to build the team is to build it around Devin Williams buying low off of a down season, having complete faith that he’s going to get right back on track and be one of the most elite relievers in baseball, then you got to go with that. And you know what? Hopefully he’s right. As a Mets fan, you shouldn’t want David Sterns to be wrong. You should want him to be right. Because if Devin Williams goes out this season and pitches to a 180 RA and saves 35 games, no one is going to care about Edwin Diaz anymore. That’s just the reality of it. So, while it is frustrating as a fan to see it go like this and then you have the each side is is leaking things to the media and the Mets were in it, but were they really? And look, at the end of the day, it almost comes back to a Jacob Deg Grom contract negotiation, right? The player chose to move on. Did the team put all the the fullcourt press to get the player? Maybe not. Maybe not. If the Mets at the beginning of the offseason said, “Hey, Edwin, we’re going to try to get you an elite setup, man, and we’re going to approach you with this thing from the beginning, and that’s and and and we we’re going to we’re going to spend on you and somebody else, and oh, by the way, we can sign if they catch him in a loop the whole time, maybe he doesn’t get his feelings hurt. But you know what? If the Dodgers offer him $23 million with an AEV around 21 million and the Mets best offer that they actually wanted to spend was a three-year-old deal around 1617 million per, you were never going to get him. Even with the deferrals and all that, it didn’t matter. If you wanted to get Edwin Diaz to sign a team friendly deal, you needed to give him more years to do it. And that’s just that’s just it. So, it’s funny because I I’ve almost done a completely different show than what I was planning. But the reality to me of what has happened here is Edwin Diaz did not love the Mets above all else. He was not so beholden to the franchise that he was going to come back and he was going to give them the chance to match and all that. The Mets were in on him, but they weren’t aggressive enough to get the deal done. And maybe that’s because that report was true. Maybe Davis Sterns wanted to finish second because he has bigger plans. Maybe. We’ll have to see what the final picture is. But you know what? As a fan, if you were happy when David Sterns got hired, you have to let him do his job. Just like draft day, let the guy do his job. You cannot coward to the You don’t want your GM thinking about you as a fan. That kind of sounds wrong and twisted, but you don’t want your GM making moves to service you as a fan. You want your GM in your front office who has a lot more baseball experience and knowledge than any of us. You want them to build the team the way they think is best. And I understand why putting $21 million a year into a closer and $15 million a year into a setup man is probably not the best way to allocate your resources. I also understand why Devin Williams on the contract that he signed is far more attractive than Edwin Diaz on the contract that he signed. So, when you think about it that way, it makes sense from a Mets perspective and it makes sense from an Edwin Diaz perspective. And the fan side of it is it sucks. It sucks. I want Edwin Diaz. I wanted Edwin Diaz has to be past tense now to finish his career in a Mets uniform, go down as the greatest closer in Mets franchise history, save more games than anybody else, get his number retired, all that stuff, but I want the Mets to win a World Series more. And so, I get why fans are disappointed. I get why fans are frustrated. But I also still support the vision of the front office. Now, if Pete Alonzo does not come back, they might lose me a little bit. I’m I’m going to have a harder time justifying the contract that Pete Allonzo gets on the market from what the Mets are willing to offer. if he signs, especially a three-year deal, you could call it a four or fiveyear deal with another team and we find out the Mets final offer was three years, I don’t have a problem with that. I will. I don’t have as much of a problem with this because while I can say sure, give him four for 80. That’s what I projected at just baseball and I think that would have gotten a deal done. I can understand not wanting to give Edwin Diaz 4 for 80 and Deon Devin Williams 3 for 51 with the deferrals making it more three for 45. I get that. That makes sense. And I get why Devin Williams was more attractive than Edwin Diaz based on what they were asking for. And I get that Devin Williams had a bigger market than Edwin Diaz. And so you couldn’t let the Edwin situation play out first to then end up missing your chance to get Devin Williams because I’ll tell you this, Devin Williams, in my opinion a lot better than Robert Suarez. And Suarez might make just as much if not more than him now that he’s the last closer on the market. Well, yeah, Pete Fairbanks, too, but that would have been a real step back. I understand how all this went and it’s like I’m I’m coming to my realization on the podcast talking it out with you all today. Doesn’t make it hurt any less. Doesn’t make it suck any less. But I think you can understand how everybody came to the decisions that they made and how we got here. And so now go out there, David, and build a better bullpen with Devin Williams at the center instead of Edwin Diaz. And then the winning is going to cure all. That’s it. But if you trade, excuse me, if you don’t resign Pete Alonzo, that inner fan in me, the fan that’s watched Pete Alonzo’s entire career and has has already had to say goodbye to Brandon Nemo and Edwin Diaz in the same off season, I’m going to be pissed. So save face, bring Pete Alonzo back. That’s where we’re going to close the show in just a minute. The World Cup is coming back to North America for the first time since 1994. And with 48 teams for the first time ever, it’s going to be massive. But let’s be honest, getting tickets are usually the hardest part. That’s why the Game Time app is clutch. Finally, giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. With Game Time, you can track price drops in real time, get alerts when great seats open up, and you can buy tickets the moment they hit the app. It puts the power back in your hands, making going to the World Cup realistic instead of impossible. Pick a game, tap a section, and have your tickets locked in within minutes. 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If you want to be logged on Mets Insider, find a link in the episode description or just go to subtext.com/lockedonmets. All right, so now let’s talk about Pete Alonzo. Are the Mets willing to go beyond three years for Pete Alonzo? And if not, why? I mean, they weren’t willing to go beyond three years for Kyle Schwarber, but if the reports are true and it was three years, 40 million per, what happens after that that that threeyear window? What happens? I mean, David Sterns, I think he’ll be done with this 5-year deal. But, I mean, if anything, that would motivate you to spend longer term. Who cares? If things blow up that bad and you lose your job, well, then, okay. I mean, now it’s the the next GM’s problem. So, why is it three years? That that’s the first side of this thing. Why is three years as far as you can go? Is it just because of the clear inherent risk of longerterm deals that once you get to year four, that’s where things get dicey. That’s where you can’t project any further. That’s where the, you know, maybe the Mets have, you know, their processes, their their the the projection models and they only run three years out and oh, there’s no model for the fourth year. So, you get nervous. I I don’t understand why three years is such a hurdle to get past. I I don’t get that part. I understand not wanting to invest in the starting pitching market in free agency and liking Michael King more than Framber Valdez based on the fact that Framber might still be asking for six years. We’ll see if he gets it and Michael King it might be a three-year deal with some optouts. I get why that’s more attractive because Framber is not as premium of an ace as he is going to get paid this off seasonason because of the lack of other options on the market. And so I get not meeting that price. I get in some ways not be meeting the president Edwin Diaz this time around. I get that. I can understand that. I can follow that line of logic. I don’t get why you’re so afraid of a five-year deal for a guy that plays every single game. That part I don’t get. And I also think it is bold to trade NMO when the man built a house in Port St. Lucy, built his life in Port St. Lucy. He was gonna be a Met forever. Just ripped off that bad day and traded him. Okay. All right. I get that. You like your guy more. You like Devin Williams more than than Edwin Diaz. The contract is way better. Okay. I get that. I can I I can follow you there. I can meet you there, David. You’re going to say goodbye to the franchise’s all-time leader in home runs. For what? For what? Devin Williams, there was a fallback plan. Well, excuse me. Devin Williams was the fallback plan for Edwin Diaz. Trading Brandon NMO. Look, if you told me at the beginning of the off seasonason if there’s one contract I could remove from the Mets books, I would have said Brandon Nemo. I think it’s pretty incredible that they actually were able to find a trade partner that was going to take five years of Brendan Nmo and take on most of the money. Granted, the Mets had to take a bad contract back and Marcus Simeon, but hey, if you needed a second baseman because Jeff McNeel was not your guy and you didn’t think Jet Williams was going to be ready on opening day, Marcus Simeon is probably one of the best second baseman that will get moved this off season. If Kuck Marte gets moved, he’s better. Outside of that, stop me at Jorge Palano. I don’t think that that is a a better addition at second base that the Mets could have made in free agency than trading for Marcus Simeon. So, I can I can find you there. I can meet you there. But who replaces Pete Alonzo? Who? Schwarber’s gone. And maybe the Mets aggressive pursuit is tipping their hand. Their aggressive pursuit of Shorer maybe tips their hand that they don’t want Pete back. That they don’t think Pete Alonzo should play first base. And they felt like Shore was a better hitter to be the DH. But now, do you reconsider that? Are you really still engaged on Pete Alonzo or is that another thing that we just don’t know about that the Mets internally are only okay on our terms? If Pete wants to gravel back to us again after the market lets him down, we’ll take him back. If that’s the case, I I start to lose you a little bit because I don’t know what the plan is. Now, if we finally have the complete picture and at the end of this off season, sure the Mets don’t have Edwin Diaz, they don’t have Pete Alonzo, they don’t have Brandon Nemo, but they signed Kyle Tucker. They traded for Terk Scooel. Different conversation we’re having, isn’t it? They traded for Freddy Peralta and Trevor McIll in the same deal. and they got a great set of man for Devin Williams who’s familiar with being the setup man for Devin Williams and they get a new ace and they extend Freddy Peralta as well. Okay, we’re cooking with some gas. I get it. But when it comes to that starting lineup, there’s not a first base on the market that’s better than Pete Alonzo. Munitaka Morakami, sure. Are you really ready to invest seven years on that guy who’s a complete unknown? I don’t think so. I don’t buy that the Mets are in on Morami. We’ll see if I’m wrong. I do buy that they’d be in on Bellinger. So, is that the plan? You went from NMO and Alonzo to Bellinger and Simeon. Is that the plan? He got better defensively if he did that. How’s the team line up? Bellinger in right, Sodto in left, Benj in center, Simeon at second, Vientos at first, Batty at third, Lindor at short, Mauricio, or I guess maybe Ventos at DH and you throw a first base glove on Ronnie. You go out and then you have the money to sign somebody else or you hope that things can work out where eventually Bellinger could come in and play first base. Is that the plan? That’s the thing that I don’t know. If you’re not going to give money to Pete Alonzo Neandas, who are you going to spend money on? You’re not going to spend on Framber, right? You’re not going to go long term. That’s not going to go longterm on Tatsuya, Ei Morakami, again, don’t think so. Bregman, sure, maybe. But the Mets have all but anoint anointed Brett Batty as the starting third baseman that they’re really high on. So, that’s where all of this just gets so interesting to me because I wonder if the Mets How do the Mets save face? David Sterns keeps saying, “We’re going to be happy with our team come come opening day? How what’s going to happen to get you there? What player are you going to bring in that is going to be enough of an impact player that it allows Mets fans to forget about guys that they loved? They love the trumpets and narco and Diaz coming out of the pen in the ninth inning. They love Brandon Nemo because he was a homegrown Met who ascended to be a really good player. Always was kind and courteous off the field, just a great dude. And then your franchise home all-time home run leader, Pete Alonzo. What I I just I really do wonder what happens next. and and all we can do is wait to find out. Doesn’t seem like we’re going to get much more of these winter meetings. Who knows? But I just I don’t get why they wouldn’t sign Pete Alonzo. And I’m not I’m probably not going to get it if he signs elsewhere unless he gets a deal that’s beyond five years on that one when the alternatives are because sure you can get Tucker, you can get Bellinger, but but why couldn’t you get Bellinger and Alonzo? And if you could, that would be even more of a reason why you didn’t sign Edwin Diaz because you’d rather invest in two top position players than a closer and a position player. But it’s it’s so hard to understand what’s going on cuz we just don’t know anything. We don’t we have no idea what a move’s going to be until it happens. So, we’ll see what’s next for your New York Mets. I think if they were able to come to terms with Pete Alonzo, that would buy them a lot of grace with the fan base. And I think that Petonzo would be worth the contract that he signed anyway. So, if the ask is five years, meet him there. Meet him there. If the ask is seven years and you’ve been saying three, meet him in the middle now. Don’t sit on your hands and hope that Petonzo is going to come back on a team friendly deal. Aggressively pursue that team friendly deal. Aggressively pursue a contract where it’s $150 million with $50 million of deferrals or 75, whatever you want to do. Get the money to a point that you’re comfortable and give him your best offer. Now, don’t get caught sleeping on it and then tell us after, “Oh, well, we were so shocked they didn’t come back to us.” No, no. Fans can only take that for so long. Bottom line, this team needs a big move bad. They need some type of a big blockbuster move that will take some of the pressure off of this front office, take some pressure off David Sterns, and just ease the negative pump public sentiment that he has because it’s rough right now. Mets fans are pissed off and you have every right to be. I get it. I get it. Do I think that Deon Williams would be better over the next three years than Ow Diaz? It’s anybody’s guess. Do I think they’re going to be close? I do. I really do. I don’t think that the Mets took some drastic step back. I don’t think that everything about this franchise has just crumbled. I think they have a really bright future, but they got to go out and prove it. And that’s all it comes down to. They got to win games. So, we’ll see if they can win games with a completely different team next year because a lot of the faces we’ve grown to know and love, they’re going to be gone. Gonna be gone. It could just be Jeff McNeel left and that would be a hilarious piece of irony. Anyway, that’s going to be all. Thank you for tuning into the show. Make sure you follow, rate, and review wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe if you’re watching on YouTube. And thank you for making Locked on Mets your first listen every day. Thank you for making Locked Dawn the number one sports podcast network.

New York Mets fans reeling after Edwin Diaz signs with the Los Angeles Dodgers—can the front office rebound?

With Diaz landing a record-breaking closer deal and Devin Williams now anchoring the bullpen, the Mets face mounting questions about prioritizing their resources and retaining their core.

Is David Stearns’ strategy for reshaping the roster truly what’s best for Queens, or are beloved players being sacrificed for financial flexibility?

Ryan Finkelstein breaks down the drama behind Diaz’s exit, Williams’ contract, and the growing uncertainty surrounding Pete Alonso’s future at first base.

Key issues include how the Mets’ offseason decisions impact their chances for a World Series run, the surprising trade of Brandon Nimmo, and the fan base’s restless demand for a blockbuster move.

Which star can help the Mets “save face”—and will fans get answers before the opening day lineup is set?

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