preparing for Opening Day elsewhere<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn sum, the Mets subtracted the franchise\u2019s all-time home run leader (Alonso), a fan favorite (Nimmo), a former batting champion (McNeil) and the most electric closer in team history (D\u00edaz).<\/p>\n
Seldom, if ever, have the Mets looked so different between the final pitch of one season and the start of the next.<\/p>\n
Meet the (new) Mets.<\/p>\n
New York Mets\u2019 Bo Bichette (l.) walks with Marcus Semien during a workout day before Opening Day at Citi Field, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cOpening Day, there\u2019s always jitters regardless,\u201d said Semien, who arrived in a November trade that sent Nimmo to Texas. \u201cBut go to a new team, and a team like the Mets, so much history, such a good fan base, energy and we are going to have to go out there and calm ourselves down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert, traded from the White Sox, already understands there\u2019s a difference between playing in Queens and on Chicago\u2019s South Side.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cI am sure that Thursday the stadium is going to be packed, which is something that over the last few years in Chicago I didn\u2019t get to experience that,\u201d Robert said through an interpreter. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a new experience for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bichette was the headliner, added to a lineup that will be more reliant on putting the ball in play than in recent seasons. Juan Soto remains the focal point, following a season in which he placed third in the MVP voting.<\/p>\n
Bichette, the new third baseman, was asked if there was anything he had come to realize by the end of spring training that he didn\u2019t know about the Mets when camp began.<\/p>\n
New York Mets Infielder Jorge Polanco throws during a workout day before Opening Day at Citi Field, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Queens, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with the WBC it was kind of go through the motions a bit until everybody got back,\u201d said Bichette, who was signed to a three-year contract worth $126 million. \u201cI knew we were good, but once I saw kind of our first full lineup, I think we\u2019re even better than we thought we were.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody can hit from top to bottom, obviously great pitching, so we have the potential to do some really cool things. But now we have got to get out there to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skenes, who followed his NL Rookie of the Year season in 2024 with a Cy Young Award last year, will add to the afternoon\u2019s intrigue. The right-hander posted a 1.97 ERA in 32 starts last season with 216 strikeouts in 187 \u00b2\/\u2083 innings.<\/p>\n
New York Mets outfielder Carson Benge jogs during a workout day before Opening Day at Citi Field, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Queens, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
If there isn\u2019t enough newness to the Mets, the team will also unveil the rookie Benge, who won the starting right field job in spring training.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am seeing five tools,\u201d Semien said of Benge. \u201cNow just comes experience. Experience at this level outweighs everything, but when you have the tools and maturity, it puts you in better position to be ready for your first shot at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The additional new piece on display will be Peralta, the rotation upgrade who arrived from Milwaukee in January for Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams. The right-hander gives the Mets a proven ace, removing a weight that otherwise would have rested on stud rookie Nolan McLean\u2019s shoulders after only eight major league starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are hungry to win and we are going to give everything we have to bring a championship to New York,\u201d Peralta said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Napalm, as an incendiary agent, has nothing on the manner president of baseball operations David Stearns approached the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,9411,101,4,18513,1690,61,2548,4203,877,64,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-643467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-david-stearns","10":"tag-mets","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-opening-day","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkmets","17":"tag-paul-skenes","18":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116292350755316726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}