It's All So Bare

It gets dark at 4:30 pm these days. The trees are mostly empty. Seasonal Affective Disorder is real. You look for brightness in any form you can. 

The Mets are not helping my mood.

Pete Alonso’s deal with the Baltimore Orioles was made official yesterday. The Mets posted a 90 second tribute video on social media, which was nice. This news came a few hours after Robert Suarez, a target of the Mets to work with Devin Williams in the back-end of the bullpen, signed a three-year, $45 million deal with Atlanta, giving them a scary eighth and ninth inning combo of Suarez and Raisel Iglesias. Those who claim the Mets shouldn’t have given a three-year deal to a 35-year old like Suarez are missing the point: a division rival just got much better. Plus, a heavy target of the Mets chose somewhere else. Again. That doesn’t bode well for the Mets’ chances in nabbing a Pete Fairbanks or a Luke Weaver, which I think is essential in order to have a decent-to-good bullpen. Retaining Tyler Rogers just wouldn’t cut it imho (but yes by all means go get Rogers back.) 

The Met fanbase seems divided. Some are angry at Steve Cohen and David Stearns. Some others are making fun of those angry people, insisting that letting Alonso walk was the wise baseball decision. This pisses off the mocked. 

There was a Reddit post theorizing that Cohen doesn’t care about the Mets anymore now that he got his casino, and he’s making sure nobody is on the books by the time the casino opens in 2030/2031. I don’t think that’s true. I believe Cohen is letting Stearns be David Stearns, which is a problem. Stearns is staying “strong”, refusing to “overpay”. He’s been good at “reading the market” in the past. 

My concern, which has already been borne out somewhat, is that Stearns isn’t factoring in other teams enough in his overall strategy. With each free agent, there’s going to be one team that “overpays”. Stearns risks coming away with just Devin Williams through free agency. While I don’t doubt his skill at swinging a trade that could help the team, shutting out an entire transactional avenue is not conducive to building a successful product. 

I try to be objective here. It wasn’t hard when Brandon Nimmo was traded. As much as I like Nimmo, his contract was not good and was due to get worse. And the player the Mets got back, Marcus Semien, is literally a gold glover at second base and supposedly a quality human being. Not signing Edwin Díaz wasn’t entirely Stearns’ fault. I still say Stearns should have given Díaz a heads up when they were signing Devin Williams to ensure that Sugar knew he would still be the closer. As silly and unnecessary as that sounds, Stearns should have known Díaz well enough to anticipate a problem. But Díaz not circling back to let the Mets make a final offer shows he had his eyes set on the Los Angeles Dodgers. And no matter how much the Mets would have upped their offer, I believe the Dodgers, desperate for bullpen help, would have matched. 

The Alonso defection hits different. I really don’t think signing Pete for five years would have been the end of the world. As I wrote yesterday, if he’s open to DHing, then you don’t have an issue with run prevention. Juan Soto will DH eventually, but I really don’t think it’ll happen on a consistent basis until the next decade. Yes, most players like Alonso “don’t age well”. Most doesn’t mean all. 

The plan, I fear, is that Steve Cohen and David Stearns lowkey want to lower the payroll - they don’t want to pay the luxury tax penalty any longer. Cohen doesn’t because, duh, he’s the one putting up the money. Stearns doesn’t want to either because every year the Mets pass the payroll threshold, they drop ten spots in the first round of the draft. 

Stearns kept the 2024 core together last season because of how far they went in the postseason. Even though the pitching was primarily the problem, Stearns looked at 2025, determined 2024 was a fluke, and broke the core apart. 2025, with the big league club missing the playoffs and having the highest rated farm system, was the excuse Stearns and Cohen needed to blow it up. 

It’s painful to go through as a fan. It’s also infuriating. The Dodgers manage to win championships despite always having to pay the luxury tax and having low draft positioning. Steve Cohen said he wanted to emulate that franchise when he bought the Mets in 2020. That no longer seems to be the case. 

Haley Alonso wrote a touching goodbye to New York and Mets fans. Later, Pete did as well. I couldn’t help but notice neither of them actually wrote the word “Mets” in their messages. A subtle dig at a front office they felt disrespected by? A ChatGPT whoopsie?

Jon Heyman said the Mets only “discussed concepts” with Robert Suarez, and weren’t willing to pay him more than they paid Devin Williams. 

Nolan McLean is “off limits” in a potential trade for Tarik Skubal. As he should be.

Jon Heyman wrote that Brewers and Yankees people “seemed relieved” when Devin Williams left before adding he’s not a “disrupter”. His overall point was Williams is not nearly as good of a clubhouse guy as Edwin Díaz, and the Mets clearly haven’t cared about chemistry because they shipped off Nimmo. It’s rather confusing. 

The Mets like free agent 1B/OF Cody Bellinger “very much.” More than three years like? We’ll see I guess.

The Mets and White Sox have talked about CF Luis Robert for prospects, but the Mets want money to come back and that isn’t Jerry Reinsdorf’s bag.

SNY debuted the 2025 edition of Amazin’ Finishes in the middle of the day. Here’s the top 10:

The 2025 Mets Amazin' Finishes, according to SNY:

10. April 2nd at Marlins

9. April 23rd vs Phillies

8. July 4th vs Yankees

7. August 26th vs Phillies

6. June 10th vs Nationals

5. September 5th at Reds (Díaz broken cleat game)

4. September 14th vs Rangers (Alonso walk-off HR)

3. April 18th vs Cardinals (Lindor walk-off HR)

2. July 8th at Orioles (The “Fab Four” comeback game)

1. September 23rd at Cubs (Five-run comeback Alvarez HR game)

Caesars Sports has put the over/under on Met wins in 2026 at 86.5. If you were a betting person, which way would you go on that?

26 years ago tomorrow, Ken Griffey Jr. vetoed a trade to the Mets. Armando Benítez, Roger Cedeño, and Octavio Dotel would have been shipped to Seattle. Oh what could have been.

12 years ago Sunday, Bartolo Colon signed a two-year, $20 million deal with the Mets.