What Are the Mets Doing? Inside the Confusing Offseason Strategy

When Steve Cohen took over as the owner of the Mets, it signaled that the Mets organization was tired of playing little brother to their rivals in the Bronx. Cohen flashed his endless pockets early on with big signings of Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Edwin Diaz, Kodai Senga, and a few others. It truly felt like a new era of Mets baseball, where they would not be outbid if they wanted to bring in big names to fill the seats at Citi Field.

The Mets felt they were moving in the right direction until a disastrous 2025 season, when everything that could have gone wrong seemed to go wrong. The Mets missed the postseason entirely in the first year of the Juan Soto era, and significant changes were needed so that wouldn’t happen this season.

So what did the Mets do to prevent this from happening again? 

They let both Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz walk in free agency. Wait, that must be an error on my end. Why would the Mets let their franchise first baseman and superstar closer walk out the door to the defending World Series champs, and the Baltimore Orioles? The Dodgers outbid teams all the time, but that shouldn’t be the case when you had Steve Cohen!

Then the Alonso situation makes no sense. It’s reported that the Mets were all in on Kyle Schwarber, but weren’t able to pull him away from the Phillies. After missing out on Schwarber, the Mets didn’t even offer Alonso a contract. I know that Alonso has some flaws, like his defense and his inconsistency at the plate, but now, where else are you going to find a 40 home run bat on the market?

I’ve seen Mets fans online claim that they need a rebuild, but that’s never going to happen with the Lindor and Soto contracts on the books for the next decade. So what’s the plan now? Options are starting to get relatively thin for free agency.

You’ll at least want to bring back Starling Marte to this lineup, and also look into Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker. Both of those options feel like you’ll end up overpaying for, but what else out there will make up for what you lost this offseason, and move you closer to returning to the playoffs?

For the rotation, Chris Bassitt is an interesting return to New York, and Framber Valdez and Lucas Giolito are the best available options on the market for starters. There just aren’t many options that make the Mets all that better from last season. 

I don’t understand letting proven commodities walk, while also not being aggressive in free agency. Maybe the Mets will get into the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes and prove me wrong, but unless they make a big move, this could be a disappointing offseason for Steve Cohen and the Mets.