David Stearns & The Process

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As days go in New York Mets history, the Mets losing on consecutive days Edwin Diaz and Pete Alonso via free agency is just another day in the neighborhood. Nothing to watch here. Move along.

In the history of the Mets, only two prominent players have spent their entire careers in the orange and blue: Ed Kranepool and David Wright.

Eddie Kranepool

That’s it.

Through different owners and various decision-makers in the front office, the Mets have repeatedly demonstrated a completely unsentimental attachment to homegrown players.

Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso were homegrown talents. Each grew up and achieved success as a Met. Nimmo and Alonso could handle the pressure and bright lights of the big city and perform at a high level. That should never be undervalued in the hardball locales of the Accela Corridor. Playing on the East Coast is different.

Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns viewed the results of the 2025 campaign and deemed that changes needed to be made. A course correction was needed. (I’m with him on that.)

Here’s what fascinating about Stearns’s purge of the Mets: Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz all thrived in 2025. They weren’t the reasons for the team’s collapse. This trio of talent delivered.

  • Brandon Nimmo (5.8 WAR ranked 8th amongst MLB’s Left Fielders)
  • Pete Alonso (5.6 WAR ranked 6th amongnst MLB’s First Basemen)
  • Edwin Diaz (2.0 WAR ranked 9th amongst MLB’s Relief Pitchers)

(* WAR Rankings by FanGraphs)

Stearns would correctly point out that each of the three above players is the wrong side of thirty. That each of these Mets fan favorites is approaching the age of diminishing returns. Stearns was able to pass on Nimmo’s long-term deal, which runs to 2030, to the Texas Rangers for second baseman Marcus Semien (6.4 WAR ranked 5th amongst MLB’s Second Basemen). It appears Edwin Diaz desired to take his talents to the Dodgers, but Mets owner Steve Cohen possesses the ability to change minds with his deep pockets. And David Stearns allowed Pete Alonso to walk away with little to no interest in bringing the Polar Bear back to Flushing.

Folks have characterized Stearns’s moves or lack of moves as being unsentimental. But he did sign an old friend from his Milwaukee days, Devin Williams, to a three-year. $51 million contract to replace Diaz in the bullpen.

David & Devin meeting with the press to explain how Devin drunkenly injured himsef by punching a wall after the Brew Crew clinched the NL Central title versus the Mets in 2021.

As I’ve written previously, the deteriorating results in 2025 were the end product of a suspect pitching staff and a poorly constructed roster. These were both assembled by Stearns. In his end of the year press conference, Stearns repeatedly focused on the subject of run prevention. Run prevention starts with your pitching staff. A subpar defensive first baseman, such as Pete Alonso, and a left fielder who has lost a step in Brandon Nimmo were not the reasons for the Mets agonizing descent to as confusing a season as any in Mets history.

No one ever wants to use this dirty word when it comes to New York sports, but David Stearns is in the midst of a: REBUILD

What was that?

It’s a REBUILD.

The Mets are dangling their most consistent starting pitcher in 2005, David Peterson, as being available in trade talks. Peterson’s struggles in the second half of the season did not help the Mets’ playoff push. There is no secret that the idiosyncratic Kodai Senga is another starting pitcher the Mets have interest in moving. Senga was so messed up and confused with his mechanics (Senga is nearly always on a quest to “find” his mechanics.) that the Mets exiled him to the minors in September, where he continued to pitch like Hideki Irabu. Stearns has young arms on the rise (Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat) and wants to make sure there is room for them on the major league roster.

Stearns cobbled together a bullpen that struggled for most of the year. His trade deadline acquisitions were mostly busts. An offensive abyss in center field plagued the Mets. Carrying Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio — players who possess very similar skill sets and play nearly identical positions – was a questionable way to construct the roster.

The David Stearns solution is to purge the coaching staff and the players that were the nucleus of this team. The 2025 season has allowed Stearns to emphatically place his imprimatur on the Mets.

ALL HAIL, KING DAVID!

The Stearns & Soto LLC

Nimmo, Diaz and Alonso were not Stearns’s guys. Juan Soto is a Stearns guy. And now we will see who else is a Stearns guy as he makes further moves this offseason.

In the midst of the 2025 season, Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow showed the baseball world that Rafael Devers wasn’t his guy by trading him to the San Francisco Giants. For the remainder of the year, the Red Sox DH by committee did not approach the offensive production of Devers, but Breslow finessed that fact by stating the lack of a full-time DH allowed every day players a day to rest and provided at-bats to keep role players fresh. Breslow was able to shed Devers’ long-term contract that his predecessor, Chaim Bloom, offered after being blindsided by Xander Bogaerts’ defection to San Diego. Breslow was able to cast aside Bloom’s mega deal to Devers.

All of these heads of baseball operations ultimately want their guys and their vision of the roster to manifest itself. Using nearly the same metrics and formulas, there is a groupthink at work to assembling a baseball roster. According to David Stearns, the Mets’ trade deadline acquistions were not failures because they were products of the vaunted process. Ultimately, the process will prevail though it took a lot of L’s in 2025.

Jorge Polanco — A Product of The Process

As I’m writing this, Seattle Mariners playoff stud, Jorge Polanco, has reportedly signed a two-year contract for $40 million to play mostly DH and first base for the Mets. The thirty-one year old Polanco put up a torrid second half of the season for the Mariners, but struggled in 2023 and 2024.

So, this is David Stearns’s answer to partially replacing the offensive production of Pete Alonso: Jorge Polanco

Polanco is now a Stearns guy — for two years. Polanco represents both roster flexibilty and payroll flexibility. Stearns must be orgasmic right now — unless Polanco hits like he did in 2023 and 2024. If that is the case, Stearns will bear a legacy with Mets fans of attempting to replace Pete Alonso with the up and down Jorge Polanco.

Stearns has definitively announced the Mets are now his team and it is his process at work.

Good luck with that, David.

NOTRE DAME GOT JOBBED (And I Like It)

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After enduring two early season losses to Miami and Texas A&M, it became clear throughout the rest of the regular season that Notre Dame was6 one of the twelve best teams in college football. Before entering conference championship weekend, Notre Dame was ranked above the University of Miami (FL) by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee for what many believed was to be one available at-large berth to the tournament.

At the conclusion of Saturday’s conference championship games, the Selection Committee determined that Texas Tech’s ass-whooping of BYU (34-7) allowed Miami to leap past BYU in the rankings. Now, the committee was forced to look at Miami and Notre Dame for the final at-large berth: head-to-head. The Selection Committee was instructed to take another look at the game played on August 31st, where Miami beat ND, 27-24, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

This game was the season opener for both schools. And now the Selection Committee was looking at a game played at the end of the summer as possibly the deciding factor to determine the final spot in the the CFP.

Based on other metrics both schools were near even. Miami’s two losses were to conference foes, SMU and Louisville. Notre Dame’s two losses were against Miami and CFP participant Texas A&M in the first two games of the season. ND ran the table after those two losses.

By noon on Sunday, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee had made the decison that Miami was deserving of the final at-large berth vaulting over Notre Dame. Neither ND or The U had played that weekend, but somehow BYU’s loss opened the door for the Canes to edge out the Fighting Irish. Miami would play Texas A&M in the first round of the CFP and Notre Dame would likely play BYU in the Pop Tarts Bowl.

If you have been around the block more than once, you realize that college football is a cesspool of backroom deals, good old boy handshakes and political machinations that would make Louis The XVI’s royal court look like a bunch of junior high amateurs in the use of deception and manipulation.

Notre Dame has chosen to be an an outlier in college football by retaining its status as an independent. (Notre Dame and UConn are the only true FBS independents.) Notre Dame has elected to use its brand and its large nationwide fan base to further the goals of Notre Dame. ND makes its own schedule (Though it does have an agreement with the ACC to schedule 5 ACC schools each year.), negotiate its own tv deal and retains every cent of that money, and when it plays in the postseason does not have to share a dollar with any fellow conference members.

Further, when Notre Dame enters into a scheduling agreement with another school it uses its brand as leverage to get the best possible deal. Notre Dame usually prefers a scheduling agreement where the Irish receive two home games and the opponent receives one. Or the Irish recieve a home game and the opponent will host the game at a neutral site. Exxamples of that are Notre Dame playing Boston College at Fenway Park and ND traveling to Met Life Stadium to take on Navy.

Notre Dame is the bully on the block and constantly seeks preferential treatment. For the 2026 season, Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua has already negotiated an agreement where the Fighting Irish are guaranteed a spot in the College Football Playoff if they finish ranked in the Top 12.

But when you are an outlier and you demand preferential treatment and strong-arm deals with other schools, enmity grows.

College football is made up of athletic conferences or alliances. Each alliance operates in the best interest of its member schools. Miami is a member of the ACC with 17 full-fledged member schools. Notre Dame, for its own convenience, joins the ACC for certain sports to raise that number to 18 schools.

If Notre Dame had been a member of the ACC, odds are it would have played in the ACC Championship game and secured an automatic berth.

But Notre Dame does not play well with others.

The Selection Committee is populated by folks who have served as athletic directors and coaches at major conferences. The University of Virginia’s Athletic Director Carla Williams is a member of the Selection Committee. UVA is a proud member of the ACC. (Who knows for how long?)

Does anyone believe that these stewards of college football are going to choose Notre Dame over Miami? If the ACC fails to earn a CFP berth, a Power 4 conference would see its value and marketabilty negatively impacted. The ACC is comprised of 17 schools in football. It has a large tv deal with ESPN. None of the stakeholders in college football want to see the value of the ACC diminished.

When you choose to go it alone and thumb your nose at the rest of college football, Notre Dame is not going to receive an invitation to the party. Join a conference like everyone else. (ND’s quest for superiority through exclusivity.) For a school who has not won a national championship since 1988, Notre Dame suffers from the delusion that it is still the largest program in the land. Georgia and Alabama might want to challenge the Fighting Irish on that conceit.

Miami pays protection money to the ACC (Miami will share CFP money with its ACC brethren.) and to the larger community of college football by being a member of the ACC. When Notre Dame is asked to pay protection money, it tells the friendly and well-dressed folks from the Big Ten or ACC to go fuck themselves. Well, this time ND fucked itself.

In a fit of pique and anger, Notre Dame has announced it will decline its bowl invitation proving once again that ND is all about ND. (The bowl system is in a perilous state.)

ND is an exclusive club of one. ND doesn’t need to be in a conference. Well, the Selection Committee just gave you the answer to that.

The next time we see Notre Dame football will be when the Irish visit Wisconsin on September 6th of 2026. The game will be played at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

Lane Kiffin Is The Real Life Spaulding Smails

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It’s easy to pile on former Ole Miss head ball coach and now current LSU head ball coach, Lane Kiffin, but this fifty-year-old man has a way of oozing douchiness.

There is no other way to describe the face, the posture, the clothes, the trademark visor that on any man of a certain age raises the douche-o-meter, the public relations-inspired bon mots that clatter off his tongue that make any thinking college football fan do a double-take at the source of said comments, his need for prayer to make a decision that had already been made, and Lane Kiffin’s innate ability to conjure the image of Caddyshack’s Spaulding Smails whenever I think of his douchey presence on the old gridiron.

“Fifty bucks says the Smails kid picks his nose.” – Porterhouse

Lane Kiffin is not alone in college football. The sport is decorated with glad-handers and gamblers, nepo coaches and Neanderthals, savvy agents and college presidents lacking savoir faire, millionaire money-grubbing coaches and greedy parents pimping out their sons to the highest bidder. The game is a flim-flam scam and fans fund these slight-of-hand schemes that make coaches, agents, athletic directors, athletic conferences, television networks and now some teenage players a vast amount of money.

College football is rudderless. Whatever rules exist are made to be broken. Million dollar mega lawsuits are as much a part of the game as is hiring a graduate assistant coach at a barely able to survive salary. As much as society attempts to push college football into the future, the sport resolutely and fiercely clings to its past.

Pay players. Create a transfer portal that favors the players. And the immediate reaction from the administrators and coaches that govern the sport is: This is a completely lopsided relationship. Coaches can no longer bury a kid on the depth chart, because another program is going to give that kid an opportunity. A volatile system of supply and demand is now a real concept in college football.

A college football head coach can no longer act like Steve Spurrier and play golf every day. Just ask former Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze how his short game is.

The stakes are higher. The demand for wins are higher. And the money to be made is in the stratosphere, which creates more problems.

College football is now a sport where a team on the brink of a possible national championship-run and ranked 6th in the nation, Ole Miss, is losing its coach to a conference rival, LSU. The season isn’t over, the College Football Playoff has yet to begin and Ole Miss is hiring its defensive coordinator, Pete Golding, as Lane Kiffin’s permanent replacement. Golding will have to stave off attempts by Kiffin to immediately abscond with other Ole Miss assistant coaches to Baton Rouge. Golding will have to re-recruit his Ole Miss players to stay at Oxford and not take the Kiffin cash in Baton Rouge.

Ole Miss players, alums and fans have waited generations for something like this to happen and the reality on the ground is that Ole Miss’s national championship aspirations have been cut off at the knees. How does this happen?

How does Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), with ten conferences and 136 schools, have no rules in place to prevent a circumstance such as this from happening? The majority of players are now given one transfer portal a year, that runs from January 2nd thru January 16th, to decide whether to stay or go.

Coaches are bound by nothing. If Louisiana’s governor, LSU’s new school president and new athletic director show up to Casa Kiffin with a $91 million-dollar contract for seven years, which they did; that’s going to buy a lot of purple and gold visors (Lane Kiffin ain’t paying for a visor.) and the Kiffin family is hopping on a private jet to Baton Rouge — only days after a victory in the Egg Bowl — to be anointed the saviors of LSU football.

Kiffin will now be the second-highest paid head coach in college football with an annual salary of $13 million dollars. Only Georgia head coach Kirby Smart is above Kiffin on the coaching salary pedestal.

The Bama Boys: Kirby & Lane

The Kiffin Buyout:

If LSU fires Kiffin without cause, it would owe him 80% of his remaining salary, which would be paid out in monthly installments through 2032. The deal does not include any mitigation or offset clauses that would reduce the cost if Kiffin got another job, fully guaranteeing his compensation. LSU would not have to pay him if he was fired for cause. – From nola.com

The good old boys at LSU sure don’t care about handing away another large chunk of change if Kiffin fails with the Tigers. Fifty million to Brian Kelly apparently didn’t make anyone blink. And then in a few years — it could be two years with the crazy nature of college football — LSU might be on the hook for another monster buyout to Kiffin.

The money is absolutely astonishing and the terms of the buyout packages — favoring Kelly and Kiffin — are similar to what Putin is looking to leverage from Ukraine. Kiffin’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, should give a tutorial to Putin.

What’s even more astonishing is that LSU appears to routinely move the douche-o-meter with its most recent head football coach hirings:

— Ed Orgeron

— Brian Kelly

— Lane Kiffin

That’s hard to compete against.

Right now, Lane Kiffin is the face of college football. Let’s just say that isn’t necessarily a good thing for the sport, but no one seems to care or has the power to rein in a cluster fuck of a sport.

College football is inhabited with a cavalcade of Spaulding Smails wannabes.

Lane “Spaulding Smails” Kiffin

The Purge Continues: Mets Deal Brandon Nimmo to Rangers for Marcus Semien

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Brandon Nimmo will be joining Jacob deGrom in Texas.

The purge in Flushing continues with David Stearns sending the longest-tenured Met, left fielder Brandon Nimmo and cash to the Texas Rangers for Gold Glove second baseman Marcus Semien.

After laying waste to the 2025 Mets coaching staff, Stearns has turned his axe to an underperforming 2025 roster that earned through months of poor play its designation as baseball’s most disappointing team. One cannot overstate how dismal and pathetic the Mets’ descent to playoff purgatory was and how it showcased the need for changes to be made to a core group that had challenged the Dodgers in the 2024 NLCS.

Why move Brandon Nimmo?

The most obvious reason is that Nimmo could bring back something of value.

Based on Fangraphs’ WAR, the thirty-two-year-old Nimmo was 109th in baseball with a Wins Above Replacement of 3.0. Nimmo played in 155 games, hit.262, had 154 hits, 92 RBI, 25 home runs and an OPS+ of 114 in 2025. Nimmo had a very good year at the plate. The Society of American Baseball Research’s Defensive Index, which is employed to determine Gold Glove awards, has Nimmo ranked fifth in the National League with a 1.6 SABR Defensive Index. The National League’s leader in left field and Gold Glove winner was Chicago Cub Ian Happ with a 9.1 SABR Defensive Index.

Nimmo has lost a step and never possesssed a strong throwing arm, but he is average or slightly above average in comparison to other left fielders in the National League. Nimmo wasn’t hurting the Mets in left field. But having an outfield with Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto at the corners isn’t going to help in David Stearns’ quest for run prevention.

Stearns identified Nimmo as an asset that still held value, but was going to depreciate through the length of his current contract that ends in 2030. To receive back anything of value, Nimmo was a logical choice to be traded and Stearns didn’t need to increase Nimmo’s trade value with a package of accompanying players.

Mets fans like to put together trade packages that have no basis in reality. The deals I have seen for the Mets to acquire Tigers ace Tarik Skubal are something an eleven-year-old would concoct in his family’s fantasy baseball league. These fantastical trades always seem to include some members of this group: Jeff McNeil, Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Luis Angel Acuna. All of these Mets represent huge question marks.

Is Jeff McNeil a .240 hitter or a .300 hitter?

Was Brett Baty’s second half of 2025 a prelude to a big 2026 or was it an aberration?

Will we see 2024 Mark Vientos (Impressive.) or 2025 Mark Vientos (Not so impressive.) in 2026?

And Ronnie Mauricio and Luis Angel Acuna are fringe major leaguers.

David Stearns took his most valuable positional player chip — not named Soto or Lindor — and addressed a pressing Mets need: Infield Defense

Marcus Semien’s Declining Offense

Marcus Semien

In his thirst for a second baseman that has plus range and perhaps could make an accurate throw to home plate (The Mets struggled with that in 2025.), David Stearns signed up to take on a 35-year-old Gold Glove second baseman whose best offensive years appear to be in the rearview mirror.

The thirty-five-year-old Marcus Semien has regressed offensively in both of the last two seasons. Before a foot injury ended his 2025 season prematurely, Semien had cobbled together a .669 OPS. You might want to gulp down a shot of Eagle Rare before you read the next factoid. Semien’s .669 OPS was the 10th-lowest amongst leaguewide qualified hitters. Gulp.

(I have visions of Felix Millan and Doug Flynn running through my head right now.)

Felix Millan

Semien isn’t Felix Milan or Doug Flynn, but Stearns will undoubtedly need to find a bat to replace Nimmo’s production in the lineup. Will the Mets attempt to reunite Clay Bellinger and Juan Soto in Citi Field’s outfield?

The other component of acquiring Semien is that there are only three years remaining on the 35-year-old’s contract. In comparison, Nimmo is signed through the 2030 season. And let’s remember that David Stearns did not give Brandon Nimmo an eight-year, $162 million dollar contract. Nimmo is not a Stearns guy.

In Semien, the Mets will be acquiring a ballplayer. The collective baseball IQ of the Mets will be raised with this addition and Stearns is not wrong in addressing that need.

Change

David Stearns realized that change was needed and that it would be professionally criminal to run it back with the same group in 2026. Nimmo is the first domino to be moved and we will likely see more in the next few weeks.

The Mets now need a first baseman, a closer, a starting pitcher, a center fielder, a left fielder and some bullpen arms. But second base is likely covered through 2028. And does the acquisition of Semien mean that the #3 Mets minor league prospect Jett Williams will be moved this offseason?

Changes are a coming.

162 Games Played

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A major league baseball season consists of 162 games. 81 games played at home and 81 games played on the road.

To play in all 162 games, a player has to be better than merely good. This player has to be a proven linchpin to his team’s success. You want this bad man in your lineup every goddamn day. You need this soldier in your lineup every day.

To these 162 men of iron, posting up is what they do. They show up at the ballpark every day knowing their name is going to be in the lineup. There are no days off. Days off are for chumps — not champs. These guys are heroes – not zeros.

For the 2025 season, only six players showed up every day, laced up their spikes and hunkered down at home plate to take their hacks. Six. (One of the six actually played in 163 games.) These guys didn’t take a night off because they went on a bender in South Beach and ended the night at Tootsie’s. They didn’t see Tarik Skubal scheduled as the next day’s starter and ask for the day off. These guys buckled up and showed out.

Here are 2025’s Iron Men:

  1. Rafael Devers (163 Games Played)
  2. Pete Alonso
  3. Elly De La Cruz
  4. Matt Olson
  5. Brett Rooker
  6. Kyle Schwarber

You might be asking yourself, how did Rafael Devers play in 163 games? After being traded from the Boston Red Sox to the San Francisco Giants, on June 15th, Devers picked up an extra game.

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Devers Aside: When the Chief Baseball Officer (Who makes up these titles in baseball? Is this a Tom Werner production?) of the Boston Red Sox, Craig Breslow, realized his relationship with Rafael Devers had cratered to the point of a JLo marriage counseling session, Devers was shipped to San Francisco for the mercurial flamethrowing reliever/failed starter Jordan Hicks, starting pitcher Kyle Harrison, minor league outfielder James Tibbs III since moved to the Dodgers for the rental of Tormund Giantsbane wannabe Dustin May, and minor league pitcher Jose Bello.

Before Devers’ plane could leave town, he was hit with the usual crap of not being a good teammate, he was lazy — out of shape. The guy only played in 163 games. 1-6-3!

And if Devers’ replacement at third base, Alex Bregman, decides that he’s not a Dunkin’ type of guy — the Red Sox will again be looking to fill a void at third base. I’ll allow Alex Bregman’s uber agent Scott Boras to explain how that works:

“In Boston, we learned a lot about Bregman in ‘25,” Boras said at last week’s GM Meetings in Las Vegas. “Because in Boston prior to ’25 they had a lot of lineup donut holes and certainly prior to ’25, Boston has been kind of a club that has dunkin’ well below the playoff line. So I think it was a bad roast in Beantown. Give the owners credit in ’25. They went out, spent some Starbucks to bring in a Bregman blend that led them to the playoffs. I’m sure the Boston fans don’t want this to be just a cup of coffee and no one wants a Brexit.”

Who knew that Boras was a former hack ad agency copywriter? Twelve-year-olds come up with better shit on TikTok.

Red Sox/Liverpool FC/Pittsburgh Penguins/RFK Racing/Boston Common Golf fans will revel in their schadenfreude at the fact that Devers was the only 2025 Iron Man not to be named an All-Star.

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All of this is mere artifice to get to my main point, which is; how do the Mets or the Phillies allow Pete Alonso or Kyle Schwarber to depart via free agency? These guys don’t grow on Pedro Martinez’s mango tree in the Dominican Republic?

Quick Elly De La Cruz Hug: But Elly De La Cruz did grow up in the Dominican Republic — not sure he ever sat under Pedro’s mango tree. De La Cruz played 162 games — almost exclusively at shortstop — and is the first Cincinnati Red to play 162 games since Joey Votto in 2017. De La Cruz played through the death of his sister and a nagging quad injury. Stole 37 bags. Absolute stud.

If you haven’t been paying attention at home because you’re mourning the death of Alice Glick, I write this stuff through the perspective of a Mets fan. And maybe this outsized passion and commitment to the Mets sometimes makes folks think I am an agoraphobic loser — not that agoraphobics are losers — but I do watch a lot of Mets games. In a Mets fan survey on The Athletic, one of the questions was: How many Mets games did you watch in 2025? I answered 100. Sounds about right — maybe a little more — but that feels like the number. For the folks who watched 140 or more games, that is sick. Also, it makes me think; is a baseball incel a subset of the larger incel populace?

All of this has been a touch of smoke and mirrors to get to this salient point: The Mets need to re-sign Pete Alonso.

The ability to post up and play every day is undervalued. Staying healthy is a talent and the ability to play through pain and minor dings should not be overlooked.

David Stearns bring back the Polar Bear. Changes are needed. But I’m not sure the right move is to move on from Pete Alonso. Yes, Alonso has defensive shortcomings but when did first base evolve into a defense first position? You want a guy who can bash the ball at first.

When you add it up all six of 2025’s Iron Men bring value to their teams. Can their true value be quantified? Does an opposing pitcher want to see A’s right fielder Brent Rooker step into the box or a guy that has been working the Sacramento and Las Vegas Aviators shuttle? Presence alone can make or break a lineup on a particular day. Pitching to Juan Soto and then having to face Pete Alonso ain’t no walk in the park.

Iron men are valuable. It goes beyond the stats.

(I forgot to give any love to Matt Olson. With all due respect, fuck the Braves.)

Run Prevention with the New York Mets

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I routinely have a chuckle or outright laugh at the lexicon used by the decision-makers that rule major league baseball. Possessed with MBA’s and Ivy League degrees, these stewards of the game have made a conversation about hardball into an ongoing symposium regarding the ecosystem of major league baseball and the market forces that impact the game.

In a nutshell, most heads of Baseball Operations sound like McKinsey consultants giving a Ted Talk on the “The Urge To Play is Greater Than the Urge To Fight.”

At the end of the Mets appreciably forlorn 2025 campaign, which saw the Mets slowly and heartbreakingly descend to a position in the standings where they would be playoff spectators, Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns mentioned in his post-mortem remarks that the Mets needed to improve their “run prevention” or to translate for the less erudite: Pitching & Defense.

At the age of 40, the Harvard-educated David Stearns has been labeled a baseball savant. Possessing a seemingly uncanny ability to sift through the reports of promising young talents and the flotsam and jetsam of journeymen pitchers, Stearns was able to construct a consistently competitive group with the Milwaukee Brewers. Enticed by the financial largesse of the deep-pocketed Steve Cohen, Stearns returned to his New York City roots to run his childhood team, the New York Mets.

It makes you a little verklempt. It’s a nice story.

But when I heard Stearns illustrate that the Mets need to improve in the area of run prevention, I did a double-take. El Presidente, you’re the baseball guru that assembled a 2025 roster that featured suspect starting pitching and a major league roster that had three players ( Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio.), who share very similar skill sets. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was handed a roster that had very little positional flexibilty and directly influnced the Mets’ efforts at run prevention.

The Mets headed into 2025 with a starting pitching staff composed of these mostly off-Broadway performers:

Sean Manaea

Kodai Senga

David Peterson

Clay Holmes

Griffin Canning

Tylor Megill

Frankie Montas

Paul Blackburn

There was no way anyone thought this collection of pitchers was going to be capable of positioning the Mets as an elite team, but for the first two months of the season, the quintet of Senga, Peterson, Holmes, Canning and Megill did exactly that. They struggled to go deep into games, which eventually decimated the effectiveness and health of the Mets’ bullpen arms, but this ragtag and ever-evolving roll call of starting pitchers worked until it unraveled and became a weight that slowly dragged the Mets out of the playoff picture and into the abyss.

Stearns assembled this group. He had to understand the chance he was taking with this group. If your desire is to win the World Series, this group was never going to achieve that. Did the analytics and forecasting models remotely suggest that this collection of arms was somehow going to supersede the run prevention constructs of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies? Both of these NL rivals headed into the 2025 season with a collection of arms superior to the Mets.

Stearns chose to enter the season with a starting pitching staff riddled with question marks. He was taking a gamble and that gamble failed miserably.

So, that’s the first part of the run prevention saga of the 2025 Mets. Now, here’s where the run prevention problem of 2025 could possibly further impact the Mets in 2026.

Sifting through Stearns’ run prevention comments, some observers have taken it as a possible sign that the Mets may be reluctant to re-sign Pete Alonso because of his defensive inadequacies. The Polar Bear is adept at picking errant throws out of the dirt, but Alonso has limited range and has a little bit of Steve Sax in him when he is asked to throw the ball. For the 2025 season, Alonso ranked 30 of 30 in defensive runs saved among first basemen and 29 of 30 in Statcast’s outs above average and fielding run value. Alonso’s defensive inadequacies should be mitigated by the fact that Alonso possesses a potent bat (.272/.347/.524), posts up every day — EVERY DAMN DAY — and has shown the ability to excel in New York.

@nypostsports

“I just zooted a routine play.” Pete Alonso reacted to his throwing errors this year on WFAN’s Evan and Tiki last week. ⚾️🐻‍❄️

♬ original sound – New York Post Sports

The run prevention issue facing David Stearns is real. The Mets need to improve their starting pitching, the Mets may lose lights out closer Edwin Diaz to free agency, and the Mets starting lineup is littered with subpar defenders such as corner outfielders Juan Soto and Brandon Nimmo.

David Stearns has a mess on his hands, but the run prevention problem is not going to be solved by seeing Pete Alonso play elsewhere in 2026. However, it appears it may involve Brandon Nimmo or Jeff McNeil playing elsewhere in 2026.

The 2026 Mets are not going to look like the 2025 Mets.

2025 MLB Opening Day

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Baseball’s Opening Day is upon us at the end of March, which might be a tad early, but with the Trump administration’s commitment to transforming the EPA into a government agency that eliminates bothersome and nitpicking environmental regulations, MLB will eventually be able to start the season in February utilizing the maximum benefits of climate change.

As the Trump administration uses the Hot Tub Time Machine to recreate the halcyon days of William McKinley’s presidency, in the late 1890s, baseball embarks on another season. Another 162 games.

162 games to deflect from what is a stumbling and bumbling Trump administration that takes to a commercial messaging app, Signal, to discuss a military strike after inadvertently including a journalist in the group. These clowns couldn’t organize a clandestine boys weekend to Vegas without letting the whole world know. Ferris Bueller had more spycraft skills than this bunch.

I write this sippng RFK Jr. recommended cod liver oil to “innoculate” myself from the resurgence of measles that is affecting parts of the country. I’m also considering making some eye of newt soup. Why not?

If you’re asking, is this a piece on baseball? It is, but I would be remiss not to mention contextually where we are as a nation. We are living in a time where seemingly every norm is being attacked — except the pursuit of money. That is being championed with an unbridled zeal, but at the cost and detriment to middle-class Americans.

As we have witnessed with baseball, our American institutions are resilient. They have the ability to withstand body blows, haymakers and regain their feet after a standing eight count. Democracy will ultimately prevail.

And 162 games of baseball is a great diversion from the Trump & Musk show.

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Going Yard

In Hollywood, the Los Angeles Dodgers have made every other big league club resemble The Bad News Bears Go To Japan. The Dodgers are THE baseball colossus perched on a tectonic plate and accruing talent with the ease of a Hollywood madam. Baseball has not seen a repeat World Series champion since the 1999 and 2000 New York Yankees.

Mr. Mookie Betts

The Juan Soto era commences in Flushing, NY. Stevie Cohen took out his big boy credit card and made Juan Soto and Scott Boras extremely happy. The Mets will score runs, but their starting pitching staff won’t remind anyone of Seaver, Koosman and Matlack.

Jon Matlack, Jerry Koosman & Tom Seaver

The New York Yankees took a huge hit with the loss of their ace, Gerrit Cole, to season-ending Tommy John surgery. For those who believe the Yankees’ pursuit of a World Series title is over, the trade deadline could bring another ace to the Boogie Down. The subtractions of Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo have exponentially increased the Bronx Bombers’ collective baseball IQ.

With Gerrit Cole gone in Gotham, Red Sox fans are starting to have fantasies of winning the AL East. Red Sox skipper Alex Cora has newly-acquired free agent Alex Bregman to boost the intensity in the clubhouse. Garrett Crochet gives the Old Towne Team an ace. The trio of Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony are reminding regulars at The Sausage Guy cart of when Betts, Bogaerts, Bradley Jr. and Benintendi broke into the bigs. I would still advise folks not to to use Bucky Dent or Jeter Downs in the same sentence at the Cask & Flagon.

Bucky “Bleeping” Dent

Can the Chicago White Sox lose less than 100 games? I would take the over.

The St. Louis Cardinals have Chaim Bloom waiting in the wings to take over from John Mozeliak as President of Baseball Operations. Ask Chaim about Jeter Downs. I have a feeling Alex Cora doesn’t miss Mr. Bloom in Boston.

The Rays and A’s are both playing at minor leage parks. Will the beer prices be minor league?

The Chicago Cubs should win the NL Central. I’ll take Kyle Tucker over Cody Bellinger.

The kick change is the new pitch.

The Minnesota Twins are going to score runs like an Edina slow pitch softball team.

Jose Altuve has moved to left field for the Astros. Mookie Betts is the shortstop at Dodger Stadium. And Rafael Devers has been moved off third base by the addition of Alex Bregman at The House That Dave Roberts Built.

Without question, the Yankees were woefully inept at the fundamentals in 2024. The World Series showcased that.

Will Baltimore’s Tyler O’Neill continue his Opening Game home run streak? The streak stands at five.

Corbin Burnes makes the D’Backs legit.

Opening Day Premier Pitching Matchup: Skenes going against Alcantara in Miami.

Bug in a rug, Bloop or Ballantine Blast!

The Streak Moves to 5 (Can You Feel The Mo?)

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The streak continues at five. That’ right, Mets fans, I have watched every single Mets game this season. (Alright, it’s not that big of an accomplishment.) I’m not sure I should have taken the time out of my Monday afternoon to watch the Mets get mangled, 10-0, by The Brew Crew in Milwaukee’s home opener but here I am to tell about it.

I spent Monday morning catching up with Sunday’s action between the Mets and Marlins, which was highlighted by the Mets debut of starting pitcher Kodai Senga and New York taking 3-out-of 4 versus a Miami team that is criminally inept in the field. The Marlins have Jazz Chisholm Jr., Joey Wendel and free agent addition Jean Segura playing out of position and then watching left fielder Jesus Sanchez catch a fly ball is a trip to WTF?ville.

Body Time Clock Violation

I lose a period of time every week. It starts on Saturday night and continues into Monday – and is the result of working Saturday night and then returning to the scene of the crime at 11:00 am. I’m the mop-up reliever on Saturday night at a bar in Cambridge, Massachusetts — The New Republik — where we wrap up the mopping and cleaning around 3:30 am. I then transform myself through a mixture of caffeine and moxie into the Sunday morning starting pitcher for The New Republik – first drink can be poured at 11:00 am.

After working between 16 and 17 hours in 23 hours, I am pretty much a useless piece of ectoplasm until some point on Tuesday. My brain is scrambled, my sleep is more recovery than restorative, and I am chronically dehydrated. It’s a laid back way to make a buck.

Having time to rest and once again locate what exists of my brain, let’s get up to speed with where I see the Mets after five games:

The New Republik’s All-Star East Coast -West Coast Battery

Big Bat(y) Need Apply

In the offseason, Mets owner Steve Cohen and general manager Billy Eppler spent a ton of cash on pitching. The Mets added three starting pitchers and a host of relievers. The Mets have already witnessed injuries knocking out both Justin Verlander and Jose Quintana from the starting rotation to start the season. Verlander and Quintana have been replaced by “depth” starters David Peterson and Tyler Megill. The relief corps suffered what appears most likely to be a season-ending injury to All-World closer Edwin Diaz.

Nothing about this is good. In fact, it’s a lot of no bueno for April, but all teams have to overcome injuries to pitchers throughout the course of a 162-game regular season.

We’ll see if the Mets have constructed a top tier pitching staff as the season continues, but it’s not the pitching that concerns me. It’s the offense.

The Mets are a good hitting ball club, but they are missing a vital component. This team needs an elite hitter. A hitter who is a constant threat to break games open by going yard or spitting out line drives into the gaps. If you want to argue that first baseman Pete Alonso is that guy, I’m not going to argue that strenuously against you. My issue is with Francisco Lindor hitting third in manager Buck Showalter’s batting order. This Met, who appears in the most commercials and has the 40,000 watt electric smile, is not consistent enough to hit third. In 2022, Lindor hit .270, pounded out 26 home runs and set a career-mark with 107 RBI.

The real issue is that Lindor struck out 133 times and Alonso struck out 128 times in 2022. For whatever reason, the Mets top of the lineup always seems to be missing something. In an ideal world, I would like to see Lindor hitting fifth behind Alonso.

Who would be hitting third? An elite hitter. That’s the missing piece in this Mets offense. A Freddy Freeman type of cat. An Austin Riley. Or maybe it’s not that Francisco Lindor isn’t an elite hitter — it’s that the Mets desperately need another bat to go far in the fall. The failed signing of Carlos Correa was an indication that the Mets feel the same way about their offensive needs.

All signs are pointing to minor league third baseman Brett Baty eventually being promoted from Syracuse to give the Mets lineup another legitimate bat. Saturday in Worcester versus the Red Sox Triple A affiliate Woo Sox, Baty went 4-for-5 with two dingers — a grand slam and a solo shot — and 5 RBI.

Baty is on his way. He is going to be in Flushing when the weather warms up or to replace a player placed on the IL. This could be the Mets answer to the Braves’ Austin Riley.

Sure, there are questions marks regarding the durability of an older pitching staff, but the talent is there to go far in October. The offense definitely needs some tinkering.

Bug in a Rug, Bloop or Blast!

In his Sunday MLB debut, Kodai Senga was plagued by first-inning nerves and a severe case of trying to do way too much. Facing the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 1st, Senga was saved by astute defensive positioning by the Mets analytics department and Starling Marte making a nifty running catch on a rope down the right field line off the bat of Marlins third baseman Josh Berti. Senga settled down and rode his ghost forkball (split finger) to 8 strikeouts and the win.

Starting in center field for Brendan Nimmo on Sunday, Tommy Pham showed out (3-for-4, HR, Double, 3 RBI). Pham is a gamer. Mets fans are going to love this guy.

Tim Locastro gets hit by pitches at a higher rate than Mark Canha. You didn’t think that was possible, right?

In his first start of the 2022 campaign, Carlos “Cookie” Carrasco was hit with a pitch clock violation before he even threw a pitch. He then experienced a pitch com malfunction. Cookie’s velocity had plummeted by the 4th inning. He was gone by the 5th after staking the Brewers to a 5-run lead.

Replacing Cookie on the Brew Crew bump, Tommy Hunter also gave up a 5-spot in 2 innings.

Mets utility infielder Luis Guillorme took the mound for the 8th and surrendered one hit and no runs.

Milwaukee’s rookie center fielder, Garrett Mitchell, is crazy kind of fast.

Good to see Mets fan favorite, Jesse Winker, has found a home in Milwaukee. Seattle couldn’t wait to unload him.

No Can Go

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Here are a few impressions from the Marlins 2-1 win over the Mets on Friday night:

  1. David Peterson allowed one-run through five innings. He also gave up eight hits, which generated a lot of traffic on the basepaths, but he kept his team in the ball game. Peterson did his job.
  2. The Mets are clearly still susceptible to lefties. Marlins starter Jesus Luzardo doled out two hits over 5 and 2/3 innings. The Mets made Luzardo look like a superstar.
  3. Something to watch is the Mets inability to steal bases. Starling Marte was thrown out attempting to steal second. In and of itself, that means nothing. But MLB and Theo Epstein are inviting teams to run and boost bases. It’s not the bigger bases that are going to dramatically increase stolen bases. It’s the rule change that allows pitchers only two throws over to first per at-bat that is an overly generous invitation to run. A base stealer will eventually be rewarded for taking an aggressive lead. Unfortunately, the Mets as a whole do not have a penchant for theft. In an attempt to stay healthy, Brandon Nimmo will eschew Theo’s offer of a bigger bag and a bigger lead. (Nimmo has always struggled to steal a bag.)
  4. There is always this erroneous belief in baseball that athletes can fairly easily transition from the infield to the outfield. The Marlins are attempting this maneuver with the move of Jazz Chisholm from second base to center field. Presently, Chisholm resembles Michael Jordan when he patrolled the outfield for the Double A Birmingham Barons. Chisholm will improve, but he gifted the leadfooted Daniel Vogelbach a double after taking two steps back on a weakly hit fly ball to right center.
  5. Marlins skipper Skip Schumacher earned his first managerial victory.

A Streak Starts At One

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I have made a momentous decision to write about every Mets game played in 2023, which will involve watching every Mets game.

I’m curious to see when this consecutive game streak will end. When will I pull a Matt Harvey and not be able to post up?

Will the weight of real world commitments make this promise a delusional dream?

We will see. But, right now, the streak is at: 1.

Victory is mine.

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“Even Napoleon had his Watergate. ” – Yogi Berra

Donald J. Trump is the first former president to take an “L” on Opening Day, after being indicted by a New York grand jury regarding hush fund payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, orchestrated by his former bag man, Michael Cohen. Unlike the Mets and Yankees, who broke out of the box with wins, this New York product took a body blow that will surely guarantee his nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate for president in 2024.

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41-13

Since 1970, the Mets are 41-13 on Opening Day. They are a dominant force on Opening Day and that has not always translated into continued success throughout the season. With their 5-3 Opening Day win over the Miami Marlins, at the scene of Edwin Diaz’s demise, LoanDepot Park, the Mets continued to show out in the first game of 162.

This is definitely the highlight of the Mets 1970 Opening Day win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field. It would be the last Opening Day played at Forbes Field.

From SABR:

Earlier in the game, an inebriated fan stumbled into right field to talk to Clemente.7 The ejected drunk possibly inspired some youths to also trespass in the final inning. Though it was still sunny, the cold afternoon and extra innings wore on the teens, who had played hooky to attend Opening Day.8 Once the Mets took a 5-3 lead in the 11th, many fans began to throw debris and names at the Mets right fielder, Swoboda. “I can stand the names they called me,” Swoboda smirked, “but do you know what a beer bottle does to a head? It’s not like in the movies, where they just bounce off.”9 As more trash surrounded Swoboda, umpires asked public-address announcer Art McKennan to warn fans to refrain from tossing objects onto the field.

The littering continued as Clemente drew a walk to start the 11th against the new Mets pitcher, left-hander Tug McGraw. McKennan pleaded a second time as left fielder Willie Stargell leaned on his bat to watch five grounds-crew members haul out brooms and boxes to clean the right-field warning track. (During the cleanup, no one noticed a teen race across the field to the center-field fence.) He scaled the batting cage stored against the 457-foot mark to easily hop over the 12-foot brick wall.10

Once play resumed, McGraw faced the two left-handed hitters Hodges assigned to him, Stargell and Oliver. McGraw induced them both to foul out to third baseman Foy. With two outs, several teens took turns pouring onto the field. At first just a couple jogged untouched toward the batting-cage exit. Soon, security appeared, which spurred more teens to take the challenge. Groups of two or three randomly outraced the panting guards to the batting cage. Eventually the cage collapsed, forcing the final escapees to scale the chain-link fence surrounding an adjacent light tower.11

After nearly two dozen youngsters bolted over the wall, plate umpire Augie Donatelli directed three police officers to patrol the warning track for the final out.12 At this point, McGraw struck out Alley to end the game and the shenanigans.

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MAX & Company

Getting the nod to toe the slab on Opening Day, Max Scherzer was typical Max Scherzer until the 6th inning when he started to tire — fastball leaking over the dish — and surrendered three runs allowing the Marlins to tie the ball game punctuated by Marlins first baseman’s Garrett Cooper’s 442 feet two-run clout to deep right center. Previously, Cooper was 2-for-20 versus Scherzer. Not known for his glove, Cooper made two spectacular plays in the field — one a diving stop on a blistering liner off the bat of Jeff McNeil.

A Mets bullpen missing the lockdown late game presence of Edwin Diaz shut out the Marlins over the final three innings. The only bobble was Drew Smith giving up a lead-off double to Jorge Soler in the bottom of the 7th. Smith responded by getting Avisail Garcia to fly out to Brandon Nimmo in center and then struck out Bryan De La Cruz and Jacob Stallings to end the threat. New acquisitions Brooks Raley and David Robertson erased any dreams of a Marlins Opening Day victory. Raley struck out the side in the 8th and Robertson pitched a perfect 9th.

At first blush, the newly constituted Mets bullpen was up to the task without Edwin Diaz. It’s a long season and this bullpen will be tested. Diaz’s virtuoso performance in 2022 can’t be replaced, but Mets general manager, Billy Eppler, has given Mets manager, Buck Showalter, an improved skill set in the pen.

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Sandy Alcantara

There may not have been a better Opening Day pitching matchup than Max Scherzer and 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara. One is a future Hall of Famer and one is starting to put up Hall of Fame numbers.

In 2022, the Mets knocked around Alcantara in two games — and Alcantra was dominant (2 earned runs & 8 strikeouts over 8 innings.) in a June 19th affair at Citi Field. The former continued on Opening Day with the Mets knocking our Alcantara in the top of the 6th. The top of the Mets lineup produced two runs ignited by a one-out Brandon Nimmo walk in the 6th. Nimmo experienced light action in spring training because of a sprained right knee and right ankle suffered on a takeout slide at second base, but demonstrated he was ready to go on Day 1. (Nimmo had 162 million reasons to be ready.)

Nimmo’s Big Day: A Double/A Walk/1 Run Scored/ 3 RBI

After losing to the San Diego Padres in their 2022 National League Wild Card Series, the Mets need to display they have the offensive pieces to compete against elite pitching. A win versus Alcantara has to instill confidence in a starting lineup, with the exception of newly-acquired catcher Omar Narvaez, that is unchanged from 2022.

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Lollygagging

In the top of the 6th, with Alcantara on the ropes, the Mets have runners at the corners with two outs. Jeff McNeil fouls off a pitch. Hustling on the play, Pete Alonso takes off from first and is nearly at second base. Alonso lollygags it back to first and he is hit with a time clock violation. How is that violation assessed?

Jeff McNeil is penalized with a strike. He is now facing an 0-2 count. Mets announcer Keith Hernandez is apoplectic.

McNeil saves the at-bat with a clutch single to right scoring Starling Marte from third and moving the lollygagger to third.

How underrated is Jeff McNeil? I still am torqued that Trevor Story was supposed to start at second base in the World Baseball Classic. Team USA manager Mark DeRosa realized McNeil’s worth with pressure-filled, late game at-bats. The persecution of contact hitters has to stop. Include Marlins lead-off hitter Luis Arraez in that persecuted group.

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Burying The Lede

Justin Verlander was placed on the Injured List with a teres major strain in his right armpit. It’s considered low grade. The typical recovery time from a teres major strain is three months, but this is considered a low grade strain. Tyler Megill will replace Verlander in the starting rotation and is scheduled to get the Opening Day start at Citi Field for the second consecutive year.

Verlander will continue to throw but will not throw from a mound.

If anyone is shocked that a 40-year-old pitcher is experiencing wear and tear, they shouldn’t be. But paired with the injury to Edwin Diaz, Mets fans are in an emotional tailspin. In February, the World Series was in reach. A month later, Mets fans are confronted with the loss of their lights out closer and a pillar of their starting rotation.

It cannot be stressed enough how important Tyler Megill and David Peterson will be to the Mets’ World Series hopes and the future of their pitching staff.

Verlander was signed in the off-season to replace Jacob deGrom. deGrom got knocked around I by the Phillies in his first start for the Texas Rangers. After knocking out deGrom, Philly’s pitchers imploded and were torched for 9 runs in the bottom of the 4th. Aaron Nola was gassed from dealing with the pitch clock and the Rangers treating him like a BP pitcher. Long innings are going to tax pitchers and catchers in 2023.

It breaks my heart to see the Phillies lose. I’m inconsolable.

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Going Under The Knife

Mets righty reliever Bryce Montes de Oca will undergo Tommy John surgery.

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Jersey Guy

As a Jersey guy, I got goose bumps watching twenty-one-year-old Anthony Volpe run out of the dugout to be the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees. I can only imagine the range of emotions Volpe felt with the Opening Day crowd’s cheers washing over him. The bleachers creatures salute was a moment.

I’m rooting hard for this kid to succeed.

Anthony Volpe playing New Jersey high school hardball for Delbarton.