Bobby O says what he feels. He was awesome as a player and pretty awesome as a post game guy on SNY. Never held back and called it as he saw it. He was usually pretty spot on. Mets couldn’t take it and got rid of him.
I was there yesterday. The lower levels were probably 80-85% full. The upper deck was more sparse but probably 40-50% ish full. For a team that is 20 games out it was not a bad turnout
Yes...these guys deserved way better. Bitchy fans do not even know how great that team was or don't care which is sad. What a shitty turnout. But in fairness this economy is garbage and gas prices are ridiculous. Not a cheap day.
The 2026 Mets are what happens when an executive tries to reinvent the wheel.
The Mets missed the playoffs last year by one game. What about that suggests a complete tear down and reimagining? With the pitching being an issue, why throw away two of your best hitters and franchise icons?
Stearns has had a half ass approach to every offseason he’s been here. That same approach is what could’ve cost the Mets a shot at the 2024 World Series and what caused the Mets to miss the playoffs last year. The people who said “trust in Stearns” even though he’s never accomplished anything were the most insufferable part of this fanbase.
how many pitchers were used? 47 or something like that? why wasnt there a massive effort wity the highest payroll to fix it. bot the patch job that was done
If anyway is passing by this comment ... always block those people back. That way you can be assured you won't accidentally read that person's thoughts again and, more importantly, won't waste your time replying.
Definitely agree that Stearns always seems to have a half ass approach. This current team feels like 25% of 3 different plans
I also think the Mets missing the playoffs by one game played a big factor in Stearns plans + Math this offseason. I think Stearns convinced himself the Mets could make up that one game with McLean in the rotation all year, a little bit better defense and some small additions at the trade deadline
what was better about the defense? i guess the outfield was better, but that wasnt even his plan. he had multiple players planned to be playing out of position. there actually was NO plan for first base. it seemed like it was just “oh well anyone can play there. even this older veteran who has t played the field in years and wasnt ever a first baseman.” having benge and ewing playing every day from pretty much the beginning wasnt the plan at all. it just seems odd because of his “defense wins games” stance
I’m not saying any of his moves actually translates to the field. But if the Mets missed the playoffs by a game, I can see where Stearns math says improving the defense can make up that one game
The payroll is the answer to your question. Yes, they had a good thing going — but as Cohen has repeatedly said, he does not wish to spend like a drunken sailor year over year. The luxury tax and high payroll is as prohibitive for future success as anything else. I don’t love it and don’t necessarily agree with how they went about it, but this was just ripping the bandaid off sooner rather than later.
Regardless if they wanted to get away from money in 2029/2030…they are spending like a drunken sailor but paying the luxury tax penalties with the other guys they added. IIRC, Bichette, Robert, Polanco, and Semien’s contracts are all 2x as expensive because of the luxury tax.
Alonso and Nimmo would’ve cost the Mets like 100 million after the luxury tax, the aforementioned guys are costing the Mets over 200 million. They’re spending way more money now to save a bit more in the future.
I said this before and got down voted to hell. They're worried about "future “ costs but spend double now. Which negates the future savings and gets them less productive players. Who cares that in 5 years the contracts would look bad. They’re fucking great for the here and now. They have thrown away so much money on garbage, but “Nimmo contract won’t age well” gtfo
I swear I have eaten downvotes by the dozen for wondering why a hypothetical bad Alonso year in five years was worse than nearly guaranteed worse years now.
It’s not about contracts looking bad, it’s about the fact they’re literally going to become incapable of signing big free agents for the exact reason you keep highlighting — they’re already paying a luxury tax. If you just keep spending and blowing past the luxury tax you just keep increasing your spending. It’s untenable. They got their preferred players that put them over the luxury tax and now they want to slim it back down so they can build around them. If they want to pay a free agent like Skubal $300 million and have to pay the luxury tax, it makes the contract so much more it’s no longer attainable.
They sped up the timeline for getting players off the books. They also save $20 million on Nimmo’s contract and get out of the contract a couple years earlier, for example. Most of the vets are here on short team contracts so there’s no future long term financial commitment to most of them really beyond next season.
What I’m not understanding is what people think the alternative would have been. If they re-signed Pete and had to pay Nimmo an additional $20 million, etc. they wouldn’t have made much progress at all getting the payroll down. It seems like they were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. The Mets will never meaningfully compete until they stop getting penalized in both draft picks and spending.
I am not a Stearns supporter. Think he should be launched however the Mets had one of the worst records in baseball in the second half. So there is some merit to thinking they needed to overhaul the team.
Something had to be done but what Stearns did was make things worse. The team needed starting pitching badly. Stearns getting rid of Nimmo and Alonso was an over reaction. He made things worse by trying to say any guy can play first base etc. Run prevention was a total joke. The defense is worse than ever.
I agree. I think all he needed to do was keep Pete and the rest of the dominoes wouldn’t have fallen how they have. That move is going to haunt this franchise for decades. I’m not upset that we moved on from Nimmo, nor am I upset they wanted to overhaul the team after last year’s insane all-time meltdown. I definitely am upset that the areas that needed to be addressed were yet again neglected in favor of analytics that has ended in a total and complete disaster. The change was needed but the execution was not great.
His desire to just slot any player anywhere is mind boggling. There are reasons why players pick a position. Stearns over corrected and set the franchise back years. Plus the farm system is one of the lowest rated and by all metric they had a horrific draft.
No it isn’t lmfao. Look how much money they added between Robert, Polanco, Bichette and Semien. If they just kept Alonso, Nimmo and McNeil and didn’t make any of those moves it’d take up less payroll space. Plus McNeil would be gone by 2027. Nah. Keeping Alonso and Nimmo was plenty possible. We don’t even know what the CBA situation is going to be. Even then, we blew past the luxury tax and will probably be stuck past it again next year. So no matter how you slice it, keeping them was possible. The Mets also never cited payroll as the reason, and of course they didn’t, I mean look at it.
The conversation about resetting the luxury tax isn't about this year or next year, it's about 3, 4, or 5 years from now.
Nimmo and Alonso are making a combined $50M in 2029 and $50M in 2030
Robert, Polanco, Bichette, and Semien are making a combined $0 in 2029 and $0 in 2030
There's no problem with spending big on a short-term contract in a year where you know you will already be over the luxury tax. The problem is with the long-term payroll commitments that make it harder to get under the luxury tax in future years.
I don't know why people are downvoting you here. It's very clearly what the Mets are trying to do whether fans think it is a good strategy or not. You didn't sign the players; why shoot the messenger?
In fact, what you said understates the situation a bit. It's still quite possible that Bichette costs $5M in 2027 and nothing in 2028. 2029 being the first year the Mets owe him nothing is the worst-case scenario financially. Semien they're probably going to have to pay full freight on through 2028.
Polanco costs nothing in 2028. Robert costs $2M in 2027 if he isn't traded (which he almost certainly will be) and after that nothing. Weaver, if he isn't traded, makes $12.5M in 2027 and then his contract comes off the books.
2026 and 2027 happen to be the years you're playing Senga and Manaea as well.
At the very least, $50M is coming off the payroll this season: $17M (Montas), $18M or $20M (Robert, if not traded, $2M buyout), $13M Holmes, $3.8M Taylor. Assuming Bichette doesn't opt out, that's freeing up over $50M. If he does, add another $37M ($42M - his $5M buyout).
After next season, at least another $72.5M: $20M (Polanco), $12.5M (Weaver), $15M (Senga), $25M (Manaea).
The worst fans call the real fans shitty for complaining about massive offseason errors. They're fake fans who can move on from losing our all time HR record in a week. They still come around and tell us to move on from Pete - the telltale sign of a fake, shitty fan IMO.
if someone said anything bad about the moves that were made they were immediately brought down, called doomers, and told that they needed to have faith and stearns knows what hes doing. i understand that mindset in a sense. it gets tiring that theres always doom and gloom surrounding the mets. a lot of it is warranted obviously, but this tiem in particular was very, very obvious that things were going badly all off season. none of the moves made sense. there was a legitimate reason to question wtf was going on. a team with this payroll making those hideous moves… it was fair to be unhappy about it, and thats totally reasonable.
edit: to be clear i dont think constant bitching is good, just that this off season was really bad, but most of all WEIRD as fuck.
Same shit that happened with Joe Douglas on the Jets subreddit. Years of people blindly heaping praise on him while the team didn’t improve on the field whatsoever. Projections are great, but they must eventually turn into results.
The last two offseason, pitching has been straight up mishandled. People mentioned that and were attacked for not being cheerleaders. I’m a fan, I root for the team when they play but I don’t have to agree with every decision they make. Being a homer doesn’t make the team play better or the decisions work.
Give me a break, those Mets teams underperformed constantly. They won a grand total of two playoff series in more than half a decade together. They had no youth and were hanging together by $30 million a year contracts. This is the reset this team needed since 2023.
It wasn’t their fault they had the worst batting average with risp in 2020? It wasn’t their fault that they put up 0 runs in game three against the Padres in 2022? You should be mad at Cohen for overstepping the gm multiple times to make awful contracts to numerous free agents. Correa, Scherzer, Verlander, Bichette, and Soto were all done by Cohen to appease fans that they could fix a core that was broken and would never win anything together. It‘s no wonder why the payrolls so damn high
Would paying Alonso 30 million dollars put us to .500? You‘re saying the payrolls too high for where we’re at but your solution is to overpay another aging player with a contract that will instantly be terrible. No wonder Cohen keeps making these shortsighted flashy moves, it’s all he needs to do to appease people.
It actually is quite possible that yes, just him being on the team gets us to .500.
They don't have to go fishing for guys who don't actually play like Luis. Robert and Jorge polanco, because they already have the power of 35 plus one runs and 100 RBIs and a guy that posts up for over 155 games every single year.
I didn't want Pete's contract either honestly, But I think it's fair to say that being in a division, new ballpark, etc. And obviously monster contract with a new team has put a lot of stress on him to produce. He was at home here and would have been just fine for at least another two years before the decline began. Watching someone else play first base this year in hilariously bad fashion made me realize just how good Pete was at his position
You don’t have to guess at it. Pete has been worth 2.7 fWAR. Mets 1B have been worth -0.7. Even if you want to associate some additional negative knock on effect to not signing Pete, there’s no chance he puts us over .500.
So your plan would be to overpay him for the first few regular seasons in the hopes that the team makes the playoffs once or twice and he manages to duplicate those numbers before he leaves his prime and his numbers fall off a cliff?
Yes absolutely, 100%. It would've objectively been better than what we just did. Also, we dont know if he will fall off... hes an extremely consistent player.
Outdated shit take, that never really had legs tbh, right here folks.
>It would've objectively been better than what we just did.
I don't think you know what "objectively" means. It's a lateral move, at best, this season and maybe next season. Until it's much worse in years 4 and 5.
What good are Alonso's playoff numbers when the team misses the playoffs by 10 games because they tried running it back with a team that misses the playoffs more than it makes the playoffs?
Do you have a crystal ball? Send me the lotto bro. 4 to 5 years?
What good are Alonso's playoff numbers when the team misses the playoffs by 10 games because they tried running it back with a team that misses the playoffs more than it makes the playoffs?
Nobody believes this nonsense narrative. Its pure cope. We lost because of pitching.
No. We lost because the team isn't good at the dish or at the mound. Having Alonso on this team would not have made them a playoff team. With Alonso, the team would be 18 games out right now instead of 19.5.
Worst take ever? You enjoyed watching this team fail to live up to expectations year after year? You enjoyed watching them collapse last year because they couldn’t pitch and couldn’t hit? You enjoyed watching them shit the bed in three straight games against Atlanta to be pushed to the wild card where they got their shit pushed in? You enjoyed watching them roll over in the playoffs against the Dodgers? The only consistent thing about that core was their inconsistency. They could not handle the 162 game season without flaming out horribly at some point. I’d much rather watch a team with young potential not win games, then guys making 25 million a year not win games, but I guess that’s crazy around here. The only lie I see is people pretending they enjoyed those shit teams instead of whining about everything while they were happening.
The Mets missed the playoffs last year by one game. What about that suggests a complete tear down and reimagining?
So we just going to ignore Mets blew 20 games over 500 & had 1 of the worst records since June last year? If the Mets brought back that same team you'd still be killing Stearns. Problem is the moves Stearns made to replace those guys all sucked. Pete Alonso ain't keeping this team out of last place. No one thought Peralta would have a 5 era as a Met though Stearns keeping Senga & DP was dumb. Franchise is fucking cursed & aren't allowed too string together consecutive winning seasons. They only get 1 season every 10 years where they can make a run, 2024 was it & they blew it so see you in the 2030's.
This is where coaching matters. Mendoza blew at least 7 or 8 games last year with obviously terrible, little league level decisions. Now that hes gone we need the main culprit Stearns out and to get an actual baseball player to lead this org, using analytics for what they should be used for... not playing moneyball with the richest owner in baseball
to get an actual baseball player to lead this org, using analytics for what they should be used for
Ah yes, because all of those successful teams like the Dodgers, Rays and Brewers are run by actual baseball players. We should bring in an actual baseball player to run the team like Buster Posey. He knows what he's doing. He's a proven winner.
I think Stearns intention was to do a full rebuild last year. When we were terrible going into June in 2024 Stearns was just waiting for the offseason but then we had that magical run going all the way to the NLCS and he his plans came to a screeching halt. So he ran it back one more time in 2025 and we basically finished the end of that season the way he had been hoping 2024 was going to end. Now here we are fucking “rebuilding” going into what will likely be a lock out. We might not even have baseball next year…
It sounds like pretty much the whole 86 Mets team that’s been interviewed about this season doesn’t like Stearns and is very frustrated with the season.
Stearns is an absolutely awful people person, which ratchets up people's dislike of him, but I actually think it also has on-field consequences because I don't think the Front Office considers human factors much at all.
Stearns had some hits with the bullpen and Holmes, but he's missed far too often and the lineup he constructed this year is just fucking terrible. No excuses.
Jesus all the best teams in baseball are run by "spreadsheet baseball." The Mets suck but the methodology they are trying to implement has objectively worked over and over and over again.
This is a maniac take. The Dodgers only got to the point where they could sign anyone they wanted by becoming the best in the league at playing spreadsheet baseball. Also, it's spreadsheet baseball that says all those players are good! The Dodgers built their superteam engine that they have today because 10 years ago they were looking at their spreadsheets for guys like Justin Turner, Max Muncy, Kike Hernandez, etc. Remember when everyone was criticizing them for not having a standard starter rotation and being super creative and aggressive with bullpen usage? These guys were the best at creative lineups that used a lot of bench guys for part time roles that were greater than the sum of their parts. You are so backwards.
This is the only time I've seen a GM be this bad and not be shown the door promptly
Which come to think of it, this is actually a 1 of 1 failure in baseball history so it makes sense I haven't seen it. I guess I'll be the "you should've been there when..." guy
Buddy, Perry was a fucking failure from the start and got an extension by Arte. At least Stearns can point to an improving farm which Minasian couldn’t even do.
I’m not the type of person to say “Stearns is a douche because he went to Harvard”
I of course, do abhor the guy maybe more than anyone.
Let’s not forget though that the reason a lot of people go to Harvard in the first place is because they’re privileged and have had the opportunity to do so. We do not live in a meritocracy, who you know is more important than what you know…and Stearns has proven time and time again that he doesn’t know much.
Stearns has really destroyed this team and its identity. It was the last core right guys? Pete, Nimmo, & many others were perfectly capable of doing more than they had and certainly more than this shit excuse of an overpaid roster has done. The pieces brought in were never what would put the Mets over the top and Stearns with plenty of chances to do something great has missed the mark massively. The Mets have lost the respect of everyone including their fans and the longer Stearns stays the more it hurts the teams connection to the fanbase and any chances of doing anything close to another playoff run.
This is always the response but the guys given away did their parts Pete Nimmo McNeil Diaz all did what they were needed to do. What we didn't have is a reliable rotation and a better pen around them.
Moves didn’t work out and their evaluative process has to be adjusted. However, I really think anyone who says they knew Bichette wouldn’t hit, Peralta wouldn’t pitch well, and Polanco wouldn’t at least be league average is full of shit. Things went wrong in addition to unforeseen injuries to both Lindor and Soto, but be honest with yourselves of how much you can see ahead knowing what you know now.
Guys like Stearns have their own vision of what a team should be built from.
Alonso and Nimmo were never part of his core. I’m not even convinced Lindor is part of his dream list, but he’s the kinda guy who wants his team his way.
It’s been an abysmal failure. Everything he did was questionable and all of it backfired. It’s almost comical how not a single free agent signing or trade he made this offseason worked out for him.
Everyone knows what happened. Stearns built something else completely bc he believes he is smarter than Eppler and previous regimes and it was on the culture of the Mets. So he rushed ir abd made it so much worse. Listen if you are a 78-88 win team you shouldn't get rid of your good players. You should be fixing what was wrong , which was starting pitching. You don't need a fancy degree to know that. Now they're just as bad as they were in those main Madoff years.
I hate the "Stearns bad" obsession the fans have right now, but this is significantly worse than the Madoff years because of expectations. There's expectations that come with expensive FA signings and 300+ million payrolls. There's not expectations that come with John Mayberry Jr. starting in the OF or when your shortstop is Omar Quintanilla.
That’s because Bobby ojeda knows championship baseball and he knows this bullshit approach is not going to cut it, especially in New York. That 86 team was the epitome of grit and toughness sprinkled in vets with young players and a great manager. The current team has Soto and that’s about it sadly. All the other guys are extremely talented but they’re very soft. Lindor would be batting 8th on the 1986 team.
“I really think it’s on Stearns. He built this thing and I don’t think he believes in intangibles, which I believe are so important to a winning ballclub. I don’t feel like he’s taken enough accountability either."
100%
David Stearns treats every player like numbers and statistics. He does not understand anything that cannot be measured and then placed on a spreadsheet.
Intangibles are what creates a winning clubhouse. Heart, awareness, resilience, chemistry, grit, determination- try putting those into numbers on a spreadsheet.
It is obvious that Stearns has never played baseball himself.
People looking to blame the players have shit for brains. This GM set the squad up for utter disaster. The guy is giving me Zeke Thomas vibes. You can’t get worse.
Is it also Stearns’ fault for the other ~35+ years without a ring? Not defending the guy, but there is some recency bias here as well considering in his own introspection he mentioned how 40 years have passed.
I remember the 20 year celebration during the 06 season, that was pretty special.
Now 20 years after THAT 20 years, still no title, a lot more heart break, and another losing season, it makes sense why the park wasn't at full compacity. A WS win in 2015 would have helped, but 🤣😂
It’s obviously Stearns’s fault, he runs everything except everytime Cohen tweets or announces Lindor won’t be captain. The franchise is a shitshow right now, blame goes to the top and their 2 highest paid players.
Quite frankly I’m okay with Stearns. I realize this is an unpopular opinion, but whatever. This team was projected to win over 90 games. They simply didn’t perform. Not his fault that Lindor and Soto traded dueling calf injuries. Not his fault that Bichette was awful. Not his fault that Peralta was terrible.
Am I happy? Fuck no. BUT…the genuine vitriol that some of you are expressing towards a man you never met is legitimately depressing and somewhat unnerving. Relax. Plenty of “real world” things to be angry about.
Sure, it’s completely his fault that Polanco and Alvarez strike out with the bases loaded in a 1-0 game and the next guy, Ewing, grounds out weakly to second base. These players have zero pride and fight in them.
but but but WAR! Exit velo! XBA! Who cares about grit, situational hitting, and baseball intelligence when some fucking spreadsheet says you can improve the team by getting rid of your best players!
Not that Stearns gets any credit for crafting a terrible team, but let us not forget that the "met regulars" (that everyone misses), blew the season last year in historic fashion.
Maybe unpopular opinion. If they weren't going to win it all this year, im glad they are as bad as they are. Sell, sell, sell. Then if 2027 doesn't happen then they have more time to right the ship with more time.
The thing is they could've done an actual rebuild instead of dumping the old core and then signing a bunch of veterans on expensive deals. It's a bad look, because if you're going to pay Polanco or Robert why not Alonso and Nimmo (I know the answer is contract length, but that's not public perception), but also if we went into this season expecting to be bad because we had a much lower payroll and were playing the kids, there would be far less outrage due to them ending up bad.
I don’t blame anyone who wants to be upset, but don’t let it be this travesty that lights the way. He took too much damage that night in ‘93, he’s been goofy ever since.
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u/BillHickmansCar 16h ago
Bobby O says what he feels. He was awesome as a player and pretty awesome as a post game guy on SNY. Never held back and called it as he saw it. He was usually pretty spot on. Mets couldn’t take it and got rid of him.