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OT: Mets 2026 Season Thread

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yesrutgers01

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Nov 9, 2008
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Doctor Worm said:
I accept your challenge! Here's my list of Stearns' five worst trades:

1) Ryan Helsley for Jesus Baez, Nate Dohm, and Frank Elissalt - This trade is far and away his worst. Helsley achieved a -0.9 WAR in just two months, which is hard to do. In other words. if some rando had been in the bullpen other than Helsley, the Mets would have (according to WAR) won one more game. That one game would have put them in the playoffs.

But that is not the worst of it. Jesus Baez is killing it in AA in the Cardinals' system. He was their organizational Player of the Month for June. We may be regretting this one for a long time.

2) Freddy Peralta for Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams - Many of us thought this was an overpay at the time, but if Peralta helps us win, it will be worth it. He didn't, and it ain't. Mets will likely flip him in a couple weeks for significantly less than what they paid. Both Sproat and Williams have had their stock drop somewhat, but they still are excellent prospects (although Sproat technically isn't a prospect any more). The potential regret factor of this trade remains high.

3) Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo - Semien has been really bad, which is why I rank this so high. His offensive decline has been more drastic than we thought, and his defense has been disappointing to say the least.

However, the development of Benge and Ewing (the latter a year ahead of schedule!) has mitigated the loss of Nimmo. If Nimmo were here, he'd be in the way. I know we miss his smile. But if he were relegated to DH / 4th OF, I doubt he'd be smiling.

The contractual issues are also important. Mets traded a bad five year contract for a bad three year contract. Could be important if a year from now, a salary cap is in place and the Mets are well over it.

4) Cedric Mullins for Raimon Gomez, Anthony Nunez, and Chandler Marsh - Mullins was awful, no way around that. Nunez has made it to the Orioles bullpen where he has been OK but nothing special. Jury is still out on him. The other two are outside the Orioles top 30 prospects.

5) Greg Soto for Wellington Aracena and Cameron Foster - Soto was OK for the Mets, not bad, not great. Foster has made the Orioles bullpen, but he was not a top 30 prospect. I think the regret factor is higher with Aracena.

I gotta admit - Item 1 on this list was so bad that it overshadows all the good ones.
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Good opinions on each. Some part of how I look at it is that Stearns has done pretty well in the smaller moves- backup Catcher, 4th OF and bullpen...but- in trading for cornerstones' of the organization - no Ace, no answer in CF (sure, you can say that it opened it up for Benge, Ewing) but that doesn't make the trades any better, a dominate bullpen arm that should have been a compliment or replacement for Diaz, and no true impact player.
His FA record may also be just as bad. We can find a few good ones- but man, the money spent on horrific moves are crazy.

And since we don't know what may happen in a salary cap in 2027...we do not know yet if Semien's shorter but higher salary will help or hurt us vs Nimmo's.
 
T

Toddwills00

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Nov 14, 2013
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Doctor Worm said:
I accept your challenge! Here's my list of Stearns' five worst trades:

1) Ryan Helsley for Jesus Baez, Nate Dohm, and Frank Elissalt - This trade is far and away his worst. Helsley achieved a -0.9 WAR in just two months, which is hard to do. In other words. if some rando had been in the bullpen other than Helsley, the Mets would have (according to WAR) won one more game. That one game would have put them in the playoffs.

But that is not the worst of it. Jesus Baez is killing it in AA in the Cardinals' system. He was their organizational Player of the Month for June. We may be regretting this one for a long time.

2) Freddy Peralta for Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams - Many of us thought this was an overpay at the time, but if Peralta helps us win, it will be worth it. He didn't, and it ain't. Mets will likely flip him in a couple weeks for significantly less than what they paid. Both Sproat and Williams have had their stock drop somewhat, but they still are excellent prospects (although Sproat technically isn't a prospect any more). The potential regret factor of this trade remains high.

3) Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo - Semien has been really bad, which is why I rank this so high. His offensive decline has been more drastic than we thought, and his defense has been disappointing to say the least.

However, the development of Benge and Ewing (the latter a year ahead of schedule!) has mitigated the loss of Nimmo. If Nimmo were here, he'd be in the way. I know we miss his smile. But if he were relegated to DH / 4th OF, I doubt he'd be smiling.

The contractual issues are also important. Mets traded a bad five year contract for a bad three year contract. Could be important if a year from now, a salary cap is in place and the Mets are well over it.

4) Cedric Mullins for Raimon Gomez, Anthony Nunez, and Chandler Marsh - Mullins was awful, no way around that. Nunez has made it to the Orioles bullpen where he has been OK but nothing special. Jury is still out on him. The other two are outside the Orioles top 30 prospects.

5) Greg Soto for Wellington Aracena and Cameron Foster - Soto was OK for the Mets, not bad, not great. Foster has made the Orioles bullpen, but he was not a top 30 prospect. I think the regret factor is higher with Aracena.

I gotta admit - Item 1 on this list was so bad that it overshadows all the good ones.
Click to expand...
I look at trades and value them at the time they were made.

1 & 2: made sense when both were executed (easily jusifiable) Peralta was a top 3 vote getter in CY Young last year and when we got him Helsley was a top 5 NL reliever. They both either have not or did not perform here. These trades should not have been risky trades these were proven guys that did not play well here

3 was a bad trade from the jump, had to do mental gymnastics to justify (tell tale sign it was a bad deal)

4 and 5 were meh we need a CF and Reliever, neither were any good and prospects look meh also.
 
29PAS

29PAS

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yesrutgers01 said:
All part of the equation. Also- the great organizations- just continue to develop and reload their minor league system.

Everything that we have been sold on with Stearns has not worked.

The major league team is the worst in baseball over the past year and the minor league system is almost depleted.

He has made zero positive impact trades and mult negative impact trades.

He has been the architect of one of the worst negative directions of an organization that we have seen with almost unlimited funds. You all know I have not been happy with him for quite a while and vocal about his off-season moves. But a few of you convinced me to take a wait and see how his vision and plan works out this year. Since there was no way to undo what he did, I took that approach and really hoped to be proven wrong. And even if I was- As a lifelong Met's fan for 60 years- I really had hoped that we could just keep a home grown guy, so the Alonso move killed a lot of enjoyment for years to come regardless.

Unfortunately, I have been proven right and we have a POBO that is horrible and destroying the franchise.
Click to expand...
Am I the only one who had to look up POBO?
 
Z

Zak57

Heisman
Jul 5, 2011
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Doctor Worm said:
I accept your challenge! Here's my list of Stearns' five worst trades:

1) Ryan Helsley for Jesus Baez, Nate Dohm, and Frank Elissalt - This trade is far and away his worst. Helsley achieved a -0.9 WAR in just two months, which is hard to do. In other words. if some rando had been in the bullpen other than Helsley, the Mets would have (according to WAR) won one more game. That one game would have put them in the playoffs.

But that is not the worst of it. Jesus Baez is killing it in AA in the Cardinals' system. He was their organizational Player of the Month for June. We may be regretting this one for a long time.

2) Freddy Peralta for Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams - Many of us thought this was an overpay at the time, but if Peralta helps us win, it will be worth it. He didn't, and it ain't. Mets will likely flip him in a couple weeks for significantly less than what they paid. Both Sproat and Williams have had their stock drop somewhat, but they still are excellent prospects (although Sproat technically isn't a prospect any more). The potential regret factor of this trade remains high.

3) Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo - Semien has been really bad, which is why I rank this so high. His offensive decline has been more drastic than we thought, and his defense has been disappointing to say the least.

However, the development of Benge and Ewing (the latter a year ahead of schedule!) has mitigated the loss of Nimmo. If Nimmo were here, he'd be in the way. I know we miss his smile. But if he were relegated to DH / 4th OF, I doubt he'd be smiling.

The contractual issues are also important. Mets traded a bad five year contract for a bad three year contract. Could be important if a year from now, a salary cap is in place and the Mets are well over it.

4) Cedric Mullins for Raimon Gomez, Anthony Nunez, and Chandler Marsh - Mullins was awful, no way around that. Nunez has made it to the Orioles bullpen where he has been OK but nothing special. Jury is still out on him. The other two are outside the Orioles top 30 prospects.

5) Greg Soto for Wellington Aracena and Cameron Foster - Soto was OK for the Mets, not bad, not great. Foster has made the Orioles bullpen, but he was not a top 30 prospect. I think the regret factor is higher with Aracena.

I gotta admit - Item 1 on this list was so bad that it overshadows all the good ones.
Click to expand...

I saw Knight shift call me out that I haven't been around so wanted to say nice recap here. Baez was mediocre in high A and they moved him up anyways and playing better. Only like 15 games there so we'll see. I did not like that trade last year because I thought Baez had immense upside. Aracena in the Soto trade was traded again by Baltimore to Arizona and not performing well currently.

I've been having a busy summer so haven't been around as much and unfortunately the team has severely disappointed due to a number of factors. Hope to get posting again more soon.
 
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Knight Shift

Knight Shift

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Zak57 said:
I saw Knight shift call me out that I haven't been around so wanted to say nice recap here. Baez was mediocre in high A and they moved him up anyways and playing better. Only like 15 games there so we'll see. I did not like that trade last year because I thought Baez had immense upside. Aracena in the Soto trade was traded again by Baltimore to Arizona and not performing well currently.

I've been having a busy summer so haven't been around as much and unfortunately the team has severely disappointed due to a number of factors. Hope to get posting again more soon.
Click to expand...
Good to see you posting. It's been a rough season. #LFGM.
 
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Knight Shift

Knight Shift

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Cool- Lindor is trade material. Good bye.

"Mets informed their team that the sale is on, and that everyone but young stars Carson Benge, AJ Ewing, Christian Scott, Nolan McLean and the obvious, Juan Soto, is available. That doesn’t mean everyone will go. But it means the Mets will listen on just about everyone, which is in keeping with what people familiar with their thinking have signaled for weeks. That the Mets are fielding calls already suggests they will be spreading out their sell-off over several weeks, rather than waiting until the week of the deadline when the market has settled and time constraints create a more frenetic process."

 
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RUnotentertained

RUnotentertained

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According to Buster O
Mets will be one of the few true sellers at the deadline with a lot of teams bidding on the same players

this could/should be a crazy trade deadline for the Mets (and this thread !)
 
D

Doctor Worm

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cubuffsdoug_rivals said:
Why does this d+ck have the power to trade anyone? He creates the problem and Cohen is dumb enough to think d+ckboy can start the process of fixing this. I'm not even going to call him by his name anymore.
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Michael Corleone once said, "Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment."

Are you saying that the Mets shouldn't trade ANYONE? That based on their 41-57 record, they are all untouchables? That Stearns has made some bad moves in the past (which he certainly has, but what GM has not?), therefore, Cohen should forbid him from making ANY moves?

You would really let guys like Peralta, Raley, Minter, etc. finish out their contracts, and then let them walk and get NOTHING for them?

Please tell me you didn't mean that. Please tell me you were exaggerating to make a point.
 
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yesrutgers01

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Doctor Worm said:
Michael Corleone once said, "Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment."

Are you saying that the Mets shouldn't trade ANYONE? That based on their 41-57 record, they are all untouchables? That Stearns has made some bad moves in the past (which he certainly has, but what GM has not?), therefore, Cohen should forbid him from making ANY moves?

You would really let guys like Peralta, Raley, Minter, etc. finish out their contracts, and then let them walk and get NOTHING for them?

Please tell me you didn't mean that. Please tell me you were exaggerating to make a point.
Click to expand...
what he is saying is that except for a couple of lessor deals he made- any big moves have been horrendous for the team and organization. And his trade deadline deals just horrible.
Stearns is literally doing an Ash to the Mets. Of course we know he will be doing these deals coming up but he has sucked.
 
cubuffsdoug_rivals

cubuffsdoug_rivals

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Doctor Worm said:
Michael Corleone once said, "Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment."

Are you saying that the Mets shouldn't trade ANYONE? That based on their 41-57 record, they are all untouchables? That Stearns has made some bad moves in the past (which he certainly has, but what GM has not?), therefore, Cohen should forbid him from making ANY moves?

You would really let guys like Peralta, Raley, Minter, etc. finish out their contracts, and then let them walk and get NOTHING for them?

Please tell me you didn't mean that. Please tell me you were exaggerating to make a point.
Click to expand...
D+ckboy has crapped the bed when it has come to impactful moves. When the dollar amount is big market money, he is out of his league. D+ckboy is good at making minor moves that are low risk, high reward.
 
D

Doctor Worm

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cubuffsdoug_rivals said:
D+ckboy has crapped the bed when it has come to impactful moves. When the dollar amount is big market money, he is out of his league. D+ckboy is good at making minor moves that are low risk, high reward.
Click to expand...
Well, Stearns has the job, and he will have the job at least through August 3. As far as we know, Cohen (at least for now) has confidence in Stearns' ability to do that job.

Stearns will do his job to the best of his ability. He will pay no attention to his detractors, nor should he. He will not be paralyzed by prior moves that seemed reasonable at the time, but didn't work out. Nor should he. If he did, he would be unworthy of his position.

Don't like it? Buy Cohen out and then do whatever you want. Dip into your 401k if you have to. After all, this is important. ;)
 
cubuffsdoug_rivals

cubuffsdoug_rivals

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Doctor Worm said:
Well, Stearns has the job, and he will have the job at least through August 3. As far as we know, Cohen (at least for now) has confidence in Stearns' ability to do that job.

Stearns will do his job to the best of his ability. He will pay no attention to his detractors, nor should he. He will not be paralyzed by prior moves that seemed reasonable at the time, but didn't work out. Nor should he. If he did, he would be unworthy of his position.

Don't like it? Buy Cohen out and then do whatever you want. Dip into your 401k if you have to. After all, this is important. ;)
Click to expand...
Its bad that I'm catching next weekend series. Good hard earned money down the drain.:ROFLMAO:
We are all idiots because we keep coming back even though we see the same dumb results.
It felt good the release my frustration.
 
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Knight Shift

Knight Shift

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cubuffsdoug_rivals said:
Its bad that I'm catching next weekend series. Good hard earned money down the drain.:ROFLMAO:
We are all idiots because we keep coming back even though we see the same dumb results.
It felt good the release my frustration.
Click to expand...
The Friday night game last week against Boston was misery, except for the group we went with, which made it fun. The best part of the evening was the ferry ride there and back to Highlands.
 
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yesrutgers01

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I know there are no facts to base this on but the way Stearns acts- it almost seems like the Pete and Lindor heroics in 2024 really screwed up his plans for 2025. And when both had monster years in 2025- he had to come up with a narrative to make each look bad. Pete is gone, just like Stearns hoped and now- he really hopes he can get Lindor out of here too.

OK great- that is his right and what he is paid to do- but, he has shown that he has no f-ing clue how to replace anyone het pushes out.
 
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RUnotentertained

RUnotentertained

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yesrutgers01 said:
I know there are no facts to base this on but the way Stearns acts- it almost seems like the Pete and Lindor heroics in 2024 really screwed up his plans for 2025. And when both had monster years in 2025- he had to come up with a narrative to make each look bad. Pete is gone, just like Stearns hoped and now- he really hopes he can get Lindor out of here too.

OK great- that is his right and what he is paid to do- but, he has shown that he has no f-ing clue how to replace anyone het pushes out.
Click to expand...

beating Philly last night and getting another Knicks champions t-shirt has quieted the anger for now …who am I kidding I’ll be pissed about something by 7:35
 
D

Doctor Worm

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yesrutgers01 said:
I know there are no facts to base this on but the way Stearns acts- it almost seems like the Pete and Lindor heroics in 2024 really screwed up his plans for 2025. And when both had monster years in 2025- he had to come up with a narrative to make each look bad. Pete is gone, just like Stearns hoped and now- he really hopes he can get Lindor out of here too.

OK great- that is his right and what he is paid to do- but, he has shown that he has no f-ing clue how to replace anyone het pushes out.
Click to expand...
I think you are WAY off base here. You are conflating Alonso and Lindor, and their stories are very different.

First of all, you refer to Alonso's 2024 heroics. What heroics? Alonso had the worst year of his career in 2024, and was generally perceived to be on the decline. He had one heroic at bat in Milwaukee for which he will forever be remembered. Good execs don't have their opinion swayed by one at bat. Stearns was fully willing to let Alonso walk after 2024. We all agree on that.

So why didn't he? It had nothing to do with heroics. It had everything to do with NOBODY ELSE WANTED HIM. At least not on his terms. Boras and Alonso had to return hat in hand to Stearns, and sign what was in essence a one year contract. He then surprised the league with a big bounceback year, and convinced at least one team (maybe there were others, I don't know) to give him the long term deal he coveted.

Lindor's situation is simpler The Mets (pre-Stearns) gave Lindor a lifetime contract. Lindor is the Mets SS for the forseeable future. Eventually they will move him off SS. And probably someday, when most of his contract has been paid off, they will move him off the team. But that day isn't happening anytime soon. His contract makes him essentially untradeable.

According to certain rumors, of which I am very skeptical, Lindor forced Alonso, Nimmo, and McNeil out. If true (which I doubt) why would the Mets force Lindor out? That is, even if they could, which they can't.
 
D

Doctor Worm

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FWIW, Chelsea Janes of SNY is reporting that the Mets are NOT in full rebuild mode. They are looking to win in 2027 and to acquire players who will help them do that. Either major leaguers or guys who are close. Or minor leaguers who may be further away, but who can be flipped in the offseason for major league talent. We shall see.
 
cubuffsdoug_rivals

cubuffsdoug_rivals

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Doctor Worm said:
FWIW, Chelsea Janes of SNY is reporting that the Mets are NOT in full rebuild mode. They are looking to win in 2027 and to acquire players who will help them do that. Either major leaguers or guys who are close. Or minor leaguers who may be further away, but who can be flipped in the offseason for major league talent. We shall see.
Click to expand...
Doc,
Do you believe that?
 
D

Doctor Worm

Heisman
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They don't make 'em like Ron Hunt anymore. His claim to fame was that for seven consecutive years, he led the majors in hit by pitch. One year he had 50 HBP! Fifty! That's like one every three games. Probably never charged the mound either. This was before batters stepped into the box wearing body armor.

He wouldn't make it in today's game though. Not enough pop. Only 39 HR's in 12 years.
 
K

Kbe4

Senior
Nov 25, 2025
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A great comment in yesterday's ESPN article doing a team-by-team review of the first half:
"One could argue the Mets, with CBT payroll of more than $375 million, are in the running for the worst team, dollar for dollar, ever."
 
D

Doctor Worm

Heisman
Feb 7, 2002
30,808
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Kbe4 said:
A great comment in yesterday's ESPN article doing a team-by-team review of the first half:
"One could argue the Mets, with CBT payroll of more than $375 million, are in the running for the worst team, dollar for dollar, ever."
Click to expand...
Good thing that:

1) There is no relegation system in baseball. Mets will remain in the majors regardless.

2) I resisted the temptation to contribute to Cohen's GoFundMe page to cover the $375M. To my knowledge, no one else in this thread contributed either.

So we will be fine. But we thank you for your concern.
 
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