NEW YORK — Amid an offseason that’s brought major changes to the Mets’ roster, David Stearns addressed the state of the team on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters at a luncheon at Citi Field, the Mets’ president of baseball operations discussed the departures of longtime players Pete Alonso, Edwin Díaz, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil, as well as the team’s plan to compete for a World Series in 2026 and beyond.
“I certainly understand that there have been points of this offseason that are frustrating for our fanbase,” Stearns said. “I hear it. I recognize it. I hear it from my friends and family at times. I’m also very convicted that what we are doing is the right thing for our franchise going forward — to accomplish our goals of creating a consistent playoff team, a team that year after year is a true World Series contender, and ultimately a team that does what we are all here to do, which is to win a World Series. That’s why we are doing all of this.”
This winter, the Mets have seen Alonso sign with the Orioles and Díaz sign with the Dodgers as free agents, and they’ve traded Nimmo and McNeil. They’ve brought in some players to replace them — Marcus Semien to play second base, Jorge Polanco to play first base and Devin Williams and Luke Weaver to cover late-inning roles in the bullpen. But there’s room for more.
Stearns said the Mets’ strategy isn’t just about finding a one-to-one replacement for Alonso’s home runs, or Díaz’s saves. It’s about the collective contributions from the whole roster, even if that roster is constructed to win games in different ways than in 2025.
“I don’t think we look at it like, ‘OK, we’ve lost this piece, so we have to find a replacement piece,'” Stearns said. “I think we really do look at it like a compilation of all the pieces.”
Still, the Mets have yet to bolster their outfield depth — although they now look to be one of the top contenders to land marquee free agent Kyle Tucker — or their starting rotation. Moves to address both areas remain a strong possibility for New York ahead of Opening Day.
Asked whether the team’s heavy lifting is over as far as offseason acquisitions, Stearns said not to rule anything out.
“I don’t think any type of lifting is over,” Stearns said. “I wouldn’t take anything off the table. I think we are, and will continue to be, involved in talks at all ranges of free agency and the trade market.”
That could mean signing a top free agent outfielder like Tucker or a starting pitcher like Framber Valdez, or making a trade for a starter like the Brewers’ Freddy Peralta — all of whom the Mets have been linked to over the course of the offseason.
It could also mean looking for more incremental upgrades, or calling up some of the team’s top prospects — like 22-year-old outfielder Carson Benge, who’s ranked New York’s No. 2 prospect by MLB Pipeline.
Stearns said Benge will have the chance to make the Mets’ Opening Day roster, even as a center fielder if they have Juan Soto and perhaps a free agent acquisition in the corners.
“I’ve said it before, and it remains the case, he’s going to come to camp with a chance to make the team,” Stearns said. “We think this is going to be a really good player who’s going to be good here for a long time.”
No matter what the Mets’ Major League roster looks like on Opening Day, and how it changes between now and then, Stearns wanted to make one thing clear: The Mets have to be better after last year’s disappointing 83-win finish and missing the playoffs.
“We are committed universally, from ownership on down, to ensure that the next five years of the Mets are better — and that we win more games and meet the expectations, the lofty expectations, that we all have for ourselves — than what we’ve done previously,” Stearns said. “What we’ve done previously has not been good enough.”
Stearns zeroed in on two areas the Mets especially need to improve in 2026: pitching and defense.
“We have to be better at keeping runs off the board,” Stearns said. “When I talked to either coaches at other teams, or managers at other teams, or executives at other teams, in the weeks and months after our season, and I asked them, ‘Hey, what do you have on us? What did you think about our team?’ — almost all of them, the first thing out of their mouths was, ‘Your defense wasn’t close to good enough.’
“And so it wasn’t just us internally — this was something the league picked up on very quickly last year, especially teams that played us over the last month or six weeks. So that has to be better. And that is a combination of personnel changes, which we’re in the midst of doing, but also holding our players to a standard and level defensively that’s a little bit higher than where we were last year.”
That includes, for example, Soto, who was one of the worst defensive outfielders in the Majors last season by the numbers, but who’s made working on his defense a priority this offseason. Stearns said he’s confident Soto can improve in the outfield going forward.
On the pitching front, Stearns said that aside from the possibility of a signing or trade, the Mets are looking for bouncebacks in 2026 from pitchers who were hampered by injury last season, like Sean Manaea, and for up-and-coming young pitchers to play a big role, like Nolan McLean.
“We will need to get more from that unit,” Stearns said. “And we both have confidence in the group that’s there, and are seeking to add to it.”
One name Stearns brought up is Christian Scott, who debuted as one of New York’s top pitching prospects in 2024 but missed all of 2025 after undergoing a hybrid Tommy John surgery. Stearns said Scott should be fully ready to pitch by Spring Training, although the Mets still have to determine whether he’s ready to be on the Major League roster on Opening Day.
“It’s tough to remember, a year and a half ago, this guy was one of the best young pitching prospects and young Major League starters in baseball, and then got hurt,” Stearns said. “We would expect Christian to be able to play a meaningful role on our team this year in our rotation.”
The Mets are also hopeful about Kodai Senga, who has struggled through an injury-marred last two seasons after an All-Star first year in the Majors in 2023.
Senga has been mainly in Japan this winter, but he returned to the U.S. to work out at Tread Athletics in North Carolina, and the Mets were happy with his progress.
“We had a bunch of folks, both pitching and performance department, go down and see him,” Stearns said. “He’s well ahead of where he was last year. We’ve got two years of injury history there over the last couple of years, and so I’m not gonna sit here and proclaim that he’s a sure thing to make 30 starts. But I also am more optimistic about where he is right now, compared to where I was at the end of last season. He’s had a very productive, very good offseason.”
One thing the Mets will have to factor into getting their pitching staff ready for 2026 is the World Baseball Classic. They have a pair of starting pitchers on the Team USA roster for the tournament in McLean and Clay Holmes.
“We are having conversations with both of those guys about workload — what it’s gonna be like, what the preparation is to get to that point, to be ready to pitch at those levels,” Stearns said. “And then we’re going to stay in very close contact with [the Team USA coaching staff] on how those players are being used.”
