The Mets may be headed toward a different kind of offseason mistake: not enough change.
That’s the read that came through when SNY’s Chelsea Janes took fan questions this week about where New York goes from here. The present still feels bruised, even if it has improved lately, so most of the conversation naturally landed on the future - who stays, who goes, and how the Mets actually fix what’s broken.
One clear theme emerged: Janes expects a lot of familiar faces to remain in place, with Mark Vientos looking like the most obvious candidate to move on.
Vientos appears to be the player the Mets would be most willing to non-tender. Ronny Mauricio fits into that same general bucket, though with Mauricio still grinding in the minors, that situation feels more settled. The real debate is among the other Baby Mets.
Brett Baty has been serviceable, but that’s about where the praise stops. He hasn’t come close to looking like the first-round talent the Mets once projected, and in most seasons he hasn’t even matched the kind of offensive production Jeff McNeil used to give them. Still, Janes thinks Baty gets another year, helped by the fact that he still has a minor league option left for next season, which gives the Mets the ability to send him down if needed.
Francisco Alvarez is a tougher call. At times, he looks like the kind of bat that can anchor a catcher spot for years.
At others, he’s a rally killer. The difference between Alvarez and Baty is that Alvarez could actually bring back something useful in a trade.
He’s younger, he still has two minor league options, and clubs that believe they can sharpen his bat or clean up his defense would line up for the chance. When he isn’t hitting, his value drops fast.
And with Luis Torrens outplaying him behind the plate and holding his own offensively this season, it’s hard to see Alvarez as anything more than a catcher who starts three days a week and picks up some DH work.
The veterans are the messier part.
Francisco Lindor trade talk has cooled, at least for now. Beyond him, players such as Marcus Semien, Jorge Polanco, Sean Manaea, and Kodai Senga haven’t delivered enough for their contracts to make them easy to move.
If the Mets deal them, it likely won’t be for clean value. It would probably mean salary dumps, with New York eating money or taking back another unwanted deal.
Even so, the alternative may be worse: keeping the group too intact and hoping for a different result. Janes’ point is that kind of approach can get people fired and only pushes the turnaround further away.
This is not a roster with nothing to work with. The Mets do have younger players who have stepped up, and the core stars are already there.
The problem is the middle layer, the players who are supposed to smooth out the roster and instead make it hard to trust. That’s why the bullpen already looks set for a busy winter after the Mets tore into it and moved Luke Weaver and Huascar Brazoban despite neither being on expiring contracts.
The rotation and the lineup are trickier. Fixing either one in a meaningful way will require some creativity and probably a few moves that people don’t see coming. Janes didn’t get into the idea of unloading unwanted players, which is usually the kind of thing that surfaces out of nowhere.
For now, the Mets can choose to run it back with almost the same group. The bigger question is whether they should.
In Other News...
Mets Just Drew A Clear Line Around Lindor And One Teammate
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Jorge Polanco, by contrast, was left in a far less certain spot. Stearns did not lock in a defensive role for Polanco, calling that part of his status to be determined, which leaves open a real question about how the Mets will use him after an injury-hampered 2026 season that limited both his time in the field and his offensive impact. [Read more 🡒]
Brett Baty Is Running Out Of Chances With The Mets
Brett Batys season has settled into the kind of uneasy middle ground that does little to clarify his place with the Mets. He has flashed enough at times to remind the club why his bat and defensive flexibility still matter, but the overall offensive production has been too uneven for him to lock down a true everyday role.
What makes Batys situation more complicated is that his versatility has not translated into stability, and the Mets have other players forcing their way into the lineup. There have been signs of improvement lately, which at least keeps the conversation open, but the bigger question is whether those gains arrive soon enough to secure him a meaningful spot in the clubs plans. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Are Letting Young Players Struggle For One Important Reason
A.J. Ewings brief benching looked like a simple breather on the surface, but the Mets framed it as something more deliberate, a 48-hour reset for a young player working through an offensive slump. The approach fits the broader tone around the club right now, with interim manager Andy Green making clear the organization is trying to keep development front and center even as the big-league results stay uneven.
That means the Mets are resisting the quick trigger that often comes with young players who are scuffling, choosing instead to let Ewing, Zac Thornton and Jonah Tong absorb the bumps that come with learning at this level. Ewings recent two-run homer offered a reminder of why the patience exists, and Green also said he feels good about Tong staying in place after his improvement in Triple-A, another sign the team is trying to build through growth instead of panic. [Read more 🡒]