The Red Sox didn’t just beat the Mets in their lone 2026 meeting - they swept them to close out the first half, and in doing so, they put a spotlight on three decisions that have separated the two clubs all season.
Under David Stearns and Craig Breslow, Boston and New York have looked like mirror images in a lot of ways. They came into the offseason with similar needs and similar targets. They also each rode one massive streak that helped define the year: the Mets dropped 12 in a row in April, while the Red Sox stacked up 15 straight wins in July.
That’s why Boston’s success feels so pointed now. The Red Sox have found ways to make the right calls, while the Mets keep running into the same kind of problems.
The first difference came in the dugout. Boston moved on from Alex Cora early, and for a long stretch that didn’t look like much of a separator because the Red Sox still weren’t doing much better.
There’s nothing here that suggests Cora was the issue, either. He could have been hired by plenty of teams after losing his job in Boston.
But now the question hangs there: would the Mets have had a run in them if they had made a similar move on Carlos Mendoza as early as Boston did? If they had fired Mendoza and Andy Green, or whoever stepped in, didn’t improve things, they still would have been an outlier compared with the Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies. Instead, they stayed the course, and the result is a season that leaves no easy way to judge what might have happened.
The second edge has come in roster construction. Boston made additions that fit. The Mets kept trying to force pieces into roles that never looked natural.
The Red Sox made moves that would have made sense for the Mets, too. Willson Contreras would have been a clean fit at first base.
Sonny Gray, while a less obvious match, could still have been a reasonable rotation addition. Ranger Suarez has helped when healthy, and ESPN’s Buster Olney called it “inevitable” the Mets would sign him or Framber Valdez.
New York, meanwhile, took a different path. Jorge Polanco as a first baseman/DH never quite made sense, and the way it has unfolded has made it look even worse.
He has been hurt, unable to play the field, and unproductive when he has been in the lineup. The Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo trade is still going to draw heat.
And the Mets entered the season leaning on quantity over quality in their starting pitching depth. Maybe because someone in the Mets front office stabbed a Greek God’s cyclops son in the eye, the winter moves have gone sideways while Boston’s have paid off.
The third difference is what each team did - or failed to do - after letting a star leave. Boston let Alex Bregman walk, and for a while the replacement, Caleb Durbin, was one of the worst hitters in the league. That picture has changed some, with Durbin now producing and Bregman looking like a Chicago Cubs accident.
The Mets haven’t had nearly the same luck replacing what they lost. Edwin Diaz is the one exception, and even there, they did try to bring him back.
Pete Alonso isn’t putting together a career year, but his power and RBI numbers are still among the best in the league. The issue isn’t that the Mets expected Alonso to be good; it’s that the way they tried to replace him still isn’t working.
Jared Young ending up as the team’s best defensive and offensive first baseman of the year was never the plan, and it still doesn’t feel close to acceptable.
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