Mets president David Stearns finally said the quiet part out loud this week, and honestly, you almost have to laugh to keep from crying if you’re a fan in Flushing. He admitted that letting their star first baseman, Pete Alonso, just walk away in free agency was a total bust. And the grand plan they cooked up to replace him? Yeah, that didn’t work out so well either. After a brutal last-place finish for the squad, Stearns had to stand there and confess that the whole decision to let Alonso depart, plus all the replacement moves, well, it “didn’t work out so well.” Talk about a massive understatement, right? It was a colossal misstep that absolutely gutted their season.
43 Homers and a .884 OPS That Just Haunts Flushing
Pete Alonso, who’s only 31 years old, didn’t just walk, he absolutely blasted off somewhere else. While the Mets were floundering, Alonso put up a monster .267 batting average, hammered an incredible 43 home runs, drove in a staggering 113 RBI, and finished the year with a phenomenal .884 OPS. Just think about those numbers for a second. That’s not just a good season, that’s a fantastic season, pure power, exactly what you want from your cornerstone slugger. And what did the Mets get from the guys they threw out there at first base, primarily Jared Young and Mark Vientos? A measly 18 homers and 77 RBI combined. Their collective OPS was a dismal .667. Ouch. That’s not just a drop-off, that’s like a Grand Canyon-sized crater where a franchise cornerstone used to be. You let that kind of production walk, and then you get that in return? It’s no wonder their season ended with them staring up at everyone else in the division.
Splashy Moves That Just Sank the Ship
And here’s the kicker: it wasn’t just the gaping Alonso-shaped void that torpedoed their year. Remember all those “splashy offseason additions” everyone in New York was hyping up? We’re talking big names like Bo Bichette, Luis Robert Jr., Jorge Polanco, Marcus Semien, and Freddy Peralta. All these guys, all these expectations, right? Well, guess what? Every single one of them disappointed. Every. Single. One. Stearns said he knows “hindsight is 50-50,” but come on, man. Letting a beloved, multi-time All-Star like Alonso just walk away for nothing? Especially when your *other* big-money, big-hype moves totally belly-flop and you end up dead last in the division? That’s not just a bad decision, that’s a complete, unforced error that defines your entire season. When your team president has to stand up and basically admit, “Yeah, we blew it,” you know things went monumentally sideways.
So, another painful season is in the books for the Mets, concluding with their own president pretty much waving a white flag on a massively misplayed free agency. For a team that finished dead last, the real question isn’t “what’s the next game?” but “what in the world is next *season* gonna look like?” How do you even begin to fix that kind of self-inflicted wound? Mets fans are absolutely going to be living with the ghost of Pete Alonso’s 43 homers and the bitter taste of that last-place finish for a long, long time. What a mess.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Bleacher Report.
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