The New York Mets had a lot of great individual stats this season, but those stats didn’t add up to much in the standings, especially in the second half of the season. This year the Mets need to focus on a different team stat, and it’s the one that could define their upcoming season.
David Schoenfield of ESPN flagged this pivotal parameter, and it’s a pitching stat—specifically, the total number of innings the Mets get from their starters.
In 2025 that number was 796, which was 27th in the league. As Schoenfield notes, this isn’t an automatic negative the way baseball has played, given that the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers ranked 26th and 28th, respectively.
Short starts are a fact of life these days, but the Mets’ big problem was healthy relievers, as Reed Garrett, Danny Young, Max Kranick and Dedniel Nunez all went down for the season with arm injuries.
The sheer number of injuries drew some pushback from former Mets reliever Adam Ottavino, who pitched under manager Carlos Mendoza and said that Mendoza "has no idea what he's doing when it comes to bullpen guys and how to keep them healthy or even how to care about them at all."
The bullpen has been rebuilt from the top down, with new closer Devin Willams signed to replace the departed Edwin Diaz, and former New York Yankees reliever Luke Weaver has been added as one of the primary setup men. Other bullpen pieces are coming, but GM David Stearns has yet to address the starting rotation to any significant degree.
Changes are coming, however. Rumors have been flying for weeks now about starters Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes and David Peterson, and it’s almost certain that one of these three starters will be moved, perhaps even this week.
Stearns is trying to thread the needle here to some extent. The fan base wants a big deal for Detroit starter Tarik Skubal, but what the GM wants to do is create a runway for young starters Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong. All three looked ready to be part of a big-league rotation, McLean especially, although Tong might need some time at Triple A Syracuse.
The Mets GM needs to bring in at least two starters, preferably one who can fill the slot at the top of the rotation this year. Those starters need to go deeper into games and up that basic innings count as the rotation rebuild continues.