New York Mets GM David Stearns went into this offseason with a clear goal—improve the defense and get better at run prevention. It took a while for Stearns to make the appropriate moves to do that, but most of the major parts and pieces are in place for the 2026 season, so it’s fair to ask if the Mets actually got there.
There are plenty of ways to break this down, and Mike Petriello of MLB.com made some interesting points in his approach. One of the best was about the corner infield tandem of third baseman Bo Bichette and his first base counterpart, Jorge Polanco.
Combining them would make the Mets the first team since 1948 to start two new positional players in the infield who have basically never played at their new position, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com. It’s important to note that teams in 1948 still featured post-war rosters that were very different from what followed once players began returning from their various military experiences.
Another point Petriello made is about how much this problem needed addressing with such a drastic overhaul. The Mets allowed 715 runs last year, which was 13th in MLB, and all of the advanced metrics beyond that like strikeout rate, ground-ball rate, etc. were slightly worse, ranging all the way down to 21st.
The two big positional problems were first base and right field. First baseman Pete Alonso is gone, of course, but right fielder Juan Soto isn’t going anywhere. He’s vowed to improve his defense, but whether Soto can actually do that remains an open question.
Polanco will doubtless be better, and so will new second baseman Marcus Semien and center fielder Luis Robert. Polanco has experience shifting positions, but no one really knows how Bichette will fare at third. The pitching should be better with starter Freddy Peralta at the top of the rotation and right-hander Nolan McLean slotting in behind him, but the Mets also have a new closer whose numbers pale compared to those of his predecessor, Edwin Diaz.
Given how much of a muddle this all looks like when you put it under the microscope, it’s fair to ask how much of this was really about addressing the clubhouse issues that surfaced in a New York Post report back in December. It sure looks like that’s a big part of what Stearns has done, but we won’t know for sure about the run prevention part until the Mets hit the field this spring.