Aggressive moves, including a massive Bichette deal, fuel the Mets' postseason hopes after a near $250 million offseason spending spree.
The New York Mets are back on track to make the postseason after suffering a woeful collapse in 2025. It’s all thanks to New York’s front office and their offseason aggressiveness – taking big swings and risks to switch things up as they got stagnant.
The Mets have been one of the biggest-spending clubs in baseball, and that didn’t change this winter. They brought in several players for a total of $249.8 million this offseason. New York trails only the two World Series teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays, in total spending this winter.
A surprising move turned out to be the Mets’ most expensive deal in free agency, signing infielder Bo Bichette to a three-year, $126 million deal. It followed a trend this offseason of short-term deals with high AAV.
Bichette’s deal also includes player options for the 2027 and 2028 seasons. Though the unique structuringof the deal has Bichette making a salary of $2 million in 2026, his $40 million signing bonus will put the Mets $42 million deep for their new star third baseman this season.
Relievers Devin Williams and Luke Weaver also signed with the Mets on multi-year deals, Williams on a three-year, $51 million contract and Weaver on a two-year, $22 million contract. The Mets’ front office spent $73 million on the two as a part of an effort to make up for the loss of closer Edwin Diaz, who left in free agency.
In a similar story, New York also committed $40 million over two seasons to infielder Jorge Polanco to fill in the hole that Pete Alonso left at first base. Though he’s played just one game as a first baseman in the MLB, the Mets trust Polanco enough at the position to spend $20 million a year on the 32-year-old.
Those are the big names the Mets dished out big money for this winter in an effort to shake things up with their roster, but they also made some smaller signings, such as for reliever Luis Garcia and outfielder MJ Melendez.
With an offseason spending total of just under $250 million, the Mets are set to have the second-highest payroll of the 2026 campaign. If they can bounce back in 2026 and make a deep postseason run, Mets owner Steve Cohen would have no regrets committing such a sum this offseason.