The New York Mets made plenty of changes this offseason, but ESPN's Bradford Doolittle believes these changes will result in a better offense than last season's.
Seeing your top offensive producer walk in free agency and sign a big contract with another team certainly makes you wonder how good the offense will be the following season.
The New York Mets weren’t pleased with how the team played down the stretch in 2025, specifically how they pitched and played defense, leading to a plethora of departures that included star slugging first baseman Pete Alonso.
Alonso averaged 42 home runs and 114 RBI in his tenure with the Mets and is the all-time franchise leader in home runs, yet the Mets didn’t want to give him the contract he was seeking, and his defensive prowess is the reason why.
Instead, the Mets signed infielder Jorge Polanco to split time with third baseman Mark Vientos at first base as well as designated hitter. I don’t know that Polanco, who has played one inning of first base in his entire career, is a defensive upgrade over the actual first baseman, but I digress.
Polanco on his own won’t replace Alonso’s production, but New York knew that and made plenty of other acquisitions to assist in that. Among those acquisitions was infielder Bo Bichette, who was one of Major League Baseball’s best hitters last season.
Bichette batted .311 last season with 18 homers and 94 RBI, and he will slot in nicely as a top-of-the-order bat for Manager Carlos Mendoza. How Mendoza configures the lineup remains to be seen, but the way ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle projected it shows balance up and down. He has it as the third-best lineup in baseball.
Here is how Doolittle constructed the lineup:
2. Juan Soto
3. Bichette
4. Polanco
6. Brett Baty
7. Francisco Alvarez
9. Carson Benge
“The Mets finished fifth by team WRC+ last year, then went out and turned over more than half of the lineup,” Doolittle wrote Wednesday. “The bottom line is a slightly more prolific group with a little different profile: more aggression, more average, good balance across the board.”
Doolittle believes this group will match or even outhit last year’s group. This lineup isn’t as top heavy as it used to be, and I expect the Mets to hit for a better average, but I don’t think they will be able to match or surpass their 224 homers from last season (fifth in MLB).
It’s going to be interesting to see how well this team does throughout the season. I believe the lineup could be good, even great, but I don’t know that it’s the third-best in baseball. We shall see.