Op-ed | After letting Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz go, have the New York Mets lost the will to win?

Did the Mets really want to keep Pete Alonso? That question was answered on Wednesday when they let the franchise’s all-time home run record-holder walk to the Baltimore Orioles on a five-year contract that they didn’t bother to try to match.

At the same time, one could well ask if Alonso really wanted to keep the Mets. When the Orioles introduce him at a press conference, he will surely say all the right things — he loved playing in New York and the Mets fans in general.

The reality, however, is that in the end, Alonso answered by taking the money and running to Baltimore, which is his prerogative. Not only did he take the money and run, he couldn’t wait to take it; this Mets fan will long remember that Alonso immediately exercised his opt-out right after the Mets lost the 162nd game of the season to the perennial pain-in-the-neck Miami Marlins.

Alonso didn’t wait for the corpse of the 2025 Mets season to get cold; the rigamortis hadn’t even set in on that grim last day of a disheartening campaign when he told the franchise he would exercise his options.

Many Mets fans, including this one, are seething at the moment with the state of the franchise. Within two days, Alonso and star closer Edwin Diaz, who also opted out of his deal, bolted for greener pastures. Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns seemed to barely shrug; the team’s billionaire owner, Steve Cohen, essentially told fans to keep the faith, an impossible task given that they just saw two of their most beloved stars walk out the door.

The state of the Mets franchise is suddenly bleak. Stearns swears there is a method to his madness, and letting your team’s greatest home-grown home run hitter walk without so much as trying to counteroffer is truly an act of madness for any franchise. Such madness usually tends to backfire.

David Stearns, President of Baseball Operations for the New York Mets, is speaking to the media during a press conference before the baseball game at Citi Field in Corona, N.Y., on August 16, 2024. (Photo by Gordon Donovan/NurPhoto)

Still, to play the devil’s advocate, this Mets team — which had one of the worst records in baseball the last four months of the 2025 season and frittered away a hot start — needed major change. It was fundamentally flawed in every way — starting pitching, defense, Stearns’ beloved run prevention, clutch hitting (or lack thereof).

Stearns himself shares part of the blame because of the moves he made after the team’s improbable, feel-good 2024 postseason run — and especially with his bullpen-focused trade deadline deals that blew up in everyone’s faces.

Changing the team dynamics after 2025 is essential — but was this seriously the best way to do it?

As things stand right now, the 2026 Mets would potentially have Jeff McNeil at first and Devin Williams closing games. It’s the uninspiring stuff of a Wilpon Era nightmare for Mets fans, and Stearns owes it to the fans to act boldly now to convince them that he, in fact, wants to put a winning team on the field in 2026.

Bringing in free agent sluggers like Cody Bellinger and/or Kyle Tucker would help. Trading for a prime young arm like the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal would also be a major boost. It’s hard to replace a closer of Diaz’s caliber with a guy like the Padres’ Robert Suarez or the Brewers’ Trevor Megill (Tylor’s older, more successful brother), but it must be done now.

And Stearns must abandon his inflexible position on long-term deals, especially when it comes to starting pitching. The Mets could use a reliable, healthy, successful arm in the rotation of the likes of the Astros’ Framber Valdez or the Diamondbacks’ Zac Gallen. They are not going to get either on a 2- or 3-year, incentive-laden deal.

The 2026 season is now more critical than ever for the Mets, and for baseball. The dark clouds of an impending labor dispute between MLB and the players’ union are gathering. Animosity between both sides has reached a high not seen since 1994, and there’s great concern among fans that if the league imposes a lockout for the 2027 season in pursuit of a salary cap the union will never accept, there might not be a season to play at all.

It should behoove Stearns and Cohen now to put the best team possible on the field for 2026 in pursuit of the team’s first world championship in 40 years. They have the resources to do it. They still have the foundation to do it with the likes of Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Nolan McLean.

The only question is, do they have the will to do it?

What Stearns, Cohen and the Mets do next will answer that most critical question.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of amNewYork or its staff.