Another day of Winter Meetings, another gut punch for fans of the New York Mets. It was bad enough that Edwin Diaz walked — to the Dodgers, of all teams — but losing Pete Alonso to the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday? On a five-year, $155 million deal that Steve Cohen absolutely could have afforded? The Mets were supposed to take a big step forward this offseason, a way of erasing the memory of 2025's collapse; instead they're simply sitting by and watching their biggest names depart without much more than a shrug.
I promise, I get it. But I'm asking everybody in Queens to just take a breath for a moment, and step back from the ledge. There might be a time to panic about how David Stearns has handled this offseason. But we knew big changes were necessary, and there's still time to make everybody forget all about the Alonso era.
No, the Mets aren't crazy for letting Pete Alonso walk
I want to be clear: I don't begrudge any Mets fan who fell in love with Alonso over the last few years and is upset that the team let him walk. He's been a fixture in Queens, a rock no matter what was going on around him, and he just so happened to author one of the more memorable moments in franchise history in the Wild Card series in Milwaukee last October.
But being a fan is different than running a front office. Cold as it sounds, Stearns can't afford to let himself be guided by how beloved a given player might be; his sole job is to do what's best for the Mets both now and in the future, and viewed through that lens, it's not hard to understand why he handled Alonso's free agency the way he did.
Alonso is coming off another excellent season at the plate. He also just turned 31, he has exactly one 4.0 fWAR season in his career and his defense at first base is so wretched he should really be a full-time DH moving forward. As long as he keeps hitting 40 homers and posting a 140 wRC+, it's fine that he'll be making more than $30 million a year. But there's vanishingly little margin for error here: This sort of player historically falls off a cliff in their 30s, and once that decline starts, the contract will be underwater almost immediately.
Again, Alonso has been a good and valuable player, and likely will be again in 2026. But this Mets core had run its course, and if you're trying to remake this roster, sinking $155 million into such a one-dimensional profile isn't good business. Letting Alonso walk gives New York significantly more freedom and a significantly higher ceiling moving forward — now all they have to do is take advantage of it.
The sky isn't falling on New York's offseason — as long as the team signs Kyle Tucker
Balking at the market price for Alonso is all well and good. But the production is the production, and it still needs to be replaced somehow — especially when you consider how badly the Mets' offense failed them down the stretch of this season. And with Alonso and Schwarber now off the board, New York's options in the middle of the order are dwindling rapidly; there's seemingly no room for Bo Bichette, and Cody Bellinger's offensive profile does not feel like a good fit for Citi Field.
With one very notable exception, that is: Kyle Tucker, a legitimate top-10 bat entering free agency ahead of his age-29 season. Tucker is everything this Mets offense is looking for, and he just so happens to play a position now vacant after the Brandon Nimmo trade. Tucker is a far better future investment than Alonso would be, even at something approaching $350-400 million, giving the Mets another star bat to pair with Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto who has a longer runway and figures to age better than Alonso will.
Of course, anybody who's anybody wants to sign Tucker, and there's no guarantee the Mets will get their man. And if they whiff on Tucker, too, then suddenly Stearns might be left holding the bag and stuck with an underwhelming lineup for 2026. But it's still Dec. 10; there's a lot of offseason remaining, and most of the money has yet to be spent. New York has a lot more of that money at their disposal now that Alonso is headed to Baltimore.
It may feel like the sky is falling, but it everyone should be able to acknowledge that this team needed a serious shakeup given the way 2025 ended and the aging nature of the current core. That was always going to involve some painful decisions, and it's worth stepping back and taking stock of what the Mets have actually done so far this winter: Brandon Nimmo was swapped out for a comparatively productive player who was a better fit on a less painful contract, while Diaz was swapped out for ... a comparatively productive player on a less painful contract.
The Mets are no worse off from an on-field perspective, and they have much more money to throw around than they otherwise would.