Instead of attacking that problem, the Mets remade the everyday lineup.
Alonso left.
Jorge Polanco was expected to play first base.
Bo Bichette moved to third.
A team that already had defensive problems started teaching veterans new positions at the major-league level.
Go figure.
Good organizations solve the problem they actually have.
The Mets created new ones.
Pete Alonso Proved the Value of Reliability
Pete Alonso played all 162 games for the Mets in 2025 and had one of the best seasons of his career.
The Mets let him walk.
Then he went to Baltimore and played 161 games, hit 43 home runs, drove in 113, and scored 100.
And when he came back to Citi Field in September, he hit his 300th career home run to tie the game in the ninth inning.
Mets fans gave him a curtain call.
As a visiting player.
That tells you everything.
Pete Alonso wasn’t just productive.
He was loved in Queens.
He showed up every day, played the same position, hit in the middle of the order, and gave the team an identity.
That’s the kind of player you build around.
Instead, the Mets chose flexibility and theoretical upside.
They got neither.
Theory doesn’t win championships.
Players do.
The Mets Never Had a Consistent Lineup
This drove me crazy all year.
Different lineup.
Different batting order.
Different positions.
Different combinations.
Every night felt like another experiment.
Baseball is already hard enough.
There’s value in routine.
Knowing where you’re playing.
Knowing where you’re hitting.
Knowing who’s standing next to you.
Some lineup movement is inevitable.
But when constant change becomes the identity of the team, maybe flexibility isn’t the strength you think it is.
Maybe you just don’t know what your team is.
The One Silver Lining: We Got to See the Future
There was one benefit to the season falling apart.
Eventually, the Mets had to play the kids.
And I liked what we saw.
Carson Benge.
A.J. Ewing.
Nolan McLean.
Young arms getting real innings.
For the first time all year, it felt like we were watching something being built instead of something being patched together.
Andy Green may be exactly the right manager for that next phase. He already knew many of these players from his time in player development, and he seems well suited to helping young talent grow.
My one frustration?
I wish Ronny Mauricio had gotten more of that opportunity instead of Marcus Semien.
Once the season was lost, I wanted to see what Mauricio could become.
That’s the opportunity a bad season gives you.
If you’re going to lose, at least learn something.
The Simple Lesson: Fix the Problem You Actually Have
That’s the part of this season that reaches beyond baseball.
Good organizations identify what caused them to fail and fix it.
The 2025 Mets needed better pitching and better defense.
Instead, they introduced more injury risk, shuffled positions, broke apart continuity, and spent the year searching for combinations that worked.
Sometimes boring is good.
Reliable is good.
Knowing what someone is going to give you every day is valuable.
The Final Verdict
I’ve been a Mets fan long enough to remember what a team with an identity feels like.
Most youth baseball players don’t struggle with talent. They struggle with awareness. Here’s how we teach kids to read the situation, think for themselves, and make the right play in real time.
Made with Bullet