How to fix the Mets: Newsday consults four former high-ranking team officials

Francisco Lindor was downcast, as he often has been during a season so disastrous that it’s now become haunting.

It was about an hour or so after his ninth-inning error allowed the Red Sox to come back to win in 10 innings on July 12  — the fitting end to a first half that felt, in spirit, like a continuation of last season's second-half collapse that has followed this team around like a curse.

“We’ve just got to execute,” he said. “How are we going to execute? That’s the question that you have.”

When it comes to the Mets, it’s the question everyone asks. For a calendar year, fans have heard a billionaire owner, a front-office executive, two managers and multiple players express confusion as to why a team with so much talent and with such a massive payroll has managed to underperform to this extent.

The Mets were 45-24 on June 12, 2025. Entering the All-Star break this season, they had gone 78-112 since then.

“We’ve talked about why, why,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said in the news conference after manager Carlos Mendoza’s dismissal. “When you go through half a season of this with players that in the past have performed at a high level, it’s never just one thing. There are multiple things that are contributing to this, and we need to address all of them.”

So let’s address them. Newsday consulted four former high-ranking Mets officials and asked them one question: How do you fix the Mets? 

Despite different experiences and areas of expertise, the answers were more or less uniform. Two former players also chimed in on what they’ve seen.

Altogether, it provides a potential blueprint for turning around a franchise that last won a championship in 1986.

Our Mets Algonquin Table: Former manager Buck Showalter (2022-23), former manager Terry Collins (2011-17), former general manager Jim Duquette (2003-04), former director of major league operations Elizabeth Benn (2022-24) and World Series champions Darryl Strawberry and Bobby Ojeda.

Run prevention

“I found this ironic, but pitching and defense,” Benn said when asked to list her priorities — and she wasn’t the only one to point out the incongruity.

After the 2025 collapse, Stearns pinpointed the need for “run prevention” — i.e., pitching and defense — but put together a team that does neither consistently. There are ways to rectify this, but it’s going to take veering away from how he’s operated in the past.

Let’s start with pitching. Stearns has typically eschewed signing pitchers to long-term contracts, with the idea being that the injury risk outweighs the benefits, and “it’s an honorable point,” Duquette said, “but it may not be realistic in these markets.”

Duquette believes that instead of trading Clay Holmes at the deadline, the Mets should keep a pitcher who has proved himself to be sturdy and reliable (freak broken leg notwithstanding) and extend him. They’ll also need a premium starting pitcher or two, he said.

One former Mets official said the team should pursue two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, who is set to become a free agent after the World Series. Beyond that, getting a starter might require some creativity because of an otherwise weak free-agent class, though perhaps a pitching-rich team such as the Mariners could be a good place to start.

“Nobody wants to sign big [pitching] free agents because the cost and player value never match up, and you know that,” Benn said. “But if there's a guy who doesn't have much of an injury history, who has proven himself durable for the last few years, who isn't really deep into the aging curve, and he's going to cost a bit, that's somebody who it's worthwhile to actually spend on.”

Benn also believes there’s value in being more liberal with dealing prospects when it comes to acquiring starting pitchers.

“The Mets for the last few years have not had the guy at the top of the rotation, and it's shown the last few years,” she said. “That could add some stability and a bit of an anchor to the rotation . . . It's worthwhile spending.”

Good starting pitching takes pressure off your bullpen, and length allows relievers to avoid warming up multiple times a game without actually pitching — something they pay the price for later in the season, Collins said.

But it’s not just pitching, he added.

“You’ve got to catch the ball,” said Collins, who believes the Mets were overly reliant on positional versatility.

Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien, Jorge Polanco, Mark Vientos and Brett Baty all played out of their natural positions.

“They think every guy can be a utility player,'' Collins said, "and that’s not true.”

If a player is good at a position, “should he be able to play third and outfield and rightfield and leftfield? [Heck] no. You go play a position and you get really good at it.”

It also can impact the offense.

“It shouldn’t, but it does,” Collins said. “Your first thought is, ‘I’ve got to move here.’ So you’re looking at defensive charts rather than the offensive charts. There’s a lot of stress on guys . . . When you walk into the ballpark as a big-league player — especially a good big-league player — you know where you’re playing, you know where you’re hitting and you’re relaxed and you go do that job.”

Collins then shifted his focus to Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing — the latter of whom came up as an infielder and was conscripted into second-base duty for three games this year. Both are excellent outfielders with athleticism who conceivably could play well at other positions.

“Leave them alone,” he said.

Lessons in chemistry

“When you think of the Mets, what’s their identity?” Showalter said. “It’s going to take strong leadership and, more importantly, it’s going to take turning those people loose to do what needs to be done.”

That’s not only Showalter’s take on it. At least twice, Bichette has gone on record as saying the Mets were still searching for their identity — the last time coming a few weeks ago. And the reverberations are fierce.

“Their veteran players need to be leaders,” Strawberry said. “They need to step up and say, 'Hey, we’re the Mets. We need to start going out there. We need to start dominating and kicking people’s butts because everyone is laughing at us' . . . You’ve got to get tired of losing.”

But that doesn’t mean forcing people into roles they’re not comfortable inhabiting. It’s about finding the athletes with a track record of having and deploying that skill set.

Stearns in the past has said it’s difficult to predict chemistry, but there can be ways to maximize your chances.

Duquette noted players such as Todd Zeile and Robin Ventura were key elements to the successful Mets teams of the late ‘90s and early 2000s. “You wanted that because when [things went poorly], you knew you had good makeup guys to get you through the struggles," he said. "Guys wouldn’t panic.”

The problem the Mets have had with finding those guys is that “they [may not] have people that know what the [people who fill that role] look like,” Showalter said. “You can make the phone calls and do the homework to make sure about it. And yes, they’re getting harder and harder to find because guys don’t want that responsibility and the scrutiny that comes with it . . . But you go around the great teams, and you know [who that guy] is . . . 

“There are certain guys that empower guys” to be the better version of themselves.

Creating a winning culture

Baseball is mental, and to survive the grind, attitude is key.

“When you run on the field, [you have to think], ‘We’re going to beat the brakes off of you,’ ” Strawberry said. “That’s what you have to have. That’s the attitude you have to have. They have the talent to do that. I don’t know if they have the mentality, [but] if they get that part of it, they’ll be successful.”

It’s something that can be taught. Showalter, ever curious, recently asked an MLB researcher to calculate organizational winning percentage throughout the minor and major leagues. The Dodgers were first and the Mets were last with a .439 winning percentage. And it’s naïve to think that doesn’t matter.

A winning culture begins at the lowest levels, Showalter said. Looking back on his time with the Yankees, he noted, “We were expected to win our league [in the minors] and develop players. It’s one and the same. We developed winning trainers, winning coaches — these people wanted to figure out how to win every night.”

Some of that comes down to prioritization. Triple-A is its own animal, because it's a pipeline that's often called on to feed the major-league club. But winning in Double-A and below sometimes is sacrificed in the name of developing specific players, with less thought given to the idea that a winning mentality needs to be developed, too.

Redecorating behind the curtain

“It’s the guys that build the team that are the problem,” said Ojeda, who marvels that it’s been four decades since the last championship. “The front-office people are compensated very nicely from an owner who’s been very successful himself, but rather than telling him what he needs to hear, they’re telling him what he wants to hear . . . There’s a disconnect.”

It’s not just about having the correct personnel, but also about not having too many voices muddling the message. Showalter appreciates the value of data science but believes there’s a balance to be achieved.

“It all works together,” he said. “When you go too much in one direction, the players follow this mechanical [way of playing], and that’s what the Mets look like.”

Benn also noted rumors “of guys not getting along or guys' personalities changing, and I think that's where you need to have people kind of advising on the right baseball and personnel decisions beyond just what the numbers say . . . '' 

“That's a big gap here,” she said. “I don't know how that research [on players] is being done, but I think it needs to be done more thoroughly.”

She also wouldn’t mind a further evaluation of the coaching staff — one that was almost entirely replaced last season and included notable departures by former players.

“Now [the coaching staff is] a lot of guys who have been in the minors, but not necessarily the majors, and they're all great at what they do, but having somebody who has major-league experience and has actually gone through it is tremendously helpful to the players,” said Benn, who also played professional baseball. “They can get advice in this weird career that they have, beyond just, ‘Oh, you're having a tough time with the slider.’ . . . It’s more, ‘OK, you're slumping at the start of the year. This is how I've seen other guys kind of come out of it.’ ”

It’ll start with the manager

Stearns said he’ll begin his managerial search at season’s end, and the decision will be pivotal. The next manager will have to help this team build its identity, create a healthy clubhouse culture and ensure that the sting of all this failure doesn’t corrode the team for years to come.

That takes a strong, steady personality, but it also means empowering the person you put in the captain’s seat, Showalter said.

In an age in which managers sometimes are neutered, Stearns could find great value in having so much conviction in his choice that he allows his manager to make significant decisions, even if they occasionally contradict the front office’s established approach.

“Every once in a while, you’ve got to trust some people, get out of the way and let them do their thing,” Showalter said. “The right guy is out there, but you better find somebody to help you pick them and listen to them . . . somebody that knows what they’re looking for and what it looks like . . . I guarantee you that if you make enough phone calls, you can get a group together real fast.”

Athletes generally benefit from having a manager that “has some juice — that it’s important for them to please you,” he said.

That, in turn, allows players to play for each other.

“You have to surround yourself with players where it’s important for them to please each other. There’s a standard. There’s an identity,” he said. 

It won't be easy — it's not supposed to be — but fixing this team is within reach.

“There are multiple ingredients that go into it. It’s not just one thing,” Showalter said.

“But it can be done.”