Mets mailbag: Does David Stearns owe fans an apology for this disappointing season?
Mets second baseman Marcus Semien runs after a hit against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on May 30, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
With 16 games left, the Mets are in the midst of playing their best baseball in well over a calendar year. The offseason looms, they travel to the Bronx Friday to play their crosstown rivals, and things for next year are, perhaps, coming into focus.
With that said, here are some pressing questions, courtesy of Newsday’s readers:
Q. With the success of some of our young players (A.J. Ewing, Carson Benge, Zac Thornton), what are you hearing about appetite for additional infusion of youth in 2027, particularly [pitcher] Jonathan Santucci, or Jefferson Rojas (possible 2B/3B of future)? - Greg Luna, Rochester
I wouldn’t be surprised to see both these players at some point next year, especially when you look at the way the Mets haven’t necessarily coddled their more advanced young players – sometimes cruising them through the minor leagues and onto the big stage, like they did with Ewing.
When asked about some of the lessons he took away from this season, president of baseball operations David Stearns noted that “you have to provide yourself avenues on your roster to give other players a chance when you’re not getting the performance you expected.”
This makes me think that he won’t be overly cautious about promoting deserving players if there’s an established, but underperforming, major-league veteran blocking the path. I do believe Santucci is closer to being big-league ready than Rojas, who is still in Double-A and just 21 years old. Santucci struggled after being promoted Triple-A this year, pitching to a 5.28 ERA, but he’s shown the ability to adapt as he gets acclimated to higher levels. A lefthander with pitchability and a signature, deceptive slider that tunnels well with his fastball is always going to be intriguing. The season is long, and you always need more starting pitching than you think, so there should be an opening there at some point.
Rojas feels like he could be an ideal addition, and has skyrocketed through the ranks – meaning he might outpace his expected 2027 MLB debut date. Marcus Semien is a steady, veteran presence, with a contract likely too onerous to move without the Mets eating major money. But he’s declined at the plate, and though his defense has been excellent of late, it suffered earlier in the season – potentially because of the hip injury that sidelined him midseason. A world where Semien starts the season at second base, and perhaps ends it by splitting time as Rojas acclimates could suit the Mets nicely.
All of this is assuming both these players stay within the organization, of course. One of the reasons Stearns rounded out the farm system so thoroughly was to acquire trade chips; with baseball’s future – and team’s spending limits – in flux with the upcoming labor negotiations, the trade market this year may be especially active.
Q. What will the Mets do in the offseason to address their talent evaluation "misjudgments" over the last couple of seasons - not just in terms of philosophy but in terms of personnel? - Cliff Hahn, Honolulu, Hawaii
That’s the big question, isn’t it? And frankly, I’m not totally sure. One thing seems likely, though not set in stone – the Mets will have a new manager. That itself will provide a fresh perspective, particularly if Stearns empowers that person to push back on some front-office decisions.
The real question is whether they’ll strongly consider hiring a general manager that might be able to complement Stearns’ blind spots.
Beyond that, Stearns and owner Steve Cohen have been a little cagey about the subject. Asked recently if the Mets need to bring on front-office talent that can better evaluate whether a player will thrive in New York, Cohen seemed open to the idea…to an extent.
“I think we do that already, OK?” Cohen said. “Anyway that we can buttress and add some more in that area, it could add potentially positive returns. That could be a good thing.”
And this was Stearns’ response when asked directly if they intend to search for a GM: “We’re always going to look to see if there are ways that we can improve our organization in any way, and that’s inclusive of the front office. That’s been the case every offseason since I’ve been here and that will be the case this offseason as well.”
Do you notice the thread there? Both said that these were things that they were doing already, which doesn’t sell me on the idea that large-scale changes are coming. Both Stearns and Cohen, though, have taken the team’s failures personally, and are too smart and have been too successful to make next season a copy-paste of this one. The question is whether the change in philosophy will be a sound one – after all, the large-scale shifts they made in the 2025 offseason were a bust.
Q. Can we ever expect an apology from David Stearns for this season – the new ‘Worst Team Money Can Buy’? Steve Cohen on Sep 29, 2025 apologized to the fans for the failure to get into the playoffs. Stearns has admitted multiple times this year that it's been a disappointment and expectations were not met, but the fans have never heard a true apology…
There is so much fan hate and they want him fired ASAP (not me, I believe he needs a chance to rectify the mistakes he made; after all, the Mets were in the playoffs in 2024). I always hear from fans that Stearns looks so smug and he "thinks he's so smart." I believe a public apology would go a long way to smooth things over with fans. Or maybe he is waiting for the end of the season to do this? -Howie Chang, Flushing
I can’t predict the future, but Stearns isn’t one for grand orating gestures. His responses during news conferences are restrained, and they tend toward the rational rather than the emotional. From his reluctance to re-sign Pete Alonso, and his trade of Brandon Nimmo, we can also extrapolate that he doesn’t prioritize optics over doing what he thinks is advantageous to the organization.
That said, he’s very aware of his missteps (it’s kind of hard not to be, given the team’s record - 68-78). The best you might be able to expect is something akin to what we saw in the news conference meant to address Carlos Mendoza’s firing. It was clear Stearns liked Mendoza, and it's possible he felt at least somewhat responsible for his dismissal – meaning that Stearns appeared more emotional that he usually would be.
This is what we heard from him then, and potentially a portend of what we’ll hear from him in the future:
“I understand our fan’s frustration and anger. I share that and we will do everything we can to improve,” he said. “I understand fan skepticism. If I were sitting in the fan seat, I would share that. From my perspective, what I can do is what I will do for as long as I’m sitting in this seat – work as hard as I can with the people around me and do everything I can to push this organization forward and I think we’re going to be able to do that.”
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
