The 2024 New York Mets have been the final word “it is over/we’re so again” baseball crew. They began 0-5, then had a 12-3 run, then misplaced 27 of their subsequent 39 video games, after which had one of the best report in baseball (65-38) from June 3 via the top of the season. The Mets wanted a clutch ninth-inning homer to beat the Braves in Sport 161 simply to get to the postseason, then they wanted one other to beat the Brewers in Sport 3 of the Wild Card Sequence. Each time you thought you have been out, the Mets pulled you again in.

In any case these ups and downs, New York’s season got here to finish Sunday night time, with a loss to the Dodgers in Sport 6 of the Nationwide League Championship Sequence. The magic lastly ran out. The Dodgers will tackle the Yankees within the World Sequence and the Mets are heading house after a profitable season, albeit one with an unsatisfying ending.

Fact be informed although, 2024 ought to solely be the beginning of an prolonged interval of rivalry for the Mets, who’ve virtually unmatched monetary sources, a shiny entrance workplace led by POBO David Stearns, and a major-league expertise base that features MVP candidate Francisco Lindor and touted younger sluggers Francisco Alvarez and Mark Vientos, amongst others. On the similar time, there may be work to be accomplished this offseason. Maybe greater than is often wanted for a crew coming off an 89-win season and an NLCS berth.

Listed here are three questions going through Stearns, the Mets, and proprietor Steve Cohen this offseason.

1. What occurs with Alonso?

For a lot of the final six years, slugging first baseman Pete Alonso has been the Mets’ hottest participant, and positively considered one of their best. His 219 house runs for the reason that begin of 2019 are the second most in baseball behind Aaron Choose’s 232, and a typical Alonso season in 2025 would transfer him forward of Darryl Strawberry and make him the franchise house run chief. Since Day 1, Alonso has been a terrific Met, each on the sphere and together with his work in the neighborhood.

Together with his thirtieth birthday developing in December, Alonso is about to change into a free agent this offseason, and the very fact of the matter is his manufacturing has slipped the final two years. His 34 house runs this season have been his fewest in a 162-game season, and he had a .324 on-base proportion in over 1,300 plate appearances the final two years. The historical past of righty-hitting/righty-throwing first basemen of their 30s is horrible. In all probability, the Mets have already gotten one of the best years of Alonso’s profession.

Objectively, saying thanks for the final six years and letting another crew pay prime greenback for Alonso’s decline is the best way to go. Simply take the win, you understand? The Mets may then slide Vientos over the primary base, which is probably going his long-term place anyway, and proceed trending towards youthful and extra athletic gamers with a brand new third baseman, or preserve Vientos at third and discover a new first baseman. That mentioned, Alonso may be very standard and nonetheless productive, and letting him go away wouldn’t go over nicely with a lot of the fan base. So it goes when a star hits free company.

Nothing on this sport occurs in a vacuum. Re-signing Alonso would change the best way Stearns & Co. construct out the roster as a result of first base (and likewise to some extent DH) shall be occupied, and that is not essentially a foul factor. Preserving the favored participant you understand can carry out in your market is defensible. On the similar time, letting Alonso go away as a free agent would open different doorways, together with maybe …

2. How aggressively do they pursue Soto?

I believe the reply may be very aggressively, as in they’re going to be proper there till the end line. My guess — I emphasize that is solely a guess — is Juan Soto will in the end return to the Yankees, although my confidence in that’s 55/45 slightly than, say, 90/10. Cohen and the Mets can match any free-agent contract supply in the event that they so select, so it would come right down to promoting Soto on the group as a lot as something, and the Yankees have had a 10-month headstart with direct entry. Additionally, the Yankees are within the World Sequence. That in all probability will not harm their possibilities of retaining Soto.

Level is, Soto is a generational expertise and he’ll flip solely 26 later this month. He is an in-his-prime megastar and is precisely the type of participant the Mets and each massive market crew ought to pursue. Soto’s prime aligns nicely with what’s left of Lindor’s prime, and he is a magnetic persona whose worth transcends what he does on the sphere. Signal him and he’ll promote tickets, he’ll promote merchandise, he’ll the Corridor of Fame in your crew’s uniform and can add the franchise’s legacy that manner. The query is not will the Mets pursue Soto aggressively. In fact they’ll. The query is can they persuade him to go throughout city?

3. How can they fill out the rotation?

The Mets had a lot success this season thanks partially to a rotation that had three starters — Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, Luis Severino — every make a minimum of 31 begins with no worse than a 3.91 ERA. Add in David Peterson, and people 4 pitchers mixed to start out 115 of the crew’s 162 video games, and so they did so with a 3.56 ERA whereas averaging 5.7 innings per begin. Most nights this yr the Mets despatched a high quality starter to the mound. That is a reasonably good basis for a contending crew.

Now comes the exhausting half. Manaea, Quintana, and Severino are all free brokers — Manaea will certainly decide out his $13.5 million wage for 2025 and hit the market — and Stearns and his workers need to fill a whole lot of innings over the winter. Right here is New York’s rotation depth chart utilizing solely gamers below contract or crew management in 2025:

1. RHP Kodai Senga (missed virtually all of 2024 with accidents)
2. LHP David Peterson
3. RHP Tylor Megill
4. RHP Paul Blackburn (missed finish of 2024 with spinal fluid leak)
5. RHP Christian Scott (will miss 2025 with Tommy John surgical procedure)
6. RHP José Buttó (had his most success as a reliever in 2024)

The Mets may put Buttó again within the rotation — there’s one thing to be mentioned for studying get outs within the bullpen and taking that again right into a beginning position — however he was a trusted high-leverage reliever a lot of the yr. Senga and Blackburn are mysteries given their accidents. Prospects like Dominic Hamel, Brandon Sproat, Blade Tidwell, and Mike Vasil may enter the image, although none pitched notably nicely in Triple-A this yr, and ideally they’re midseason call-ups, not Opening Day roster candidates.

Throughout his years with the Brewers, Stearns was excellent at unearthing hidden gems and high quality pitchers, and he shall be anticipated to do this this offseason. He has a a lot greater payroll to play with too, so anticipate him to take some greater swings. Nearly each crew has to improve its rotation over the winter. That is simply baseball. The Mets are not any completely different besides that their prime three starters by way of innings pitched are about to hit free company. Beginning pitching shall be a main focus this offseason.