New York’s offseason spending plans could be derailed by a hidden obstacle that threatens the Mets’ hopes of adding star talent. DD
The Mets are exploring a lot of possibilities to improve their roster this winter, but they have a road block they need to navigate first.
The New York Mets are expected to be very busy this winter trying to improve their roster and the possibilities they have to do so are seemingly limitless. While retaining Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz are top priorities for David Stearns, the Mets are also exploring ways to improve their starting rotation and have been linked to several top free agent hitters like Cody Bellinger and Alex Bregman.
While Mets fans would love to see a big splash on the free agent market, recent reporting from The Athletic‘s Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon has pointed out a potential roadblock to such additions: the fact that the Mets have a lot of long-term commitments to position players already on their active roster.
In their news column, Rosenthal and Sammon mention the fact that the Mets’ combination of players and contracts makes it difficult to add a top external free agent without removing someone from the mix. Anyone who watched the Mets last season saw how difficult it was for manager Carlos Mendoza to juggle playing time for his four young infielders (Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, Luisangel Acuña and Ronny Mauricio) and rotate the DH slot to ensure Starling Marte didn’t get too cold.
Why the Mets need to subtract in order to add
The subtractions mentioned in The Athletic don’t count the team’s pursuits of Alonso and Diaz, who were already priorities to retain. Stearns has gone on record previously indicating that it is hard to build a roster when you are locked into multiple long-term contracts, making it harder to change things if necessary, and the current Mets certainly fit that bill.
The Mets have three position players locked up through at least 2030 with Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto. Francisco Alvarez figures to be the Mets’ catcher while the infield glut also contains veteran Jeff McNeil, who is entering the last year of his current deal. Retaining Alonso would fill first base and potentially DH part time, and with Stearns wanting to let Carson Benge compete for the center field job, it becomes very hard to find room for an external add to fit in.
The best player on the board is Kyle Tucker, a five-tool player who seems to be the prototype player Stearns wants to build around. The issue the Mets have with Tucker is that he can’t play center field, and the Mets already have both outfield corners covered with Nimmo and Soto. The obvious inference here would be that the Mets would need to move on from Nimmo in order to make a serious run at Tucker.
Infielders like Bregman and Bo Bichette offer a similar calculus since the Mets can’t add one of them while carrying all five infielders who finished the 2025 season on the active roster. The Mets seem to hold Baty in the highest regard of the bunch, and he has the ability to play second or third; this allows the team to theoretically open a spot for either hitter by clearing at least two of McNeil and the remaining youngsters off the roster.
Bellinger is an intriguing option for the Mets since he has the ability to play both center field and first base, covering them in two areas of need, but a pursuit of him could be contingent on what happens with Alonso. If the Mets can keep Alonso he would be primarily their first baseman, which would make Bellinger the center fielder and potentially block Benge’s path to big league at-bats.
This kind of calculus indicates the Mets will likely make multiple moves to clear existing players off the active roster in order for Stearns to make the kinds of changes necessary to improve the club. While baseball’s free agent market moves slowly, the Mets have to be careful not to wait too long to decide who to move on from to avoid the risk of being left without a seat when the complicated game of musical chairs comes to an end at some point in January.
