Optimists looking for a way to have hope as the 2026 Mets season unfolds look back no further than 2024, when the team overcame a horrendous start and propelled themselves into the National league Championship Series. The season was David Stearns' first as the team’s head of baseball operations, and his first major task was finding a manager to replace Buck Showalter, whom owner Steve Cohen fired, ostensibly to give the about-to-be-named top baseball executive

The New York Mets hoped to build on their 101-win 2022 season by adding high-salaried free agents who would propel them past the wild card round in 2023. Instead, they ended up a major disappointment, a 26-win swing in the wrong direction as they were beset by injuries (real and phantom), underperforming veterans and, and, at least in this writer’s analysis, a failure to recognize the impact of new rules changes that should have prompted a different overhaul of the roster.

The 2022 Mets were not as much about what was, but about what could, or should, have been. About a front office and roster overhaul that took the Mets to the playoffs, but not beyond. So was the glass half empty or half full? We’ll let you decide. The overhaul began in November, shortly after the 2021 season ended, when owner Steve Cohen and head of baseball operations Sandy Alderson hired Billy Eppler to replace the fired Zack Scott as genera

The 2021 Mets season featured a new owner, a new/old head of baseball operations, two general managers (neither of whom would last the season), a roster overhaul, a trade that will be ranked as one of the best in team history only to be followed by one of the worst and one of those epic collapses that always seem to have the word Mets attached to them. Oh, yes, and a player revolt against the fans that forced management into some serious damage control.

The most unusual season in the history of the New York Mets and the sport of baseball took place in 2020. On March 13th, 2020, President Trump declared a national emergency because of a pandemic that became known as Covid-19 or the Coronavirus Pandemic. Quarantines, entry bans and other restrictions were implemented as thousands of cases were being reported. On March 16th, the White House advised against any gatherings of more than ten people. Three days later, U.S. citizens

If ever a list was put together noting actions and events that were quintessential New York Mets, that list would probably include continually opting for the unusual move that eventually backfires instead of choosing the more obvious and safer option; trades for veterans well past their primes that everyone except the front office knew would backfire; bizarre injuries that seem to happen only to the Mets; and big tease sprints toward the playoffs that ultimately collapse, bre

The 2018 New York Mets season began with a bang – a nine-game April winning streak creating the (false) hope that a managerial gamble had, for once, paid off and that the team would finally accomplish its on-paper potential. It ended, effectively, in May, and by the end of a June swoon fans and the media were pointing fingers at the manager, the general manager had stepped aside and the replacement management structure was so dysfunctional that the team couldn’t execute the t

To say that injuries derailed the 2017 Mets would be an understatement. So numerous and so serious were the ailments that befell the team that they would crush preseason optimism into a 70-92, fourth-place finish, cost the manager and the head trainer their jobs and prompt a major revision in the team’s medical practices. The optimism? Start with Yoenis Cespedes, the biggest bat in the lineup, signing a four-year, $110 million contract. Second baseman Neil Walk

Despite going into the 2016 season as defending National League champions, the Mets still had a bittersweet taste in their mouths as a result of coming up short in the World Series against the Kansas City Royals. The roster that won the franchise’s fifth National League pennant underwent some changes during the off season. Daniel Murphy cashed in on his break out post season in 2015 to sign a free agent contract with the NL East rival Washington Nationals. With the prospect o

If the old baseball adage holds true that sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make, consider this corollary that applies to the 2015 New York Mets: Sometimes, the best trades you make are the ones that happen because one you did make falls through. A convincing argument could be made that the Mets made it to the World Series largely because the July trade that would have sent Wilmer Flores and Noah Syndergaard to the Milwaukee Brewers fell through

The 2014 Mets season saw the arrival the the Grandyman and The Big Sexy, but the biggest impact came from a shortstop-turned-pitcher whose made the most of a May call-up and an unexpected start. The team’s final record was 79-83, 11 games short of general manager Sandy Alderson’s 90-win prediction, and while it was good enough for a second place tie in a weak National League East, the team still finished nine games out of a wild card spot. Never

The expectations for the 2013 Mets were modest but, at the very least, they were hoping to take a step forward to becoming a contender. However, the season became a literal repeat of 2012 as the team finished with the exact same record of 74-88. There was some optimism stemming from the continued development of 24-year old pitcher Matt Harvey. The righthander burst on the scene in 2012 with an impressive rookie season. Throughout their history, the Mets have produced some gre

It’s hard to determine who had a greater impact on the Met’s 2011 season: Sandy Alderson, the newly-hired general manager, or Irving H. Picard, the trustee appointed by a federal judge to recoup money lost by victims of Bernard Madoff’s financial fraud. That’s because overshadowing whatever Alderson accomplished or tried to accomplish with the Mets on the field – changing the culture, changing the players – was the Sword of Damocles lawsuit seeking $1 billion f

If you tried to list the elements of a quintessential Mets season they would probably include: a splashy offseason free agent signing who would likely disappoint, spring training optimism, a fast start that raises hope that this might be the year , injuries (not all of them on the field) that dash that optimism, a midseason swoon and a late rally that creates hope but ends up breaking fans’ hearts. 2010 was a quintessential Mets season. That it e

The Mets were trying to put the disappointing finishes of the previous two seasons at Shea Stadium behind them as they approached the 2009 season with new hope and a new ballpark. The season would be defined by the new venue (3rd in franchise history) and a mind boggling spate of devastating injuries. General Manager Omar Minaya made some changes during the off season to improve the bullpen. With Billy Wagner undergoing Tommy John surgery in September, 2008, Minaya signed fre

The Mets began 2008 with Willie Randolph on the hot seat, but by midseason, Jerry Manuel would be warming the manager’s chair. And no matter who was at the helm, the ending would be the same as 2007: a September collapse (although not of 2007’s magnitude) leading to a win-or-go-home final game that ended with the resurgent Florida Marlins breaking Mets’ fan’s hearts. General manager Omar Minaya had once again put together a veteran team in win-now mode. While,

Much could be written about the first five months of the 2007 baseball season: About how the Mets were determined to erase the bad taste they left in fans’ mouths when Carlos Beltran took a called third strike to end game seven of the 2006 NLCS with the winning runs on base; About how the team once again was built to win, with a veteran squad that, while having its question marks involving the health and quality of the bullpen and the rotation, h

The Mets took a step forward in 2005 but General Manager Omar Minaya knew he needed to make changes if they expected to take the next step for the 2006 season. Minaya overhauled the roster for a second consecutive time and put together a team that went on to win the NL East but came up short of a World Series appearance in heart breaking fashion. The Mets were moving on from 37-year old and future Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza, who became a free agent so Minaya engineered

Rescued from the purgatory of running a team in baseball receivership working its way out of Montreal and into Washington, Omar Minaya hit the ground running after being hired as the Mets’ director of baseball operations at the end of the 2004 season. He overhauled the coaching staff and the roster, making splashes on both counts and letting it be known that his Mets were intent on doing what needed to be done to turn around a franchise that had put up three co

The 2004 season was eventful for the New York Mets, not all of it in a good way. The season saw the arrival of a pitching guru whose self-confidence would, in the end, hurt the team; the major league debut of an iconic third baseman who would make it to the Mets’ (if not MLB’s) Hall of Fame; a flurry of deadline deals, including one that would haunt the team for years; and a Mets-signature second half collapse that would cost both the manager and the general ma