Mets Offseason Fallout: Alonso, Díaz, the Departures, the Backlash, They have “Some ’Splaining to Do”

Let’s be honest, Mets fans: if 2024 ended on the magical, delirious high of the “OMG Run,” and the following offseason delivered the jaw-dropping addition of Juan Soto, you would’ve thought the Mets were building toward a baseball utopia. Instead, the collapse of the 2025 offseason and the events of the past two days have felt more like waking up the next morning, looking around your house, only to realize someone took the TV, the couch, and half the kitchen appliances. The Mets didn’t just lose players. They lost emotional-support baseball men. Brandon Nimmo is gone. Edwin Díaz is gone. And Pete Alonso—beloved, polarizing, home-run-happy Pete Alonso—is gone and somehow now the highest-paid first baseman in baseball. To quote the great Ralph Kiner, “If Casey Stengel were alive today, he’d be spinning in his grave.” (T-shirt available here.)

What makes this whole saga even more of a Metsian opera is that the team was never, at any point, going to give Pete five years. Never. It wasn’t happening even if he offered to throw in free Shake Shack for life and a commemorative bat made from the old Citi Field Home Run Apple. Pete wanted the long-term commitment. The Mets ownership wanted something shorter and more budget-friendly. Meanwhile, Pete hits the market in a winter with almost no competition and lands a five-year mega-deal with the Orioles, becoming the highest-paid first baseman in the game despite the fact that, depending on how you feel about Freddie Freeman, Bryce Harper, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Yandy Díaz, you could reasonably argue Pete is fifth on the depth chart of elite first basemen. Last year, he hit the market with a handful of teams searching for power bats and several of them chose other players. This year, with barely anyone else available, he hit the jackpot. Good for Pete. But for Mets fans? This smarts.

The Mets, of course, claim they respected Pete and wanted him back—just not at five years. The problem is that Mets fans have eyes, ears, and a long list of grudges. And right now, in the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo, they are telling this front office, “You’ve got some ’splaining to do!” Especially season-ticket holders, whose payments were due yesterday. Talk about bad timing.

Because somewhere in the arithmetic of the offseason, the Mets freed up an eye-watering amount of theoretical money. Let’s call it fifty-nine million dollars once you consider the twenty-eight million they were ready to allocate for Edwin Díaz and the roughly thirty-one million they had budgeted for Pete Alonso on a shorter-term deal. Fifty-nine million bucks is not pocket change. That’s “fix your entire baseball team in one winter” money. That’s “make the kind of splash that sells out Opening Day before the calendar even turns” money. That’s Costco money, which means you should be walking out with a kayak, a lifetime supply of protein bars, and a new TV, not a tub of peanuts and a folding chair.

So where do they pivot? It starts with the realization that not every hole is as catastrophic as it feels at first glance. Behind the plate, Francisco Alvarez is your guy. A full, healthy season from him might make up a chunk of the lost Alonso power. He hit eleven home runs in just seventy-six games last year, many of those while gripping the bat like his hand came with an expiration date. If he stays healthy, he can easily sneak into the twenty-five homer range and give you a level of pop that doesn’t make Pete’s departure quite as devastating.

The real intrigue begins at first base, and this is where the Mets need to get bold. Kazuma Okamoto, the NPB star known as “The Young General,” is the perfect fit. He is polished, disciplined, and ready for MLB on Day One. He has above-average power, excellent bat-to-ball skills, and the kind of defensive prowess that would instantly make the Mets better both on the infield and in the lineup card. David Stearns has scouted him personally, and Okamoto’s combination of twenty-to-twenty-five home run potential, a .270-.280 batting profile, and Gold Glove-caliber defense at first makes him the ideal post-Pete antidote. This is not a bandage move. This is upgrading the operating system.

Marcus Semien handles second base because he handles everything. He’s durable, he’s smart, he’s consistent, and he brings the kind of veteran ballast the Mets badly need right now. Francisco Lindor remains the franchise’s adult in the room at shortstop, quietly stacking MVP-caliber seasons whether the rest of the team is functioning or not. Brett Baty gets another chance at third because at some point you need to see what the kid can do when the ground isn’t constantly shifting under his feet.

In the outfield, Juan Soto anchors right field because he is, unquestionably, the centerpiece of the entire offensive universe. He sells tickets just by waking up in the morning. Carson Benge in center field gives the Mets the kind of athleticism and defensive range they’ve been missing for years. And in left field, the Mets should be spending that fifty-nine million with conviction. Kyle Tucker makes all kinds of sense as a lefty slugger who fits the city, the ballpark, and the lineup perfectly. Cody Bellinger is another option if you want chaos, athleticism, and a player who can hit twenty-five home runs and rob five more a year with his glove. And because it’s Steve Cohen, you absolutely call the Padres and ask if Fernando Tatis Jr. is available. They might hang up before you finish the question, but you still make the call.

Put all that together and you can field a lineup that doesn’t cause indigestion. Soto, Semien, Lindor, Okamoto, Tucker or Bellinger, Alvarez, Baty, and Benge gives you a lineup that hits, runs, fields, grinds out at-bats, and doesn’t strike out like it’s a lifestyle choice. It’s balanced. It’s athletic. It’s modern baseball.

And if the Mets really want to turn the mood of the fan base from “bewildered and furious” to “cautiously optimistic and possibly ready to buy tickets again,” they can swing big on the pitching side. Packaging Jett Williams, Jonah Tong, Brandon Sproat, and Jeff McNeil for Freddy Peralta and Trevor McGill gives them a rotation with Peralta, McLean, Holmes, Manaea, and Senga and a bullpen anchored by Brooks Raley, A. J. Minter, McGill, and Devin Williams closing and a developing core behind them. It may not be a group of household names, but it is unquestionably more athletic, more reliable, and more defensively sound than last year’s uneven construction.

Here’s the truth. Mets fans are not mad because the team lost Alonso, Díaz, and Nimmo. They are mad because the team hasn’t replaced them. They lived through the high of the 2024 run, the Soto acquisition, the packed stadiums, and the energy that felt like Queens shaking again. Even after the second-half collapse and the gut-punch ending, there was hope. There was belief. And to this point, the offseason has been such an underwhelming trickle of moves that “underwhelming” might be the kindest possible description.

But all of this can turn around with one or two bold strokes. If Stearns executes the pivot toward Okamoto, toward Tucker or Bellinger, toward Peralta, toward athleticism, defense, contact, and modern roster construction, this team might not be the same without Pete Alonso, but it might be better. Maybe not as dramatic. Maybe not as reliant on three-run homers. But more complete, more flexible, more athletic, more sustainable.

Until then, the Mets front office owes its fan base a little clarity, a little conviction, and definitely a little explaining. And somewhere, Ricky Ricardo is nodding with approval.