The New York Groove Guide to the 2026 New York Mets

You there boy, what day is this?
Why, it’s Opening Day for Major League Baseball! Some of you may insist that it was actually last night when the Yankees played the Giants but I am simply choosing to ignore that in order to focus on the bountiful baseball delivered to us today. Also today the Mets start their season and that’s the only real Opening Day we care about here at The Groove. 

If you read every last word of this Mets preview before the Mets kick off their season against the hated Pittsburgh Pirates at 1:10 p.m., you will be fully caught up on what the deal is with this confounding baseball team. And you have a whole lot to catch up on if you weren’t agonizingly tortured by last year’s edition of the Mets.

Right yes, last year everything was great, just like in 2024 right? They had that crazy unexpected season and then they signed Dominican Ted Williams. Are there any incredibly fun and incredibly emotional videos that sum up the joys of the 2025 Mets?
If there are any videos about the 2025 Mets, they should be sealed in one of those mountains that have the “This is not a place of honor” pictograms on them so that future civilizations do not have to be exposed to the team.

That doesn’t sound right. They figured everything out in 2024, and in 2025 things were supposed to be even better. What happened?
Some of us spent months asking that question. First, the Mets were the best team in baseball. Through June 12 they had a record of 45-24, and everything was wonderful. Juan Soto was doing Juan Soto things. Every buy-low gamble General Manager David Stearns made was turning up aces, every possible downside was nowhere to be seen. I actually attended the game that would prove to be the high point of the season, when the Mets beat the Washington Nationals 4-3 for their seventh straight win. 

That game was so much fun until Pete Alonso made an errant underhand throw to pitcher Kodai Senga as Senga raced to cover first base. Senga jumped for the ball, extended his leg way too much in an attempt to touch first base and wound up with a hamstring strain that ruined his entire season. From that moment on the Mets played like one of the worst teams in baseball, going an unthinkable 38-55 over their final 93 games.

Wow it sounds like maybe you jinxed them by being there.
Shut up. After that game, the season was a grim death march that saw the Mets tumble out of first place and then out of the top wild card spot. Then out of the second wild card spot. None of the trades Stearns made to strengthen the team worked at all. I did get to ride the train with Sean Manaea, which was cool, but by the time the team blew a late lead to the similarly grim and disappointing Rangers and lost the annual Dave Colon Memorial Run Over By A Car Game, the Mets had reduced me to telling people I wished that the driver who ran me over had finished me off. My dad was also telling me that at the game. 

On the last day of the season, having fallen so low that the utterly anonymous "Cincinnati Reds” were tied with them for the last wild card spot, the Mets had a chance to win their final game and make an utterly undeserving playoff appearance. They failed to do that, losing to the putrid Miami Marlins and putting a capper [ed note: crapper] on a truly toilet season.

Well surely everyone reacted normally after all that. When do I get to see my favorite players like Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Diaz, Jeff McNeil and Frankie Montas?
So. After a truly cool World Series played by two teams that were actually good at baseball, the Mets had a very odd offseason. Alonso, fresh off of setting the franchise record for home runs, signed a big free agent contract with the Baltimore Orioles. Nimmo, the longest-tenured active Met and noted child of God, was shipped off to the Texas Rangers of Arlington (a team that also picked up a racist as Hell statue in the offseason and I mean that literally and not as a dig at Nimmo’s politics or his declining defense). Diaz signed with the Dodgers and McNeil was traded to the West Sacramento A’s for a bag of baseballs (teenage pitching prospect who you may never see throw a pitch in anger wearing the orange and blue). Frankie Montas was just straight up paid to go away.

Why! Why did David Stearns get rid of my beloved favorites??? And also Frankie Montas?
It’s complicated. You may remember the 2024 Mets preview where I wrote that the only exciting new thing about that edition of the team was that they had just hired David Stearns. The new GM was clearly ready to clean house when he first showed up, as he viewed the house he inherited as something like a termite-infested mess. But once the 2024 Mets wound up more like the fun and charming singing and dancing roaches from Joe’s Apartment instead of termites, Stearns had no choice but to give it another shot with the same group in 2025. 

This time the house collapsed in on itself because the roaches turned back into termites who sang NO songs and did NO dances and so Stearns set about building things back up in his image. This meant that he let guys walk, he traded guys and he generally showed the kind of lack of attachment that would impress even the Buddha himself.

Did it work? Did the Mets escape samsara?
No one does in just one offseason, but also for a little while there it looked like the team was diving headlong into a quite bit of suffering. The first few new Mets of note did not set hearts aflutter. New closer Devin Williams spent one year with the Yankees, where he destroyed the team’s ridiculous prohibition on beards but also their chances to win the American League East. Yes the latter is a good thing but it also raises questions about how the formerly dominant closer will do as a Met.

Then the Mets signed Jorge Polanco to play first base, and while he can hit just fine, he’s played zero innings of first base as a professional baseball player, missed significant time with injuries in three of the last four years and most importantly is not a beloved empty headed home run-smashing homegrown star, like Alonso. When they traded Nimmo, the Mets received Marcus Semien, who was a MVP candidate in 2023 and then had two consecutive seasons we’d rather not talk about. And on top of all of that, just as it looked like maybe the Mets would at least sign top-ranked free agent Kyle Tucker to play the outfield, he made a last second choice to sign with the Dodgers as well.

Yeesh that’s bad. Perhaps David Stearns has accumulated a lot of bad karma.
It was not looking good, that’s for sure. The free agency follies had Yankee fans making themselves feel better by calling Mets fans suckers for welcoming the Steve Cohen Era and suggested the team was back to its penny-pinching late-Wilpon Era days. Meanwhile, the poverty franchise up there "waited out the market" on their one free agent of note and their owner spent the offseason complaining about having to pay discounted property taxes to the city of New York and the idea that people expect the Yankees to run a high payroll.

But after the Tucker humiliation, shit got real. Mere days after the outfielder spurned them the Mets signed the best pure hitter on the market, Bo Bichette, son of legendary Colorado Rockie Dante Bichette, to a expensive zany contract that he can opt out of every year. A shortstop by trade, Bichette will be playing third base this year. The team also traded for starting pitcher Freddy Peralta, finally picking up a real ace-type guy after two years of hoping and praying the kind of anonymous guys they picked up in the thrift store could be top of the rotation pitchers. 

Plus, they traded for Luis Robert Jr., a talented but frequently injured center fielder who maybe can’t hit but can at least play incredible defense. With every move seen in context, Stearns’ extreme makeover made sense and the Hell Gate take linked above had aged like milk left out on the pitching rubber on a scorching July day.

So what’s the outlook this year? Is Brett Baty still here?
It could be pretty fun! Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto are still here and still projected to be top-10 players in all of baseball. In addition to Freddy Peralta, the Mets pitching staff will be topped by Nolan McLean, whose brief incandescent debut last season suggests he’s the kind of homegrown number one starter who’ll slot into the lineage of Metropolitan hurlers from Tom Seaver to Doc Gooden to Jacob deGrom. They said fuck it and gave the starting right field job to youngster Carson Benge, who tore through every level in the minor leagues in just a single season. And yes, Brett Baty is here. He’s being counted on to be the new Jeff McNeil, a left handed hitter who can play a few different positions and swing a cromulent bat.

Kodai Senga spent all of spring training throwing the baseball hard and most importantly after two years of injuries, all of his body parts stayed attached and remained in the places they are supposed to be. Luis Robert Jr. has similarly survived spring training in one piece. The Mets should be a playoff team. Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs, baseball analytics websites that run hundreds of simulations of what could happen during a season, have projected the Mets to be in a dogfight for first place with the hated Atlanta Braves, but at the very least both websites see the team comfortably clinching a wild card spot.

Woo, party at Citi Field!
Well, the Mets have a long and hard road ahead of them, and there’s a lot of pressure on a lot of different folks. Manager Carlos Mendoza has to show his steady leadership in 2024 was no fluke. Francisco Lindo and Juan Soto need to prove they can lead a clubhouse that is indisputably theirs now, David Stearns needs to show his ideas work, all these new acquisitions need to show they can handle New York. Bichette could be an absolute butcher at third base. Or Polanco could be at first base. If Robert Jr. gets hurt there’s a lot of Tyrone Taylor in your future. Maybe the league figures out Nolan McLean. Like last year, any number of things could haywire and-

Waaiiiiit a minute. I remember you. You’re the guy who said the Mets would be bad in 2024 and they would make the playoffs in 2025. You get everything wrong all the time, why should I listen to a turbo dipshit like you?
Okay first of all rude. Second of all, it’s not like I’m out here just making shit up, I’m doing my best with the information available to me and the range of outcomes in baseball can vary really widely, even with a team of seemingly infinite resources like the Mets. Those fancy projections that I linked to above are gonna be wrong about some team or another, because a baseball season is a collection of a million disparate unpredictable events that add up to 4,860 games containing 43,740 innings give or take some rain-shortened games or extra innings affairs. The only team built to withstand 80 percent of stuff going wrong is the Dodgers, and for everyone else you build your best battlebot and pray.

And THIRD of all, even smart baseball people aren't going to just automatically say everything will work out perfectly even if they things are gonna work out. Here's what Jay Jaffe from Fangraphs told me he thinks about the Mets this year:

I don't usually say this about the Mets, but I'm quite optimistic about their chances. Their offseason got off to an inauspicious start with a very meh-flavored swap of Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Semien and then the double gut-punches of the Pete Alonso and Edwin Díaz departures, but David Stearns' overhaul eventually brought in Bo Bichette, Freddy Peralta, Jorge Polanco, Luis Robert Jr., Luke Weaver, and Devin Williams; there's a lot of upside to be had with that bunch, even if their 2025 numbers weren’t uniformly great. Bichette may be a question mark at third base, but the addition of Semien, the replacement of Alonso with Literally Anyone Else after he posted the majors' worst defensive metrics at first base and nearly killed several pitchers in the process, and the move of Juan Soto to an easier position should all help the defense.

Their two best prospects, Nolan McLean and Carson Benge, are up to start the season, with the former adding some much-needed rotation depth, and the latter putting the finishing touches on a new-look outfield. Our FanGraphs Playoff Odds system, which uses our projections and playing time estimates, has them as slight favorites in the NL East, particularly given all the concerns the Braves and Phillies have about their respective rotations. All told, I think they're in for a much better year than 2025.

See even Jay didn't guarantee anything short of a "much better year" than last year's slaughter, and he changed the entire conversation around who deserves to get into the Hall of Fame.

Okay fine, despite everything, I am once again in. What if I want to “meet” the “Mets”? What then?
I’m guessing that you live in the city and you’re not dumb enough to drive from your home to Citi Field, so as per usual you’ve got a couple good options in the 7 train or even the Long Island Rail Road. 7 trains will run express during rush hour, and of course during the post-game “super express” that gets you from Citi Field to Woodside without giving you a full tour of Queens. The Mets and LIRR are offering a $5 discount on railroad tickets to Willets Point this season too. 

Citi Bike and riding your own bike to the stadium are also available options, but you’ll be shocked to hear that after four years of Eric Adams, it is not safer to ride your bike to Citi Field. If you want to avoid having to cross an interstate with your bike, make a left towards the water when you get to 34th Avenue and 108th Street and follow the Flushing Bay Promenade.

What can I eat at the ballpark this year?
The actual on-field product may have caused the GM to jettison half the starting lineup in Flushing Bay, but the food at Citi Field was named the best ballpark food for the third year in a row, so at least fans had that. This year, the team is introducing some fantastical new gimmick food that you can consider shelling out for, including a chopped cheese patty (make sure you get it the ocky way), a cheesesteak pizza slice, a pumpkin/chickpea/potato empanada, a bulgogi cheesesteak spring roll and cheesecake on a stick rolled in Oreo crumbs.

There is also a 9-9-9 tray which will be calling out for your money. The traditional 9-9-9 challenge is eating 9 hot dogs and drinking 9 beers in a single 9-inning baseball game. This is of course deliriously expensive at a game and also pushes the limits on legal liability if a team were to encourage you to drink 9 whole beers, so the 9-9-9 on offer at Citi Field is 9 mini hot dogs and 9 4 oz. souvenir cups with your choice of Coors Lights or Heineken. You can definitely finish this before 9 innings are done so ultimately the challenge here will wind up being you and your friends seeing who can finish this in a single inning. I also look forward to some intrepid idiot out there successfully finishing 9 of these boxes in a single game.

The wine?
Yes god you can still get a carafe of the worst wine you’ve ever had in your life. You can also get a Mets version of a Long Island Iced Tea made with rum, vodka and gin and have it served to you in a bucket no less, if you want to have yourself a truly deranged day at the ballpark.

What about the prizes, the wonderful prizes I can get just for showing up?
Ah you mean the giveaway days. The Mets are only sharing the giveaways through June, but there’s some good stuff in there. You can get a replica 1986 World Series ring on March 28, and on May 29 you can get a mustache and sunglasses disguise based on the time manager Bobby Valentine got kicked out of a game and snuck back into the dugout. There are two different Juan Soto bobbleheads, on April 11 and June 25 and if you miss out on both, DO NOT pay anyone for one of them, the Mets will be giving out Juan Soto bobbleheads for the next 14 years. 

The team is jumping on the chain guy trend from a couple years ago by giving away a silver chain necklace on June 23, and playing to the crowd with a sleeveless jersey on Pride Night on June 26. If you’re willing to show up to an afternoon game on April 25 against the wretched Colorado Rockies, your reward is a pretty cool Mr. Met/Unisphere bobblehead.

And are there deals deals deals?
The same ones the team offered last year. $5 Tuesdays, during which you can get 12 oz. Coors Lights, hot dogs, pretzels and popcorn for just $5 each are back, which means if you want to attempt a true 9-9-9 this self-abuse will run you $90 instead of like, $200 on a regular price day. Also Family Sundays are back, which means for Sunday games you can grab four tickets for just $50. Also the definition of a “family” still just means four people going to a game, so I can once again run this photo of me sitting on the lap of noted public intellectual Sam Adler-Bell.

Look at that family. Are there any emotional hooks to really latch onto this season?
Sure. This is going to be kind of a weird season because not only are we getting used to a bunch of new guys, but Bichette, Peralta and Robert Jr. may not even be here next year. Also not here this year will be SNY’s longtime director John DeMarisco, who gave the broadcasts so much flair due to his own love of cinema and doing weird bits. Plus, Howie Rose, who’s been involved in broadcasting Mets games for 39 years, is going to retire at the end of this season.

On top of all of that, this might be the last baseball season with baseball as we know it. Baseball’s current collective bargaining agreement runs out this year and the putrid hateful owners of Major League Baseball, and their lackey Commissioner Rob Manfred, are dead set on imposing a salary cap on the sport. These awful worms insist it’s because they want to preserve “parity” and “competitive balance” but it really comes down to a bunch of billionaires who would rather enforce mediocrity across the sport because they’re too selfish and lazy to do all the things necessary to run a good organization. Everyone is predicting a lockout to delay the start of the next season, and as long as the owners are digging in for a salary cap, who knows what other bullshit they will try to ram through with their commissioner who doesn’t even seem to like baseball that much.

Do not become attached. Understand your desire for dingers and World Series trophies will not lead to enlightenment even if those things are attained in batches. The cycle of life and suffering will continue for generations, as it has since 1962. Play ball!