The Mets gave out the largest contract in the history of baseball and all professional sports, but they otherwise avoided the top guys and tried to spread their money around to a wide variety of targets.
Major League Signings
- OF Juan Soto: 15 years, $765MM (Soto can opt-out after 2029 but club can override by adding extra $40MM to final ten years)
- LHP Sean Manaea: Three years, $75MM ($23.25MM deferred)
- 1B Pete Alonso: Two years, $54MM (Alonso can opt out after 2025)
- RHP Clay Holmes: Three years, $38MM (Holmes can opt out after 2026)
- RHP Frankie Montas: Two years, $34MM (Montas can opt out after 2025)
- LHP A.J. Minter: Two years, $22MM (Minter can opt out after 2025)
- OF/DH Jesse Winker: One year, $7.5MM
- RHP Ryne Stanek: One year, $4.5MM
- RHP Griffin Canning: One year, $4.3MM
- IF Nick Madrigal: One year, $1.3MM
- RHP Drew Smith: One year, $1MM (plus $2MM club option for 2026)
- RHP Dylan Covey: split deal (later outrighted and elected free agency)
- RHP Justin Hagenman: split deal
- IF Jared Young: split deal
2025 spending: $236.475MM (not including split deals or accounting for deferrals)
Total spending: $1.0066 billion
Option Decisions
- LHP Sean Manaea declined $13.5MM player option (later re-signed)
- Team declined $7.75MM option on RHP Phil Maton
Trades and Claims
- Claimed RHP Kevin Herget off waivers from Brewers
- Claimed IF Luis De Los Santos off waivers from Blue Jays (later outrighted)
- Acquired OF Jose Siri from Rays for RHP Eric Orze
- Acquired RHP Sean Harney from Rays for international bonus pool space
- Claimed RHP Austin Warren off waivers from Giants
- Acquired OF Alexander Canario from Cubs for cash considerations
Notable Minor League Signings
- Chris Devenski, Rico Garcia, Donovan Walton, Rafael Ortega, Joey Meneses, Jakson Reetz, Génesis Cabrera, Grant Hartwig, Alex Ramírez, Oliver Ortega, Brandon Waddell, Chris Williams, Anthony Gose, Luis Ortiz, Adbert Alzolay, Connor Overton, José Ureña
Extensions
- None.
Notable Losses
- Luis Severino, Jose Iglesias, Harrison Bader, Jose Quintana, J.D. Martinez (still unsigned), Adam Ottavino, Brooks Raley (still unsigned), Phil Maton, Joey Lucchesi, Adrian Houser, DJ Stewart, Alex Young (non-tendered), Nate Lavender (Rule 5), Mike Vasil (Rule 5)
Going into the winter, it was still hard to get a firm grip on what the Steve Cohen and David Stearns relationship would really look like. Cohen had made the Mets one of the top-spending clubs in baseball. That would have been even more true if the Carlos Correa deal had gone through. But Cohen could easily sign top players on his own and presumably brought in Stearns to make wise decisions about how to allocate resources. Stearns, for his part, had previously been running the small-market Brewers. He had obviously been conservative with that club, only twice giving out a contract larger than $24MM, but how would he act with deeper pockets?
Stearns was hired prior to the 2023-24 offseason but it was hard to draw conclusions from that winter. The club had a disappointing 2023 and ended up having a midseason selloff, sending away Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, David Robertson and others. They ended up having a fairly modest winter ahead of 2024. They spent a decent amount of money but by signing multiple players to one- or two-year deals.
They went on to engineer a somewhat surprising season in 2024. They snuck into a playoff spot and then got by the Brewers and Phillies in the postseason before getting felled by the Dodgers in the NLCS.
On the heels of a better season and with the club in overall better shape, would Stearns and the Mets behave differently than they did in the previous winter? Many expected the aggression to be ramped up but it wasn't known for sure. It was an important wild card factor in an offseason that was highlighted by Juan Soto, the most sought-after free agent in recent baseball history, perhaps ever. But on top of that, the market also featured guys like Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Blake Snell, Willy Adames, Alex Bregman and Mets legend Pete Alonso. Would Stearns use Cohen's resources to own the offseason?
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Looking forward…
2026 Mets SPs under team control/contract
Holmes
Manaea
Senga
Megill
Peterson
(Canning FA, Montas can opt out, Blackburn won’t be back)
Other potential 2026 Mets SP candidates
C Scott
Tidwell
Sproat
Tong
McLean
*Mets are not stuck with any bad pitcher contracts – at this time.
The Mets got their guy and then some nice pieces to go with it. Solid A off-season.
i agree with you except on montas … i dont think he will opt out as he is already missing time and not that great a pitcher. i think he is going to be another cookie or houser for them. Its not a horrible contract to eat but also not cheap either.
i think he either ends up the 6th man in the rotation or long reliever but 17M for him is rough for that role.
An old injury-prone team, as usual, wondering how many good years they’ll get out of Soto before the contract becomes an albatross and perpetual excuse.
Dodgers have the oldest average age in majors you wanna whine about them too lol.
A
They didn’t give themselves some bulls*** excuse for why they didn’t need a slam dunk HOFer about to enter his prime a few dump trucks full of money.
Well done all around.
I give Stearns a C+ for the offseason. The starting rotation isn’t good. The bullpen is average at best. We really needed an ace pitcher and he failed to do so. I did not like the Holmes and Montas signings. I would have rather they of signed 2 of Bieber (I know hes still injured), Buehler, or Burnes. I’m hoping that at the deadline, they can make a trade for Eury Perez if hes healthy or Dylan Cease if the Padres are not in contention
Holmes is gonna be an underrated signing watch. It’s only ST but in 19 1/3 innings he’s got a 0.93 era, 23k, 0.76 WHIP. This isn’t Stearns 1st rodeo, he knows what he’s doing on the pitching side. Brewers under him had a top 15 Team Era every year.
The same comment as last March. They did pretty well with a lot less potential. yawn.
Gee golly LFGMets (Metsin7) #10thTimeBeingBannedForNoReasonFireDrewSmith….
You don’t seem to like any FO Baseball Ops heads when you look at the depth charts. Like everything is some sort of rotisserie league where they snap their fingers and acquire needed players with great stats and narratives to “fill the teams holes”.
MLB teams are made up of human beings.
The quality FO’s work with the manager and coaches to bring players along during the season. In todays MLB teams make transactions 3-4 times a week….sometimes multiple transactions. David Stearns is one of the best PoBO’s in MLB and has been for years. Judging how a team looks on paper is March is both ignorant and pathetic. That’s why fans like me actually watch the games – it’s fun to see players on teams that improve and their teams jell during the stretch run in late August and September.
Get a life, kid.
So what were you going to do move the entire team to Arizona to sign Burnes? He chose lesser money to go there and i have a feeling he didnt want to go to a big city like NY or LA to begin with and were using them to up his current deal a little.
Perez isnt even arb eligible yet so you will be getting rid of you top prospect if not top 2 if healthy which i can see them easily asking for sproat williams and another minor leaguer as a starting point.
Im not a fan of Montas signing but i like Holmes signing because at minimum you get a good reliever. and you got him early and just for a couple mil more than estimated has a chance to be a starter.
I would have wanted a kikuchi or bringing back quintana over montas signing as it raises the floor and helps the bullpen by eating innings with upside with kikuchi and what quintana did last season.
Two words. Sandy Alcantara.
hard to do unless they take back a bad contract otherwise they going to have grievances with the MLBPA as i think he is a quarter or maybe even half their payroll to him alone. Then it might raise the price on the trade for better prospects going.back if they taking a bad contract on top.
Offensive Power:
The acquisition of Juan Soto is a massive upgrade, addressing this need significantly.
Grade: A+
Starting Pitching:
While the Mets made additions, there are still some question marks about the consistency of the rotation.
Grade: B
Bullpen Strength:
Adding Clay Holmes and A.J. Minter improves the bullpen, but its overall effectiveness remains to be seen.
Grade: B
Overall Team Depth:
The Mets have added many players that will provide for good overall team depth.
Grade: B+
A realistic win prediction would be in the range of: 88-94 wins.
Holmes can only be starting or bullpen .. so i think one of your grades will have to go down which probably is bullpen otherwise there is going to be a bigger hit to starting i think without holmes.