After David Stearns' dramatic rebuild, are the 2026 Mets better than the failed 2025 team?

These last two seasons from the New York Mets have been a roller coaster ride and, after the aggressive offseason undertaken this time around, 2026 will again be quite the ride.

Remember, the Mets were a punchline toward the start of 2024, falling as far back as 17 ½ games by mid-June, before they got awesome. They ended up in the NLCS. Then they signed Juan Soto and stormed out to the best record in baseball in 2025. They were 45-24 after a win on June 12, putting them on pace to win 106 games. We don't need to rehash what came next. 

This offseason, Mets president David Stearns has been very aggressive in remaking his MLB roster. They might not be done, but it feels like the only thing left would be at-the-margins tweaks. Let's take a quick look at how things look with spring training right around the corner. 

The lineup could look something like this: 

1. Francisco Lindor, SS
2. Juan Soto, RF
3. Bo Bichette, 3B
4. Jorge Polanco, 1B
5. Marcus Semien, 2B
6. Mark Vientos/Brett Baty, DH
7. Francisco Alvarez, C
8. Luis Robert Jr., CF
9. Carson Benge/Tyrone Taylor, LF

That's a stellar 1-3 and the rest of the lineup has a lot of upside. 

Now, the rotation.  

Freddy Peralta, Nolan McLean, David Peterson, Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga and Clay Holmes makes six. Tobias Meyers can serve as a swingman (long reliever/spot starter) and there's still youngster Jonah Tong, not to mention the returning Christian Scott, who had Tommy John surgery in 2024. 

There are, of course, question marks all over the place. Many will be answered in the positive, but there will be some answered in the negative. 

• Bichette has to learn third base while Polanco has to learn first. Things could turn out just fine, given they are both moving downward on the defensive spectrum, but there's always a question of how learning a new position impacts a player. It can even affect the offensive output. It's not like there are zero questions on the offensive side for either player here. 
• Semien was incredibly reliable and had posted 7+ WAR seasons three of the last four full years through 2023. He regressed in 2024 and then did so again last season to .230/.305/.364 (97 OPS+). Worse yet, he spent time on the injured list for the first time since 2017. He's now 35 years old. Age-related decline concerns are reasonable.
• Which Vientos are they getting? Could Baty make those flashes into consistency? How about Alvarez?
• Robert has been so injured and inconsistent in his career, but that 2023 season showed it's possible there's a star in there.
• McLean looked like an ace for eight major-league starts, but it was only eight starts at age 24. 
• Which Peterson shows up? Which Manaea? 
• Can Senga stay off the injured list? 
• We didn't mention the bullpen yet, but all bullpens are volatile by nature and there are plenty of concerns with Devin Williams, Luke Weaver and A.J. Minter at the back end here.

Every player listed above has somewhere from good to immense upside. I could have named a few others, too. 

Few teams have a bunch of surefire great players. The Mets look like they have at least two in Lindor and Soto and we might be able to add Peralta to that list. Then it's a bunch of question marks, but, again, there's no denying just how much upside so many of these players have. 

What if the Mets get 2023 Robert along with the best versions of Bichette and Polanco while Vientos looks like his 2024 self? Meanwhile, Manaea also parties like it's 2024 while McLean doesn't miss a beat and Senga stays healthy for 30 starts? Let's say Williams and Weaver are the best versions of themselves all year too. 

That's a dominant team right there.

Things could fall apart, too. Of course they could. There are a lot of ways. It's a relatively risky bunch. 

Simply, this Mets team, as currently constructed, looks like a playoff-caliber team (-225 to make the postseason, per Caesars). If things totally come together and enough of the questions end up working out as best as could be expected, the Mets could well win the World Series. If enough of the concerns turn out negative, the 2026 season ends up in similar fashion to 2025 as they miss the playoffs. The most likely result feels somewhere in the middle, with the Mets making the playoffs and failing to make the World Series. 

Still, it's gonna be a lot of fun watching it all unfold. Riding roller coasters is an exhilarating activity.