Napalm, as an incendiary agent, has nothing on the manner president of baseball operations David Stearns approached the roster after the Mets missed the playoffs last year.
Stearns blew up the foundation and rebuilt. The first look at his new vision for the Mets will be on display in Thursday’s season opener against the Pirates at Citi Field, with Paul Skenes, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, as part of the resistance.
Bo Bichette, Jorge Polanco, Marcus Semien, Luis Robert Jr., Carson Benge and Freddy Peralta are among those who will get their first exposure to the New York scene as part of the home team.
Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and Edwin Díaz will be scattered across the continent, playing or preparing for Opening Day elsewhere.
In sum, the Mets subtracted the franchise’s all-time home run leader (Alonso), a fan favorite (Nimmo), a former batting champion (McNeil) and the most electric closer in team history (Díaz).
Seldom, if ever, have the Mets looked so different between the final pitch of one season and the start of the next.
Meet the (new) Mets.
“Opening Day, there’s always jitters regardless,” said Semien, who arrived in a November trade that sent Nimmo to Texas. “But go to a new team, and a team like the Mets, so much history, such a good fan base, energy and we are going to have to go out there and calm ourselves down.”
Robert, traded from the White Sox, already understands there’s a difference between playing in Queens and on Chicago’s South Side.
“I am sure that Thursday the stadium is going to be packed, which is something that over the last few years in Chicago I didn’t get to experience that,” Robert said through an interpreter. “It’s going to be a new experience for me.”
Bichette was the headliner, added to a lineup that will be more reliant on putting the ball in play than in recent seasons. Juan Soto remains the focal point, following a season in which he placed third in the MVP voting.
Bichette, the new third baseman, was asked if there was anything he had come to realize by the end of spring training that he didn’t know about the Mets when camp began.
“I think with the WBC it was kind of go through the motions a bit until everybody got back,” said Bichette, who was signed to a three-year contract worth $126 million. “I knew we were good, but once I saw kind of our first full lineup, I think we’re even better than we thought we were.
“Everybody can hit from top to bottom, obviously great pitching, so we have the potential to do some really cool things. But now we have got to get out there to do it.”
Skenes, who followed his NL Rookie of the Year season in 2024 with a Cy Young Award last year, will add to the afternoon’s intrigue. The right-hander posted a 1.97 ERA in 32 starts last season with 216 strikeouts in 187 ²/₃ innings.
If there isn’t enough newness to the Mets, the team will also unveil the rookie Benge, who won the starting right field job in spring training.
“I am seeing five tools,” Semien said of Benge. “Now just comes experience. Experience at this level outweighs everything, but when you have the tools and maturity, it puts you in better position to be ready for your first shot at it.”
The additional new piece on display will be Peralta, the rotation upgrade who arrived from Milwaukee in January for Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams. The right-hander gives the Mets a proven ace, removing a weight that otherwise would have rested on stud rookie Nolan McLean’s shoulders after only eight major league starts.
“We are hungry to win and we are going to give everything we have to bring a championship to New York,” Peralta said.
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