FLUSHING, Queens (PIX11) — New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns wants to leave the term “run prevention” with the 2026 team.
“I think I’ll retire the phrase,” Stearns said at his annual end-of-season press conference Monday. “I don’t know that that one wore particularly well.”
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Stearns’ vision for the ’26 club was to reduce the number of runs allowed by Mets through what is traditionally referred to as “pitching and defense.”
The executive used the term to describe his team 24 hours after finishing last in the National League East for the first time since 2003. When the time to face the music arrived Monday, Stearns admitted that his plan did not pay off, particularly in the first half of the season when the Mets fell to 13 games under .500.
“I think our pitching and defense were much better in the second half than in the first half,” Stearns said.
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He completely overhauled the roster in hopes of surrendering fewer than 715 runs, which is the figure the 2025 Mets allowed. It did not work. In 2026, New York allowed 731 runs.
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The pitching staff’s collective earned-run average (ERA) went up by over one-tenth, from 4.03 in 2025 to 4.15 in 2026.
On top of that, the newly constructed Mets lineup sans Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil failed to score nearly as many runs as it did with those players: 766 runs in 2025; just 699 in 2026.
“Clearly we’ve missed and I’ve missed. If we look at the last offseason, we missed too much. I certainly understand that,” Stearns said. “We and I made a number of decisions that created the potential for an uncapped downside scenario.”
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He doesn’t wish for any sort of do-over, though. His reality as the organization’s top decision-maker on the baseball side is to learn and move on, specifically when it comes to how he views the Pete Alonso saga.
“The truth is, in this job, I don’t get mulligans. I also recognize Pete had a tremendous year and the totality of our first base production wasn’t good enough.”
Alonso finished his first year as a Baltimore Oriole with 43 home runs and 113 RBI, playing all 161 games on Baltimore’s schedule.
The Mets’ pitching and offense certainly took steps back, as previously mentioned. However, the defense behind the pitching did what Stearns envisioned with younger, more athletic players out in the field like A.J. Ewing and Carson Benge.
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The team’s total number of defensive runs saved took a huge jump from 25 to 48.
Benge and Ewing were consistently laying out, leaping and diving for balls in the outfield that they seemed to come up with. Benge in particular was a force with his arm, nabbing 8 would-be scorers at home plate.
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It’s a recipe that gives All-Star outfielder Juan Soto hope for a successful 2027 campaign.
“Carson Benge,” Soto said when asked about why he believes next year will be different. “That’s the confidence we have. We have a really good, talented group – I mean, a really young core that could help us.”
Leader and veteran shortstop Francisco Lindor told reporters after the season ended that this group really clicked and enjoyed each other’s company, which can help leading into 2027.
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“I think the clubhouse is in great shape … I think it’s going to be a non-issue this offseason; I don’t think you’ll be hearing anything about it in the offseason,” Lindor said.
Stearns echoed that in his availabilty, saying it’s the closest he’s seen the major league team since the magical run to the NLCS in 2024.
Manager Andy Green said Sunday that his club is “hungry to change the narrative” in 2027.
Spencer Gustafson is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered New York state and city news since 2023. See more of his work here.
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