Offseason In Review: New York Mets

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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