Juan Soto discusses Mets’ failure despite lofty expectations for 2025
After the Mets were eliminated from playoff contention on the season’s final day, Juan Soto discussed what went wrong on Sept. 28, 2025, in Miami.
NEW YORK — David Stearns, the Mets’ president of baseball operations, deemed the 2025 season “tremendously disappointing” and “not nearly good enough.”
As the Mets president of baseball operations spoke for more than a half-hour about his team’s’s shortcomings, the overarching themes pointed to failing to fortify the pitching staff, the challenges brought on by inconsistent defense and an inability to regularly score runs in key situations, in spite of big seasons from some of their core.
“I either make or delegate every decision that’s made here, so you point to a decision that didn’t work out, and I’m responsible for it,” Stearns said. “We have all the resources we need. We have tremendous ownership support, we have tremendous fan support, and clearly, we had segments of our team that were not good enough, and that’s on me.”
While there will inevitably be changes as the Mets sputtered to a 83-79 record and an incomprehensible whiff on reaching the postseason, the Mets will retain Carlos Mendoza as their manager for the upcoming 2026 season.
That vote of confidence was one of the first orders of business for Stearns at Citi Field on Monday afternoon as he discussed the Mets’ failure when the expectations for the season loomed so large.
“I believe Carlos has all the same traits and assets that I believed in when we hired him two years ago, and I think over the course of his tenure here, he has demonstrated that,” Stearns said. “We had a tough year this year, there’s no question. We are all disappointed. We’re all frustrated, Mendy, as much or more than anyone else, but I still believe he’s a very good manager and I think he’s going to demonstrate that.”
Stearns said that the performances of the remainder of the coaching staff will be evaluated over the course of the next week before decisions will be made about how the Mets’ leadership of the looks following their collapse.
It is a period of sizable introspection and as the Mets front office begins to diagnose what went wrong, here is what stood out about Stearns’ perspective on the Mets’ debacle in 2025:
David Stearns’ discusses pitching struggles
When injuries struck the Mets’ starting rotation midway through the season, with Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill suffering season-ending injuries in June, Kodai Senga’s lengthy hamstring strain the same month, followed by Frankie Montas’ setback in August, Stearns said that the front office did not do a good enough job fortifying that unit of the team.
The Mets made moves to address the bullpen, bringing in Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto, but the starting pitching sputtered down the stretch. Sean Manaea could not find his footing after an oblique injury delayed his start, Senga returned but was not the same and David Peterson tired down the stretch.
“I think holistically, as I look at our pitching staff, we needed to do more over the course of the season,” Stearns said. “That is very clear. What we were faced with at the deadline, I think our fan base would actually be perhaps even more upset if we had made some of those moves. But the entirety of our run prevention unit was not good enough this year.”
How that factors into the Mets’ offseason plans remains to be seen, but the Mets president did underscore the belief that the organization continues to develop quality pitching, evidenced by the rise of Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong, who all figure to be factors on next season’s team.
But Stearns would not rule out adding a frontline pitcher in the offseason to supplement that growth.
“I think long term for the Mets, the best thing we can do is develop our own frontline starters,” Stearns said. “I think we’re on our way to do that. I think we’re demonstrating that. And so our main emphasis is going to continue to be there, but we’re certainly not going to take anything off the table this offseason.”
Getting defensive
Given the Mets’ struggles defensively down the stretch, with miscues looming large within their stumble down the stretch, Stearns said he would be open-minded to the club’s position player grouping as it pertains to run prevention.
Stearns stopped short of saying there would be “robust changes” to the lineup or that there could be some flexibility in positioning moving forward.
“I think it all starts with personnel and that’s my responsibility,” Stearns said. “We had a roster construction that at periods of the season put us in a position where we were putting suboptimal defenders in certain places, and that’s an area where we gotta get better.”
While some players were asked to play out of position and that played into some of the defensive shortcomings, Stearns said he will continue to value versatility moving forward.
“I do think positional versatility is important to have,” Stearns said. “I think it makes managing a game for a manager a little bit easier and certainly it makes constructing a roster a little bit easier.”
The deadline and urgency moving forward
When it comes to the underwhelming performances from some of the Mets deadline acquisitions, including Helsley and Cedric Mullins, Stearns did not name specific names but said the organization needs to do a better job of setting them up to succeed in their new environment.
As for lessons learned in constructing a roster, Stearns said the front office showcased urgency at times but could benefit from being more on the front foot when it comes to improving the roster.
“I think on a number of levels, there are areas where we can probably be a little bit more proactive, and I can be a little bit more proactive,” Stearns said. “I think some of these lessons we’re still investigating and still fully understanding various aspects of our team, but there are clearly times in the season, times over the offseason, where I can be a little bit more proactive.”
Stearns was not willing to lay out a blueprint for the Mets’ offseason plans or the directives given by owner Steve Cohen, but the motivation is clear coming off one of the rockiest and unexpected finishes to a Mets’ campaign in some time.
“A day after this season, I’m not going to speculate on a carryover effect into next year,” Stearns said. “I think right now everyone’s pretty damn motivated to get going and ensure that we can do better. And so I think that’s where our focus is.”