Hello and welcome to the latest edition of The Athletic\u2019s weekly mailbag. I have been away for the past few months on parental leave. What did I miss?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see \u2026 Shohei Ohtani has still got it. Kyle Schwarber is still swinging for the fences. Jacob Misiorowski still throws quite hard.<\/p>\n
As for the rest of the sport? Well, looks like I have some catching up to do. To wade back into the 2026 season, I\u2019ve got some questions from readers. Let\u2019s get to it.<\/p>\n
The questions have been edited for clarity.<\/p>\n
How have the Mets fallen this far down? \u2014 Daren M.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was not completely off the grid during my parental leave. I still own a phone. I can still receive text messages. I can still read stories. I was aware that the Mets\u2019 season had been disastrous. But it is still somewhat shocking to open the standings on the final day of June and see the team at 15 games under .500 and on pace for a 67-win season.<\/p>\n
For a team with an estimated payroll of $365 million, that translates to $5.4 million per victory. Not exactly what owner Steve Cohen had in mind when he lured David Stearns out of his advisory role with the Brewers and into the top baseball operations gig in Queens. I picked the Mets to win the National League East. Instead, they will be contemplating yet another roster overhaul \u2014 and Cohen will consider overhauling the front office, too.<\/p>\n
To answer your question, the \u201cHow\u201d is relatively straightforward. It is the other questions \u2014 like what could have been done differently, or what comes next \u2014 that offer more intrigue. Let\u2019s lay out the problem first. Much of this has been written already, so we\u2019ll try to be brief.<\/p>\n
In the wake of a disappointing 83-win season in 2025, Stearns broke up the club\u2019s underachieving but well-liked core of homegrown players, aiming to improve the team\u2019s defense and avoid complacency. He assembled a roster of well-regarded but injury-prone players, many of them playing new positions. It has not gone well. Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr. are on the shelf. So is Marcus Semien, who has struggled at the plate and in the field. The defense still looks slapstick. Pete Alonso has hit a lot of homers for Baltimore; the Mets entered Tuesday ranked 28th in the majors in slugging percentage. Do you want me to keep going? Kodai Senga has given up 33 runs in 32 2\/3 innings. A wicked liner broke Clay Holmes\u2019 leg. Ronny Mauricio accidentally whacked Francisco Alvarez with a bat in the on-deck circle. There is a long list of problems. All of this is well-trod territory.<\/a><\/p>\n With Mendoza out and Andy Green at the helm until the end of the season, the heat has transferred directly onto Stearns. It will remain warm underneath his seat for a while, because there is no easy way out of this mess.<\/p>\n The great Ken Rosenthal wrote last week<\/a> that letting Alonso leave \u201cmight go down as the signature mistake of the Stearns Era.\u201d It certainly looks that way. In hindsight, yeah, duh, they should have just re-upped with Alonso. Or hung around the market for Munetaka Murikami rather than diving into a two-year, $40 million deal with Jorge Polanco. Or out-bid the Yankees for Cody Bellinger. Or done . . . a variety of things different than the things they did. I think Stearns made a reasonable, defensible decision to move on from Alonso, who is putting together another solid season to start his five-year, $155 million contract with Baltimore. Where Stearns erred, clearly, was how he decided to replace him.<\/p>\n Look at it this way: Alonso is a quarter. You know his value. You know he can slug. You know he is limited as a defender and as a runner. Stearns tried to cobble together a collection of loose change \u2014 Baty, Vientos, Polanco \u2014 that might have added up to a quarter. Some vending machines don\u2019t take coins worth less than a quarter. Sometimes, the big leagues are a vending machine.<\/p>\n (Is that a dumb analogy? Whatever, man. I\u2019ve been hanging out with an infant for the past few months. My brain is fried.)<\/p>\n What I\u2019m trying to say is that Stearns took Alonso, a flawed but known commodity, and tried to offset his departure by gambling on a collection of less reliable players. Polanco had not played first base and tends to get hurt. He got hurt. Vientos looked like a star in 2024 and a minor-leaguer in 2025. He looks like a Syracuse Met again. Baty was a 3.0-bWAR player in 2025 after putting together -0.7 bWAR the previous three seasons. He is back in the red in 2026.<\/p>\n To make another loose change analogy: Stearns flipped a bunch of coins and called them wrong. The question is why a team with Cohen\u2019s resources is reduced to flipping coins in the first place.<\/p>\n There is not an easy way out of this mess. Semien is under contract through 2028. Polanco is owed another $23 million next year. Bichette could pick up his $42 million option rather than test the market heading into the lockout. And the uncertainty about the next collective bargaining agreement may dissuade Cohen from making more costly additions this winter. Stearns earned a reputation as a resourceful leader during his time with the Brewers. Reviving the Mets will require some of that skill. And his first forays into creative solutions were not encouraging.<\/p>\n Following up on three bold MLB predictions<\/p>\n Andy McCullough<\/p>\n Will we see an injury-free season, or dare to dream, a return-to-MVP-form from Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.? \u2014 Christopher V.\u00a0<\/p>\n Excellent question. This is not breaking news, but Acu\u00f1a\u2019s career trajectory has been derailed twice by traumatic injury. Here is a visual cue, excluding the 60-game 2020 season, outlining his participation over the years:<\/p>\n Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr., games played by year<\/p>\n YearGames played<\/p>\n 2018<\/p>\n 111<\/p>\n 2019<\/p>\n 156<\/p>\n 2021<\/p>\n 82<\/p>\n 2022<\/p>\n 119<\/p>\n 2023<\/p>\n 159<\/p>\n 2024<\/p>\n 49<\/p>\n 2025<\/p>\n 95<\/p>\n He suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in 2021, worked all the way back and won the National League MVP in 2023, and then tore the ACL in his left knee in 2024. He has been in the process of returning from that ever since. Acu\u00f1a won the National League Comeback Player of the Year award in 2025, hitting 21 homers with a .935 OPS in 95 games. But his electricity on the bases had dimmed. He swiped 73 bags in 2023, but only nine last season.<\/p>\n This season figured it could be a litmus test for whether Acu\u00f1a could, as you said, return to that MVP form. He has already stolen 15 bases in 2026, but his production at the plate has slipped. A 124 OPS+ is quite good, but not close to the 171 he put up in 2023. More troubling is a recurring hamstring issue, which currently has him on the injured list for the second time this season. Even as Atlanta\u2019s lead in the National League East dwindles, the team will be cautious not to rush him back.<\/p>\n Acu\u00f1a will turn 29 in December. He has been one of the best players in baseball for the duration of his 20s, even after the two major knee injuries. This year may be a hinge for him, as he tries to prevent the dreaded transition to becoming a Guy Who Gets Hurt. I\u2019m not sure he will ever be the player he was back in 2023, but then again, who is?<\/p>\n If Acu\u00f1a can hit like he did last year \u2014 .290\/.417\/.518 \u2014 across a full season, no one will complain. That may require him to run less often. That may require more scheduled days off. That may require Acu\u00f1a to make the sort of adjustments that elite players are required to make as they approach their 30s. He certainly has the talent to be one of the greats, and the drive to remain one. Otherwise, those two knee injuries would have wiped him out already.<\/p>\n The Yankees have played pretty well while Aaron Judge is on the injured list. What personnel changes will they make when he returns? \u2014 James P.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m as optimistic about the current Yankees product as you are, James. The team suffered a four-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox last weekend. The starting pitching has taken its lumps. And the offense, of course, misses Judge, who likely won\u2019t be back until August, at the earliest. Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice have cooled off. Jazz Chisholm Jr. still hasn\u2019t heated up.<\/p>\n A lot can happen between now and whenever Judge returns. Specifically, a lot of other injuries can happen. But Jasson Dom\u00ednguez has not hit well since replacing Judge in right field. If he does not catch fire, the team could just option him back to the minors.<\/p>\n What has mattered: my Rockies are no longer the (by far) worst team in MLB. We now have competition! \u2014 SevenSeven55Zero\u00a0<\/p>\n This will sound like damning with faint praise, but it is true. The Colorado Rockies are not flirting with historic futility in 2026. They still might be the worst team in the baseball, but they are not much worse than the Royals and the Angels and, yes, the Mets. For the first year of Paul DePodesta\u2019s reign, this must be considered progress.<\/p>\n DePodesta and his crew of lieutenants, including longtime former Dodgers executive Josh Byrnes, did not completely overhaul the Rockies infrastructure. But they made a few changes that have paid dividends, like flipping reliever Angel Chivilli for first baseman TJ Rumfield. With the Yankees, Rumfield was blocked at first base by Ben Rice. Given a chance in Colorado, he has emerged as one of the team\u2019s most productive hitters. Another offseason pickup, outfielder Jake McCarthy, has been taking advantage of Coors Field to boost his numbers. Willi Castro has been adequate as a utility guy.<\/p>\n The pitching, though, is still a mess.<\/p>\n During the winter, Michael Lorenzen\u2019s agent told him<\/a> \u201cYou\u2019re absolutely insane\u201d for wanting to join the Rockies, and thus far that looks like excellent representation; Lorenzen has posted a 6.83 ERA in his first 18 appearances. Fellow new guy Tomoyuki Sugano has been better, because a 4.80 ERA grades out as passable on the Rockies curve, but the altitude in Colorado is still the altitude.<\/p>\n The most intriguing test for DePodesta will come as the trade deadline approaches.<\/p>\n In previous years, the club was reticent to deal homegrown players despite clear interest from rival clubs. That started to change last summer, when outgoing executive Bill Schmidt finally traded third baseman Ryan McMahon. Colorado is expected to move pitcher Antonio Senzatela, who has hit his stride as a reliever after many seasons as an unsuccessful starter. I doubt DePodesta takes all that seriously any offers for All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman, the team\u2019s most valuable player, but he probably should at least listen.<\/p>\n What might MLB learn from World Cup fanbases? \u2014 Ed H.\u00a0<\/p>\n Easy. Instead of expanding to Nashville and Salt Lake City<\/a>, MLB should put its next franchises in Edinburgh<\/a> and Oslo<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nTo add to the clutter, Stearns changed up much of the coaching staff, which meant little carry-on continuity from previous seasons.
\nThe team\u2019s two best players, Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto, have both spent time on the injured list.
\nThe two highest-profile additions, Bo Bichette and Freddy Peralta, have underperformed. Bichette has struggled to adjust to third base, and looks lost at the plate. Readers familiar with our Aces Project<\/a> know that Peralta profiles closer to a No. 3 starter than anything else, but he was sold to Mets fans as an ace. Instead, he has posted a 4.53 ERA in his first 17 starts.
\nNeither Brett Baty nor Mark Vientos looks like they belong in the majors.
\nAmid all these setbacks, the team operated with a leadership void, as our Will Sammon laid out<\/a> last week. Manager Carlos Mendoza paid for all the losing with his job.<\/p>\n