2026 Mets Manger Only Mode

[Highlander]

I posted a bit about this project in the General forum because of some strange decisions the AI was making, but thought I'd share the results of my 2026 season (and hopefully beyond!). Overall, things went really well....this team was MUCH better than the real life Mets have been so far, but I'll let you see if it ended in a "Metsian" way or not. I play out every game so I am a true manager, but let the AI David Stearns make all the roster decisions for better or worse.


Here's how the final standings played out-





The only thing you can't see is that the Braves tied the Pirates for the last NL Wildcard spot and Atlanta won the one game playoff to take the spot.


Obviously, it was a great season for the Mets....anytime you have 9 more wins than any other team in the league, things are going well! It was pretty much a wire to wire run and there was never really any question as to whether they would win the Division.




Here’s a look at the players that made this season happen-








Transactions- Where did some of these guys come from?

3/29/26- Alex Faedo was signed as a minor league FA.
4/5/26- Richard Lovelady was released and ended up signing with Colorado.
7/14/26- Luis Garcia was released....no one else signed him and he has now retired. His numbers aren't shown above (because he retired maybe?) but he was pretty bad.
7/18/26- In probably the biggest deal David Stearns made, we traded minor league P RJ Gordon to the Texas Rangers for P Nathan Eovaldi and minor league P JD McReynolds. Eovaldi did really well for us and we have him for next year as well based on his contract. Gordon wasn't a big loss based on what I can see so if Eovaldi can be a solid #3 pitcher for us next year like he was for his 13 games this season, I am good with this deal.
7/28/26- We traded minor league P Jonathan Santucci to the Tampa Bay Rays for P Kevin Kelly. I'm a bit torn on this one as Santucci seems like he could be pretty good but Kelly is a solid RP and is young enough to help us for a while. He's arbitration eligible and shouldn't cost much so I think this deal was a good one for both sides. Tampa brought Santucci up to the majors already and he didn't fare well....seems like he's not ready to me. We'll see how he develops before really rating this deal, but right now I'm good with it.
7/29/26- I was very interested to see if Stearns could pull off one more big deal to help us make a big push into the playoffs and then he came through with this complete stinker of a deal. We dealt minor league OF Edward Lantigua to the Reds for P Sam Moll. I have no idea why this deal was made. Lantigua is 20 years old and looks like he has some really good potential. Moll is, in a word, AWFUL! He's 34, he stunk in Cincy, he stunk with us (8 Ks and 7 BB!), he got sent down to AAA after no one claimed him on waivers on 8/31 (surprise, surprise!) and now I see we just signed him to an extension for next year worth 1.32 M!! What?? David and I need to have a talk about this one!

I'll go through injuries, awards and other related stuff next.

[Highlander]

Injuries- A major factor on the season

AJ Minter- Preseason injury- came back on 5/31/26

Mike Tauchman- Preseason injury- came back 6/10/26

Marcus Semien- 5/10/26- Herniated Disc- out 6 weeks

Brooks Raley- 5/15/26- Elbow Ligament Reconstruction Surgery- out 12-13 months

Bo Bichette- 8/16/26- Fractured Rib- out 4 weeks

Luis Robert- 9/9/26- Strained Oblique- out 5-6 weeks.....out for the playoffs

Devin Williams- 9/15/26- Ruptured Disc- out 8 months....out for the playoffs

Kodai Senga- 9/23/26- Elbow Inflammation- out 4 weeks....out for the playoffs

Sean Manaea- 9/27/26- Sprained Elbow- out 6 weeks....out for the playoffs

Carson Benge- 9/29/26- Concussion- out 5-6 weeks...out for the playoffs

Nolan McLean- 10/5/26- Wrist Soreness- out 3 weeks....went down 2 outs into his 1st playoff start

So to recap, we lost 6 major players from our lineup and pitching staff in the last month or so of the season and other than 2 outs for Nolan McLean, none of those guys could contribute to our playoff run. The hits just kept coming....Even though Senga had a really great year, I think he was the easiest one to overcome with the rest of our roster. Benge and Robert were huge losses to the lineup and losing Williams and Manaea out of the bullpen were massive losses. Manaea was a guy we really leaned on in lots of situations. I'll save the playoff results for another post, but you can probably guess.....

Awards, Milestones, Etc.

Juan Soto- MVP winner, All-Star, Silver Slugger in LF, League Leader in Plate Appearances, Runs, HR, BB, OBP, RC, RC/27, OPS, wOBA, wRC+ and WAR.....quite a season!

Francisco Lindor- All-Star, 300th Career HR

Jorge Polanco- Gold Glove at 1B, League Leader in RBI and Sac Flys

Carson Benge- ROY winner, All-Star

Bo Bichette- All-Star, Platinum Stick at 3B, Batting Champion

Luis Robert- All-Star, Platinum Stick at CF

Francisco Alvarez- All-Star, Platinum Stick at C

Marcus Semien- 1000th Career Run

Nolan McLean- League Leader in BABIP and H/9

Kodai Senga- All-Star

Luke Weaver- League Leader in Holds

Freddy Peralta- Pitched the only Complete Game Shutout in the NL

Clay Holmes- League Leader in GB%

[Highlander]

2026 Playoffs and Other Notes Around the League

The Wildcard Rounds went as follows-

Seattle over Baltimore, 2-1

Detroit over Boston, 2-1

Philadelphia over Milwaukee, 2-0

San Francisco over Atlanta, 2-1

We were matched up against the Phillies in the Division Series and did our best to overcome all of those last minute injuries, but just didn't have enough. We were able to take the series to 5 games, but lost convincingly in game 5 by a 9-1 score. Freddy Peralta really struggled with a 10.80 ERA in 2 starts and Lindor only had 2 hits in 20 AB....with those two guys falling apart and the other guys we were missing it was a tall task to beat anyone....never mind a still strong Phillies team.

The rest of the Division Series went as follows-

Seattle over New York, 3-2

Detroit over the A's, 3-1

San Francisco over Chicago, 3-2

The World Series ended up being a West Coast affair with Seattle getting past Detroit, 4 games to 3 and San Francisco as a surprise team, beating the Phillies 4-2. Both teams came in with identical 88-74 records in the regular season and the Giants had swept Seattle 3-0 when they met. However, it was the Mariners that brought home their very first World Series Championship, 4-2. SS JP Crawford took home the World Series MVP.

This is pretty much where I've left off. So, going forward I will update roster moves as they happen and probably look to give quick updates of the team each month of playing time. As I mentioned, I play games out so it may be a bit between updates. The offseason ones will come quicker though as I sim through days quickly.

[Highlander]

I forgot to mention a few "around the league" notes-

Other major award winners were-

MVP- Aaron Judge (NYY)
Cy Young- George Kirby (SEA), Chris Sale (ATL)
Relief- Aroldis Chapman (BOS), Abner Uribe (MIL)
ROY- Chase DeLauter (CLE)

League Leaders were-

Vladimir Guerrero (TOR) led the AL in batting at .300
Aaron Judge (NYY) led the AL in HR with 49
Nick Kurtz (ATH) led the AL in RBI with 129
Jazz Chisholm (NYY) led the AL in SB with 44, David Hamilton (MIL) led the NL with 47

On the pitching side, the Wins leaders were Jack Flaherty (DET) with 15 and Logan Webb (SF) with 16. The ERA leaders were Ryan Weathers (NYY) at 3.01 and Chris Sale (ATL) at 2.31. Strikeout Leaders were Cole Ragans (KC) with 212 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD) with 221. Saves leaders were Cole Sands (MIN) with 38 and Jhoan Duran (PHI) with 44.

[Highlander]

Early Offseason Roster Moves/Contracts

Besides Luis Garcia, we had one other pitcher who I totally forgot that retired at season's end and seemingly was taken off the stat report because of that. Huascar Brazoban has officially retired and, while he spent the whole season with us, he was just awful. I tried to use him only in blowouts but because he was on the roster all year, he was forced into action more often than that. In 57 IP he had a 7.74 ERA! I don't understand why he wasn't released but David Stearns seems to like who he likes, the team be damned (MJ Melendez on the offense side is another!).

- We did not take the team option on Luis Robert so he will be a Free Agent.

- The following players appear to be heading to free agency as no extension has been signed as of 11/14/26- AJ Minter, David Peterson, Freddy Peralta, Brooks Raley, Tyrone Taylor, Luis Torrens, Mike Tauchman, Ben Rortvedt, Vidal Brujan, Joe Jacques, Austin Warren, Christian Pache

- The following players were signed to extensions or have an Auto-renew contract- Francisco Alvarez (5 years, 90.1M), Alex Faedo (Auto-renew at 2.4M...yuck!), Jared Young (Auto-renew at 1.1M), Kevin Kelly (1 year, 1.5M), Sam Moll (1 year, 1.3M...double yuck!!), Nolan McLean (Auto-renew at 792K), Adbert Alzolay (1 year, 2.6M), Brett Baty (1 year, 3.1M), Mark Vientos (5 years, 58.4M), Christian Arroyo (1 year, 1.6M...really?)

Everyone else either has an existing contract that keeps them with the team at least one more year or is still under team control. A few questionable decisions on Faedo, Moll and Arroyo, but the others I am good with. I'd like to see us sign Peralta, Torrens and maybe Peterson who did pretty well in a relief role and can be a swing man. We will see what Mr. Stearns has in store as the offseason progresses.

At this point, we seem to be in need of bullpen help (especially with Williams out to start the season and losing a number of guys from last season). Centerfield is a need with Robert being let go, but AJ Ewing had a strong year in AAA so maybe he is in the plans. With Tauchman and Taylor leaving, we will need OF depth as well. Infield depth could be better too. The bullpen is the only real place where I'd see a need for a real top notch pickup or two, though.

[Highlander]

Arbitration/Free Agency

Arbitration decisions have been made and players have filed for free agency.....the following moves affect the Mets (a few were not ones I mentioned earlier...missed or misinterpreted a few I think!)-

Vidal Brujan was awarded 1.4M.

Tylor Megill was awarded 5.5M after missing all of 2026 with an injury. Hopefully he can have some success in 2027.

Christian Pache was awarded 2.4M. He and Brujan are both defense first (only?) players who didn't join us last year. Hopefully only looking at them as "break glass in case of emergency" guys.

Dedniel Nunez was awarded 1.4M after missing all of 2026. Not sure what we can expect from him.

Austin Warren, who I thought was already a FA was awarded 1.4M as well. Another "break glass" guy but I guess we need a few....has to be some better guys out there though.

We had two guys file for Free Agency in Luis Robert and Freddy Peralta. Robert I knew and was ready for. Somehow I was still holding out hope that Freddy would get signed. Add a top line starter to the pickups we need. Megill better not be the guy they are looking at to replace Freddy because he's not going to cut it if we really want to contend.

[Highlander]

Offseason Signings and Trades

Mets Related- Anything we do

- Freddy Peralta was signed by the White Sox to a 4 year/105.6M deal. Seems like a deal we could have done or beat but maybe better things are coming?

- We struck our first deal....surprisingly it was with the division rival Braves. We sent 3 minor leaguers- 22 year old P Cam Tilly, 24 year old P Zack Mack and 23 year old P Garrett Stratton for P Spencer Strider. The Braves will retain 20% of Strider's salary. Spencer still has this year and next with a team option in 2029. He wasn't great last year with a 5.53 ERA in 18 starts but he had 10.4 K/9 so hopefully we can bring out at least a facsimile of the Strider of 3-4 years ago. Interestingly, his FIP was 4.60 but his SIERA was 3.07 so maybe there is a little hope? At 22M (minus the 20%) per season, we have to hope for the best!

- We have also made a deal with the bust Pirates. We sent a group of minor leaguers, including 19 year old Dillon Stiltner, 21 year old P Min-kyun Woo and 22 year old 3B Jacob Reimer for OF Dominic Fletcher. I'll be honest....losing Reimer hurts. He had an .851 OPS in AAA. The issue with him is his defense, so while it would have been a challenge to find him a spot, that bat would be pretty valuable. Fletcher is a great OFer and will fill in for Taylor really well on the defense side, but he's 29 and had a .581 OPS in 416 AB last year. The Pirates got the best of this one, I am afraid.

- In a smaller deal, we picked up another great defensive OF who can't hit a lick in Albert Almora. He was acquired from the Reds along with 22 year old minor league IF, Dominic Pitelli. We sent 2 minor leaguers in 19 year old IF Giomar Ubiera and 18 year old IF Jose Padilla. No one of consequence here from the looks of it, but if Almora is going to have to take up a roster spot with his .544 OPS from last season, that WILL have consequences.

- Looks like we are stockpiling weak hitting OF! We sent 2 minor leaguers in 22 year old P Frank Camarillo and 18 year old OF Cleiner Ramirez to Colorado for OF Jake McCarthy. To be fair, McCarthy is the best of the guys we've acquired at OF so far with a .688 OPS and he led the league in triples with 8. He plays the corner OF spots well and is passable in CF. He also runs well and stole 27 bases. Not sure where all these OF are going to go, though.

I guess we still don't have enough OF as we just made a deal with the Astros to get OF Jake Meyers. We gave up 2 minor league pitchers in 24 year old Jack Wenninger and 16 year old Bobby Santos. Wenninger has some promise and it's way too early to know about Santos. Meyers is a very good CF but his .651 OPS last year doesn't really stand out from the other guys we've gotten. Seems like some good assets have been sent out and could have been combined for more quality over quantity.

- We finally made a FA signing and it's not a bad one. We signed P Brusdar Graterol to a 3yr/8.2M deal. Not bad for an extreme groundball guy who has fought injuries over the years but also can be very effective.

- Well, we've signed another free agent and I am scratching my head. It's a 2 year/24.4M deal with the 2nd year being a vesting option for Salvador Perez. Now I like Sal....but where am I supposed to play him? He can only play C right now and we have Alvarez coming off a huge year and we signed him to a big 5 year deal. Are we really paying 12M for a back up catcher? I'll try to DH one of them when I can I guess, but if the C gets hurt in the game, that is tough to deal with. This is going to be a very interesting roster....hope none of our IF get hurt!

-On the lighter side, I believe we may have the player with the best digestive system in the league. We just signed a minor league free agent named Kade Shatwell.

- Luis Robert has chosen St Louis as his new home as he signed a 5yr/59.5M deal with them.

- We signed P Pierce Johnson to a minor league deal. He might have enough left to help us out at some point this season.

- AJ Minter signed a 1 year/2.4M deal with the Padres. We gave that deal to much worse pitchers....frustrating.

- David Peterson ended up with just a 1yr deal for 12.8 M with the Rangers. I'm OK losing him at that price.

The Mariners took a shot with Brooks Raley on a 1yr/1.7M deal, but now it has been announced that he had a major setback and will miss another 15 months. At his age, that might be it for him.

The Rest of the League- Only the biggest/most interesting signings and trades

- The Pirates have been busy trading a number of guys and they just completed a big one with the World Series Champion Mariners. The Pirates are cashing in on a big comeback season by Marcell Ozuna, who hit 28 HR and drove in 102 by trading him for a prospect package that includes the #42 overall prospect in P Kade Anderson.

- The Twins pulled off a very interesting trade with the Yankees. They sent 26 year old minor league P Justin Lawson, who looks like a release candidate to me, for 21 year old minor league IF George Lombard. Now George has lost his top 100 prospect status, but he still looks like a very high potential guy who did well in AAA as a 21 year old. No idea what the Yankees were thinking here, but good for the Twins.

- Well, now I know why the Yankees wanted to trade Lombard...although it seems they could have gotten much more for him. The next deal they made was with the Reds. The Yankees sent the current #1 prospect in baseball in 17 year old P Manny Marquez (he was a scouting discovery from the Dominican Republic), along with 23 year old minor league P Bryce Cunningham for SS Elly De La Cruz. Now that is a big trade!

- The blockbusters keep coming! The Dodgers have traded C Dalton Rushing and 24 year old minor league P Patrick Copen (#90 Prospect) to the Rangers for P Jacob DeGrom. That 81-81 finish didn't set well in LA, so look for them to make some big moves to get back on top.

- The White Sox continue their quest for improvement by trading for Texas closer Robert Garcia who had a 2.50 ERA and 30 Saves last season. They gave up a couple of minor leaguers who don't even look worth mentioning....not sure what Texas was doing.

- Seattle took another step towards trying to repeat by trading a minor leaguer in 22 year old P Mason Peters to Colorado for OF Mickey Moniak who drove in 95 last year.

- Former batting champion Luis Arraez signed a 4yr/49.8M deal with Arizona.

- The Rangers replaced their closer Garcia by signing Raisel Iglesias to a 2yr/24M deal.

- The Royals signed P David Bednar to a 3yr/17.2M deal. He had 36 saves last year.

- Tampa Bay picked up OF Ramon Laureano, who hit .281 with 24 HR last year on a 4 year/64M deal.

- The free agent we were all waiting to see where he would go has made his decision.....and it's a strange one! Tarik Skubal has signed a 6yr/302.5M contract with the Angels! Time will tell if they will actually put a team around him or if Tarik will become the pitching version of Mike Trout.

- The Twins opened up their wallets in a big way as they just signed 2B Nico Hoerner to a 7 year/217M deal. Nico was an All-Star, Platinum Stick and Gold Glove winner.

- Eugenio Suarez has taken his 36 HR from last year to the Marlins with a 3 year/18.2M deal.

- In addition the Robert signing, the Cardinals have added even more to their OF by signing Randy Arozarena to a 5 year/50.5M deal.

- The Brewers added some big power to their lineup by trading for 1B Munetaka Murakami and his 42 HR (and .226 BA) from the White Sox. The gave up a couple of minor leaguers to get him including the #70 overall prospect in 22 year old P Bishop Letson.

- P Tatsuya Imai signed a 3yr/49.2M contract with Cleveland.

- The Rangers aren't messing around with the bullpen as they signed Dennis Santana to a 2yr/7.8M deal. He had 38 saves and a 2.66 ERA last year....would have been a good addition for us!

- P Shane Bieber signed a 1yr/18.8M deal with Baltimore. That's a lot for a guy who can't seem to stay healthy lately.


Whew, I think that's it. Time to set the Opening Day Lineups and Pitching Staff!

[Highlander]

Opening Day Pitching Staff

SP1- Nathan Eovaldi
SP2- Spencer Strider
SP3- Kodai Senga
SP4- Clay Holmes
SP5- Tylor Megill

So you may notice a major name missing....Nolan McLean! He was one of our very best pitchers last year and now we have a weaker staff with the loss of Peralta and we are starting McLean in AAA??? What kind of decision is that? Maybe the real David Stearns has taken over??

CL- Luke Weaver (remember Devin Williams has a long term injury...due back in 8 weeks)

SU- Brusdar Graterol, Kevin Kelly

MR- Pierce Johnson, Sean Manaea, Adbert Alzolay

LR- Tobias Myers, Dedniel Nunez

When Williams comes back this could be a solid pen....I think it may be better than last year...in some ways anyway. The one area where it is not better is the lack of a lefty. Manaea is the only LHP on the whole staff. The best two lefty relievers I see are both in AA- Evan Sisk and Justin Bruihl. They were both minor league FA signings, but I'd rather have either one of them or even both in place of Pierce and Dedniel. I guess we'll see how things go in due time. Hopefully our offense continues to be as good as last year and we can outslug everyone.

[Highlander]

Opening Day Lineup/Bench

C- Francisco Alvarez

1B- Jorge Polanco

2B- Marcus Semien

3B- Bo Bichette

SS- Francisco Lindor

LF- Juan Soto

CF- Jake McCarthy vs. RHP, Jake Meyers vs. LHP

RF- Carson Benge

DH- Brett Baty vs. RHP, Mark Vientos vs. LHP

Bench- Other than their DH roles, Baty will back up at 2B and 3B and may find himself in the OF at times, while Vientos will back up at 1B and probably 3B at times. McCarthy and Meyers will back up all 3 OF spots when they aren't starting. Sal Perez is our backup C which seems crazy. I have to find him more AB with his power, but DH is the only option and he will have to really hit to overtake what Vientos did last year. Finally, we have Jared Young who can play 1B, 3B and both corner OF spots. I'd rather have a MI guy Stearns never wants us to have someone like that it seems. Young isn't great anywhere but 1B, but he has some thump in his bat and can steal a base.

The offensive roster doesn't have anywhere near the issues as the pitching staff with McLean being left in AAA, but there are a few guys down in AAA I would think could have contributed.....mainly Ronny Mauricio who had an .896 OPS there last year and AJ Ewing who looks ready to take over in CF, hitting .280 with 119 R, 37 doubles, 7 triples and 66 SB last year in AAA. Ryan Clifford's lack of contact scares me, but last year he had an .899 OPS with 34 HR and 100 RBI.