NY Mets: Simulating 8 years into the future with MLB The Show 21

No 2025 HOF inductees

Things get shaken up this offseason with a lot of coming and going.

2025 pre-season trades and free agency

J.D. Davis and Dom Smith both depart on five year deals, to the Red Sox and Diamondbacks respectively, with Davis’s contract being the richer of the two. The Mets however, bring in a whole new lot of players including the return of Wilmer Flores on a one year deal worth five million dollars. Also new to town are 1B Trey Mancini, C Victor Caratini and best of all, former Cy Young award winner Shane Bieber who signs a seven year, 31 million dollar a year deal. The Mets also address the needs in the bullpen by bringing in closing pitcher Michael Fulmer on a two year, five million dollar a year deal.

Here’s what the 2025 starting lineup, rotation, and bullpen shakes out to be plus a check-in on old prospects:

2B McNeil 87

CF Kyle Lewis 86

RF Conforto 88

1B Alonso 94

SS Lindor 97

LF David Dahl 83

DH Trey Mancini 75

C Victor Caratini 82

3B Bretty Baty 77

Notable depth Khalil Lee 77

Welcome to the big leagues, Brett Baty! With the expiration of J.D. Davis’s contract, the time was finally right.

Now for a look at the rotation, one of the Mets best ever with the addition of Bieber and Peterson, finally now in the year 2025 reaching that elite level.

deGrom 96

Bieber 95

Peterson 92

Eduardo Rodriguez 86

Joey Lucchesi 84

And now lastly the bullpen. You gotta love Walker just accepting his role and running with it as the long-relief man. The closer spot isn’t great and who the hell is this guy Daniel Zamora at 60 overall. Some virtual Baseball Ops guy in the Mets front office might need to make a call up from the minors to fill his role. To check in on some old beloved prospects, Ronny Mauricio and Francisco Alvarez are now both with the Cincinnati Reds. Alvarez, 80 overall, is now the starting catcher for the Reds and is coming off a year where he platooned with a .270 batting average, 5 HRs, and 14 RBIs. Reds SS Ronny Mauricio, 76 overall, had a limited role with only 44 at-bats in the 2024 season but managed to have a .341 avg, and 2 HRs.

2025 All-stars and team finsh

Now to skip ahead to mid-year and the all-star break. Just to note, the Red Sox at mid-season traded closing pitcher Edwin Diaz, having a bad year at the All-Star break with a 5.92 era to the San Francisco Giants for prospects. The Mets have four 2025 All-Stars. SP David Peterson with a 10-5 record, 124.1 ip, 105 strikeouts, 2.32 era, and 1.09 whip. 1B Pete Alonso with 346 ab, 30 hr, 63 rbi, 1 sb, and a .277 avg. OF Kyle Lewis with 293 ab, 26 hr, 65 rbi, 2 sb, and a .317 avg. And OF Michael Conforto with 318 ab, 20 hr, 54 rbi, 5 sb, and a .346 avg.

Skipping ahead to the end of the regular season, the Mets finish the year 91-71 (.562) and make the playoffs as a wild card team. Unfortunately, the Mets season would end there soon after, losing to the Giants in the one-game wild card playoff. The Giants would continue their success, making it to the World Series, but ultimately would lose to the Yankees in the October Classic.

Now for the 2025 award season.

Brett Baty and Francisco Lindor both win Gold Gloves for 3B and SS. Kyle Lewis, finding his power, wins the Hank Aaron award with the most home runs, 44. Kyle Lewis also notably comes in 2nd place for the NL MVP award, with a .321 avg and 108 rbis to add to his total of 44 home runs. deGrom has another strong year but falls short in the NL Cy Young with a 16-8 record, a 3.40 era and 108 rbis. In Brett Baty’s rookie year he hit .250, with 15 home runs and 69 rbis, finishing second for NL Rookie of the Year honors. Alonso, now reaching 31 years of age, wins the NL Silver Slugger award for first baseman with a .268 batting average, 42 home runs and 104 rbis.

Are you still with me??? Now onto the 2026 season and the 2026 trades and free agency.

Nobody was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. The Mets make some important offseason moves, bringing in catcher Will Smith from the Dodgers, now in the prime of his career, on a six year, 20 million dollar a year contract, replacing the capable but underwhelming Victor Caratini. Also, the Mets sign Chris Sale to a one year 24 million dollar deal, now a veteran in the twilight of his career. Increasing the depth of the pitching rotation, the Mets also sign Yonny Chirinos to a 4 year, 15 million dollar a year deal. Trey Cabbage is brought in on a minor league contract. The big news here is OF Michael Conforto finally packs things up and goes to the division rival Atlanta Braves on a 12 million dollar a year, 3 year deal.

Here’s what the 2026 rotation and bullpen look like:

Starters

Rotation

Bieber, 95

Peterson, 94

deGrom, 92

Sale, 87

Eduardo Rodriguez 85

Bullpen

Lrp Yamamoto 84

Lrp Yonny Chirinos 84

Mrp Miguel Castro 75

Mrp Daniel Zamora 62

mrp Lugo 77

Su Oliver Fernandez 81 (CPU generated prospect)

Su Trevor May 77

Cp Michael Fulmer 86

See you later Taijuan. The veteran pitcher is demoted to AAA considering the depth of this pitching staff. Also notice deGrom finally starting to decline slightly, in the same period of his career as former college rival Chris Sale, now teammates.

And now finally for the 2026 lineup plus prospect check-in:

Lineup

DH Khalil lee 80

2B Mcneil 87

CF Kyle Lewis 89

1B Alonso 94

C Will smith 91

SS Lindor 97

LF David Dahl 84

3B Bretty Baty 81

RF Trey Cabbage 75

The only original names left from the 2022 starting lineup are Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor.

2026 All-Stars

Now to check in on some old faces. Francisco Alvarez, still with the Reds as the starting catcher, is an 84 overall. He is coming off a 2025 season of a full time role, .267 avg, 9 hr, 50 rbi. Ronny Mauricio still with the Reds as well struggled in 2025 and will begin the 2026 season in AAA. At the All-Star break the Mets are an impressive 56-37 (.602) at the all-star break, but still 2.5 games behind the Phillies for first in the division. Only C Will Smith, 282 ab, 13 hr, 55 rbi, 4 sb, .351 avg and SS Francisco Lindor, 341 ab, 18 hr, 55 rbi, 6 sb, .252 avg are named all-stars.

2026 team finish

Skipping ahead, the Mets finish the season an amazing 101-61 (.623), make the postseason out of the ultra-competitive NL East as a wild card team, and will play the Giants again in the first round. The Mets defeat the Giants in the wild card game this time, and will look forward to facing the Cubs in the divisional round. In 5 games the Mets defeat the Cubs 3-2. The Mets then steamroll the Padres in the NLCS 4 game to 1 and secure their spot in the October classic. METS WIN WORLD SERIES BEAT YANKEES IN 7 games. Historic. The first time since 1986, and against who else but the nasty, no good Yankees. Storybook.

In game 7 of the series the Mets win thanks to a 3 run 5th inning. Peterson throws 6 innings of 3 run ball, the bullpen locks it down, with Chris Sale coming out of the pen for a scoreless inning, and Oliver Fernandez (cpu generated) locking it down with the save. Pete Alonso wins the WS MVP with a .360 avg, 2 hr, and 5 rbi in the Series. Will Smith wins the playoffs MVP with a .367 avg, 1 hr, and 7 rbi.

Now for the glory.. The 2026 award season.

Gold Gloves go to McNeil 2B, 3B Baty, and SS Lindor. Shane Bieber, 18-7, 3.83, 239 SO, and David Peterson, 16-6, 3.08, 196 SO, finish 2nd and 3rd for Cy Young behind Aaron Nola. Trey Cabbage finishes 3rd for ROY, with .244 avg., 13 hr, and 47 rbi. Silver sluggers go to P Bieber, .123, 2 hr, 6 rbi; and C Will Smith, .315, 23 hr, 98 rbi. Also noteworthy is Kyle Lewis who had a fantastic year with .299 34 hr and 98 rbi.

deGrom also has his first above 4.00 era year in his career in the last year of his contract.

Still with me here…?