5 NY Mets players who catfished David Stearns worse than anybody in 2025

1) Frankie Montas

C’mon now. Frankie Montas catfishing Stearns is like one of those episodes where someone thinks they’re dating a celebrity who is asking for money. We all saw this coming from miles away. Montas has been regularly injured and wasn’t even coming off of a particularly strong season. It seemed like the Mets signed him based off of a big rise in strikeouts following the switch from a Cincinnati Reds to a Milwaukee Brewers uniform late in 2024.

In classic disaster fashion, Montas was able to get a second year with a $17 million player option attached. Because he’ll miss all of 2025, he’s walking away from the Mets with $34 million and only 38.2 innings logged. Frankly, it’s about 38.2 innings too many.

The cracks in Montas’ abilities showed immediately in his rehab outings in the minors. His 12.05 ERA in the minors told us exactly what to expect. He’d wrap up his time in the majors with a 6.28 ERA.

The belief that Montas was a good match for the Mets was a little too much of Stearns believing he could repeat the same success from the year prior. Signing Montas was more of a response to losing Luis Severino (or at least letting him go). Across the board, this was a failed addition and at least for now, the biggest catfish job of any done on Stearns during his time with the Mets.