5 NY Mets players who definitely won't be back next season

What's a New York Mets season without a bitter ending? It's been 39 consecutive seasons where we walk away with our heads hung. It may be sad, but at least it's familiar. Cheer up, Mets fans, we've been here before, again and again... and again.

And again.

But on the same token, experience doesn't erase the pain. And, if 30-year-old me time-traveled to 2008, and told 13-year-old-me that we just blew a historic lead, concluding with a lifeless defeat at the hands of the Marlins... I think 13-year-old-me would ask 30-year-old-me, "Why are you still doing this to us?"

Regardless, we now regroup and look at the collapse that was the 2025 New York Mets' season. How can the roster be improved? How can this kind of thing be prevented next year? Well, it all starts with trimming the fat. There will be some hard decisions, but there will also be some easy decisions – and those will be made first. This list is all of those easy decisions. Here are the guys you absolutely will not see in blue and orange in 2026.

1. Jesse Winker

This will be a sentimental loss for Mets fans. Jesse Winker is what he is. He's not a high-end talent who will be slotted in for 140+ games in a season. But, he's a consistently reliable bat to put out as a DH against lefties, something that's easy to take for granted. He's also a legendary off-the-field soft-skills guy who went from enemy number one in Queens as a Mets opponent to essentially a beloved team mascot upon his arrival last season.

Indeed, few have had the relationship that Winker has garnered with the Citi Field faithful. After developing an extensive resume of playfully prodding Mets fans, Winker came to town just in time for the Cinderella story last year. Aside from becoming a fan-favorite and clubhouse leader, he provided a needed spark by putting up 13 RBI's on a .243 batting average in 44 games, with myriad clutch hits along the way.

This season has been quite the departure. When he wasn't injured, he was rehabbing. When he wasn't rehabbing, he was battling back from injury in limited reps. When he wasn't battling back from injury in limited reps, he wasn't exactly hitting, finishing 2025 with a .229 batting average and just one long-ball in 81 plate appearances. With his contract coming due and not much production out of him this season, I don't expect him to factor into the DH plans next season. This would mean goodbye for our folk hero, Mr. Winker.

2. Cedric Mullins

This needs to happen for all parties involved. I'm not sure how Mullins expected his tenure with the Mets to go. I know he didn't expect, even in his wildest nightmares, for it to go this bad, though. I also know that the Mets' organization and fans are in the same boat. It was, at worst, a solid acquisition at the time. It's turned into the type of scenario that has been closing my eyes when Mullins comes up to bat and muttering to myself like I'm Frank the Tank.

It's not as though he was Babe Ruth in Baltimore this season before we traded for him. But he wasn't what he has become. In 91 games with the O's this season, he had a .229 batting average and .738 OPS, compared to a putrid .183 and .569 in 41 games with the Mets, respectively. You don't need to read Moneyball or dive into sabermetrics to realize that he absolutely must go.

Is it ideal to give up your 14th and 30th prospects for an abysmal quarter-season rental? Obviously not. But at this point, it's better to stop the bleeding than infuse new money into the soon-to-be free agent after such a bad experience in Queens.

3. Ryne Stanek

It would be incredibly unfair to pin a generous portion of the failure pie chart on Stanek, a middle reliever who the Mets wouldn't have (and shouldn't have) had to rely on so heavily if not for injuries. But in his two and a half seasons and 81 appearances as a New York Met, he has not been good – plain and simple.

The numbers stop short of being historically bad. But they are still very poor. An ERA of 5.01, 8.7 hits-per-9, and 5.2 BB-per-9 is a bad year. And when you expand it out to his entire Mets tenure, he has an ERA of 5.54. The bullpen is going to need a facelift, and his subtraction will be an easy start to that, given his expiring contract.

I like that he was named after Ryne Sandberg. That's pretty cool and unique. Other than that, there's not much to miss when he inevitably heads out the door.

4. Gregory Soto

As you'll see, this list is flooded with deadline acquisitions who were heralded as David Stearns' heists just a few months ago. Gregory Soto is no different. It seemed like the Mets had totally bolstered their bullpen, a point of concern given the many injuries that overwhelmed the group.

As was the story of the entire season, what appeared to be surefire was nothing more than a misfire. There was a Soto who held up his end of the contractual bargain for New York in the second half, but it was not Gregory. In 24 games, he had zero holds, zero saves, 12.1 hits-per-9, and a WHIP of 1.609. When the Mets needed their bullpen most, they didn't yield the results they needed. Soto was supposed to help lead that charge. But, plain and simple, he did not. His contract expires, and the Mets will shake his hand and wish him the best of luck in all future endeavors.

5. Ryan Helsley

The trend of the Mets bringing in seemingly potent pieces at the deadline, only to find us bemoaning their tenures here in late September, is a gut-wrenching one for a fan. Every single swing David Stearns took feels like strike three today. Again, it seemed foolproof. The Mets were adding a multiple-time All-Star to a bullpen filled with them. And this guy, named "Hell-sley", comes out to Hell's Bells by AC/DC – pretty cool, pretty clever, right?

The positive vibes collapsed almost on impact. His time with the Mets can only be categorized as a sheer disaster. He appeared in 21 games and completed 19 innings. His ERA finished at 7.58 somehow. His WHIP finished as high as 1.789. He allowed 11.4 hits per 9 and almost two home runs per 9. It could not have gone worse.

He joins the several Mets who have cost them young prospects, whose contract ends this offseason. And like the rest of them, presumably, he'll try not to let the door hit him on the way out. And we'll all try to forget this nightmare season ever happened.