5 NY Mets players entering a crucial season in their careers and what they need to do

The 2026 season is going to be a big one for several New York Mets players. Although we don’t yet know if all of them will be back, wherever it is they land will require them to reach a certain level.

As a team, the Mets have a goal to win a championship. As individuals, these five have a mile marker to reach.

1) Francisco Alvarez

Goals have always been lofty for Francisco Alvarez. Briefly the game’s top prospect but one of the better ones throughout the 2022 season, we’ve now had close to three full years of him on the Mets roster. By “full” it doesn’t account for the regular injuries he seems to suffer annually.

Alvarez needs to do a lot to finally become the guy we all figured he was meant to be. The first is to get through a full campaign without injury. He can take every pilates class in New York City and something is bound to come up. Catchers get beat up as badly as anyone.

But even if there is an IL stint, Alvarez just needs to hit consistently. Defense can come with experience and even if it doesn’t make any sort of an improvement, what made Alvarez stand out was his power potential. Just a .429 slugging percentage in his career, he feels behind.

New voices on the hitting coach side of things should at least give Alvarez a few fresh things to think about. Even if he doesn’t become a perennial 30 home run guy, Mets fans would be more than happy to see someone who isn’t relegated to the bottom three spots in the order. So far, it has been a whirlwind of hitting for power in 2023 without the average to not doing much at all in 2024 to the 2025 season when a reset in the minor league seemed to help him do a little of everything.

If Alvarez is merely a .250 hitter who can smack 20 bombs across a full season, there’ll be potential for further growth. He can also cut down on the passed balls. He led the league in 2023 and 2024. He remains a work in progress. The key for him is to show progress.