NY Mets fans need to stop getting caught up in manufactured comparisons to Yankees' young core

One of the major silver linings of the New York Mets' disastrous 2026 season was the emergence of several key young players who will serve as the bedrock of the club's future. The trio of Nolan McLean, Carson Benge, and A.J. Ewing were named to MLB Pipeline's All-Rookie Team, with McLean and Benge also being prime contenders for the National League Rookie of the Year Award.

To say that the future in Flushing is bright is an understatement, and this group will also play a major role in New York's present. Combined with some secondary youngsters like Christian Scott and Zac Thornton, the Mets have already gotten much more out of this wave of prospects than they did from the last one, which was headed by Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, and Francisco Alvarez.

Across town, the Yankees have a budding young trio of their own. Second-year starter Cam Schlittler is the favorite for the AL Cy Young, while outfielders Spencer Jones and shortstop George Lombard Jr. both wrestled away starting jobs from underperforming veterans in 2026.

Because the New York media is the New York media, comparisons will be drawn and hot takes delivered in an attempt to rile up the two fan bases and draw eyeballs and clicks. We can't necessarily fault them; it's their job, after all.

A recent episode of Baseball Night in New York did just that, posing the question, "Which young core would you rather build around?" Rather than focus on the answers given by the hosts, instead, it's important to see how the fans reacted.

Some Mets fans took to Twitter to make the case for the McLean-Benge-Ewing triumvirate, with some citing the collective fWAR of the two groups, 9.8 versus 7.2 in favor of the Mets, as a means to prove the Queens youngsters are better than those who reside in the Bronx.

The problem here is that fWAR is a counting stat that is accumulated over time. McLean and Benge were on the Mets' Opening Day roster while Ewing was promoted on May 12 and played 120 games. Jones played in only 86 games, and Lombard Jr. logged just 42 contests.

Comparing the Mets and Yankees futures is the kind of stuff that is unproductive and opens fans to mockery

Putting aside for a second that comparing the two groups is pointless, doing so at this point in time is also disingenuous. Schlittler, for example, got significant run in 2025 and had already started to break out. His ascension to a dominant ace who posted a 1.95 ERA in 2026 wasn't exactly expected, but he was already thought of as a frontline starter coming into this year. Holding McLean up against him isn't fair to the Mets right-hander.

On the flip side, the position player comparisons are skewed in the Mets' favor. Take Carson Benge, for example. If we isolate his first 42 games and compare it against Lombard Jr., the Yankees shortstop edges him out with a .699 OPS versus a .653 mark for Benge. We know that a lot of development happened for the dynamic outfielder past that 42-game threshold, so it seems unreasonable to compare him against a guy who took his lumps but didn't have a chance to implement the lessons learned from early struggles the same way that Benge did.

A much more useful thought exercise is to figure out what improvements each Mets youngster needs to make to continue his upward trajectory, and how we can watch for those improvements in 2027. It's much more worthwhile to figure out the best ways to fit the pieces together for a strong roster, too, like deciding whether or not A.J. Ewing has more value as a center fielder or a second baseman.

The media is going to try to stir up these controversies. Just a couple of weeks earlier, Keith Raad said on Baseball Night in New York that Carson Benge will be a better player than Ben Rice. On face value, it's an asinine comparison. Rice just clobbered 41 dingers and completed his second full big league season, plus had an extended cup of coffee in 2024. Benge hasn't had the same time to develop, so they shouldn't be in the same conversation. What he meant was that Benge has a more well-rounded skill set, which is true, but again, not entirely helpful given they play different positions and have different expectations.

Getting sucked into these debates is what allows Yankees fans to mock Mets fans and perpetuate the "Little Brother" narrative. While the Yankees were embarrassed by the Rays in the ALDS, they were playing baseball in October while the Mets were sitting at home. Rectifying that should be the chief concern. And, at the end of the day, if both clubs have budding young cores and win a lot of games, it might mean we eventually have another Subway Series in the World Series, which is the best possible outcome for New York.

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