1 former NY Mets player who'll thrive with his new team, 1 who'll be a disappointment

It did not take long for the message to come through. The New York Mets were willing to move on from familiar names without much hesitation. When that happens, fans always do the same thing. They look outward. They watch the exits. Once players leave town, the only question that matters is whether moving on was the right call.

That’s where the split starts to show. Former Mets don’t all age the same once they land somewhere else. Some moves make immediate sense when you see them on the field. Others start feeling uncomfortable almost right away. From the 2025 roster, two players are heading into next season with very different outlooks, setting up a clean case of one move that’s going to look smart and another that’s likely to get picked apart.

Tyler Rogers fits his new team perfectly

Tyler Rogers is walking into about as friendly a setup as his skill set can ask for. His game has never been about overpowering hitters. It is about steering contact into the worst possible outcomes, usually in the form of harmless ground balls. Last season, Rogers led all pitchers in avoiding barrels and ranked in the top five percent in hard-hit rate, groundball rate, and average exit velocity. That profile has defined his career, not just one season.

His profile fits cleanly with the Toronto Blue Jays. In 2025, Toronto ranked fourth in Defensive Runs Saved, ninth in Outs Above Average, and first in fielding runs above average, giving Rogers one of the strongest defensive backdrops in baseball. That foundation only improves with the addition of Kazuma Okamoto, a two-time NPB Gold Glove winner. For a pitcher who relies on weak contact and ground balls, this is the type of defense that makes his approach hold up over a full season.

Brandon Nimmo is facing a tougher road

Nimmo’s Mets run really felt like two different players rolled into one. There was the on-base machine, the low-strikeout table setter, which was highlighted by his 2022 campaign. Then came the power-leaning version, capped by career highs in home runs and RBIs in 2025. Even with nearly a 40-point jump in batting average from 2024, Nimmo’s on-base percentage has declined in each of the last five seasons, driven largely by a walk rate that dropped to a five-year low of 7.7 percent last year.

That profile gets riskier with the Texas Rangers. Nimmo’s wOBA sat around .360 from 2021 through 2023, but fell to .329 in 2025, only a .008 increase from 2024 despite 26 additional hits. Power helped prop things up, but Globe Life Field has quietly swung from hitter-friendly to one of the toughest run-scoring parks in baseball over the last two seasons. Living there for half his at-bats could quickly make that margin disappear. The version of Nimmo showing up now does not line up cleanly with the park he will be calling home.