Mets Monday Morning GM: The same offseason blueprint won’t work again

A trip to Game 6 of the NLCS was more than many of us could have asked for from the 2024 New York Mets. Sure, past Mets teams have achieved a lot with small expectations. It was different in 2024. In a time where not every team tries to win each year and the Mets seemed to take a step back from their head first attempt at bringing a championship to Flushing, we remain in awe at how far they were able to go when the pundits and even our own baseball logic said this was a mediocre team at best.

There is a lot of credit to go around for how the Mets were able to pull this off. A lot of the credit goes to David Stearns. The architect of the ball club, his offseason approach was vastly different from what we saw in the recent past.

Stearns can show us just how smart he is by not relying on the same blueprint again. What the 2024 Mets were able to achieve is not something they can recreate so easily.

A lot needed to go right for the 2024 Mets and we’re very lucky it did

If Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, and Jose Quintana have really good years, maybe the Mets can compete for a Wild Card berth. All three did end up performing close to the best we could have asked for. There were bumps along the way. At one point, you probably wondered if one of them should be traded for relief pitchers or demoted to the bullpen.

It wasn’t only those three, a pair of free agents and a holdover from the previous regime, that led the Mets to an 89-win season and NLCS trip. David Peterson had a career year. In the final weeks of the season, even Tylor Megill looked more like a major league pitcher than he has in a while.

Stearns had a lot of successful offseason moves. He had plenty of misfires as well. Zack Short and Joey Wendle had no business being on the Opening Day roster let alone as teammates when they were supposed to do the same thing. Omar Narvaez proved he should have been released. How about Jake Diekman, Jorge Lopez, Michael Tonkin, and Yohan Ramirez? Adam Ottavino lasted the year only because the Mets ran out of alternatives.

Mets depth pieces outperformed the players who made the Opening Day roster over them

It was because the Mets struck gold as often as they did with the backup plan that made this a magical ride. Swapping Brett Baty for Mark Vientos. Summoning Jose Iglesias from the minor leagues. Sending cash to the New York Yankees for Luis Torrens. Those seemingly smaller moves paid off big. It’s not feasible for them to have the same kind of luck again next year.

The Mets were always trying to win in 2024, but maybe not in the same style as the past. They spent money with a specific mission to not hold onto any newcomer for longer than they needed to stay. The slew of one-year contracts was viewed favorably by fans heading into the year. At the end of it, this plan looks even more brilliant.

It won’t work again, though. What are the odds the Mets would yet again have this kind of luck with so many free agents and midseason acquisitions? This is both what makes the 2024 season so special and the disappointment of not completing the mission a huge bummer.

The base for how to build the Mets is set. We know we can trust Stearns with the smaller moves. What about the big ones to put them over the top?