Major NY Mets roster turnover was the right thing to do, just ask the Rangers

The idea that winning can cure any locker room problem is an excuse the New York Mets and players have used to explain some of the speculation about last year’s team. Jeff McNeil recently brought up the same point, spilling zero tea and walking the line to say everyone got along and the bigger problem was the losing and injuries.

There is some truth there. Good teams generally have good chemistry. Bad teams will have a horrible one. Last year’s Mets weren’t bad, finishing just over .500. Disappointing was the better description.

As the NY Post’s Joel Sherman dove into in a recent story, the Mets-Texas Rangers trade culminated in large part as a result of the toxic relationship between Marcus Semien and Corey Seager. Things were so bad between the pair, the Rangers believed they had to move on from Semien even if it meant taking on more cash long-term with Nimmo. Will it all turn copacetic now?

The Rangers locker room turning ugly 2 years after winning a championship tells us the Mets needed to do more than win

Would things have gone differently for the Mets this offseason if they won game 162 and made the postseason? Probably not. We wouldn’t feel any better about a playoff berth and early exit. Expectations were much higher. A trip to the NLCS again might’ve kept a few pieces intact. However, David Stearns seems to have certain philosophies. A lot of what he did this offseason fit a narrative.

Sure, run prevention hasn’t been the leading lady. Shorter contracts, on the other hand, have. The Mets avoided even making Pete Alonso an offer. They escaped the Brandon Nimmo contract. All of what they did this offseason had a baseball reason. The grand scale of how much relationships between players was a factor won’t be known until someone needs the money and decides to write a book or just goes in a podcast if those are around in 20 years.

It’s no coincidence that every year when the Mets struggle we hear stories about a team with poor chemistry. When they win, like 2022 and 2024, it’s a non-story.

The Rangers are a unique ball club that actually won a championship after winning only 68 games the year prior. It’s rare for a team to miss the playoffs and then have a parade. Texas hadn’t even been over .500 since 2016 until their 2023 championship. Of course, they haven’t come close to repeating. Winning 78 games in 2024 and 81 last year, we can understand why maybe the losing was helping the relationship between their two stars up the middle grow into something more toxic; season one of Stranger Things in The Upsidedown when everyone needed hazmat suits versus the final season when all they needed was denim and a bandana.

A full scale cleanse within the locker room on the position player side of things gives the Mets a refresh for the coming year. There’s now no backstory to blame for why the team isn’t winning. And if anyone happens to blame the player relationships for any failing in 2026, we’ll know the team got rid of the wrong guys. Or maybe the idea of a "bad" locker room is overblown in the first place.