Mets should weigh a core shakeup after trying 2025 season

The New York Mets have struggled down the stretch in 2025, a trend that has become too common in Flushing. Should the team shake up its core in the offseason?

Sep 14, 2025; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso (20) hits a walk off three run home run against the Texas Rangers during the tenth inning at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images | Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

The New York Mets had a very good day on Sunday, snapping an eight-game losing streak in dramatic fashion while getting some help in the Wild Card race as the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds lost. The team is clearly hoping the momentum from Pete Alonso's walk-off home run can carry forward for the final two weeks of the season.

The walk-off hero 🐻‍❄️@GEICO | #LGM pic.twitter.com/rJltZCO3W0

— New York Mets (@Mets) September 15, 2025

The Mets have just 12 games to go and hold a 1.5 game lead over the Giants, who they bought from at the trade deadline, with the head-to-head tiebreaker in hand. Other teams still in the hunt include the Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds, with the latter two potentially holding tiebreakers over the Mets due to intradivision record (Arizona) and a victory in the season series (Cincinnati).

The Mets are a game and a half up on the Giants for the final NL Wild Card spot

12 games remain in their 2025 season pic.twitter.com/aEwJQLekTd

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) September 15, 2025

The fact that the Mets are having to watch the scoreboard when they were 21 games above .500 in mid-June is alarming, but it is not a new trend for the team of late. The Mets as a team have struggled to handle success down the stretch of seasons, with four of the past five years seeing the team flounder under the weight of expectations.

Read More: Who is most to blame for the New York Mets' slide?

2021 saw the Mets essentially maintain first place in the National League East for over four months before collapsing down the stretch to finish below .500. The following year saw the Mets win 101 games, but they coughed up the division to the Atlanta Braves by underachieving in September and then got bounced in the National League's Wild Card series to the San Diego Padres.

2023 was an exception to the late-season collapse trend, but that team's disastrous June was essentially a right hook to the jaw that the Mets couldn't recover from. Even the fond memories of last year's finish, with Francisco Lindor powering the Mets to the postseason in the Monday doubleheader against Atlanta, are a bit obscured since the team looked terrible in three straight games in the final week of the season, needing some help to get into position to reach the playoffs at all.

HE DID IT!!!!!!!!!

FRANCISCO LINDOR 2-RUN HOMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/gzHc1zxNuo

— SNY (@SNYtv) September 30, 2024

Is It Time For The Mets To Shake Up Their Core?

This question famously surfaced around the Mets after their collapse in 2007, with WFAN host Mike Francesa telling his audience that the Mets' core was "rotten" and needed to be changed in order for them to win. The Mets stuck the course with their group and didn't reach the postseason again until 2015, undergoing a massive rebuild along the way, but that was in an era with only one Wild Card team until 2012.

The current iteration of the Mets has a pretty consistent core of offensive players: Lindor, Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil. Juan Soto's addition to the club should have enhanced the Mets' performance, but the fact they are going through the same late-season struggles with him is evidence that bringing Soto aboard isn't the cause of the problem.

There were some key clubhouse guys let go from last year's team, including Harrison Bader, J.D. Martinez and Jose Iglesias, but the Mets did try to work towards clubhouse chemistry by retaining Jesse Winker and Sean Manaea, two important voices in last year's locker room. Winker has missed most of the season due to injury while Manaea hasn't been effective after his own injury absence, so while chemistry is definitely different on this year's team, it isn't the sole difference between 2024 and 2025.

This stretch of poor finishes to seasons has covered three managers (Carlos Mendoza, Buck Showalter and Luis Rojas) and four top baseball decision makers (David Stearns, Billy Eppler, Zack Scott and Sandy Alderson), so the only constant in the room is the team's core. SNY's Steve Gelbs offered an intriguing look into the team's mindset after their eighth straight loss on Saturday, describing the group as "perplexed" instead of frustrated with their poor play.

The mood in the Mets clubhouse can best be described as “perplexed.” Players insist they’re preparing the right way, embracing the urgency and maintaining the right attitude. They look at the talent in the room and believe it has to turn—but no one can explain why it hasn’t yet.

— Steve Gelbs (@SteveGelbs) September 14, 2025

The messaging coming from Mendoza and the players has also been eerily calm, with Mendoza frequently citing the Mets' talent as his key reason to believe the team will figure it out. The players have also indicated their belief that things will change, which is an echo to the 2021 team which appeared to be in denial about their situation down the stretch.

While it is fair to point out that the Mets' record of 21 games above .500 in June may have been a bit flukish, the fact that the group went 32-49 over their next 81 games is problematic. Playing some of the worst baseball in the league for half a season is bad enough, but the way that the Mets often took gut punch after gut punch and failed to respond (they still haven't won a game when trailing after eight innings this season) is another indictment against the current core.

A five-year sample size suggests there is good cause to shakeup the core, and it is worth noting that Stearns has extended very few of the team's core players since he arrived. The biggest example has been with Alonso, who wanted a multi-year commitment from the team but only received a two-year deal with an opt-out after this season that Steve Cohen helped steer to the finish line.

Alonso's strong start to the season looked like it would earn him that huge guaranteed deal, but he hasn't been the same since June 13th either, racking up just 0.3 fWAR (FanGraphs' Wins Above Replacement) entering Sunday's game. That total ranks slightly higher than the much-maligned Cedric Mullins' fWAR of 0.2 since joining the Mets at the beginning of August.

Pete Alonso has a 0.3 fWAR in 79 games since June 13th.

For reference, Cedric Mullins has a 0.2 fWAR since being acquired by the Mets.

— Just Mets (@just_mets) September 13, 2025

While there is no question that Alonso's power production offers value to the Mets and protection for Soto in the lineup, he is on the wrong side of 30 and has never been a great defender. The Mets' philosophy around Alonso's next contract likely won't change since players of his archetype don't age particularly well, and he has much less value to the team is he is delivering around 35 home runs a year than if he is hitting over 40 a season.

Another potential option to shake up the core would be to trade Jeff McNeil in the winter. While McNeil is a versatile player with some good offensive skills, he will turn 34 in April and has just one year left on his current contract after 2025. With a slew of potential options who could fill that role in the upper minors, including Jett Williams, it could make sense for the Mets to sell high on McNeil and address another need on the roster while changing the composition of the locker room.

Those two offer the most direct path to changing the core of the roster, as Lindor and Soto aren't going anywhere while Nimmo has no trade protection. Even if the Mets wanted to move Nimmo, who is a bit of an awkward fit in the lineup if he isn't hitting near the top of the batting order, they would both need to find a destination he would want to go while also having that team be willing to take on the remaining five years on Nimmo's eight-year, $162 million deal.

There is still time for the current core to change this perception of coming up small in big time spots. Ripping off a strong two weeks to end the regular season and going on another deep October run could change the calculus to the point where Stearns could feel an infusion of youth may be all the Mets need to get to the top of the mountain.

Going out early in October, or failing to make the postseason entirely, would swing the arrow back in the direction of a potential core shakeup. There is no question that Stearns will make some decisions this winter that will be unpopular in the fan community, but the team's track record of failing to finish seasons strong has made it a realistic possibility that key figures in the Mets' locker room could find new homes after the season.