A remixed version of "Meet The Mets" played at the ballpark in Queens before every home game in 2025. But when fans arrive next year, that song will have a much more literal meaning, because they'll be stepping up to greet unfamiliar faces who have filled the void where long-tenured and beloved franchise players once stood. While the disappointment of last season certainly portended a roster shake-up—one that started in November when possible Met-for-life Brandon Nimmo was sent to Texas for Marcus Semien—a couple of key departures this week have nevertheless added new layers of worry and confusion to what was already one of the league's most worried and confused fanbases.
First, on Tuesday, all-star closer Edwin Díaz signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, seemingly not because the money was all that much better, though it was, but because he was ready to play for the back-to-back world champs. Díaz's trumpet-melody entrance created a brand-new jock jam heard in stadiums nationwide, and it served as the most distinctive quality of the team's ballpark experience. While the Mets hope Devin Williams, their newest bullpen signing, will bounce back to the dominant form he showed in Milwaukee a couple years ago, losing your longtime closer is undeniably a destabilizing experience.
What's worse? How about seeing your all-time home run leader in another team's uniform? Just a day after the Díaz news, fans learned that first baseman Pete Alonso would be signing with, of all teams, the penny-pinching Baltimore Orioles. The word from the insiders is that the Mets were ultimately fine with letting him walk if they otherwise would have had to spend $155 million over five years, but his absence means that a non-playoff team from last season is going to have to find a way to replace 38 home runs, 41 doubles, and a 144 OPS+ across 162 games.
In a world where baseball has a salary cap and owner Steve Cohen has a finite amount of money, the choice to let other teams snatch these players would be defensible baseball moves. Nimmo-for-Semien was a calculated swap of players with divergent strengths. If Díaz pitches like he did in 2024, and Williams pitches like he did in 2023, nobody will mind the switch. And the haters are already wondering if Alonso's deal is an ill-advised sequel to the Orioles' dreaded Chris Davis contract. They would be wrong, because Chris Davis is still getting paid, but it was clear in Alonso's free agency last winter and this winter that most of the league is very down on the thought that the slugger's skills will hold up in his 30s.
In this world, however, baseball doesn't have a salary cap, and Cohen is about to build a heavily lobbied-for casino next to his ballpark, so it feels fair for fans to ask him this question: Hey, instead of making us say goodbye to our favorite players, why not just pay them with some of that future slot-machine cash? I can't help but feel a little stupidly naive, being taken aback by roster movement in 2025, but as someone who fell in love with this specific era of the local baseball team, I do have to admit that I feel sad about how much the Mets will look like some other squad next year. Nimmo, despite that awful Christian rock walk-up song, was one of the Mets' most consistent hitters for 10 seasons. Díaz's trumpets feel like the thing young Mets fans will best remember about their first trips to games decades from now. And I can't count how many times Alonso lifted me out of my seat by walloping a ball over the fence; I've definitely seen him hit more home runs live than any other player in my lifetime.
The way the Mets ended last season was excruciating, as the team played .400 ball over the final two months of the season to waste away an inspiring start. It makes sense if the mission is not to repeat what happened last summer, and as these players leave, there remain other talented options available for the wooing. Whatever happens, these transactions have ensured that there's no turning back—that all the fans understand the 2026 season will be different than the one that came before. If it doesn't work, everyone will know exactly who to blame.
