The Mets’ start to the 2026 season began with heightened expectations after pieces of the longtime core were jettisoned in the wake of a slow-motion collapse that sunk last season’s playoff hopes.
But with a bevy of new faces, the Mets will not only miss the postseason again, but will end the season under .500 for the first time since 2023.
In short, owner Steve Cohen feels this year has been “pretty frustrating.”
Expect some new names in the front office next year.
Cohen, while talking with SNY’s broadcasting trio during Saturday’s Mets-Phillies game, opened up on the state of the team and what he hopes can change for 2027.
While he said he doesn’t “have to” add a general manager under president of baseball operations David Stearns, Cohen does expect to infuse different voices into the front office.
“Well, I’ve been working with the front office, and I’ve identified some things that we can do better,” Cohen said. ” I think they have really good processes up there, but I felt there were areas of improvement that we can work on. … We’re going to add certain voices into the front office that I think be helpful. And I’m thinking towards that. And I’m looking forward to when we make those decisions.”
“It doesn’t have to be a GM,” Cohen added. “It could be other ways to support David and the front office. And I think the whole point is getting more opinions in the front office and people who are pretty, pretty good at evaluating talent, or people who’ve been in those positions before in the front office, in a high position in the front office, and help David out and help the team out as far as getting different points of view.”
The Mets’ offseason saw the team let mainstays Pete Alonso (Orioles) and Edwin Diaz (Dodgers) leave in free agency while Brandon Nimmo (Rangers) and Jeff McNeil (A’s) were traded.
But things did not pay off, with the Mets sitting in last place in the National League East.
Alonso, in his return to Queens with the Orioles this week, mashed his 300th career home run — a game-tying shot off Kodai Senga — on Tuesday night, which elicited loud cheers from the Citi Field crowd.
Cohen, who was seen clapping and standing up for Alonso’s historic homer, said he understood the reaction from Mets fans.
“It’s hard to say goodbye to homegrown players, and obviously he’s well-liked and a great Met,” Cohen said. “And those decisions get made, and unfortunately, [we’ve] got to look forward and look forward to ’27 and what we’re going to do.”
One of those decisions will be hiring a full-time manager after interim skipper Andy Green is expected to return to a front-office role. Cohen, who did not divulge any specific names the Mets are looking to hire, said he sees the role of manager as “mostly about culture and bringing the locker room together.”
What he did bring up was he expects better from the on-field product going forward.
“This is the second year in a row we haven’t made the playoffs,” Cohen said. “That’s pretty frustrating. I’m not happy about it. But it doesn’t mean, you know, I’m going to sit there and mope on it. I’m going to try to figure out how to improve things. And I think I’ve done that, and I think you’ll see some decisions over the next few weeks that demonstrate that.”
