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With the annual GM Meetings kicking off in San Antonio, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns met with the media on Monday night, answering questions about the club’s coaching staff, the plan for Brandon Nimmo in 2025, and the team’s free agency outlook.
Here are the key takeaways from what Stearns had to say…
On the full coaching staff returning
Stearns announced that Carlos Mendoza and his entire staff will return for the 2025 season, which is not much of a surprise given the club’s run to the NLCS.
“These guys did a very good job and are very deserving of coming back,” Stearns said.
On the qualifying offers made and starting rotation plans
Stearns confirmed that the Mets have extended the $21.05 million qualifying offer to Pete Alonso, Sean Manaea, and Luis Severino. If any of those players accept, they’d be back on a one-year deal at that price. If they decline, which is likely for all three, they will hit free agency and can still sign with the Mets. If they sign with another club, the Mets would receive draft compensation.
“He had a great year, we want him back,” Stearns said of Severino when asked about him specifically. “This was sort of the first step in that process, and we’ll see where it goes.”
As for building out the rest of the rotation, Stearns said that while there are different ways to build a staff, he anticipates adding “multiple” starting pitchers this offseason.
“I think multiple is kind of what I’m going for. How many multiples, I don’t know yet,” Stearns said. “We talked about this last offseason too, you can build pitching staffs in very different ways. You can do it via adding starting pitching and going for length at the front end of games, we an structure our bullpen a little differently next year where we’ve got more multiple-inning options who can eat up innings, but certainly we need to find some innings and part of that is going to be adding to the starting rotation.”
“I think there are some good options there,” Stearns said of the free agent pitching market. “We’re at the very front end of this whole thing. Sometimes free agent markets move quickly, and sometimes they take a long time to sort out. We’re beginning all of those conversations and I look forward to having those conversations.
On plans for Nimmo and the outfield alignment
Stearns said that while Nimmo did a nice job in center field when needed, he will likely be the club’s starting left fielder again in 2025.
“I think Brandon did a really nice job in left field, and he also did a nice job occasionally moving over to center and spelling Harrison [Bader] or Tyrone [Taylor],” Stearns said. “For the most part, I think we should expect to see him in left field next year.”
“We’ll have to explore free agency and trade,” Stearns said regarding center field. “We have a lot of confidence in Tyrone. Tyrone did a very nice job at all three (outfield spots) this past year, so I think he can do a nice job wherever we ask him to play.”
On the club’s financial resources and how much they’re willing to spend in free agency
Stearns wouldn’t talk about any players specifically, but it’s widely assumed the Mets will be key players, if not the favorites, in the Juan Soto sweepstakes, as well as in on other big stars.
Asked about how the club’s payroll under owner Steve Cohen comes into play, Stearns admitted there is plenty of flexibility, but the budget is not unlimited.
“There are a lot of free agents out there, and I’m sure we will have conversations with a number of different free agents,” Stearns said.
“We understand that we have financial flexibility. We also understand that that flexibility is not limitless. There are bounds to what we can do, and there are bounds not only this year, but there are bounds in future years, and we have to be cognizant of all of those bounds. Steve is going to support what we think are wise baseball initiatives. He’s going to support those initiatives as much as any owner in baseball, and now it’s our job to execute.”
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