The New York Mets have the second-highest payroll in baseball. They also have a 40-57 record at the halfway point of the 2026 season, which is the fourth-worst mark in the majors. That combination is not supposed to happen. And according to longtime MLB insider Jon Heyman, there is no polite way to describe it.
“It’s a disaster. … They need to sell, obviously. They are terrible,” Heyman said on The Show with Joel Sherman. “I did have them winning the division. That’s not too good. They’re a very bad team.”
Heyman went a step further and graded the front office, specifically president of baseball operations David Stearns. “Stearns gets an F for this year. He’s going to need an A+ to turn this around.”
That is harsh. But it is also hard to argue with the math.
Coming off a 2025 season where the Mets collapsed late and missed the postseason, the front office tried to retool. They lost Pete Alonso to the Baltimore Orioles. They lost Edwin Diaz to the Los Angeles Dodgers. In response, they signed shortstop Bo Bichette after he posted an excellent season with the World Series runner-up Toronto Blue Jays. They brought in Marcus Semien to shore up the infield defense. They signed former Yankee Devin Williams on a reasonable deal to replace Diaz at the back of the bullpen.
On paper, it made sense. On the field, it has been a nightmare.
Injuries have wrecked any chance this team had. Francisco Lindor has missed significant time. Semien, Luis Robert Jr., and Mark Vientos are all currently on the injured list. Clay Holmes suffered a freak injury. Bichette has underperformed badly and recently missed a game with a lower-body issue.
The result is a team that never found a rhythm and now looks destined for a sell-off at the trade deadline. The question is not whether the Mets will be sellers. The question is how aggressively they tear it down and whether Stearns can restock a farm system that has been drained by years of win-now moves.
Heyman seems skeptical that a quick fix is possible. “They need to sell, obviously,” he said. For a franchise that has spent at or near the top of the payroll ledger for years, hearing that word attached to a mid-July team is about as damning as it gets.
Leave a Comment