This Has Mets Fans UPSET...

This has Mets fans upset, and boy is that an understatement. Pete Alonso is on a rampage right now and is putting himself into AL MVP talks as memories of him as a Met are becoming more sentimental with Jorge Polanco long on the IL and David Stearns having to answer for one of the worst inexcusable mistakes made by any president of baseball operations or GM in Mets history. What's going on guys? I'm Josh Byrne. You're tuned into Mets Digest. Guys, thanks so much for all the recent support and engagement. It does mean a lot and as we continue to build the channel, if you're one of the 68% of viewers who are watching but not subscribed, it would certainly mean quite a lot if you would consider doing so. Now, this is a video that I've been grappling with for a while about making, but I think it's time. You know, we are not happy as Mets fans. This has been a failure of a season and Pete Alonso is putting together a heck of a year for the Baltimore Orioles who, in a mediocre American league, have a shot to make the playoffs. And Pete Alonso didn't have to be. He didn't have to be a Baltimore Oriole. It just doesn't look right. It never will to me. And the biggest annoyance about this is that the Mets have a strong history, right? With developing pitching. But when it comes to hitting, they really don't. Darryl Strawberry was a great player. Obviously held back. We know about the side stories and then him going to the Dodgers in free agency, yes. David Wright held back by injuries in his own right. Probably the best position player the Mets have developed all around. But Pete Alonso was well on his way and is well on his way in his career to achieving 500 home runs, maybe 40 to 50 wins above replacement, and being a top five first baseman year in, year out. You know exactly what you're going to get from him. Fan favorite. And David Stearns decided, nah, we're going to favor defense and run prevention. And seemingly put the emphasis of the 2025 failures on linchpins in the Mets organization and Brandon Nemo and Pete Alonso. Now Brandon Nemo was traded one for one for Marcus Simeon. While I understood the rationale of trading Nemo and getting out of that contract, Marcus Simeon's been a disaster. That's another video. But Pete Alonso, it's disappointing, it was upsetting. And even when he was brought back after 2024, I think we all knew the only reason he was brought back was because the Mets were able to get him on a one year deal. David Stearns never wanted Pete Alonso back. That is true. And instead, Alonso is now on the Toronto Blue Jays for honestly, to me, a relatively reasonable deal. Five years, 155 million. You think about some of the other contracts, specifically Juan Soto, who by the way, don't get me wrong, is a superior player to Pete Alonso. But when you think about the Sluggers, this is kind of what you'd expect. And for a team with the resources that the New York Mets have, you cannot tell me that there is no reason they couldn't have handed out a similar kind of contract to the Polar Bear and he would have accepted and he would have been a lifelong Met. And we would have seen each and every home run him making history and not just making history, but being a good player. Now was there an argument to move away from him? I mean, yeah, his defense wasn't great. It wasn't terrible. He was really good at scooping balls out of the dirt. But you knew he would be a top five offensive first baseman in the league every single season. You just knew and you knew he would play every day. And what he is doing this year reflected on baseball savant, it's amongst the best output he's ever had. But last year, the results were quite similar. This is this year. This is last year. The defense grades out higher this year, so good for him. But I also think that analyzing first baseman defensively is a tough one, because as I said, I think we can all agree, or at least most of us who've watched Pete Alonso over the years can agree, he excelled at picking balls out of the dirt. What he didn't excel at was shifting left or right and specifically throwing the ball. He has always had this weird struggle and inability to toss the baseball. We all forget the horror. I mean, we all remember. We want to forget the horrible Kodai Senga injury that seemingly was a turning point that derailed the Mets season. And it was after a errant toss by Pete Alonso, which led to an awkward landing of Kodai Senga leading to his I.L. stint. And from there, the Mets season went south. But by no means am I putting the blame of last year on Pete Alonso. The point is, yeah, he had his flaws, but you knew what you were getting. What you were getting was a seemingly elite first baseman. But if you want to say, okay, David Stearns, we want better defense, fine. So it's one thing to not bring him back, okay? It's one thing to say, oh, maybe his swing speed will diminish, and maybe his profile doesn't jump out to you as one that will develop well as he continues to move into his early to mid-thirties. Okay, fine. But what the real malpractice was is replacing him with someone who had never played the position before, and not only doing that, but giving him almost the same AAV that Pete Alonso got anyways, just on a shorter-term deal. And it's not just with Jorge Polanco. This is a pattern with David Stearns. He goes second tier on the market and still overpays guys, but does it so that he doesn't have to hit the top market value and he can get shorter-term deals. Think Frankie Montas. Instead of signing a longer-term, larger, more lucrative contract for a free agent pitcher, he goes the cuter route, the more outside-the-box route. And his outside-the-box thinking, it's worked when he's brought in guys who have been rejected in the past, bullpen relievers, a few misfit toys like Jared Young. It has not worked with these larger free agent deals. And I'm not going to lie to you. I was relatively excited about Jorge Polanco because he was a good hitter last year, but I never thought that him by himself was going to adequately replace Pete Alonso. But I couldn't have foreseen him never playing first base. And I also couldn't have foreseen him being so injured, but also just so awful. Jorge Polanco does not deserve to be on the 2027 Mets based on what he did this year. He was the worst player in Major League Baseball. Pete Alonso's on his way to a 5-4 season, Jorge Polanco, negative 1.4. Now I know war is an imperfect stat and there's different platforms that show different things, but when you think about things that David Stearns could have done differently this past offseason that could have led to a different result, how he handled the first base situation is mind-boggling. And you might wonder, well, Jorge Polanco, he missed a lot of time this year, he never played first base. Well, what happened in between then? I'll give one compliment. Jared Young's done a fine job. Now these numbers don't incorporate today's game, but he's done a fine job. Don't believe in him as a long-term starter, but I think he's a complimentary piece moving forward. Still nowhere near the hitter and player that Pete Alonso is, and this is where it just gets obnoxious. Mark Vientos, I mean, he's not going to be on this team next year, I don't think. He has no value anymore, and I wish him the best, but his best days as a Met are beyond him. It's not going to work out here, it hasn't. And Brett Beatty, though he hasn't played much first base, he has absolutely gotten more at bats because Jorge Polanco hasn't been able to stay healthy. And Jorge Polanco, again, was the bat that came here to replace Pete Alonso's bat. And Brett Beatty and Mark Vientos have been atrocious this season. No other way to say it. Jared Young has been good, but he is not an everyday player. And now we're seeing Christopher Murrell and Eric Waggaman at times play against left-handed pitching. They're quadruple-A players at this point. And mercifully, Jorge Polanco decided to move forward with the ankle surgery, and Andy Green provided an update on what we can expect in his recovery. He said, Jorge Polanco, well this is a tweet from SNY Mets, Jorge Polanco underwent surgery as expected earlier this week. Andy Green didn't commit to Polanco being a full go at the start of spring training. Instead, he'll be in a baseball progression at the time. Jorge Polanco's been in a baseball progression ever since he signed with the New York Metropolitans. What we've gotten is this. A 431 OPS and having to watch Pete Alonso hit dingers seemingly every day in the month of August. While the Baltimore Orioles fight for a playoff spot, while they're just a couple games below 500, not very good, right? Maybe if the Mets weren't so embarrassingly awful and didn't lose 12 straight and didn't immediately fall out of it due to the failures of David Stearns, they could at least be mediocre enough to be in that same kind of pennant race. I might sound like a bitter ex-girlfriend, it's fine. I know there's nothing we can do about it now, but it needs to be said. Mets fans are upset, you have every right to be, and unfortunately we're never going to see Pete Alonso pan out as that franchise first baseman setting all the records. He did already, but there's no reason why he shouldn't have been a career New York Met. And not only is that sad and unfortunate, but it's created a massive hole on the New York Mets roster, and something that they're going to need to fix quickly, and something that I don't have any confidence they will be able to solve in the correct fashion. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below, and as always guys, even when it's tough, and it usually is being a Mets fan, let's go Mets.