New-look Mets will show if David Stearns' offseason moves were the right ones

And now we’ll see if it works.

Most people will tell you that there’s little value in looking back in baseball, and that certainly was the general idea when Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns took a hydraulic hammer to his roster after the 2025 collapse.

Gone are Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and (much to the team’s chagrin) Edwin Diaz. Gone, too, are almost all of the coaching staff, with manager Carlos Mendoza clinging to his job for dear life.

But this new Mets team still is a product of what came before it.

Stearns’ unorthodox approach was a direct response to the so-called worst team money could buy. They needed better defense, so they got Marcus Semien from the Rangers. They needed a stopper, so they acquired Freddy Peralta from the Brewers to head the rotation.

But there also are plenty of questions: The focus was on run prevention, but that can be tricky when you have a third baseman who has never played third base in Bo Bichette and a first baseman who has played exactly one pitch at first in Jorge Polanco. Both obviously have gotten reps there during spring training, but it’s important to call this what it is — a risk.

You also have to account for Luis Robert Jr. He’s a five-tool player who was a well-deserved All-Star in 2023, but he simply can’t stay healthy. And again, there’s that high risk and high reward: “If we keep this guy healthy, the sky’s the limit,” Mendoza said. “When he was healthy, he was one of the best players in the league.”

The numbers bear that out. At his best, Robert will be a power hitter and elite defender in centerfield, and he now has the benefit of not being the only star on a historically bad White Sox team. At his worst, he’s on the injured list and hitting .230.

But there are some intangible things that make this Mets season intriguing. While they’re dealing with plenty of unknowns, Stearns seems to have done a good job of populating the clubhouse with players with proven track records, both on and off the field.

He repeatedly has said you can’t really concoct chemistry, but there was a notable lack of oomph in last year’s squad (hardly an indictment, considering how miserable the second half was). And at least early on, this new group has a little pep in its step.

Semien and Bichette are focused and professional. Juan Soto, now in his second year in Flushing, has the ability to fully be himself — fun, fierce and playful. Polanco has proved amenable to doing whatever is asked of him.

Mendoza has been delighted by what he’s seen of Kodai Senga, whose injuries these past two seasons had cast a shadow on his personality and his production.

“It’s really, really encouraging,” Mendoza said of Senga, whose fastball was clocked in the high 90s in spring training. “Watching him throw the ball and the way he’s doing it now, I’ve never seen it — especially this early and since I’ve been here. There are a lot of good things happening here.”

Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez appear primed to take the next step. Carson Benge made the Opening Day roster. Nolan McLean showed his grit in the World Baseball Classic and can only benefit from more experience. Christian Scott, who likely will start the season in Triple-A, has reminded people of what made him such a prized prospect before he went down with Tommy John surgery.

But there are concerns, too. Mark Vientos struggled in spring training, and that’s something to keep an eye on in the early going. Sean Manaea has had a troubling downtick in velocity. We’ll all have to see if the surgery on Francisco Lindor’s hamate will hinder him out of the gate.

The bullpen will be a cipher early on, too: Devin Williams and Luke Weaver, the closer and setup man, have high ceilings but need to prove they can bounce back from a frustrating 2025. A.J. Minter has been out of baseball for about a year while recovering from a torn lat, and Brooks Raley, while dominant last year, also faced a heavy workload for a player returning from Tommy John surgery.

But this is a veteran group with something to prove, and that can be its own weapon.

“I think guys are getting after it and that’s been good to see,” Stearns said. “We have a very focused group in there. The work has been really quality on the field, and that’s not something you see every spring. I think we have a group that is actively trying to get better every single day, and that could be somewhat unique with a team full of veterans. That’s not often the case. A lot of the times, you come into spring training with a veteran team and everyone’s got Opening Day circled.”

But now Opening Day is upon us, and we finally get to see: Is it all actually going to work?

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.