With a $340 million payroll and the momentum of a surprise run to the NLCS the year before, the Mets had every reason to believe 2025 would be special. And for the first two months, it even looked that way. But by the end of the regular season, they failed to make MLB’s expanded postseason altogether. Thus turned what once felt like a dream season into one of the sport’s biggest disappointments.

So who’s really to blame for the Mets’ collapse?

Well, as per former Mets manager and legend Terry Collins, the team’s core should take the blame. “This core has not won. Maybe it’s time to go with the different core.” And guess what, the Mets front office might just have listened to him, letting Pete Alonso, Edwin Díaz, and Brandon Nimmo walk this offseason. But according to team insiders, the problems run deeper. Amid all the chaos, they suggest the Mets may be overlooking a much bigger missing piece!

“It is genuinely infuriating that people are so quick to blame the offensive core of this team without mentioning how dog s*** the pitching was,” Just Mets host Andrew Claudio and sports anchor Dexter Henry concluded what should be blamed for the Mets’ debacle.

Well, let’s also be honest about just how bad the Mets’ pitching was. For example, no pitching staff in baseball induced more ground balls than the Mets, and yet they finished in the bottom third of the league at actually turning those grounders into outs.

Game 162 summed up the entire season. The Mets had simply run out of reliable starters, forcing them to hand the ball to a struggling Sean Manaea, who didn’t even make it out of the second inning. From there, it became a bullpen parade: Huascar Brazobán, Brooks Raley, Ryne Stanek, and Tyler Rogers. And by the time Edwin Díaz finally entered in the fifth, the damage was already done.

The rotation depth didn’t inspire much confidence either. Griffin Canning, Tylor Megill, and Paul Blackburn were serviceable as depth pieces, but relying on two of the three as regular starters was always a gamble.

Then there was the bullpen as a whole.

Its 3.93 ERA ranked 15th in baseball, squarely in the middle of the pack. For some perspective, Díaz alone has been worth more wins above replacement than the rest of the bullpen combined, even after stripping out the negative WAR at the bottom. He’s racked up 57 shutdowns, nearly matching the entire group!

So, that’s why insiders keep circling back to the same question… Why did the Mets let proven veterans walk when the real priority should have been fixing the pitching infrastructure that ultimately sank the season?

The Mets are at a crossroads like never before

Well, it seems clear that the Mets are trying to be more cautious with their long-term spending. They’re betting that Devin Williams can replace at least some of what Edwin Díaz brought, that a 31-year-old Pete Alonso might not justify five more years of elite production. And that Marcus Semien’s defense and leadership offer more overall value than Brandon Nimmo’s numbers ever did.

But the biggest question remains the bullpen! Can Williams really take that pressure off? The concern is that he’s coming off a down year himself. In 2025, Williams went 4–6 with a 4.79 ERA and 18 saves, a sharp drop from his usual All-Star standard.

And here in the Mets, with Díaz gone, he’s expected to anchor the bullpen as a high-leverage setup man. That’s a big role, especially for someone trying to rebound from a quietly disappointing season of his own.

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So, even with a handful of offseason moves, the Mets still haven’t truly stabilized their pitching. The names may have changed, but the biggest issue from 2025 remains unresolved. And until that’s fixed, it’s hard to see how this team avoids another year of frustration.