NEW YORK, NY — “In with the new” summarizes the Mets’ offseason moves thus far as the 2026 roster is shaping up more and more by the week with pitchers and catchers reporting in less than a month.
The Mets made their biggest offseason move to upgrade their offense when they signed free agent infielder Bo Bichette on Friday to a three-year, $126 million contract. The news of his signing came approximately twelve hours after their most desired free agent, outfielder Kyle Tucker, signed with the Dodgers for an amazing four-year, $240 million contract.
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It should be noted that in addition to paying him $42 million annually, Bichette can opt out of his deal at the conclusion of every season.
It is easy to see Bichette’s appeal to Mets President of Baseball Operations, David Stearns. He is a contact hitter who is at his best with runners in scoring position. That was a glaring Mets weakness last season.
On the debit side of the ledger, Bichette has been a shortstop for most of his time in the majors. The Mets are asking him to move to third base since Francisco Lindor occupies his old position.
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Mets fans of a certain age will remember when their team traded future Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan to the Angels for Jim Fregosi who had been the perennial shortstop on American League All-Star teams. It turned out Fregosi could not play the hot corner, and it affected his offense. He barely lasted a year with the Mets.
Even more concerning, Bo Bichette will never be a Gold Glover contender at any position because he has limited range at getting to ground balls, and he has a below-average throwing arm. This seems to fly in the face of David Stearns’ run prevention mantra. Which he has been espousing ever since the disastrous 2025 season concluded. Bichette will not be helped by Jorge Polanco, who is currently penciled in to be the Mets’ first baseman, and he has played just a few innings there in his big-league career.
You must wonder why the Mets were eager to get rid of fan favorite, and the club’s all-time home run leader, Pete Alonso. The five-year, $155 million contract the Orioles lavished upon him now seems like the bargain of this baseball offseason.
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Alonso’s defense is far better than David Stearns believes. He can scoop out bad throws from infielders, as well as preventing many extra base hits by getting his body in front of hard-hit grounders down the first base line.
The Mets now have a glut of infielders on their roster as exemplified by Brett Baty, Mark Vientos Luisangel Acuña, Ronny Mauricio, Marcus Semien, and now, Bo Bichette. They are woefully short in the outfield, and in starting pitching. David Stearns had better have reached out to his counterparts on the Twins and the Brewers, to see if there is interest in those players in getting Joe Ryan or Freddy Peralta, via trades.
Red Sox signs LHP Ranger Suárez to five-year/$130 million deal
While Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette were dominating the baseball headlines, longtime Phillies starter Ranger Suárez, who has quietly become one of the best pitchers in the game, signed a five-year contract with the Red Sox.
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Suárez would have been a good pickup for the starting pitching-starved Mets.
“Another Life” to be released in August
Legendary former Met Darryl Strawberry is authoring a book, “Another Life,” which will deal with his difficulties from the time he retired from baseball. It is expected to be released in August and will coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Mets’ last World Series-winning team.
David Cone parts ways with ESPN
David Cone, who like Darryl Strawberry, played for both the Mets and the Yankees, has amicably parted ways with ESPN because the Worldwide Leader in Sports has lost its Sunday night MLB package to NBC. ESPN will still televise MLB games during the week, but that would interfere with Cone’s commitment to serving as an analyst for Yankees games on the YES Network.
Matt Ryan returning to Falcons to serve as organization’s President of Football Operations
Matt Ryan, who spent fourteen seasons being the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons and the Indianapolis Colts before becoming an NFL analyst for CBS, is returning to the Falcons to serve as their president of football operations. Ryan told me two years ago, when he took the CBS gig, that he is still close to Falcons owner, and Flushing High School alum, Arthur Blank, so his return to take the reins of that underachieving team is not surprising.
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Football fans will miss Ryan’s wit and insights. In 2024, Ryan was broadcasting a Jets game and made this humorous, and spot-on, observation. “Zach Wilson holds on to the football longer than it takes to read the menu at Cheesecake Factory!”
Multi-part Documentary on Andre Agassi in the works with Netflix
The Apple TV streaming service announced it is working on a multi-part documentary series on retired tennis star Andre Agassi. No release date has been set yet, but I expect it to coincide with the start of the 2026 US Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows Park.
Postgame Press Conference after Jaguars lose to Bills in AFC Wild Card Round
Lynn Jones, a sportswriter for the Jacksonville Free Press, became a controversial viral sensation when she offered effusive praise to Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen during the press conference following the Jags’ last-second loss to the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the American Football Conference playoffs.
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Jones has been covering the Jaguars since 2000, so I believe her statement was made out of sincerity, as opposed to trying to curry favor with the team’s public relations department, but it got me thinking about the media’s coverage of sports teams, and how teams can restrict access to reporters, especially those from smaller outlets, if they do not like what they are asking players and/or coaches, or what they are writing.
Softball Questions in Brooklyn
Last month, the YES Network’s Frank Isola complained to his partner, Chris Shearn, about the softball questions reporters were asking Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez following the team’s desultory loss to the Utah Jazz. The Nets had played the night before, and they appeared to run out of gas against the Jazz by the fourth quarter. Many of the queries to Fernandez were peppered with compliments to the Nets for playing as well as they did for three quarters, especially given the fatigue, and the fact some key players were injured.
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“Reporters should not be asking questions which offer excuses. Jordi Fernandez, to his credit, refused to accept them for his team’s loss,” Isola stated.
While Frank Isola, who is a very respected sportswriter and broadcaster, is obviously correct, I need to offer a defense to those reporters. I have been to press conferences where the moderator from the team’s public relations department will contemptuously ignore reporters who have their hands in the air wanting to ask a question. In the same way, it is common for these gatekeepers to deny credentials to journalists they do not like, especially if they are not from major outlets. It is an unfortunate reality in an era when the media is under attack by those in power.
You can read more of Lloyd Carroll’s columns posted weekly on The Queens Chronicle.
