Can David Stearns replicate Mets' successful chemistry experiment?
Pete Alonso of the Mets celebrates after Game 5 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Among all the various data points president of baseball operations David Stearns used when he constructed this roster, the success of this year’s Mets team presented an additional facet that proved largely unquantifiable.
What is chemistry? How much value does it provide? And, as a slew of his players prepare to hit free agency this offseason, how can Stearns recreate it next year?
He grappled with that publicly Wednesday when addressing reporters in an end-of-season news conference, and correctly settled on the fact that there was no perfect answer. It echoed what he said months ago, when it started becoming evident that it was a key component to this Mets team: Chemistry is great to have, and very, very hard to manufacture.
“The formula is different every single year,” he said Wednesday at Citi Field. “Chemistry is really important — having guys who play hard, who I think genuinely enjoy coming to the ballpark is very important. It’s not always the easiest thing to predict . . . It is something that’s a challenge a little bit, to know exactly how a group is going to mesh.”
It’s the sort of emotional conundrum that feels almost foreign in the age of analytics and hyper-optimization. We know baseball is a business, and none of that changes just because people like to joke that the 2024 Mets made it to within two games of a World Series behind the power of friendship.
But we also know that businesses are built on people, and that there was an adrenaline-fueled, wildly beating heart behind the improbable run that brought the Mets to the NLCS.
To hear the players tell the tale, theirs was a team that honed connection and communication, and transformed it into a weapon. Oh, sure, there was plenty of talent, and a lot of very fortunate hits, but there was measurable value, too, in the way they shared information, played off each other’s strengths, and created an environment where people wanted to get better.
And there’s a practical reason to all this philosophizing, and one that might make this Stearns’ most challenging offseason yet. The Mets have about $180 million coming off the books, and some big decisions to make — and at least some of it will come down to what value Stearns and owner Steve Cohen put on something intrinsically incalculable.
One of the biggest questions, of course, surrounds Pete Alonso. There will be very good first basemen available this year — Christian Walker comes to mind — and Alonso, represented by Scott Boras, won’t come cheap. Stearns will also have to balance Alonso’s desire for a long contract against the fact that there can sometimes be a steep decline for first basemen entering their 30s.
But then there’s the other side of it: Despite a statistically middling regular season, the slugger proved his value with a number of highly emotional October moments, particularly his ninth-inning go-ahead homer to save the Mets from the brink of elimination and send them to the NLDS. He’s a homegrown Met with blue and orange running through his veins. Do you open up the coffers for a player that Stearns said “has been a foundational piece for this organization”?
What about Sean Manaea? He’s definitely opting out of the second year of his contract — his qualifying offer is more than he was slated to make in 2025. The cons: He’s entering his age-33 season, threw the most innings of his career and who knows how that will affect him next year, and who knows, too, if he can replicate his best season yet. The pros: He’s a lefty who’s not afraid to reinvent himself to get better, his crossfire delivery bedeviled hitters and, to borrow some internet parlance, his vibes were immaculate.
The Mets’ id says bring them both back for whatever they want. But the business part — the part Stearns has to listen to, too — says that following your heart often comes at great cost. This is, after all, the year of Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes, and though Cohen has been far from stingy, realistically, there’s only so much money they can spend.
“Pretty much the entirety of the player universe is potentially accessible to us,” Stearns said. “That’s an enormous opportunity. I envision taking advantage of that opportunity and being aggressive in certain spaces.”
Just take a minute to contemplate that: The Mets can have pretty much anyone. So, how much do you offer to stick with the guys who gave you the most magical season in recent memory? How much faith do you put into the idea that, even with similar players, this season was more than just a confluence of events that created a unique and irreplicable moment in time? Like chemistry, there’s no foolproof formula for him to follow.
At one point Wednesday, Stearns was asked how he manages the business side of things with an owner who is so clearly a passionate fan of the team. His tone was measured, though it felt like he almost took it as an affront.
“We’re all emotional,” he said. “There are emotional parts to me as well. It’s really difficult to strip away all emotion as you do these things, but] certainly, we try to implement processes that help us with that, that keep us honest.”
To wit, when contemplating this year, Stearns, who grew up a Mets fan, let some of that emotion peek through.
“It stings,” he said. “It still stings for me right now and it will for a little while, and it should. That means we care about it. That means we’re doing something important. That means we made it far enough for it to really hurt.”
This year’s Mets team was special because no one expected them to be what they were. It was special because of the parts that made up the whole — so many of whom are not likely to return next year. Now, it’s up to Stearns to figure out how much he intends to hold onto the past while creating a future.
It’s the search for chemistry, but there is no formula. And it’ll define this franchise for years to come.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.