Mets in launch mode as highly anticipated season arrives
Mets outfielder Juan Soto during a spring training game against the Miami Marlins in Jupiter, Fla., on Feb. 26. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
HOUSTON
The previous New York team to employ Juan Soto and open the season against the Astros, in the ballpark formerly known as Minute Maid, used that four-game sweep as the launchpad for a World Series run.
It was only a year ago, almost to the day. And when the lights went on for real, Soto was electric, using Space City’s retractable-roof dome as his personal pinball machine. Once the dust cleared, Soto’s numbers sparkled: 9-for-17, double, homer, four RBIs, 1.365 OPS and one game-saving throw to the plate in the ninth inning of the season-opening win.
“There were a lot of eyes on Juan, and in his first game as a Yankee, he showed up,” said Clay Holmes, who joined Soto in defecting from the Bronx to Flushing this winter. “It seems the more people are watching, Juan shows up.”
We were going to leave that other team’s name out of this conversation before Clay dropped it in because the pinstriped chapter of Soto’s career is closed. Looking back, it’s best characterized as a one-year audition for his record-setting 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets — and Soto obviously aced that final test.
But the stakes now, one could argue, are actually higher, for both Soto and the Mets. Nobody’s ever played with the weight of such a massive contract on their shoulders before. And from the team’s perspective, these are not the same upstart Mets that embarked on their transition season at this time a year ago, under David Stearns’ debut as president of baseball operations.
When these Mets (with their $325 million payroll) take the field Thursday at the newly renamed Daiken Park, there’s a single outcome on everyone’s mind: a deep postseason run, with a legit shot at the club’s first World Series title in nearly three decades. It’s inescapable, and a drumbeat that’s going to follow the Mets from Framber Valdez’s first pitch to Francisco Lindor at 4:10 p.m. Thursday afternoon. After the Winter of Soto, and six weeks of spring training hype, Opening Day marks the official face-to-face meeting of the Mets and their sky-high expectations.
Against that backdrop, I pitched the same question to both Stearns and second-year manager Carlos Mendoza, about how this year feels different from the buildup to their Flushing debuts. True to their personalities, they stayed on a more measured track, but had to acknowledge the volume going up to 11 around them.
“There’s a lot more noise now, from the outside,” Mendoza said during Thursday’s workout at Daiken Park. “But from our point [of view], we’ve got to continue to push guys, continue to improve in a lot of different areas, and go out there and compete.”
This is where Mendoza’s experience across town should come in handy. Not that he has anything left to prove after a brilliant rookie season at the helm — our pick as Manager of the Year — but Mendoza is fully aware of what early pressure feels like from his Bronx conditioning. As for Stearns, he never experienced it from the jump as the top shot-caller in Milwaukee, so this is new territory to some degree. But being a New Yorker at his core, and a Mets fan from early adolescence, Stearns understands the tangible complexities of that “noise.”
“We know there’s more attention,” Stearns said.
Historically, the Mets have struggled under these circumstances. Since the franchise’s birth in 1962, they’ve made the playoffs in consecutive years only twice, and never three times in a row. The last time it happened was after the stunning World Series appearance of 2015, which was followed by a wild-card loss, the wrong end of a Madison Bumgarner-Noah Syndergaard duel, on their home turf.
But the past is the past, and this Stearns-Mendoza pairing — along with the stewardship of owner Steve Cohen — gives off a considerably different vibe, especially when you insert Soto into a lineup that’s essentially the same as it was last October. Now Soto hits between Francisco Lindor, last year’s MVP runner-up, and the powerful Pete Alonso, slugging for a do-over at a big payday.
The two glaring omissions are the injuries to Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez, a pair of dangerous bats that will upgrade the bottom third of the lineup when they return. But for now, the Mets turn to Brett Baty, a tarnished prospect resurrecting himself at second base, and the elevated backup Luis Torrens behind the plate.
And speaking of reinvention, the Mets will send out Holmes — the Yankees closer from last year — to throw out their opening pitch this season. And ideally another 80 or so beyond that as the Mets’ dinged-up rotation hopes to get a spark from their current but unanticipated No. 1 starter. Compared with the unflinching spotlight on Soto, Holmes’ own wild Bronx narrative is somewhat under the radar. But where he’s been gives Holmes a wise perspective on where these Mets should be going.
“You can feel the excitement for the Mets,” Holmes said. “Everybody knows the payroll, the talent we have here, and there will be things that come with that. There’s expectations, but there’s a lot of accountability and expectations in that locker room, too. And I think that’s what makes this group great — they have fun, but there’s a standard that’s trying to be set here.
“To go into the season knowing you have a real shot to win the championship, that’s what you want to play for. And I think we all feel that, and know that, and it’s a responsibility we’re all excited to have.”
Now the 2025 Mets finally get to show everyone what that really looks like.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
