NEW YORK -- A couple hours before the Mets kicked off their penultimate homestand of a 2026 season that’s been easy to characterize as difficult on the whole, president of baseball operations David Stearns shared a bit of cautious optimism. It was a different tenor than the feeling around the club directly after the 2026 Trade Deadline, where a scuffling New York club pressed the reset button and traded away eight players, receiving 12 prospects in return.
Over the last month and a half, the atmosphere around the Mets has risen ever so slightly. Entering Friday night’s matchup against the Giants, New York has notched a 16-11 record, finding itself mired in competitive series after competitive series against potential postseason clubs.
“To some extent, it’s good to see that we are competing against really good teams, some of the best teams in the league,” Stearns said, a little less than 48 hours after the Mets’ 10-4 victory against the Rays on Wednesday. “That’s also where we should be. That’s what we expect of ourselves. And so yes, I am glad that we are playing pretty competitive baseball. … That is also the expectation.”
That seems to be the balance the Mets will strike over the next month of regular-season play: Searching for the positives with members of their young core (which seems to be rounding into shape with the likes of outfielders Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing, and pitchers Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and Zac Thornton), while also acknowledging the residing feeling of falling short of the lofty expectations set at the beginning of the year.
The emergence of the former group, as well as pieces like first baseman Jared Young and reliever Nate Lavender getting more run, has the chance to make the medicine go down a little smoother with decisions looming in the 2026-2027 offseason.
In his previous outing, McLean became the 12th Mets rookie to record a 10-win season in franchise history, and entered Friday leading rookie pitchers in strikeouts (172) and quality starts (17) while leading National League rookie pitchers fWAR (3.0). Benge already owns the mark for sixth-most hits in a single season by a Mets rookie (141), bearing down on the record held by Pete Alonso (155), set in 2019.
“I think what maybe has solidified for me, and for us, is the continued performance from this emerging young core,” Stearns said. “We’ve had a lot of belief in these players. We’ve placed a lot of trust in these younger players, but you never know how it’s going to go. … So to see the consistency of their performances, to see each of them in various ways bounce back from a couple of down starts or a down month, and stay with the level of determination that you see really good big leaguers have.
“As much as anything, that has been encouraging. And to see that even take another step forward over the past month, past six weeks, has been great to see.”
Stearns shared that the plan for the club’s priorities for the looming offseason is still in the early stages, having more and more conversations internally. He admitted that the reality of their position -- entering Friday in fifth place in the NL East and 20 games behind the Braves -- is far from fun. But, there’s the exciting prospect of collecting more information about who (or what) will help the club put together the pieces from a disjointed 2026 campaign.
“Throughout this season, we have believed we have had a talented team,” Stearns said. “We’ve shown it at spurts over the last five-six weeks. Clearly, we are where we are because we haven’t done that consistently enough. So I think we take the good of what we’ve seen more recently, acknowledge it, but also weigh it appropriately with what’s happened throughout the entirety of the season.
“But I am encouraged by what we’ve seen. We’ve seen continued progression from a lot of players who are going to be here next year, and for many years -- and that is very encouraging for me. I think that lifts the organization as a whole, as we head into an offseason and ultimately construct our team for ’27.”