It’s been a rough start to the offseason for Mets fans.
They’ve now seen three of their favorites leave town after last season’s ugly collapse that ended with the club falling short of the playoffs for the second time in three years.
The first blow came when Brandon Nimmo was dealt to the Rangers.
Edwin Diaz then decided to depart for the two-time defending champion Dodgers, and just one day later, Pete Alonso left for Baltimore on a big-money five-year pact.
As expected, the moves have drawn emotional reactions from fans all over social media.
Mets owner Steve Cohen is empathetic, but he stressed in a text to Jon Heyman of the NY Post that the winter is just getting started.
“I totally understand the fans’ reaction,” Cohen wrote. “There is lots of offseason left to put a playoff team on the field.”
Cohen is right, it is early, and there’s plenty of talent remaining in both the trade and free agent markets, but this team has holes to fill over the next few months.
New York still needs a top-tier starting pitching after injuries and underperformance came back to bite them during their devastating second-half collapse last season.
Devin Williams, the team's biggest free agent signing so far, adds a legit bullpen arm, but without Diaz, president of baseball operations David Stearns will need to find another reliever or two.
And now with Alonso joining the Orioles, they’ll need someone to reciprocate that production in the middle of this lineup at first base or elsewhere.
Certainly a tall task for Cohen and co. as they look to make their way back to the postseason.
