Abbey Mastracco: Failed 2025 Mets season showed the need for an ace

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Sep 30, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — Sometimes you just need to get an ace to put your rotation over the top.

The Mets sure could have used one over the weekend in Miami. They could have used someone who brings energy on the mound and pitches in a way that keeps everyone behind him engaged, pitch after pitch. In previous offseasons, president of baseball operations David Stearns has said that those are nice to have, but they aren’t always integral to the success of a starting rotation.

His philosophy seems to be that it’s best to develop them internally and use smart scouting to find several undervalued starters who could be improved with the help of the club’s pitching infrastructure. This worked for the Mets in 2024, when Luis Severino and Sean Manaea were brought in to pitch with veteran innings-eating Jose Quintana, homegrown starters David Peterson and Tylor Megill, and Kodai Senga, who looked like a true ace at the time.

While depth is important, having a rotation full of back-end starters isn’t exactly a recipe for success. To be fair, the Mets expected to have much more than that in their rotation this year, and until the middle of June, they were buoyed by strong starting pitching. But when it all fell apart, Stearns did little to plug the leaks, something he admitted Monday in his end-of-season press conference.

“I think we are, and I am, making the best decisions we possibly can with the information we have at the moment,” Stearns said. “I made the best judgments I could. Clearly, some of them didn’t work out. Now we try to learn and move forward.”

He didn’t elaborate on what he learned or how the Mets should move forward.

Last winter, Stearns tried to trade for Garrett Crochet, but the Chicago White Sox opted to trade the left-handed ace to the Boston Red Sox for a package of prospects they deemed superior to the one the Mets were offering. Having Crochet on the mound every five days could have made for a different outcome a few more wins.

Instead, the Mets consistently relied on a bullpen that was overtaxed by June. Every day, the Mets were praising the ability of their starters to make it through the fifth inning. At one point right-hander Griffin Canning sounded as though he was confused by some of the early exits.

Of course, it mattered little for Canning in the end, since he suffered a season-ending achilles rupture in late June, one of several pitching injuries that occurred around the same time. The point remains that the lack of innings from the starting rotation became one of the biggest issues for the Mets as they collapsed down the stretch, if the biggest.

Only two other teams got fewer innings from their starters, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the White Sox. Stearns admitted the Mets needed more innings from the rotation, and in today’s game, a five-inning start might as well be considered pitching deep into the game. Pitchers are conditioned to throw with maximum effort and velocity to miss bats at a higher rate, leaving them fatigued by the fifth inning.

There are fewer and fewer true aces in the game. Clayton Kershaw, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, will retire following the conclusion of the Dodgers’ season. The Mets had two of the game’s great aces in Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, and ended up trading them both away during what was ultimately down seasons for them, and for the team. Jacob deGrom helped take them to the playoffs only twice.

There were no slam-dunk aces available on the trade market at the deadline this season.

Still, it’s fair to question the club’s pitching infrastructure after what we just saw in 2025.

Megill has never been able to provide the Mets with a ton of innings, yet they continued to insist he was a starter. His season ended with Tommy John surgery after a lengthy injured list stint. Peterson, who looked like an emerging ace, ran into a wall after surpassing his previous career-high in innings. Frankie Montas and Manaea were injured in spring training, and both failed to find any sort of rhythm once their seasons started.

They struck out a lot of hitters — 8.66 per nine innings — but they walked too many as well, giving away free outs. The starting staff had the second-highest walks-per-nine innings rate in baseball (3.66) and the highest in the NL. Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner has often minimized the walk issue, but he may not be able to anymore.

Frontline starters don’t exactly grow on trees, so while yes, it is smart to develop your own, there are no guarantees. Nolan McLean certainly looks like an emerging one, but Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong need more development. Stearns admitted that he can’t count on Senga for 30 starts next season, and it’s tough to know what the Mets will be able to get from Manaea and Peterson after the way their seasons ended.

Right-hander Clay Holmes should be a very good starter next season, but a team with championship aspirations can’t settle for one quality starter and 6-7 depth question marks.

As the Mets start to look ahead toward building their 2026 roster, they have to emphasize frontline starting pitching.

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