The 1976 season was a strange one for the New York Mets. Keep in mind that although Joe McDonald was the General Manager of the Mets, it was in name only, as M. Donald Grant was the man running the show and had his hands in everything.

The 1976 season actually got its start when Grant hired Joe Frazier as manager on October 3, 1975, immediately after the season had ended. The Mets had fired Yogi Berra two-thirds of the way through the 1975 season, replacing him with coach and former Mets shortstop Roy McMillan. Rather than keeping McMillan on, and giving him a chance, the Mets promoted Frazier from Tidewater to take over for the 1976 campaign. (Frazier would not get much of a chance either. Lasting only the one season and 45 games into the ’77 season.)

Then on December 12, 1975, Grant made his one big move of the off-season, basically banishing fan favorite Rusty Staub to the Detroit Tigers for an over-the-hill Mickey Lolich, the 1968 World Series hero.

The New York Mets announced the 2026 inductees into the team’s Hall of Fame. Centerfielders Carlos Beltran and Lee Mazzilli, and manager Bobby Valentine will be enshrined during ceremonies next season. I applaud all three, but I would kind of like to know…what took so long?

When you take a look at those three names, you would have thought that they were already a part of the Mets legacy and honored in the organization’s Hall of Fame. You have to wonder how and why players, managers, coaches, broadcasters, executives, etc., are selected while others are not.

Remember the book Go, Dog. Go!? One little dog going in…three big dogs going out. Two big dogs going up…one little dog going down…

My favorite book as a child describes the comings and goings of the New York Mets offseason.

Gone are Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz, Jeff McNeil…and Paul Blackburn, Gregory Soto, Max Kranick…all now with other teams. Oh…there is also…Luis Acuña, Brandon Sproat, and prospect Jett Williams. And Starling Marte and Jesse Winker are no longer on the roster, but they are still out there if the Mets want them back.

Here are pitchers Devin Williams, Luis Garcia, and Freddy Peralta; infielders Jorge Polanco, Marcus Semien, Vidal Brujan, and Bo Bichette, and outfielder Luis Robert, Jr.

David Stearns waited out the market and then swiftly moved to remake the Mets roster. He has repeatedly said that the Mets needed to get younger and more athletic, and it pretty much seems that he accomplished that, even at the cost of players that Mets fans loved. Whether it translates into wins on the field, is yet to be seen.

So now two one-time New York Mets will go into the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer. First, the Era Committee voted in Jeff Kent. And the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) has now tapped Carlos Beltran, along with Atlanta Braves star centerfielder Andruw Jones. But while Kent will likely be wearing a San Francisco Giants cap, it looks like the New York Mets will now have their third player officially enshrined with the team cap.

There are multiple ways fans can view the New York Mets offseason, including 1) they made a mistake by letting three of the core players go elsewhere or 2) it was time to clean house and rebuild...as well as other variations like David Stearns sucks, Steve Cohen sold us a bill of goods, and Luis Acuna doesn’t get enough playing time.

I was not adverse to the departure of Brandon Nimmo, I was on the fence about allowing Pete Alonso to leave, and I was against not immediately resigning Edwin Diaz.

That being said (or repeated), here are three moves that I believe would instantly make the Mets realistically competitive again:

With the Baltimore Orioles signing Pete Alonso to a free agent contract, it puts the final stamp on the dissolution of what had been the core of the New York Mets. With Edwin Diaz signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Brandon Nimmo traded to the Texas Rangers, Mets management has made a statement about the thought process within the organization. Although what that thought process is…

The late great Ralph Kiner used to tell the story that the old general manager Branch Rickey, the famous baseball executive, once said to him when negotiating a contract, “We came in last place with you, we can come in last place without you.” And Kiner was gone.

So are now three players who were the core to the New York Mets for the last seven-plus seasons – Nimmo since 2016, Diaz and Alonso since 2019.

So this one puzzles me…letting Edwin Diaz go to sign a free agent contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers  just seems like an epic fail on the part of New York Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns.

I got the news thanks to a text from my dear friend John Delduca asking, “Can you please tell me what the Mets are trying to accomplish?”

The report is that Diaz accepted a three-year deal worth $69 million dollars. The report is also that the Mets had offered three years at $66 million but were “willing” to go higher.

For one, I can understand that you can’t “bid against yourself” so when asking why didn’t you go higher in the first place, well, I guess you wait to see what the person comes back as a counter offer. But I also can’t see that Diaz, who made it public that he wanted to remain with the Mets, would leave for $3 million, or at least not allow the Mets to increase their offer.

Keith Hernandez should be the next former New York Mets player to be selected to the Hall of Fame. I would love to understand the reasoning behind the disrespect of his candidacy. What’s behind it?

There are not many New York Mets who really deserved to go into the Hall of Fame as Mets. Tom Seaver was the no-brainer…the one true Met regardless of any other team he played for. Mike Piazza, even though he went into the Hall as a Met, I’m pretty sure he had his best days with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gary Carter…he too had better days elsewhere with the Montreal Expos. Billy Wagner, Roberto Alomar, Jeff Kent…all one-time Mets...made their marks as Hall of Famers with other teams as well. But Keith Hernandez, while he rose to prominence with the St. Louis Cardinals, he made his career and put the stamp on it as a New York Met. And Hernandez is certainly deserving of being a Mets player in that Hall of Fame.

Jeff Kent is proof that the Mets were not always the best home for a Hall of Famer to be. Kent finally got his due by being elected to the Hall of Fame by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee but, truth be told, there were a number of other second basemen who saw their careers come to a screeching halt in Queens.

Think Juan Samuel, Carlos Baerga, Roberto Alomar.

During the 1992 campaign, suffering with the worst team money could buy, GM Gerry Hunsicker traded his best asset, ace David Cone, to get a couple of young prospects - infielder Jeff Kent and outfielder Ryan Thompson.

Some fans have called the New York Mets trade of Brandon Nimmo "devastating" and they are calling for the head of David Stearns. But the fans are way overreacting. Nimmo’s departure from the New York Mets is only a shock because he has a contract that can end up being an albatross for some team, as his age goes up and his production goes down. That “up” and that “down” had already become apparent in recent seasons with the Mets.

Back in May, I had reluctantly advocated for the Mets to move him before it got to the point of no return. While a fan favorite, and definitely one of MY favorites, the timing was right for Nimmo to move on.