With five full months of National League baseball still to come this season, the New York Mets have already put the Los Angeles Dodgers on notice.
After winning the 2024 World Series, heading into spring training, the Los Angeles Dodgers were a majority of the baseball media’s pick to win a second consecutive championship. The last time a club repeated as the best MLB has to offer was accomplished by the New York Yankees.
Ironically, the Yankees are heavy favorites to win the pennant again this season. It was the Joe Torre managed “Bronx Bombers” from 1998–2000 who is the last club to win back-to-back-to-back Fall Classics.
Well, certainly not quiet in the off-season, Mets’ owner Steve Cohen opened his wallet to catch the most prized free-agent on the market; a generational talent is what Juan Soto is said to be. A record-breaking 15-year, $765 million contract brought Soto to Flushing, Queens. There were other moves executed by Cohen and his president of baseball operations David Stearns that added both punch and protection in manager Carlos Mendoza’s lineup.
Hitting in front of the left-handed hitting Soto is shortstop Francisco Lindor. Lindor, the multi-Gold Gove and Silver Slugger Award winner, is “all in” on the club’s high octane offense through the first 26 games.
Back in 2021, Cohen signed Lindor to a 10-year $341 million extension. Off to a hot start at the plate, Lindor has collected 30 hits in 25 games, five home runs, and a .297 batting average.
Coming to the plate behind Soto is “The Polar Bear” Pete Alonso. This past February, Alonso re-signed with the Mets for two years, with an opt-out after this season.
Playing like a first baseman looking to earn a longer and more financially lucrative deal after the postseason, Alonso is on a hitting tear that is making him among the most unpopular hitters in the National League. His .333 average, 31 hits, and six round-trippers are tops among his teammates.
Since 2019, Alonso’s rookie year, only the Yankees’ Aaron Judge has slugged more home runs (239). Alonso is sitting on 232 homers heading into Saturday evening’s game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.
Beginning this abbreviated four-game road trip in Washington, D.C., before returning to Citi Field in Flushing, the Mets are the hottest club in the National League East, and a fact-based argument could be made they are the most feared club in the game six weeks into the season.
Busing to Washington, D.C., the Mets were riding a seven-game winning streak. Sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four games, followed by three wins in a row at the expense of the Philadelphia Phillies, New York enjoyed a five game lead in their division.
Even though the Mets came out on the losing end of Friday’s game, as a result of a Nationals’ walk-off hit in the ninth inning, it was the never-say-die, can-do attitude of Mendoza’s club that had more than a few fans at the game biting their fingernails.
Behind in the eighth inning, Mark Vientos’ go-ahead triple brought the club back, and took the lead 4–3. Add in the return of starting catcher Francisco Alverez, who is back to the active roster this week after being sidelined with a broken bone in his left hand, and second baseman Jeff McNeil coming back from a right oblique strain, the Mets are clicking on all cylinders.
Perhaps as important to Cohen’s bottom line in signing checks is the response of Mets fans showing up at Citi Field to lend support to the roster configured in the off-season. Through 13 home games this season, the Mets are sixth best in all of MLB attendance. The club has drawn 475,814, averaging 36,104 fans per game. This is a jump from the 2024 season when the Mets finished in 18th place averaging 28,757 at each Citi Field home game.
Soto has yet to put his game in overdrive. An unimpressive .245 batting average, including 23 hits and three home runs hasn’t been a cause for concern, at least not just yet for Mendoza. Described as a “once in a generational player,” Cohen and his brain trust performed their due diligence when reviewing all of the pluses and minuses associated with Soto’s previous seven MLB seasons.
Anticipation is mounting for next month’s three-game series with the Dodgers at Citi Field during Memorial Day weekend. For many who cover both clubs for multiple media outlets, the results of these games are being hailed as a prelude to another showdown between both the Dodgers and Mets for the National League pennant this fall. Recently speaking at a post-game media conference in Flushing, Mendoza praised the home town faithful for coming out in earnest thus far in 2025.
“Our crowds are a real advantage to our ball club. The support we’re getting is unbelievable,” he said.
