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The New York Mets have officially entered a new era.
After seven seasons, both Pete Alonso and Edwin Díaz left the Mets for other teams on consecutive days. Alonso is reportedly headed to the Baltimore Orioles, while Diaz will join the back-to-back reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
It’s a tough reality for Mets fans to accept, especially after Steve Cohen, by far the richest owner in the sport and a lifelong Mets fan, took control of the team five years ago. However, the management decided to let go of a local talent and another fan favorite.
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New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso (20) watches his solo home run against the Miami Marlins in the third inning at LorenDepot Park. (Jim Rassol/Image Images)
That led longtime New York radio host Joe Beningo to call his former station, WFAN, to trash owner and president of baseball operations David Stearns.
“You know I can’t stand David Stearns. He thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room. We’re going to find out now how incredibly smart David Stearns is. We’re going to find out how brilliant a Harvard education is for David Stearns. We’ll see.
“But the real culprit is the owner. The owner sold us a list of assets. We all thought, we all got sucked in, ‘Uncle Stevie’s big money, it’ll never be the same as it was with the Wilpons,’ and he spent money. [Justin] Verlander, [Max] Scherzer, went ahead and got [Juan] Soto. But where is this guy? He’s supposed to be like Mr. Met, I have to see him on the Garden court in the playoff games with the Met cap on. What kind of Met fan are you? Are you telling me you’re a Met fan, Cohen? Forget Stearns, he’s a fraud as far as a Met fan is concerned. “I probably have Yankee equipment at home.”
Beningo also compared Alonso’s departure to the Tom Seaver trade and the signing of Darryl Strawberry with the Dodgers before making a bold proclamation about the team’s former owners, who were notorious for being stingy.
New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso (20) hits a two-run home run to become the Mets franchise’s all-time home run leader in the third inning against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field. (Wendell Cruz/Image Images)
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“We all knew what the Wilpons were… but you know what? I really believe that Fred Wilpon, Jeff Wilpon would have recognized what Alonso specifically meant to the organization, and they would have hired him. I really believe that,” Beningo said, citing that the Wilpons extended David Wright to make him a lifetime Met. “As much as we go up against the Wilpons, and this guy is nowhere to be found. He sold us a lot of goods. I don’t care what they do, I don’t care what the little genius does the rest of the way now… that doesn’t make up for it, and it doesn’t make us a better team than the Dodgers.”
“The owner, I’m angry with the owner,” he added. “I can’t express how angry I am… He sold us a lot of goods and shoved them right up our asses.”
Earlier this offseason, the Mets also traded Brandon Nimmo, another homegrown talent, to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Marcus Semien. They also signed Devin Williams, who had a tumultuous season with the New York Yankees, to a three-year contract.
Pete Alonso #20 of the New York Mets runs the bases after hitting a home run in the second inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on May 10, 2023 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
There is plenty of time left in the offseason and players like Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger, Bo Bichette and Framber Valdez are still available. But for now, Cohen and Stearns are public enemy number one in Queens, just a year after being hailed as heroes for getting Soto out of the Bronx.
