The Mets were an eyesore defensively for much of last season, main to president of baseball operations David Stearns’ decree that run prevention — encompassing pitching and protection — would be the focus for 2026.
But the actuality is, only so much defensive enchancment can be carried out externally. Juan Soto isn’t going anywhere, and Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo most doubtless aren’t going anywhere. There are only so many levers Stearns can pull in an try to enhance the club’s protection.
Stearns revealed at the common managers’ conferences this week that he’s already spoken to much of the veteran core about the want for higher protection. His message has basically been that such enchancment can’t be thought of merely a luxurious.
“The first thing is the recognition [defense] is as important as offense,” Stearns said. “We have a tendency in this sport — it’s not just the Mets, it’s all over the place, because offense is much simpler to see and scoring runs is so much simpler seen, in some methods much more simpler to measure than stopping runs, particularly defensively — that it becomes, ‘We need to focus much of our training time and efforts and energy on how can I get better offensively.’ And at instances we neglect about the other facet of the ball.
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