Where is the void

[Edgy MD]

Which long-time Met will be represent the biggest hole in the opening-day intros? I mean, obviously, Jorge Polanco is going to get booed when the lineup is announced because that is the grudge folks will want to grind, but this isn't about folks, and it isn't about productivity. It's about you and it's about identity.

What absent fixture is the one who is going to leave you scratching your head? Everyone moves on eventually — some taking more of the organizational DNA with them than others — but whose absence makes the 2026 Mets un-Metliest?

[FIMG=192]https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/ar_16:9,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_1024,c_fill,f_jpg,dpr_3.0/mlb/slfvhdsppcyapcyzoycp[/FIMG] [FIMG=192]https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/ar_16:9,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_1536,c_fill,f_jpg/mlb/pmssesnbnc95bogtded6[/FIMG] [FIMG=216]https://metsmerizedonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/USATSI_24546208-1280x640.jpg[/FIMG]

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[Gwreck]

What absent fixture is the one who is going to leave you scratching your head?

 

whose absence makes the 2026 Mets un-Metliest?

 

Feels like these are two separate questions.

Diaz’s absence is still the biggest head-scratcher because there was no good reason to not re-sign him. Everyone else’s absence I can reconcile with a plan to win except Diaz.

The “Metliest” absence is easily Pete. Nimmo in second place but Pete both was a constant presence for 7 seasons AND owns significant Mets records.

[The Hot Corner]

I looked at this soley from the standpoint of lost production that can't be replaced by any of the new Mets. Alonso and Diaz will be most difficult to replace. Since i could only vote for one, I went with Alonzo, since I don't believe anyone (outside of Soto) will replicate his HR's and RBI's. I have high hopes for Bo Bichette, but he is a high average doubles hitter with 20-25 HR a year power. Bo is more like his father, Dante, than he is Pete Alonso. That's not necessarily bad, but the Mets will miss Pete's HR production.

[metsmarathon]

Pete, by a moonshot.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Pete.

[Edgy MD]

I went for McNeil. I kind of hand McNeil and Nimmo hand in hand because they are two halves of one whole. One is genial and the other is foul. One built his game around restraint and the other around whacking everything close. They grew beards around the same time too.

Both had plusses and minuses but both seemed genuinely what they were in a way Pete could never quite pull off, and so both helped make the Mets the Mets.

[Lefty Specialist]

Alonso. They haven't replaced that power.

[Fman99]

Polar Bear sized void

[metirish]

I went between Diaz and Alonso , voted Diaz though

[a2ndMonkey]

WINKER

[Edgy MD]

To be clear, I'm less asking whose absence most hurts them strategically on the field, than whose absence subtracts most from more abstract identity of the team.

[metirish]

Yeah, I did factor in the trumpets to my thinking

[Benjamin Grimm]

To be clear, I'm less asking whose absence most hurts them strategically on the field, than whose absence subtracts most from more abstract identity of the team.

 

When I answered Pete, I was answering the "abstract identity" question, not the strategically part. Answering the question as intended, it still might be Pete, but it also could very well be Diaz.