Nimmo may have cooled off of late, but he would still be the Mets best hitter for the season (BA .287, OBP .358, SLG .459, & OPS .817) not named Soto. Definitely, much better than what we are getting from Semien. You forgot to mention McNeil. (BA .276, OBP .354, SLG .368, & OPS .721) whom Stearns practically gave away, would also be a vast improvement over most of the Mets line up. At least our defense improved (10th in DRS 2026 vs 15th in DRS in 2025). Unfortunately, the drop offensively is far greater that the improvement in defense.
I don't give Stearns credit for his failure to sign someone (Tucker) that is currently struggling. It is not as if Stearns changed his mind because he thought Tucker wasn't good enough. I will not be surprised if by the end of the season, Tucker is fine and would have been a tremendous asset to the Mets offense.
With each passing season, the solid 3 year stretch (2021-2023) the Robert Jr. put together in his early years appears to be a distant anomaly, rather than realistic norms to expect moving forward. Then you have to factor in his significant history of injuries, that can not be expected to improve with age.
The Peralta trade was a good move and the signing of Bichette (though a desperate move to land a "big name" after missing on Tucker) was a good, though he is likely just a high priced one year rental.
He also counted too heavily on Benge being ready even though he only had 103 ABs in AAA Syracuse and hit .178/.272/.311/.583. His numbers with the Mets closely mirror his numbers in Syracuse, which shows (at least to me) he needed to prove he could hit at the AAA level, before becoming a mainstay for the Mets.
It shouldn't be a surprise that Beltran is a little gimpy since he is 49 years old. 😄 Soto and Lindor being hurt is bad luck, but virtually every team has to deal with injuries. Even if they both were healthy, the Mets line up with the current assemblage of players would still be a mid-level offense at best.
Stearns established a deserved reputation as a savvy GM during his time in Milwaukee, but he did not, in my opinion, have a great off-season leading when building this team.