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The New York Mets have officially entered a new era.
After seven seasons, both Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz left the Mets for other teams on back-to-back days. Alonso is reportedly headed to the Baltimore Orioles, while Diaz will be joining the back-to-back reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
It’s a hard 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. Yet the front office decided to let a homegrown talent and another fan favorite walk.
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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 loanDepot Park. (Jim Rassol/Imagn Images)
That prompted longtime New York radio host Joe Beningo to call into his old station, WFAN, to rip ownership 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 gonna find out now how freaking smart David Stearns is. We’re gonna find out how brilliant that Harvard education serves David Stearns. We’ll see.
“But the guy that’s the real culprit is the owner. The owner sold us a bill of goods. We all thought, we were all sucked in, ‘Uncle Stevie’s big money, it’s never going to be the same like it was with the Wilpons,’ and he spent money. [Justin] Verlander, [Max] Scherzer, he went on and got [Juan] Soto. But where is this guy? He’s supposed to be like Mr. Met, I gotta see him courtside at the Garden at the playoff games with the Met hat on. What kind of Met fan are you? You telling me you’re a Met fan, Cohen? Forget about Stearns, he’s a fraud as far as a Met fan. He’s probably got Yankee gear at home.”
Beningo also compared Alonso’s departure to Tom Seaver being traded and Darryl Strawberry signing with the Dodgers before making a bold proclamation about the team’s former owners, who were notorious for being cheap.
New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso (20) hits a two-run home run to become the all-time Mets franchise home run leader in the third inning against the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field. (Wendell Cruz/Imagn Images)
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“We all knew what the Wilpons were… but you know what? I really believe Fred Wilpon, Jeff Wilpon would have recognized what Alonso specifically meant to the organization, and they would have signed him. I really believe that,” Beningo said, citing that the Wilpons extended David Wright to make him a lifelong Met. “As much as we get on the Wilpons, and this guy is nowhere to be found. He sold us a bill of goods. I don’t care what they do, I don’t care what the little genius does now the rest of the way… it doesn’t make up for this, and it doesn’t make us a better team than the Dodgers.”
“The owner, I’m p—-d at the owner,” he added. “I can’t tell you how ticked off I am… He sold us a bil of goods and stuck it right up our rear end.”
Earlier this offseason, the Mets also traded Brandon Nimmo, another homegrown talent, to the Texas Rangers for Marcus Semien. They also signed Devin Williams, who had a tumultuous season with the New York Yankees, to a three-year deal.
Pete Alonso #20 of the New York Mets rounds 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)
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The offseason has plenty of time left, and players such as Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger, Bo Bichette and Framber Valdez remain available. But for now, Cohen and Stearns are public enemy No. 1 in Queens — just one year after being hailed as heroes for swiping Soto from the Bronx.
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