All the news, all in one place. A rundown:

- Pete Alonso is an Oriole. Alonso leaves NY for a 5yr/$150m deal in Baltimore. Mets GM David Stearns promised to remake the club’s defense. His team’s worst defender now vacates first base which is likely to be filled by last years 3B Mark Vientos. Alonso, the Most Loved Met, leaves Queens after 7 seasons. More below.

- Edwin Diaz is a Dodger. Diaz leaves NY for 3yr/$69m deal in LA. Mets GM David Stearns promised to remake the club’s defense…..What the fuck is David Stearns doing.

- Sherrone Moore gets canned in Michigan. The Michigan Wolverines need a new Leader of Men because their former leader had an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. Will the Wolverines hold on to star QB Bryce Underwood? Underwood flipped his commitment to UM from LSU and we know the Bayou Tigers are pretty spicy right about now. Can Lane scoop his future QB and first transfer portal commit?

- Is Tarik Skubal going to be a Dodger? Much more of a question than a declaration, but one report suggests the deal is done. Tigers GM Scott Harris is on record saying the team will make a decision on Skubal by the end of the week. The back-to-back Cy Young winner has one year remaining on his contract and Harris is quoted as saying he will do what’s best for the team. Except he won’t give Skubal $350m.

This will be a mature conversation about the state of the Mets and David Stearns. To outline, Queens could not be more disappointed that Harvard-boy David Stearns watched Edwin Diaz and Pete Alonso walk in consecutive days. I guess I could’ve left out the Harvard-boy, but all the same, NY is not impressed with how the Winter Meetings are turning out. After watching an epic 2nd half collapse from the league’s most expensive roster, how can the Mets rebound if they’re fan favorite and clubhouse leader walks for another team. Need a temp check on the team. Here’s a handful of headlines:

- Mets icon left ‘speechless’ by Pete Alonso’s New York exit

- Revealed: Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil battled again, and Mets shortstop's chilly rapport with Juan Soto helped doom '25 season

- What Alonso's departure says about Stearns’ long-term vision

Oooh buddy…saltier than the ice on Park Ave before a Nor’easter. What’s happening up there? Well, let’s start with Stearns.

David Stearns was born and raised in Manhattan before attending Harvard and working his way up to GM of the Brewers. After presiding over multiple successful rosters, Stearns was Steve Cohen’s personal choice to run his team after Cohen purchased them for a record $2.4b. Stearns transition to the Mets was telegraphed that he stepped down from his role in Milwaukee in 2022, became an “advisor” for 2023, and took over NY in 2024. The Mets won 89 games 2024, made the playoffs, and seemed to be ascending. That all crashed down in 2025 and they’re in the processing of crashing out further.

Two elements are at play. One, Cohen is trying desperately to replicate the Dodger’s model with Andrew Friedman. Cohen poached an impressive young executive from a smaller market club and handed him a blank check book. Two, Stearns isn’t building an organization that anyone actually wants to be a part of.

I’m struggling to understand if we know Stearns is the right man for the job. For one, his successor in Milwaukee has taken the team to an even higher level with a largely turned over roster. Here’s the Brewers’ last 4 seasons:

- 2022 (Stearns last year in charge), 86-76

- 2023, 92-70

- 2024, 93-69

- 2025, 97-65

Should Stearns get credit for building a scouting and development machine? For sure. But missing from his time in Milwaukee was the need to retain any talent because the market didn’t support re-signing free agents. Stearns build, churn, and build model never tested his ability to keep his top performers. More to the point, that now falls on Brewers manager Pat Murphy who’s done an excellent job squeezing more and more from his roster.

Edwin Diaz left for LA when the Mets offered virtually the same contract. Pete Alonso left the only organization he ever knew without receiving an offer from them. Stearns is remaking NY entirely in his own image. I won’t dive into the technicalities of his very advanced analytical approach, but someone needs to recognize that baseball is still a people business. Ask Miguel Rojas. Ask Andrew Friedman. The one man I wouldn’t ask: Steve Cohen.