Pete Alonso is currently the finest player the New York Mets are losing to free agency. The Mets will need to reduce payroll if they hope to keep him or acquire another superstar.
Zachary Rotman of Fansided thinks that cutting connections with two-time All-Star Starling Marte, who hasn’t had a successful season with the Mets since 2022, is the first thing they can do.
However, it seems like Marte’s time with the Mets is over. In the first year of a four-year contract he signed with New York in 2022, Marte was the All-Star the Mets had anticipated, but he has since struggled to maintain his health and productivity. To be fair, Marte had a good 2025 season, recording a 111 OPS+ in 98 games, but he only appeared in 12 games and pitched 65 innings. Rotman noted, “He was mostly on the short side of a DH platoon.”
Marte finished the previous season with a line of.270/.335/.410/.745, 14 doubles, nine home runs, and 34 RBI in 98 games. Marte was undoubtedly not worth the $19.5 million a year the Mets were paying him at this stage of his career.
Marte’s debut season with the Mets in 2022, in which he played just 118 games, was the only one in which he played 100 or more games. That year, he also made it to his second All-Star game, but since then, he has been steadily decreasing.
Overall, Marte was a leader in the clubhouse, but leadership alone won’t get you a lot of money. Marte’s contract expires this offseason, so it’s time to bid him farewell and spend the money he was earning on a new star to go along with Soto.