The New York Mets faced Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS this season. After an up and down season, Carlos Mendoza and his team will be heading home instead of heading to the Subway Series World Series.

New York was shut out for most of the season before their season turned around as quickly as it had gone downhill. This team has gone much further than most people would have imagined back in April.

But they didn’t reach the ultimate goal and when you have a payroll of over $300 million, it’s unacceptable to continue to miss the World Series. Steve Cohen and the Mets will be very active in free agency to improve their roster this winter. They have to be, otherwise 2025 will look a lot like 2024.

Luckily for the Mets faithful, they’re going to be spending big this offseason. Money certainly won’t be a limiting factor in how much the Mets front office improves the roster between now and 2025.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work at The Baseball Insiders Podcastsubscribe to The moonshotour weekly MLB newsletter, and join the Discord for exclusive information leading up to the MLB offseason.

A few years ago, the Mets signed Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander to become true aces at the top of their rotation. Unfortunately, this Mets team wasn’t very competitive and the team ended up trading these two future Hall of Famers before the trade deadline.

This offseason, the Mets have an opportunity to go out and sign another true ace to be the leader of their pitching staff.

Baltimore Orioles ace Corbin Burnes is expected to enter free agency this offseason. Almost every baseball team, including the Orioles, will be interested in bringing Burnes to their city. The difference between the rest of the league and the Mets is how much money the Mets are willing to spend.

Burnes will be an expensive player to leave Baltimore, but he would come in and probably be one of the two best arms in the NL East, if not the best arm in the division.

Now, I should preface that there is not a great chance the Mets will be able to draft all three players on this list. The list starts with Corbin Burnes and there are two other players to follow who will be just as expensive, while likely being much more expensive than Burnes. If New York can land two of these three players, they will be in a prime position to win the 2025 World Series.

The best player on this list will clearly be the Mets’ top priority this offseason. But the second player on this list is also very important.

That free agent the Mets need to sign in free agency is their first baseman, Pete Alonso. Alonso has spent his entire career with the Mets thus far and Steve Cohen and the team need to do everything in their power to make sure Alonso retires from the Met.

Alonso has been nothing short of incredible in the big leagues. In 846 big league games, all with the Mets, Alonso hit an absurd .249/.339/.514 with 226 home runs. He has smashed at least 34 home runs in every full season during his big league career.

Alonso is much loved and well-liked in New York. The market to acquire him is going to be extremely hot this offseason, with the Mariners and Cubs being big players in the game. But the Mets need to bring him back, no matter what.

Cohen will have to spend a lot of money this offseason if the Mets want to return to the playoffs in 2025. They have a chance to steal the NL East if they make the right moves this winter.

The New York Mets are entering the offseason with one real goal in mind: signing Juan Soto to the team.

Steve Cohen is currently the richest owner in the game and he will likely be willing to take on Hal Steinbrenner to try to pry Soto away from the Bronx Bombers.

Soto will likely cost between $500 million and $600 million in total value, which shouldn’t be a problem for Cohen and the organization.

Adding Soto for the next 10 or 15 years is exactly what every team needs, but only what a handful of teams can afford. Putting him on the Mets roster will make them a playoff contender for his entire contract.

Soto has the chance to be the best player in baseball in any given year. When looking back at the 2020s, chances are the consensus is that Soto was the best player of the decade. He’s so good and he’s still getting better.

It will obviously be very difficult to keep him away from the Yankees, but Cohen and the Mets need to do everything in their power to bring Soto to the team. If they miss Soto because he just doesn’t want to be there, that’s okay. But they can’t let it pass, due to lack of effort or money.