Mets and Dodgers are in different spots in their restructure after ownership change

The Dodgers are having a great offseason and the feeling among some is that they’re making the gap between themselves and the rest of the league too much to overcome. And that might be true. But the goal is to win the World Series, not the offseason. And there are no shortages of teams throughout the years that had great offseasons, only to flop once the games started. We should all remember the 2023 Mets in this regard.

Still, it’s difficult not to be impressed with what the Dodgers have done. Yet it’s important to remember that the Mets are in a different spot in their competitive cycle than are the Dodgers. Their bad owner, Frank McCourt, sold the team following the 2011 season. Meanwhile, the Mets’ bad owner, the Wilpon/Katz families, sold to Steve Cohen following the 2020 campaign.

The Dodgers had a nine-year head start on the Mets.

In their first season after McCourt, the Dodgers missed the playoffs. They’ve been there ever since, a truly impressive accomplishment. The Mets also missed the playoffs in their first season under Cohen’s stewardship. They’ve made it in two out of three seasons since.

Once the Dodgers got better owners in place, they took on big dollar contracts thru trades, acquiring, among others, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez. They also made big bets in the international free agent market, signing Yasiel Puig and Hyun Jin Ryu. And they dabbled in the high-end of the traditional free agent market, signing Zack Greinke.

And with all of these high-profile additions, the Dodgers were able to consistently pump out 90-win seasons. They reached that plateau seven straight years, snapped only by the Covid-shortened season in 2020. But while they made the playoffs all seven of those years – two of which they eclipsed 100 wins – they failed to win a World Series in any of them.

Los Angeles finally broke thru with a championship in 2020, one that has to be considered at least a tiny bit tainted, given the 60-game season.

From 2021-23, the Dodgers posted 100 wins all three times. And they didn’t win a World Series in that span. Last year they won 98 games and claimed their second World Series title since the ownership change.

Their 2020 championship team featured homegrown players Will Smith, Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson, Gavin Lux, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Julio Urias, Tony Gonsolin, Walker Buehler and Kenley Jansen. That’s an impressive list, even more so when you consider how many first rounders they hit on. Kershaw, Seager, Buehler, Smith and Lux were all first-round picks.

The team also featured high-profile trade acquisition Mookie Betts. And the Dodgers also had great fortune with low-cost pickups Kike Hernandez, Max Muncy and Justin Turner. And after winning 90 or more games 11 times in 12 years, they were able to exert their financial muscle to lure big-time players to their roster the past two offseasons.

The Mets have made a big trade since Cohen took over, importing Francisco Lindor. And they also scored big in free agency, winning Juan Soto. But they’re far behind in developing homegrown talent. Last year’s team had only two first-round picks – Brandon Nimmo and David Peterson - on the post-season roster. They did have other homegrown players like Pete Alonso, Francisco Alvarez and Mark Vientos contributing in the playoffs.

It’s not necessary for the Mets to follow the exact same path as the Dodgers. While LA did a great job cranking out players from its farm system for its first championship team, perhaps the Mets can have more contributors from free agency. It doesn’t matter where the good players come from – just that they arrive somehow.

But the Dodgers had those high-priced trade acquisitions holding down the fort until their player development system started firing on all cylinders. Things worked out pretty darn great for the Dodgers and they had eight years after the ownership change where they didn’t win a title. Things haven’t necessarily worked out perfectly for the Mets since Cohen took over. But they’re only getting set to embark on their fifth year since the ownership change.

The Mets have both the ownership and the front office in place to be successful. They might have the manager, too. They have two foundational pieces to build around in Lindor and Soto. Will they be able to add more farm system products to build out the core? How nice it would be if first-round picks like Brett Baty, Carson Benge and Jett Williams became solid MLB players. And it would be wonderful if the money the Mets have spent in the IFA market started to pay dividends. Hopefully Alvarez is the first of many.

We want everything to happen instantly. But when you’re trying to build a team that will consistently compete for championships – you just can’t snap your fingers and make it happen.

When the ownership change happened for the Dodgers, they were coming off an 82-win season and were just a couple of years removed from a 95-win season. The Mets team that Cohen purchased was coming off a 26-34 season and had finished under .500 in two of the previous three years before that.

The 2025 Mets are still a work in progress when it comes to being a sustainable winner. They need to make good decisions on who they commit to long term. Was the three-year deal to Sean Manaea a good decision? How about the choice not to bid against themselves to sign Alonso? Or not paying the freight for Tanner Scott? We can have opinions on those choices – and more – but right now it’s impossible to say with any certainty.

My opinion is that the Mets have had a good offseason, adding a foundational piece in Soto and not blocking anyone who might be a contributor to the 2026 and beyond squads. And it might be a great offseason if Elian Pena lives up to the hype.

Here’s hoping that the team’s minor league prospects have a better year in 2025 than they did in 2024. We could certainly do without injuries to top prospects like Jesus Baez, Drew Gilbert, Nate Lavender, Ronny Mauricio, Jacob Reimer, Christian Scott, Marco Vargas, Williams and Calvin Ziegler. And also, without the disappointing years turned in by Luisangel Acuna, Dom Hamel, Colin Houck, Kevin Parada, Alex Ramirez, Blade Tidwell and Mike Vasil. The names listed above comprised eight of the top 10 and 13 of the top 20 in David Groveman’s rankings prior to the start of the season. That’s a lot of bad fortune.

Yet the success of the 2025 squad will depend more on choices made by David Stearns for the MLB club. Perhaps in 2026 and beyond the farm system will have a greater impact on the Mets. It certainly will be easier if the homegrown minor leaguers make up a big portion of the team, as at least some of them will be on very low salaries. Either way, sustainability here we come!