Mets trading Jeff McNeil still has NY 10 steps behind Dodgers despite huge teardown

The Mets' roster revamp continued on Monday, when they traded Jeff McNeil to the Athletics and sent $5.75 million to help offset the money left on his contract for good measure. They got just a single minor league arm in return in what was a salary dump.

New York has now lost four long-term pillars of their team one way or the other. Pete Alonso went to the Orioles, Edwin Díaz, of course, came to the Dodgers, Brandon Nimmo was traded to the Rangers, and now McNeil is stuck in Sacramento.

Owner Steve Cohen has tried to assuage fans' fears by tweeting that he expects the Mets' 2026 payroll to look similar to 2025. The Mets are moving quickly to try to paper over the cracks, and there's firm belief that they'll move quickly in the coming weeks. They're reportedly discussing a Ketel Marte trade with the Diamondbacks, and now they have more money to sign Alex Bregman.

But even if a quick rebuild works out for the Mets, it's clear that they're just scrambling while the Dodgers continue to cruise.

Mets are still leagues behind the Dodgers despite making quick work of an offseason rebuild

McNeil was the subject of plenty of trade rumors from the outset of the offseason, but that was before they decided to let so many other key pieces go, and no one anticipated that they were going to give him up for a song. It's about more than just payroll for the Mets, too; both McNeil and Nimmo reportedly had beef with Francisco Lindor that made the Mets' clubhouse sound like a pretty unpleasant environment for everyone involved.

The Mets let Alonso get away, so they replaced him with Jorge Polanco, who has only registered one career appearance at first base. Díaz left, so they'll just have to hope that Devin Williams has a huge bounce-back season alongside Luke Weaver. Semien's presence has them covered at second base, where McNeil spent the majority of his time in 2025, but letting go of Nimmo and McNeil leaves them with zero outfield depth and less-than-ideal options at third base (hence new Bregman rumors).

The Dodgers, meanwhile, are sitting pretty, and they directly capitalized on the Mets' apparent neutrality toward re-signing Díaz. The 2024 Mets were able to put a good scare into the Dodgers in the NLCS a few times, but it's hard to believe that they're even going to make it that far even with a shiny new squad in 2026. And even if they do? The Dodgers are built for a series like that, whereas whatever the Mets are doing is still a work in progress.