The MLB Hall of Famer breaks down the Mets’ 2025 offseason outlook, praising their star power and stressing the importance of adding veteran pitching to support young arms.

On the latest episode of Network with Rich Kleiman, MLB Hall of Famer CC Sabathia assessed the New York Mets‘ upcoming offseason, following missing the playoffs with a $342 million payroll, and said that with stars like Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor, and Brandon Nimmo, and ideally with re-signing Pete Alonso, that their roster is closer to competing for a World Series title than the crosstown rival Yankees.

“They have the pitching, they have the young guys, and those three stars are gonna show up,” Sabathia said. “Soto went damn near 40-40 [43 home runs and 38 stolen bases], which is incredible after everybody talked about how slow of a start he got off to, how he wasn’t going to hit at Citi Field. He hit 40 bombs. And Lindor’s Lindor.”

Aside from bringing Alonso back, Sabathia said the Mets’ biggest offseason priority was to bring in veteran starting pitchers to teach and complement talented rotation youngsters Jonah Tong, 22, Nolan McLean, 23, and Brandon Sproat, 24.

“You can’t expect those guys to be four, five starts into their big league career and have them go out and try to pitch in the playoff race,” Sabathia said. “They kinda got set up for failure, to be honest, but you need to get some older starters in there to teach those guys how to be pros, teach those guys how to pitch a big league season, and make 30 starts a year. I think everything is set up for the Mets to be good if they can adjust the pitching.”

Ravaged by injuries, only two Mets pitchers started 30-plus games in 2025. Perhaps that can be Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea in 2026.

“The Mets are going to be super motivated next year because they didn’t make the playoffs,” Sabathia said. “It’s gonna be tough for the Yankees to get by after what they just went through and even last year, going to the World Series. The deeper you get into the playoffs, the harder it is to reset and get ready for the next year. The Mets still have a lot to prove with a great roster and a lot of talent.”

Be sure to catch the full conversation between Sabathia and Kleiman at Boardroom’s YouTube channel here, as well as on Yahoo Sports’ Apple and Spotify pages.