Reese Kaplan - A Slightly Different Take on the Balanced “Red Sox Approach”

Everyone is sitting around in amazement with the BoSox miraculous worst-to-first climb to baseball’s World Championship position. A lot of bytes have been wasted extolling the virtues of this seemingly new approach to mid-tier players bringing a team into contention.

I laughed about this reaction with my old fantasy baseball partner, Bill, with whom I had many arguments in the early 90s during the fledgling infancy of fantasy sports. He was a “name” guy – someone whose approach to winning meant trying to get the big name players whose All-Star credentials meant they would usurp the lion’s share of our budget for bidding on the rest of our roster.

My approach was different. I explained to him I’d rather have a roster full of 20 HR/80 RBI guys at every position than 2 superstars and a bunch of warm bodies filling out the rest of the lineup. My rationale was that an injury or subpar season to one of the 20/80 guys wasn’t going to be nearly as devastating as, say, a PED suspension was to Ryan Braun and the Brewers.

For the final roster spots he wanted to fill in with proven major league starters of the 2nd and 3rd tiers of talent whereas I advocated rolling the dice on some rookies since the reserves weren’t likely to play anyway and you might strike paydirt. To this day I never let him live down the fact that he argued to add Toronto’s Pat Borders as our backup catcher while I encouraged him to spend our final 1993 season dollar son an unheralded rookie catcher named Mike Piazza.

The point of this walk down fantasy baseball history is to take a somewhat different approach to the “new” Red Sox approach to turning a franchise around. What they brought into Boston were a slew of professional players, none of whom could match Big Papi’s offensive exploits, but collectively upgrading the overall level of play for the team.

To a lesser extent the Mets did the same thing last year with Marlon Byrd whose offense was certainly both needed and welcome, but whose throws hitting the cutoff man, his intelligent (if not particularly speedy) baserunning, and his routes on fly balls demonstrated what a professional ballplayer is all about. David Wright is a professional. Daniel Murphy is a professional. Travis d’Arnaud and Juan Lagares have the potential to be professionals. However, the rest of the offensive roster is comprised of one dimensional players who may excel at one aspect of the game but at the expense of most others – Eric Young with speed, Matt den Dekker with defense, the lefty duo at 1B with power, etc.

My thinking on the subject changed recently when I was advocating what will never happen – the big Choo or Ellsbury signing. Instead, people started floating some other names up there like Michael Cuddyer and I did a piece awhile back advocating Norichika Aoki. These types of players who get on base, produce runs and don’t make physical and mental gaffes are collectively what the Mets need to propel themselves to the next level. Many of them won’t require the crown jewels of the farm system to obtain, either. I know he’s only had 11 games in his minor league career there, but I’d sooner see Wilmer Flores get a chance to become a run producer with 15-20 HR power playing 1st base than another season of struggles by Ike Davis and Lucas Duda. Trade them for whatever offensive A/AA players you can net from another team since the Mets are pretty much bereft of hitters in their system.

This same approach should be considered when it comes to pitching as well. Many are advocating signing pitchers like Bronson Arroyo who would command by many prognosticators a 2-year deal in the $24 million range. That seems like an awfully stiff price to pay for someone who theoretically is at best a 4th starter and perhaps less once the Super Two status deadline passes and Rafael Montero can join Jenrry Mejia in the rotation. Then next season you have both Noah Syndergaard and the return of Matt Harvey…six starters plus the very expensive Mr. Arroyo. It seems to be money foolishly squandered.

Instead, you might want to try for a Mets reunion not with the ageless Latroy Hawkins but for sidearmer Joe Smith who quietly has put together a stellar career as a setup guy who (are you listening Mssrs. Warthen and Collins) can get out both lefties and righties. He’s just 29 years old and could help anchor a bullpen for the next 3 years or so at perhaps higher money than we’ve traditionally paid for someone in that role ($5 million per, perhaps?) Still, I’d rather spend $15 million for 3 years of a necessity than $24 million for 2 years of a luxury.

After too many years of late season collapses, second division finishes and ponderous personnel decisions, it’s time for the Mets fans not to aim high, not to concede low, but to target squarely in the middle. If you had 8 players capable of driving in 75-80 runs per season, then surely the long awaited return to contention would be happening sooner rather than later. David Wright is our Big Papi – now let’s get him the supporting cast he needs.