Pitchers and
catchers are due to report in less than two weeks now and the
feelings of anticipation and optimism are something that are like
playing dress-up in another team's fans' clothing. When was the last
time the Mets entered February with so few questions that need to be
answered?
Health
How are Ruben Tejada
and Wilmer Flores doing after sacrificing their leg and ankle on the
ball field while playing the game they love. Tejada's post-season
takeout slide was on national television and has led to the national
debate on what's right and wrong for middle infielders turning the
double play with baserunners charging at them. Flores' story kind of
flew somewhat under the radar when his hit-by-pitch during a November
26th game turned out to be more than a mere bruise and he
was forced to sit out the rest of the Venezuelan Winter League.
Throw in the Juan
Lagares into the list of walking wounded. While it was obvious to
everyone except perhaps the Mets that something was wrong with
Lagares' throwing last season, a period of rest betweeen the end of
the World Series and the start of Winter League play led to reports
of him looking more like the Gold Glover of 2014. With reacquisition
of Yoenis Cespedes, his playing time may be limited to late inning
defense and occasional starts against tough lefties when either
Michael Conforto or Curtis Granderson are rested.
Jerry Blevins, Josh
Edgin and Zack Wheeler all are working their way back from various
injuries as well. Blevins broke his pitching arm twice last year,
while the latter two are in different stages of recuperation from
Tommy John Surgery. Fortunately there appears to be enough depth on
the pitching front that they can afford to be patient with recovery
times for all of them.
Everyone is also
waiting with bated breath to see how a winter off has impacted David
Wright's ability to stay on the field. Travis d'Arnaud is seemingly
always a step away from a freak injury as well. Here's hoping
they're carrying rabbit's feet or whatever it takes for them to stay
healthy during 2016.
Defense
Last year the middle
infield combination of primarily Daniel Murphy and Wilmer Flores
wasn't going to make anyone forget Joe Morgan and Dave Concepcion.
Murphy's gaffes tended to be mental while Flores' limitations were
more of the physical variety. The newly imported duo of Neil Walker
and Adrubal Cabrera should provide incremental upgrades in the field
without sacrificing anything at the plate. They've rendered Wilmer
Flores' bat and Ruben Tejada's glove into bench players.
Althought we saw a
great deal of Yoenis Cespedes in CF last year, he was out there sort
of out of necessity to keep his bat in the lineup. This year the
Mets have bet at minimum $27.5 million that he'll be able to adapt to
the role virtually every day. The jury's still out on that one and
for what he's being paid he'll be under quite the microscope.
Although Kevin
Plawecki had a very rough start to his big league career, other teams
rapidly learned that starter Travis d'Arnaud is not really much of a
challenge for would-be base stealers. As a result, there's a chink
in the armor the team puts out to help minimize the damage when the
other team is on offense. If d'Arnaud's bat continues to develop as
shown during his healthy months of 2015, then a position switch to
preserve his health and improve the behind-the-plate defense may be
in the offing.
Bullpen
After shutdown
closer Jeurys Familia, the Mets opted to retain Addison Reed for
another season after his very impressive late year audition. Jerry
Blevins should be ready to start the season as well. Then they
shocked the baseball world by securing the services of lefty Antonio
Bastardo for 2016/2017. Rumors abound that they're still in touch
with Tyler Clippard to see if he would be amenable to a short term
deal and that his shoulder fatigue that hurt him at the end of the
World Series run won't resurface. In addition, they have options
including Hansel Robles, Sean Gilmartin and Erik Goeddel. Rafael
Montero, Logan Verrett and Dario Alvarez all have had brief glimpses
of the big leagues and after proving themselves for awhile in Las
Vegas could make themselves a part of the mix as well. That's
already 7 named players (without Clippard) for the roster with three
reserves. In addition you have Josh Edgin due back at some point and
Bartolo Colon shifting to the pen when Zack Wheeler is deemed
healthy. It's nice to have an excess.
Bench
In retrospect, the
already questionable decision to extend a nearly Lucas Duda level
contract to journeyman Alejandro De Aza to warm the bench looks
doubly bad now that Cespedes is back once again. Behind him you have
the aforementioned Juan Lagares, Wilmer Flores, Ruben Tejada and
Kevin Plawecki. Stories abound that Wilmer Flores is going to get a
lot of reps at 1B to serve as a backup there as well, but it's
possible another multipurpose player in the mold of (but perhaps more
talent than) Eric Campbell could sneak his way onto the roster. A
lot depends on whether they choose to go with a 5 or 6 man bench.
Speed
With a team
featuring Lucas Duda, Neil Walker, Asdrubal Cabrera, Michael
Conforto, Yoenis Cespedes and Travis d'Arnaud getting 75% of the
starts, there's a lot of double play possibilities in the team's
future on the basepaths. David Wright and Curtis Granderson don't
run as much as they once did either. The team doesn't feature a
single starter likely to eclipse 15 SBs for the entire season.
That's a slow team. On the bench De Aza showed 20 SB capability
during 2013 and 2014, plus it appeared during the last two years Juan
Lagares added running as a dimension to his game, too. None are the
type of pinch-runner type like the one trick pony, Eric Young, Jr.
Strikeouts
Lucas Duda, David
Wright, Yoenis Cespedes and Curtis Granderson are all possibilities
to exceed 150 Ks during the course of the year. Whatever happened to
the patient philosophy of working the counts?
Conclusion
In the scheme of
things, these minor issues and roster tinkering are the mark of a
contender. No team is perfect but the Mets have precious few
question to have answered during the soon-to-start Spring Training
season. Assuming the solid gold starting pitching remains healthy,
there's no reason they shouldn't be favored to repeat.
5 comments:
You'll never read perfection, but you read the quality of our team and smile. I favor them to repeat. Two weeks. Let's get started, baby.
Good analysis, Reese. You may be approaching the verge of optimism.;)
de Aza is making much more than befits his role, but when he was signed that's not the role he was slated for. As I said yesterday, he'll be lucky to see 150 AB this season, barring injuries to others, so I'd look to make him trade bait to a team hungry for OFers.
16 days to P & C. I'm ready!!!
Reporting date for the Mets' pitchers and catchers is February 17th. Position players arrive a week later.
LETS GOOOOOOOOOO METS
Ernest's expected reporting date is February 23rd ;)
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