DAVID RUBIN: "D" is The Letter We NEED!!!

No, this is NOT a political post- unless you count the art of defense in baseball something of a political battle between GM's and Managers, between Coaches and players, between pitchers and position players, and between what the Mets have on the field vs. what their pitching staff NEEDS to have playing behind them.

Let's face it- more than half of the players manning positions are barely more than swinging gates, opening far too often when balls are hit to them, or near them. 

From Lucas Duda's botched play at first in the '15 World Series to Reyes having lost all range in the field (at 3B but also at SS, too), the great Mets pitching staff, when not injured, should be suing their position players for lack of support!!!

While the team definitely has embraced the whole "defensive shift" trend that has been prominent in MLB for a few years now, it's not like they are facing Ted Williams every time at-bat. And even HE didn't have a problem getting hits while the opponent deployed extreme shifts against him!

I think, at this point, members of the Mets rotation like Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo, Tyler Pill, etc, who rely on getting ground ball outs, must have as much faith as the guys playing behind them as I do in the North Korean Missile strikes being able to hit the broad side of a barn from 4 feet away!!

So let's fast forward for a moment - the year is 2018, and we are assembling the Mets position players. We start with Dom Smith at first and Amed Rosario at first and shortstop, respectively. They are amazing at their positions and hopefully will anchor the infield for the next 6+ years to come!

In the outfield, Yoenis Cespedes is locked into Leftfield and Michael Conforto is either going to be our Rightfielder or our Centerfielder, depending upon whether or not the Wilponzi's open up their checkbook (and actually SIGN the check!!)

With tens of millions coming off of the payroll, you'd like to THINK they will, but we all know too well that it's never a guarantee with them at the helm.

Now, if the team DOES re-sign Jay Bruce, and I pray that they do, I can be very happy with an outfield of Cespedes --- Conforto --- Bruce, with Nimmo & Lagares on the bench!

Whether you like it or not, Travis d'Arnaud is the catcher of record for 2018, as long as he's healthy enough to make it onto the dirt (never a guarantee, either!) Behind him sits an incredible #2 in Renee Rivera, and let's hope that they remember to commit to signing him to a long-term contract one day in the not too distant future. The defense behind the plate has been much improved, owing largely to Travis' gains in throwing and blocking the plate, as Rivera's strong-suit has long been his defense.

That leaves us with 2 positions to be concerned about - at least DEFENSIVELY - Second Base and Third Base!!!

Long-time fans know that, until David Wright, the only real "regular" we've really seen at the position in the entire history of the franchise was Howard Johnson, and we're not talking a tenure of 10+ years like the Captain. The current candidates include Gavin Cecchin, TJ Rivera, Wilmer Flores, Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera. There's no way, at this point, that the team is going to pony up anywhere close to the $15 mil per season they were once supposedly offering Walker in a multi-year deal, and there's also no way that they'd be willing to pay Reyes any substantial money, so unless he agreed to pennies on the dollar versus what he was receiving from the Jays', there's no way he's coming back and there's NO WAY the fans could embrace him as a regular at any position at this point in his career. Finally, Cabrera has an option remaining in his contract which, at the beginning of the season seemed like a no-brainer, but now, due to injuries and declining performance there's no guarantee that the de facto leader of the clubhouse is going to return.

Free agent-wise, after the 2017 season, Walker looks to be the only free agent of note at second; at third, the White Sox Todd Frazier and the Royals Mike Moustakas are the top of the free agent class but both have major issues to deal with. Frazier, a NY-area native, has seen a huge drop in his power this season so far, and his fielding has never been much to write home about. Moustakas is a native of Southern California and, while he will be looking to make the most money he can, especially with Boras as his agent, I have it on good authority that he's looking to play closer to home AND there are a few West Coast teams already lining up for his services.

That leaves trades, and thankfully Sandy DOES have a number of great, young, controllable minor league pitching prospects at the ready and we've already seen what he can do with young arms on the trade market!

One can only hope that Sandy will do a few key things this off-season:

1. Sign some of our rotation to long-term deals.

2. Bolster our bullpen.

3. Find major-league-ready replacements for Las Vegas in case a similar injury bug plaques the big league team again.

4. Bolster the team both offensively AND defensively at Second and Third base.

IF Sandy can do these things, and our younger players continue to progress, 2018 can be the year we'd all hoped that 2017 could have been...

PS- Sandy isn't a native New Yorker, so he's probably not familiar with the NY-fan's predilection towards great defense in all sports. The Garden ROCKED with cries of "De-FENSE" during Knicks games; the Giants Super Bowl teams were built around great "D"; both the Islanders and Rangers always made having great back-lines a priority; and, as a pitching-based team for the majority of the Mets' lifespan, we've been hit or miss in that department. It sure would be nice to take pride in it again, in Queens, in 2018!!!!