I think it would be a good idea for the Mets to open the
vault and extend the contract of deGrom through the 2023 season.
I think he has
earned an extension since he has been a front- line type of pitcher. He has had
a fantastic ERA that averages out to 2.80 during the last five years along with
a record of 50 wins & 34 losses.
DeGrom needless to say has been consistent
and reliable. He is the leader of the Mets rotation. He currently is the best
pitcher in the National League. I do not foresee Alderson trading him. The Mets
are not ready for a complete rebuild, because they have a good young core of
players that could keep them in contention for the next couple of years.
If
they trade deGrom now, the team will regress and there is no quick rebuild here,
because there are not too many players that are ready to come up from the farm
system.
Pitching is ninety percent of the game and with deGrom on
the staff along with Noah S. the Mets have a rare commodity that most other
teams do not have which is two front- line type of pitchers that can be an ace
of a staff.
The Astros had that rare commodity with Justin V. & Dallas K.
last year and they won the World Series. Prior to that back in the 1990’s the
Braves also had that commodity with the fantastic trio of Maddox, Glavine and
Smoltz that won a World Series back in 1995 plus after that winning the
National League Eastern division ten years in a row.
Since deGrom was a shortstop when he first
signed he has a strong arm which I think will enable him to pitch in the majors
for a long time.
If the Mets become sellers and they keep deGrom they can
possibly sneak in as a wild card next season and having two elite starters
helps a team achieve that and when you make the playoffs as a wildcard anything
can happen from that point.
If the Mets extend deGrom they would be in good shape. They
are not far from being a good team. They just have to surround deGrom with a
better supporting cast via trades hopefully for players with upside at catcher,
at third base and at second base and then hopefully they will be contenders.
So,
I think it will be feasible for the Mets to open their vault for their future
Cy Young award winner and extend deGrom.
16 comments:
I might reluctantly still give the nod for best NL pitcher to Max Scherzer, who over the past 2 1/2 seasons is 46-17, with 717 Ks in 542 IP, but it is surely debatable.
I would like the Mets to extend deGrom - this team seems cursed with big contracts almost never working out, so I wonder if, having been burned so many times, they avoid extending him as long as possible.
Almost the only big, long term contracts that I would rate great or good were Piazza (great) and Beltran (good). The list of bombed-out contracts (past and current) is a big one. And we swung and missed on Alex Rodriguez when we had a chance at that big one, and Barry Bonds before that (actually, we did not even swing at either).
While it did not count in the stats, I saw where Stanton hit a BP ball completely out of the Phillies' stadium, the first ever. Whether his contract eventually bombs, too, we'll see.
NO WAY!
Time to trade, not extend.
The organization can not regress any further than it is now.
Signing deGrom to an extension does not make the organization better.
Trading him for multiple talents does.
When the Mets traded Seaver it was out of spite and you could certainly argue that the return, while solid, was not spectacular.
In the case of deGrom the Mets are in the driver's seat in a win-win situation. They can ask the sun, the moon and the stars for him and sinmply say no until they find someone willing to meet their price. If it doesn't happen before July 31st, it could happen in the off-season.
I'm with Bob 100%. The team has gone nowhere with almost no offense. Keeping an ace pitcher doesn't help them score runs. (Well, truth be told, Jake is a better hitter than some of the lineup regulars).
This is the time to sell high, let someone else enjoy his pitching and replenish the horrific farm system with top level talents. Build for the future with 3-4 new pieces by giving up one.
If you think things are bad now, just wait until the team deals off their two top, controllable pitchers. Sure, they’ll get some young talent back, but as we’ve seen there’s no guarantee with prospects. Even if things break right and the team improves at a few positions, where are they going to get top level pitching when they are ready to contend? Free agency? Good luck. Trade? So the Mets trade pitching for young talent and then have to turn around and ....trade young talent for pitching. Drafting? Maybe but who knows with this organization.
Top level pitching talent comes around only so often...once a decade if you’re lucky. Even if your trades include young pitching in return, the chances of them being as good as deGrom or even Syndergaard are pretty low and their chances of staying healthy are even lower. Trade all the vets you want; trade our best starting pitching and you’re looking at life in the baseball wilderness for 5 years minimum, maybe more.
Michael S makes sense - hard to know when you've got a great pitching prospect or a bust. Great ones are few.
Teddie Stankiewicz starts in AA tonight against Binghamton and he hasn't panned out despite a 2nd round selection.
Shame that Mauricio and Kelenic weren't older - both are tearing the GCL up - Kelenic 9 for 14 and 2 walks as we "speak" - but M is 17 and K is 18, and are 2020 arrivals at the earliest if both turn into the next Juan Soto
Question: is Zach Wheeler breaking into elite status all of a sudden?
Michael S. wins top banana. Our pitchers are for building around.
I agree: no guarantee with prospect.
But there is HOPE.
Also guarantee: losing with deGrom is the same as losing without him and Syndergaard.
Our top pitchers are to build around?
Reality:
1) Mets did that the past 3 years. Where did that lead?
2) ALL of those pitchers have suffered from injury concerns that still cause questions of their future.
3) All of the pitchers are closer and closer to costing more and more in money and committed years through contract.
4) deGrom is 30 now in a non PED baseball world that has seen drastic and sudden pitcher decline post 30 years of age
5) keeping the pitchers at the organization building expense while still creating a winning organization is ONLY possible if payroll is able reach $200+million AND tons of money is thrown into development and acquisition of young talent.
Obstacle in this is new international draft rules along with fantasy that the Met organization is even in a financial situation to pursue.
Not trading pitchers now is a waste of their value to the organization for short sighted needs and fear.
Hope? That’s what we’re dealing them for? Warm feelings?
I was all on board with gutting the team 5-7 years ago. We had pretty much nothing in the way of talent and had older players that had value to contenders. I even wanted to deal Reyes since it appeared the team had no intention of signing him and wrote in favor of dealing Wright to Colorado (when they were the rumored top suitor) for a return built around then-prospect Nolan Arenado - http://macksmets.blogspot.com/2011/10/sothe-rockies-want-david-wright.html?m=1
This is a different time. The Mets have 2 young OF in Nimmo and Conforto. They have enough young talent in the organization to figure out their middle infield situation. They have a slugging 1B at AAA. We have hope, what we need is patience - the same patience that would be needed if we dealt for other teams’ prospects.
Rosario was a top prospect in baseball last year. Dom Smith was a top 1B prospect in the game. Now that they’ve struggled in their development, apparently they’re trash. What happens to all of that hope when the newly acquired young talent struggles in their development? Now we have no pitching and no hope...?
There are 8 positions on the field. Long term, the Mets have Nimmo, Conforto, Rosario, Gimenez, and Alonso. Maybe Dom has a future here and maybe he’s part of a deal for another player, maybe he’s a bust who returns nothing. That leaves only 3 spots. We want to deal our best pitchers to fill 3 spots? Great, then we might have 8 filled and no pitching. Or, we address the other giant problem with the team - the bullpen that can’t seem to let up less than a run per inning. Again, great bullpen but no starters. Call me a crazy optimist, but given the vets the team CAN trade and the payroll they CAN open up, but I believe a new GM can fill three positions and a bullpen without nuking our rotation for the foreseeable future.
While the younger players might not become foundational pieces, the same concerns come with anyone added through trades. Take a look at previous years’ top prospect lists and what has become of a lot of these players. It’s not worth rolling the dice when we’ve already got some young, talented ‘maybes’ and top flight pitching.
I’ve seen this movie before. It stars Ryan Thompson, Alex Ochoa, Zach Wheeler (injured), and Travis d’Arnaud (injured) and it doesn’t end well. Sure, the Mets will likely add some talent but the odds are that a few make it, a few bust, and a few get injured and take so long that the landscape will have drastically changed by the time they contribute regularly.
Your vision depends on the organization being able to pay $200+ million on payroll AND substantially increase $$ in player development.
Sure.... if the organization can pay to overcome past and future mistakes..... keeping those pitchers would be preferred.
Now figure out a way to increase the organization's profits enough to make it possible.
1) It led to separating the wheat from the chaff. Running the big five out there was risky given their severe injury history. Now we know Harvey had no future here. It took those three years for Wheeler and Matz to become backend pitchers and it proved we had two top pitchers.
2) Not the two people are advocating dealing and I’d be willing to have one of Matz and Wheeler hold down an SP4 or 5 and trade the other.
3) So what. If we’re never paying for talent we might as well pack it in altogether.
4) Verlander is still going strong and Scherzer is still a top pitched. There’s no reason to assume deGrom is going to fall off a cliff.
The needs aren’t short sighted and you’re advocating dealing from a necessary strength to patch what amounts to a few holes. The only fear I see is from the ‘Trade Them’ side who are so desperate to fix the situation they’ll do just about anything. It takes a hell of a lot more perseverance to hold on to our top pitchers, wait out the development of our infielders, and have some faith that the FO can move Familia, Cabrera, and Frazier, cut losses with bad contracts, and fill 3B, one OF, a Ca, and some decent relief arms than it does to say ‘screw it! Let’s trade for shiny magic beans, they’ll work out this time, I’m sure’.
It certainly does not. My top money is allocated to our best pitchers. Nimmo and the young talent besides Conforto is still cheap, Conforto won’t be getting top dollar. Familia, Frazier, Cabrera, and Lagares will have to go. Bruce and Ramos too if they can be moved at some point. The real albatross is Cespedes. He’s only got two years left and a competent FO can move that short of a deal even if they have to eat some of it - just like they ate Bay’s money.
Where’s your $200M figure coming from? Itemized?
A FEW holes????
A FEW?
The organization is full of nothing but holes.
Look at the Mets record.
Look at the minor league system records.
Look at the records for the past 3 years as well.
Look at rankings of organization minor league systems.
Look at the rankings of minor league organizational talent.
The list goes on and on.
I don’t know about elite, but he’s moving into reliable territory. He’s got to finish the season strong and I hope he does it here. Having the version of Wheeler we’ve seen lately hold down a back end spot would be tremendous. He very well might be reaching his ceiling.
If that’s your response, you didn’t read when I went through the organization positionally. Since you’re not going to, I’ll respond to this and then move on.
- The current record has absolutely zero to do with analyzing positional needs of the organization. They’re not as bad as you think.
- The records of the minor league teams are not now and have never been a reliable indicator of the talent in the organization as it’s usually spread across all levels.
- I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about farm system rankings. They’re good for hype and conversation.
We need ONE OF. One can be acquired and doesn’t need to be a prospect.
We need middle infielders and we’ve got them coming up.
We need 1B and we have two potentials.
We need 3B and Catcher - see the OF.
Yes Bob, 3 positional organization holes counts as a few.
We both want the Mets to win. Have a nice day 😀
Giminez is still in A+ Ball. The holes are CF, C, 3B, and either 1B or 2B, or both. How do we know Alonso won’t struggle? How do we know that we have a second baseman? If you keep JDG, you have a weak offense and great starters. If you load up offensively, you have good offense and good, but not great starters. The second is better. Plus, JDG is 30 years old, so he won’t be getting better and the injury bug is waits for all 30+ guys. Love you Jake, good luck, but you gotta go.
For those that think the Astros won last year with superior starting pitching, y’all are lost. What were the scores of the World Series? Who was MVP? Do Altuve, Springer, Correa, Gurriell, and Bergman ring a bell for the guys?
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