Reese Kaplan -- No Room at the Inn

While a lot of attention is rightfully being directed towards the Mets’ roster shortcomings in the bullpen and behind the plate, there is something of a surplus of options when it comes to how the outfield and first base positions will be assigned in 2019.  Let’s take a look.

All Lefty Outfield

We’ve seen this configuration during the 2018 campaign with Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto and Jay Bruce suiting up alongside one another.  Conforto and Nimmo are probably average to slightly above as corner outfielders.  Bruce is passable but slow.  There is no true centerfielder here and we’ve seen both Conforto and Nimmo both get trials out there.  This arrangement gives the Mets their best offensive production but comes at the cost of defense.

Speaking of Defense…

Play Conforto and Nimmo on the corners and see if Juan Lagares’ new hitting approach that led to a fast start with the bat before his annual injury that cut short his season is sustainable.  If so, then you can get a true centerfielder out there which should only help make Conforto and Nimmo into more effective outfielders when assigned to play the less challenging corner positions.  Of course, then what do you do with Jay Bruce?

Who’s on First?

There are so many ways to go here.  If you choose the second outfield alignment then Jay Bruce likely will get the opening day nod at 1^st base.  This approach allows his bat to be in the lineup and coincidentally allows the team to stall the service time clock on Pete Alonso. 

Pounding Pete is possibly the right handed power bat the Mets need to balance out their lineup, but playing him at 1^st base then relegates Juan Lagares and his Gold Glove defense into the 4^th outfielder status. 

Dom Smith showed during his second call-up for August and September that he can indeed be a productive bat.  He’s probably more adept with the glove at 1^st than Jay Bruce but likely wouldn’t produce quite as much offense.  Of course, you don’t know which Smith you’ll get – the one of high average and moderate power or the one with high power and moderate average.  One thing’s for sure, he plays 1^st base a whole lot better than he does the OF which, to be fair, asking him to learn the position on the fly was setting him up for failure.  Now choosing between Smith and Bruce is more than just potential vs. proven.  It’s minimum wage vs. $14 million per year for the next two years.  Smith may have more life here than you would have thought as his trade value is still pretty much nil but Bruce could potentially be swapped for someone else’s bad contract.

Then there’s Wilmer Flores, the man of a thousand positions who plays none of them particularly well.  His bat plays in a better-than-James-Loney way, but his best attributes to apply for the job are familiarity and right handedness.  Unfortunately, as he approaches his final year of arbitration he’s going to be costly and with bench pieces like Lagares earning $9 million it’s possible he will be wielding his bat for another team. 

So now it’s your turn.  If you were making the outfield and first base assignments, who would you slot where?  It’s easy to say just go out and sign a real centerfielder like A.J. Pollock, but then the already crowded outfield becomes even more so.  If you do that, then the other 29 teams know you are in a desperate position to dump salary and the already modest returns you might get for a Jay Bruce or a Juan Lagares become even less likely to include anyone of quality.  At some point you have to factor Yoenis Cespedes into the mix as well, though that may not be until August or September.

Have at it.