Here's my spin so far...
1. The Mets, under Brodie Van Wagenan, are obviously an operation in the 'win now' mode. This isn't good or isn't bad. It's just the direction they have chosen.
2. Like most rebuilding businesses, it's not just the General Manager that needed changing. Bringing in Adam Guttridge as AGM and Allard Baird to head up scouting and player development are the proper steps in the proper order. Both these guys have a wealth of baseball knowledge that could immediately help BVW in evaluating possible trades this off season.
3, I look upon the first trade a great appetizer for a primo dinner. Resigning 2B Dilson Herrera is one of... oh... that's not the trade I was thinking about. The addition of Robinson Cano at second base and Edwin Diaz coming out of the pen in the ninth inning are far better than we had a week ago at these positions. We all love Jeff McNeil, but he can be moved to third and there is no one currently on the team that can be a ++ closer.
4. The Mets have wet my whistle with this one, but I'm far from full yet.
5. Yes, it cost us a few prospect chips, but nobody is bitching about the loss of Ricardo Cespedes, Merandy Gonzalez, Max Wotell, or Akeel Morris anymore. This shit happens and most of the time trading chips for established stars work out in your favor.
6. We also lowered our payroll with the removal of the cash due Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarsak, and Wilmer Flores. Yes, the last one stings, but, like I said, we're just finishing up the appetizer.
7. As for the Cano acquisition, yes, this could come back and bite us in the tush three or four years down the road, but I can't see anything wrong with this for 2019 and 2020. He's a killer player and future Hall Of Fame inductee. In addition... do you think our GM, in a previous scouting life, knew that baseball was going to call for a DH vote for the NL which would greatly increase the value of Cano's contract at the back end? I'. just saying...
8. Let's do the numbers. Bruce ($13mil), Swarzak ($7mil), and Flores (approx. $5mil) represent a savings of $25mil off the 2019 payroll. Seattle kicked in $20mil to help offset Cano's salary for the remainder of his contract. That averages to a $4mil/yr. shaving, lowering the Cano nut to $20mil a year... In addition, the three Mets chips average out to $1.5mil a year collectively verses the approximate $1mil that Diaz will make. So... the Mets 2019 salary will be $26.5mil minus $21mil... a savings for the Mets of $5.5mil for that year.
9. Now... where do we go from here? We still need an additional (right handed hitting) outfielder to hold the fort down until Yoenes Cespedes comes back (by the way... according to my source, he is healing strong and will be back) and an improvement behind the plate. Do you trade a starter or go free agent? This is the main course.
10 comments:
The easiest way to go is to trade a starter but then you've borroed from Peter to pay Paul. Seth Lugo, for example, could be a credible 4/5 at the back of the rotation but that presupposes even more bullpen additions and Jason Vargas getting the ball every 5th day.
If you go the straight free agent route, that's not ideal either as the upper levels of your farm system are mostly barren and it's going to take a lot of money spent to do so. Now, contrary to what has been said, the Mets are not averse to spending money. They simply don't do it wisely. Last season saw them add Bruce, Cabrera's option, Frazier, Vargas, Swarzak and others. That $48 million spent on quality rather than quantity could have changed the record dramatically.
There needs to be a blending of both. I'm not necessarily on board selling Syndergaard, but if the White Sox, for example, would send you Wellington Castillo for Zack Wheeler I'd have to think long and hard about it. Then you really only need to address the pen (one big guy like Miller or Robertson) and multiple smaller quality arms. You have three outfielders in Conforto, Lagares and Nimmo. You need depth behind them that is fungible if/when Cesxpedes returns.
The comment that made me most excited to see how Vanwagenen will build this team from today was his comment in which he criticized the organization for entering into past seasons depending on "if player x and y and z all perform well then the team will succeed"
Instead he insisted that he wanted to e more reasonably assured.
Pair this with his earlier comments about the organization being in win now mode and that the organization can not be afraid to lose, and I am beginning to feel positively that a BIG acquisition may be in Van Wagenen's sights.
Andrew McCutcheon? Don't know his price tag, but...
I love Jeff McNeil, but with the lefty Cano added, maybe Jeff's lefty bat at cheap price is a huge trade chip. For what? Real starting or pen pitching, then perhaps signing Machado.
Get Grandal too, and what a potent line up that would be - and then, Cespedes would return. Even more so.
Agreed, Mack........BVW is putting together a strong front office (from a resume perspective) and one that fills the gaps in his own experience, which is a sign of a good leader (knows his or her strengths, but not afraid to get help with weaknesses).
Still feeling a bit conflicted with the Cano deal, to be honest. I LOVE Diaz (not that way), but I HOPE that Cano is still Cano, if you know what I mean.
***Interesting angle with the NL DH possibility......depending on when that happened, it could be a spot for Cespedes' last year, too.
We need a solid catcher, next. I still like Ramos for a lot of reasons, but would be happy with an upgrade. TDA and Plawecki can fight it out for the scraps, as far as I am concerned.
Oh and the best version of our team includes Noah Syndergaard in the rotation!
Bob, the more you add in lots of wishful thinking, the more likely the whole house of cards collapses. Brodie is spot on about building in a legitimate cushion - all the successful teams do. The thin approach worked in 2015, but that was just plain luck, and the kind of thinking why the mets have won only one WS in nearly 50 years. Luck is not a strategy for anything more than the very short term.
Reese
You can't keep going back and... well... harping on Sandy moves.
This is a new train.
Hop on.
as a card player you dont blindly go all in before the cards are dealt. You can do it on the flop to put pressure on someone. Otherwise you push all in when you have an advantage to press or are bluffing.
Chapman has been traded by the yankees twice. once for, once away. In the one for they bought low because he fired a gun at his and was going to be suspended. The sold high, when the cubs needed a premier closer to get over the top. The reds made a bad trade even if it was necessary. The cubs made a great trade bc the ends justified the cost. the yankees did well twice by using leverage to exract the best possible outcome. This aint that.
If the mets were ten games over 500 at the all star break and had the look of a champion then its right to deal prospects away and go for it. By his own analysis this deal makes the Mets an 83-84 win team. Thats not win now, that get to 500. Agents always want the most they can get for themselves. The mets owners are morons convinced that a fart in the wind smells like lavender. They delude themselves into thinking what they have is the best. Its why the yankees are partners with nycfc and looking for a stadium instead of the mets with a stadium being built to anchor the willet point dev project they've been trying to do for 20 years. Only they seem to see what they see. The rest of us are looking at them going its an empty lot with garages surrounded by the fastest growing area in new york city and you still cant get it done bc you dont understand the marketplace.
Here her Rob...
As far as jumping on the train.. .Nope... prospects are suppose to be used as assets and losing one of only 2 5 tool prospects (Mauricio maybe the other) for a 36 year old is foolish (and I am being kind)...
BVW because I don't even want to know his real name did what agents always want to do... Grab attention but its not as if he acquire a top 5 player in the game.
this wasn't Arrenado, Bregman, Correra, judge or any number of potential YOUNG super stars you build around.. (those you can argue giving up Kelenic)
this was Noise for noise sake...
as far as his staff? his staff hasn't been here long enough to evaluate if that was a smart deal... so we'll see if they can use those intelligent men and actually build a farm system...
The red sox spend money yes but they found Betts, Xander, and about 5 more young stars who make no money and are the corner stone of a WS championship team already...
who do we have in the lineup or the pipe line with that pedigree...
Maybe Conforto and i thing some may debate even that...
Wait....we got Dilson back? Yay!
Around The Acorn
1. Marlins asking price for JT Realmuto - Way too high. It would totally deplete the Mets best younger players and this after trading away Kelenick too. What would be more acceptable to Mets fans won't fetch JT. But Nimmo, Rosario, and Conforto must stay. These three and
2. Maybe Red Sox C Mike Ohlman in less severe type trade. In this trade idea, Mets send Gimenez and Gsellman to Boston for C Ohlman and SP Darwinzon Hernadez. Go look up Darwinzon's stats first.
3. Could Matz be a lefty set-up. Let's be honest here for a second, Steven Matz has a losing record and a nearly 4.00 ERA starting. Plus, he gets hurt easily doing this. So why not roll the dice and try him in ST as a lefty set-up reliever? Maybe then too, the Mets could go and sign JA Happ from the free agent roll.
4. The catcher position is again (since Piazza left town actually) the bug-a-boo position. But get this, it is this same way all around every baseball playing county in the world. There is a severe catcher shortage, like never before. So a MLB team without a good one has to be ultra creative. I don't care for Yasmani Grandal, Wilson Ramos (although with a healthy d'Arnaud it's possible, or any of the Latino not hit catchers whose names pop up from time to time on the Interner. The Mets have no one who screams success offensively and the Mets now do need to add homerun power from that position.
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