Reese Kaplan -- BVW Needs to Bolster the Bench

While most of the attention is rightfully focused on who will be in the starting lineup and the bullpen, I got to thinking about the Mets bench in 2019 and who might reside there. 

Right off the bat, you figure there is now going to be a raging debate on the relative merits of keeping one of Kevin Plawecki and Travis d'Arnaud with yesterday's unexpected signing of Wilson Ramos to be the starting catcher.  It’s conceivable but highly unlikely they would carry three catchers given the tendency to go with 7-man bullpens.  Devoting two of five precious bench spots would be very difficult to do.

Next, you have the infielder position question.  If we assume for the moment that Todd Frazier is the starting third baseman, that would mean one of the bench slots must go to Jeff McNeil.  He’s left handed and thus far played both 2B and 3B in his career but not yet 1B, OF or SS. 

A similar player to Jeff McNeil is the long forgotten T.J. Rivera who may or may not be healthy enough to start the season.  Over the course of parts of two seasons Rivera has had 319 ABs with a .304 batting average, 8 HRs and 43 RBIs.  Unlike McNeil, Rivera has already logged some time at 1B and even 3 games in the OF.  Consider him something of a mirror image to the left handed hitting McNeil.

First base is a bit of a quandary as well.  As a betting man, I’m thinking Dom Smith gets a few weeks to showcase himself until the service time deadline passes and Peter Alonso ascends to the majors.  Another way to go would be to consider some combination of Todd Frazier, Jeff McNeil, TJ Rivera and Kevin Plawecki as adequate to tread water until the slugging rookie gets his ticket to Queens.

Outfield is most definitely a shortcoming for this club right now.  Until another move is made, Juan Lagares is penciled in to start in CF.  Consequently, there are NO natural outfielders on the roster worthy of a major league promotion.  One would think at least two more are needed with one a dedicated outfielder type and one perhaps a super utility who can play OF and also another position elsewhere on the diamond (Marwin Gonzalez, anyone?)  If they go with the four temporary horseman timesharing first base, then Dom Smith might be on the bench temporarily as an outfielder. 

So if the season started today the only players you could count on being ready 100% would include Kevin Plawecki, Jeff McNeil and Dom Smith.  Travis d’Arnaud and TJ Rivera are in DL-recovery limbo. 

Now there are some other players that have fallen by the wayside who could help, including Gavin Cecchini and Luis Guillorme.  Both are natural shortstops and even with Cecchini’s less-than-stellar performance there would still be quite an upgrade defensively over McNeil or Rivera. 

It will be interesting to see how BVW treats some of Sandy Alderson’s draft picks like Smith, Cecchini and Guillorme.  Thus far we have seen him peddle away Justin Dunn and Jared Kelenic already, so it would seem he wants to establish an identity of “his” guys.  Towards that end, we might see some of these minor pieces moved around to fulfill needs such as backup outfielder or middle reliever. 

It appears there is too much uncertainty with the catching situation and centerfield still up in the air, as well as question marks about the health of Lagares, Rivera and d’Arnaud to think that we’re even close to the roster that begins the season.