Reese Kaplan -- Yes, Virginia, the Mets Have Money to Spend

One of the banes of being an amateur sportswriter wedged in and around real life is that often you find yourself working in spurts when opportunities arise.  Towards that end with a busy holiday schedule I’ve found myself with some forced downtime due to surgery which meant I could write a number of pieces only to be caught off-guard by the increasingly unpredictable Brodie Van Wagenen whose sometimes surreptitious actions catch all of us off guard (and necessitate a lot of rewriting).

With that backdrop of clandestine dealings emanating from the Mets’ front office, I will take a stab at the question of who will be on the roster and just how much money do the Mets still have to spend.  Remember that they’ve committed to the prorated salary of Robinson Cano, the return of prodigal son Jeurys Familia and the recently inked Wilson Ramos.  That’s a lot of dough committed by a team that traditionally has been more patient and, ahem, frugal when it came to constructing a roster.  Was it right for BVW to spend all of his budget within a week’s end of the Winter Meetings? 

Maybe, maybe not.  Perhaps he’s just crazy like a fox.

I went through the tedious exercise of projecting who will and who won’t be on the roster (barring any additional trades), plus allowing for the consensus arbitration increases for the likes of players like Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz.  What I ascertained is that they are indeed two bodies short of a 25-man roster, but the surprising revelation is that they are committed to about $134.5 million.  If you consider that the last few seasons’ budgets hovered around $154 million, allowing for both some inflation, some honeymoon period goodwill and the already resulting positive publicity keeping the Mets on the back pages in a positive way and no longer the fodder of the late night comedians, it’s certainly conceivable the Mets have between $20 and $25 million yet to spend. 

Considering that the big ticket free agents still there for the taking – Bryce Harper and Manny Machado – are likely to exceed that threshold individually, As much as the Mets fans would like to see the team finally start shopping in the steak section of the supermarket, unless there is another salary dump trade up BVW’s cuffed sleeves then this direction is not one worth considering. 

Right now the Mets have more than just a single hole to fill.  They currently have but three outfielders (one chronically injured), no experienced lefthanded relief pitchers and no clear backup to play shortstop (unless Luis Guillorme or Gavin Cecchini have made their way out of the baseball equivalent of the witness protection program). 

So, if you consider they have four needs to fill (4^th and 5^th outfielders, infielder and a left handed reliever), how can you go about maximizing the return on that $20 to $25 million left to spend?

Bear in mind that for all of the publicity that Robinson Cano’s arrival received, the real key to that deal was the minimum wage closer Edwin Diaz.  In making that deal BVW was able to dump two significant salaries in the persons of Jay Bruce and Anthony Swarzak.  Methinks there’s another similar deal cooking that will help the Mets gain some additional salary flexibility by sending one or more of Todd Frazier, Jason Vargas and Juan Lagares out of town to add $8 to $9.5 million of additional salary dollars to the pot.  

Of course, other general managers are not as gullible as BVW’s predecessor who never met a tertiary level option he didn’t like.  Getting rid of them would require either paying down their salaries or tying these contracts to more of Sandy Alderson’s draft picks. For example, if you found someone interested in Andres Gimenez or David Peterson then you might obligate them to take Juan Lagares or Jason Vargas to make the deal happen.   This approach will rid the club of payroll obligations regardless of the returns obtained.

So, for the sake of argument, one of these deals can be made for a $9 million full boat salary obligation leaving town, then you’re looking at up to $34 million to spend to fill holes.  However, let’s see what can be done to stay well within that total.

For the outfield, I’m coming on board the Nelson Cruz one-year bandwagon.  Yes, he's a DH in outfielder clothing, but bury him in RF and live with one of Conforto and Nimmo in CF.  Figure he would command at age 38 perhaps $9 million on a one-year deal.  That solves a starting outfield position and replaces Yoenis Cespedes’ production until the hobbling man from Havana is ready to return to baseball action. 

Let’s assume Oliver Perez is the LOOGY they have identified to take Jerry Blevins’ role (with Daniel Zamora in the wings behind him).  He’s also an elder statesmen at 37 this coming year and could likely be obtained on a one year deal for about $4 million.   We’re up to about $13 million spent thus far.

Now let’s turn to super utility man Marwyn Gonzalez.  A good comp would be the Cubs’ Ben Zobrist who gets close to 500 ABs per year playing all over the diamond.  Defensively Gonzalez is a bit more versatile (including true shortstop capabilities) but offensively Zobrist is the more complete player.  Zobrist averaged $14 million per season on his current deal.  Figure Gonzalez is perhaps slightly less, call it $13 million.  If you can do that, then you’re looking at $26 million spent and a 5^th outfielder still needed.  Now this player could be someone coming in return in the hypothetical prospect+bad contract trade or someone with a minor league invitation or even a AAA type like in-house option Dom Smith. 

The point here is that it’s possible to address the issues at hand without breaking the bank.  It’s even easier and more palatable if you can free up some extra payroll dollars via trade of unwanted assets.  Now this final roster is still not necessarily perfect.  What about another Jason Vargas swoon?  What about a Juan Lagares injury?  What about a Todd Frazier Mendoza-line flirtation?  The suggestions here are an example of a way to go, not necessarily the only way.