Tom Brennan - WHICH OF THESE THREE YOUNG METS HITTERS WOULD YOU KEEP - IF YOU COULD ONLY KEEP TWO?

OK, gents and ladies, Steve Cohen arrives to greet his personnel, summarily fires Brodie Van Wagenen, and hires YOU as GM.  

You know you deserve it, as you are acutely aware of how awesome you are, and admire Steve for his keen eye for talent.

Then he gives you his first assignment:

OUT OF THREE GUYS 

- MCNEIL, DAVIS, AND ALONSO -

- IF YOU CAN ONLY KEEP TWO OF THEM - 

WHO DO YOU KEEP?

I'll try to think for you for a moment, since you're a bit tongue-tied and mystified.

Jeff McNeil - Jeff has been a hit machine and very versatile and consistent. .329 as a rookie in 2018, .318 with added power in 2019, and .331 in 2020.   His power has come and gone a bit during seasons, but who hits over .318 every year besides Tony Gwynn?  

And Jeff's minors career was devoid of power early, but he sits today with a .510 career slug %.   Keep in mind that the great David Wright had a career slug % of .491.

Guys like McNeil who can hit falling out of bed are worth their weight in gold, IMO, because when a really tough pitcher is your opponent, and your teammates are flailing around you, Jeff will get his hits and help his team fight back.

JD Davis has been truly impressive with the bat - as a Met, he has had a season's worth of ABs - 571 ABs, hitting .299/.373/.503 with 30 doubles, 28 HRs and 76 RBIs.  He's fanned 139 times in 620 Mets plate appearances, not that bad for a power hitter in 2020, and he can play two more positions than Pete Alonso - 3B and LF.  

To his discredit, as a Met, he has hit a lot better without RISP than he has with RISP - that and moving around the line up has suppressed his RBI totals.  I'm not sure how much treasure he could net the team in a trade, which is a factor in your decison making recommendation. (0 for 5 last night).

Pete Alonso had a prodigious, surreal, jaw-dropping and unprecedented 2019, with 53 HRs, 120 RBIs, quickly was the offensive face of the franchise, started LFGM, the whole nine yards.  

So far, he has had a fine 64 bombs and 146 RBIs in 749 ABs.  Last night, Pete avoid another oh-fer when Aaron Nola's 3rd strike was called a ball, and Pete deposited the next pitch over the wall - Pete is still strong.  Anyway, trading him would be a huge gamble, but if some team overwhelmed you???

Why even think about trading the Pounder?  Well, his 2020 has been more that a Sophomore Jinx - it's been a Sophomore Stinks!  172 ABs, 51 Ks, .215 average.  80% of his games this year, he's been a liability.  (Oddly, he did his best hitting in the two hole last year, but has gone just 0 for 11 there this year.  Maybe another stint in the 2 hole would help him now.)

It's probably just a bad year, a weird truncated year for the Pounder - and he'll probably be just fine going forward, right?

Well, I know I thought that, when David Wright stepped on Ike Davis' ankle early in his sophomore year, Ike would be fine-to-great, but he was injured just when Ike looked to be rising to stardom.

Up to that fateful, bizarre injury, which at first looked like it would just sideline him for a few days, Ike had had a fine rookie season at age 23, an age when Pete was still in the minors, and a great soph season start too.

In fact, up to that injury, Ike was impressive indeed in his career, if not to the level of Pete - Ike had 652 ABs, 41 doubles, 26 HRs, 96 RBIs,89 walks, and hit .272 in his career up until he was trodden upon.  Glove man, too.  Trade value at that point?  High, no doubt.

After that, Ike was never the same, though.  I doubt Pete fares similarly; he most likely will bounce back big in 2021, payback time, maybe even during what little is left of this season, but it has to be tempting to at least think about selling Pete high, right?

Perhaps there is a team with a great young starting pitcher and catcher who would love to link up with the Mets in a trade for Pete.  

Or, how about Pete, Josh Wolf and Ronny Mauricio for Soto? (I know it is a lot to give, but Soto is a super-young Super Freak.  Players like him are oh-so rare.  As in Willie Mays rare.  Henry Aaron rare. Ken Griffey Jr rare.  A Rod rare).

Back to reality.  

Of course, Michael Conforto and Brandon Nimmo asked why Steve Cohen did not ask for them to be considered by you as keepers in this evaluation.  Because they are keepers.  

Conforto vs. Alonso would be a very tough call, as Conforto is a better contact hitter and hitter for average, and less of an all-or-nothing bopper, although his power comes close to Alonso's.  Maybe Pete can alter his game to emulate Mike's approach...after all, Mikey C had a rough soph season himself, but is far better nowadays.  Growth, maturity, take your pick.

Nimmo's last 3 years have been impressive - .400 on base % and .480 slugging %, (and he had a crucially great night last night with a walk, single, triple, and a game-breaking 9th inning homer).  And those #'s most likely would have been even higher were it not for his bulging disk issue in early 2019. 

He does compile that production with less hits and more walks than McNeil, but he gets on base - an awful lot - and you don't always think of him as a power hitter, but maybe you should, what with 92 extra base hits in 796 at bats in 2018-20.

The last time the Mets might have to ponder which of 5 fine, young hitters to move, if any, was, well, NEVER.  

The Mets have a nice problem on their hands - and if the DH stays in the NL, I would recommend to Big Steve, the new Big Cheese in Queens, the Head Honcho, the Main Man, not moving any of these Fab Five.  

Trading any one of them could be a BIG mistake.  Unless we can trade to get Juan Soto, the Super Freak.  He is, after all, super-freaky.

Before I go...BIG night last night: 

Big, critical win, again showing this team can rake, with the Mets nicking the mighty Aaron Nola for 8 runs and a bunch of hits and walks over the last 10.2 innings in his 2 recent Mets starts, with Nola tossing a shutout afgainst the Marlins in between.  Lugo proved to be VERY mortal, but the pen was great and tired Edwin Diaz gutted out his 3rd outing in 3 nights, somehow fanning only 2 in his uncomfortable close out.  Now back home against Atlanta.