Reese Kaplan -- There's Been Progress, But Not Yet Enough

As the final full week of business negotiations comes to a close before the Christmas holiday week, it’s time to consider where the club is, where they have gone and where they must go. 

It’s interesting that their first significant addition to the roster was little-known reliever Trevor May who flourished in Minnesota while working under the tutelage of Jeremy Hefner.  During their 2019 campaign together May was able to get his ERA down to 2.94 and his WHIP to an acceptable roughly one base runner per inning pitched.  The strikeouts were down a little and the walks were up a little.  

After Hefner left in 2020, May continued pitching for the Twins.  The good news is that his strikeout numbers spiked to 14.7 per 9 IP and his walks dipped to 2.7.  Those developments are certainly most welcome.  Unfortunately his ERA also spiked up to 3.86.  The hope is that he will get the WHIP number down again to match what he’d done in the previous two years yet keep the control where it was during the 60-game season.  

The need for May is perhaps the unclear role Seth Lugo will have in 2021.  If he’s in the rotation, then they need the setup innings in the 7th or 8th before giving way to closer Edwin Diaz.  If Lugo returns to the pen, then the bullpen all of the sudden looks markedly better with he, May and Diaz there.  What will be gotten out of Jeurys Familia is still anyone’s guess.

The next major acquisition was fraught with controversy because a great many people felt that the arrival of Steve Cohen meant the Mets would act to get whomever was considered the best of the available free agent pool.  In terms of catcher, that person would be J.T. Realmuto.  There’s no arguing with his success over his career with the Marlins and Phillies, but as number one in the available catcher pool of resources, he would command major money.  

The campaigning to bring James McCann in rather than Realmuto was met with a mixture of happiness and consternation.  McCann has had a solid two years in a row both offensively and defensively.  In fact, examining the metrics provided by both catchers suggests that aside from home runs they are fairly parallel.  The big difference is that there is a whole lot less mileage on McCann’s body as he was a backup for most of his career and he has not missed time on multiple occasions with injuries.  Hopefully the 2019 and 2020 stats are repeatable and the $10 million or so per season is invested in other needs.

The other acquisitions the Mets have made are not what you’d consider major enhancements.  When the headline reads they gave a major league contract to pitcher Sam McWIlliams who had an 8.19 ERA last season, people were not overly excited.  

Right now folks are waiting for other issues to be addressed.  I won’t reiterate the whole slew of starting pitchers available via free agency, but the fact is that the Mets are in need of at least two of them.  

In addition, the club had the league’s worst defensive metrics in centerfield when leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo played there.  Consequently everyone is chomping at the bit for news that they are close to signing George Springer.  Plan B would likely be Jackie Bradley, Jr.  While defensively Bradley, Jr. is probably better, there’s quite a drop-off in terms of batting ability.

The other issue is who is going to play third base.  Right now it’s a toss up between J.D. Davis and Amed Rosario if they proceed with the discussed assignment of Andres Gimenez to be the starting shortstop.  Neither are defensive whizzes, so discussions about Nolan Arenado and Kris Bryant are starting to run in the media.  

I don’t anticipate any of these moves will be made until the week after the holidays, but folks are feeling a bit uneasy with all of the uncertainty.  Still, even if the Mets do not land their first picks it would still be good to see them attempt to do so.  That type of negotiation is not something Mets fans are accustomed to experiencing.  Not all good things happen at once, but if they’re at least trying then I’m willing to exhibit some patience.