Reese Kaplan -- Temper Your Roster Enthusiasm After The Blockbuster

 

Well, what’s next Mr. Cohen & company?

To hear a lot of people, they are all set now to stock up every available slot on the starting roster with the best free agents and major league trade options that exist.  Why not just make out an All-Star lineup where every player is the best person available in the baseball who plays that position?  Wouldn’t that be just terrific?

Well, unfortunately, even billionaires have budgets and the Mets have more holes than Swiss cheese.  If you want to go out and sign George Springer, Trevor Bauer and trade for one of Nolan Arenado, Kris Bryant and Kyle Seager, you will surely have an awesome lineup and pitching rotation.  Throw in both Brad Hand and Liam Hendriks for good measure while you’re at it.  Maybe coax a viable player like Howie Kendrick out of retirement to sit on the bench next to Brandon Nimmo.  It’s all popcorn and cold, gold-colored carbonated adult beverages for everyone of age and celebratory spirit.

Call me pessimistic, but I really don’t think that the team is destined to move in this direction.  Not only will it tie up a ton of Cohen’s capital on a great many additions, it will hamper the club from making roster changes going forward for the next 3-5 years.  Right now the issue for the Mets isn’t the ability to score runs as much as it is building the proper blockade to prevent the opposition from doing the same.

The Mets’ defense is downright poor.  Starting with the outfield, Michael Conforto is acceptable.  Brandon Nimmo is acceptable as a corner outfielder, but as well documented, was the worst center fielder in baseball last year.  Dom Smith gives everyone Todd Hundley outfield flashbacks. 

Now the infield is dramatically better with the addition of Francisco Lindor at shortstop to work alongside Jeff McNeil who is more than adequate at second base.  Big Pete Alonso is still at best a work in progress at first, though he isn’t quite at the level of ineptitude with the glove as some previous Mets’ residents at that position.  J.D. Davis is, well, at best a DH.  Unfortunately the word out of the MLB office is that unless something dramatic changes, there won’t be a DH nor an extra inning baserunner starting on second base in 2021.  So there are problems, though Amed Rosario is no longer one of them.

James McCann by being a merely average defensive catcher is a quantum leap forward over what Wilson Ramos provided during his tenure in Queens.  There’s a reason he was relatively inexpensive and readily available when all other eyes were on Yasmani Grandal or a trade for J.T. Realmuto.  If McCann is capable of delivering a 3.7 WAR like he did during a full 2019 season for the White Sox or a 1.3 WAR that he posted in just 31 games in Chicago last year, then the deal is a very good one.  The defense alone should relax the pitchers considerably to know that not every pitch has to be a paint-the-corner strike. 

Pitching, however, is still very much an open issue for the ballclub both in the starting rotation and in the bullpen.  As it stands right now they have a three man solid rotation of Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman and Carlos Carrasco.  The 2020 AAA-skip-over success of David Peterson would make him an assigned number four but not exactly what you can predict to be top-of-the-chart quality just yet.  After that it’s still a bit of a crap shoot with converted relievers or very inexperienced minor leaguers getting the nod. 

When it’s late innings, they should be fine with Edwin Diaz, Seth Lugo (if he remains in the pen), Trevor May and even Jeurys Familia.  It’s the bodies after that which cause a spike in headache and tummy ache remedies being sold.  I could be wrong.  Dellin Betances has been too good for too long and has had another full off-season to recover.  Brad Brach used to be terrific (back in the days of early iPhone models).  The rest of the options are very much unproven. 

Yes, it’s been a great week for the Mets overall, but there are still issues to resolve, a mostly barren farm system (particularly in the upper levels) to replenish, and some major defensive holes that need to be filled.  The pitching staff as it stands right now had better hope for old-time Big Red Machine type of offense as it’s not the overall quality to intimidate the opposition.  I’m sure there are many more moves to come, but please expect that it won’t be like picking the shiniest apples off the tree.  Sometimes you have to get what’s already fallen to the ground.