Reese Kaplan -- Which Roster Hole Needs Attention First?

It’s been quite a week for Mets fans.  First came the ignominious departure of Jared Porter for, shall we say, overexposure.  Then came the Toronto Blue Jays offer accepted by George Springer to bring his good but not great center field skills north of the border.  Mets fans who were happy about how the pre-season was progressing all of the sudden took to the media to express their qualms, their tiffs and their frustration with how things turned out.  After all, spring training starts in under a month and there are still vacancies that need to be addressed.  The big question is which one is most important?

3rd Base

Sandy Alderson is a lot of things but subtle is not one of them.  He has been pretty upfront about the club’s dissatisfaction of having sometimes strong hitting J.D. Davis manning third base for the club on a regular basis.  There’s no two ways to slice it.  Even if he brought back his 2019 offense, he would still be more-or-less like a 2019 version of catcher Wilson Ramos whose lack of skills behind the plate helped compromise nearly every pitcher he caught.  Similarly, pitchers rely upon the third baseman to field competently and that’s just not a part of Davis’ game.  Unfortunately he’s not much better as an outfielder and they’re all stocked up at first base.  

So if not Davis, who then gets the hot corner?  Do you execute a trade for Kris Bryant?  How about Nolan Arenado?  Kyle Seager could probably be had for a bag of balls.  All would improve the defensive game but only Arenado is more-or-less a sure thing to help with the bat in his hands as well.

  

One of the more interesting ideas bandied about was a rumored package deal that would send Sonny Gray and Eugenio Suarez to the Mets for an unnamed package of players.  Combined Gray and Suarez earn an average of about $11 million per year for the next four years.  Considering he’s hit an average of 31 HRs and driving in 89 runs while playing a good third base, that’s not a bad price at all.  Gray has had two good years in Cincinnati despite being mostly bad for the Yankees before landing in the midwest.  He earns just over $10 million per season for the next two years.  So a combined outlay of $21 million per season for the two of them isn’t bad, particularly if you could palm off one year of Jeurys Familia to offset about half that amount along with J.D. Davis and a medium prospect.  

Center Field

This one has folks running in circles.  There are the “Just go with Nimmo” folks.  There are the “Sign Jackie Bradley, Jr. now!” folks.  There are the defense-only types who would be happy with a Kevin Kiermaier, Kevin PIllar, Alberto Almora or even Juan Lagares.  None of these solutions is ideal.  

Here the bundle bandied about with Milwaukee that includes the last two years of Lorenzo Cain’s contract along with reliever Josh Hader would certainly make people relatively happy.  Cain’s power has dropped off a bit but he still plays a first rate centerfield and the Brewers would be glad to be out from under the $17.5 million per season he’s owed for 2021 and 2022.  He’s still a career .288 hitter with close to 30 SB speed and double digit power.  I could live with him as a speedier but less powerful Curtis Granderson.  Paired with lefty Hader who earns $6.7 million for 2021 and will be arbitration eligible again after that, it’s quite a haul.  What you’d have to give up is a good question, but again Jeurys Familia would almost have to be part of the package to give them someone to replace Hader.  Maybe they’d like Nimmo?  I don’t know.

Starting Rotation

All of the sudden people are starting to chatter on again about Trevor Bauer who is not exactly getting wined and dined anywhere.  Apparently the latest rumor has it down to the Angels and the Mets.  I’ve said my piece about Bauer before -- he’s not worth $30 million plus per year for multiple years when he’s a career 3.90 ERA pitcher.  

There are many viable pitchers who can be had for significantly less, including Taijuan Walker, Jake Odorizzi and multiple trade candidates.  You could do the Brodie Van Wagenen maneuver of signing in bulk, hoping at least one of them amounts to something credible.  Or you could go the elder statesman route for the likes of Rich Hill, Adam Wainwright and others at the tail end of their careers who wouldn’t command much in terms of dollars or years on the contract.

Bullpen

Most definitely the Mets need to add at least one more solid relief pitcher, particularly if Jeurys Familia is destined to head out of town for his final year of being under contract.  A strong lefty like Brad Hand would certainly fill the bill, but it’s probably a difficult sell considering how dominant he’s been only to be told he would be backseat to closer Edwin Diaz.  The Mets could reach out to lesser options like Justin Wilson or Jake McGee, but neither would give you the boost a Hand or a trade acquisition like Hader would.  Of course, another strong starting pitcher or two would keep Seth Lugo in the pen where he could do what he does best. 

There’s no clear answer which way the Mets will move first, but it certainly seems there’s still a lot of roster manipulation to be done over the next 3-4 weeks before the pre-season begins for real.