January 28, 2021
Here we
are approaching February 1st and the Mets seem to be in a state of
flux. Many of the identified needs have
not been addressed. We still lack someone to play center, third base is still a
problem and we are short one back-up infielder.
Let me
start by saying I have the utmost confidence in Sandy Alderson. However the moves made thus far have me
concerned. Lately, there has been speculation
that the Mets are in on Trevor Bauer and have offered him a contract comparable
to the one received by Gerrit Cole. Concerns
have been raised about Bauer’s moral compass after it was revealed that he sent
inappropriate tweets to at least two women.
If added, would he become a distraction and/or a disruption?
Adding
Bauer would potentially make the rotation one of the best in baseball. Red flags have been raised about Bauer’s
historical numbers and whether he should be rewarded with a record contract
based on his Cy Young winning performance in a short season.
What I don’t
understand is why would the Mets go over the cap limit for Bauer but not for
Springer. Signing Springer would have
resolved three areas of need.
1.
A
solid defensive center fielder
2.
A
big right handed bat at the top of the lineup
3.
Move
Nimmo to LF where he would improve the defense
Assuming
Bauer is signed and the Mets are over the cap, how will they address the remaining
needs? JBJ is one option but I’m wary of
adding another left hand hitter to a lineup already dominated by lefties.
I am
less concerned about the bull-pen with the expectation that Matz would be given
a crack at filling the left hand role with the newly added Aaron Loup now in
the mix. And I suppose we are stuck with strange-glove Davis at third. Wonder
who the other back-up infielder will be to complement Guillorme?
The fact
that MLB has not yet decided whether NL will have a DH this year has definitely
thrown a monkey wrench into the Mets planning.
No DH probably means no JBJ or equivalent, Nimmo in CF with some combination
of Smith, Davis and God knows who else in LF.
I was
not in favor of acquiring Lindor. While
he is a great player his acquisition did not address a need. Some combination of Rosario and Gimenez would
have given us fairly decent SS play and allowed the team the flexibility to go
after Springer and add a couple of arms to the rotation as well (Ordorizzi, Paxton,
etc).
To be
honest, I am confused about the direction of the club. Things will become clearer in the next ten
days. I’m just not as confident as I was
two weeks ago.
Ray
5 comments:
Ray, I am still confident and will remain so until they screw something up. I think the decisions so far have been good, personally.
I'm with Ray .. I am confused about things and am not as confident as before either.
Unlike Ray, I do like the Lindor signing, but I do think that centerfield (and hence left) is the biggest issue at this point. I am not worried about JBJ being a lefty. They are actually sitting at 4 - 4 now with McCann, Alonso, Lindor and Davis as the righties and Conforto, Nimmo, McNeil and Smith as the lefties. If they can snag JBJ, substitute Bradley for Smith and for a DH, Smith and Martinez can be a strong platoon. They need Bradley regardless and they'll have to juggle the at-bats.
Also 70% of the pitchers are right handed, so a little bit top-heavy lefty lineup is not the worst thing in the world. And, have you looked at Nimmo's numbers against lefties? Not too shabby.
So my confusion: (1) Why give up two shortstops in the same trade? I like Lindor and am very glad they got him, but the cost of the trade seems odd.
(2) Why Jose Martinez? Yeah, he can hit, but he really restricts the roster with his defensive liabiities. They have enough good hitters on that team.
(3) Seems like they could have done better with Matz. They had other holes to fill and he could have been part of a package for that. Sonny Gray? even Kris Bryant. Alderson does not have very good track record collecting relief pitchers.
(4) Back-up catcher? Back-up shortstop? Is McNeil the best option at 2nd? Who can play infield other than Guillorme?
What did make sense: McCann . . May . . even Loup. I think Carrasco, although I would have like them to have gotten one of their younger guys - Plesac, MacKenzie, or Civale instead for team control and less $$.
Not funny:
“ What if Steve Cohen loses so much money on shorting Game Stop shares that he has to sell the #Mets back to the Wilpons? 😳”
The Matz trade caught me off guard. I think Toronto made a smart move. Guess we needed to create some cap space.
Ha, ha, ha.
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