Reese Kaplan -- Waiting for the Proverbial Shoe to Drop

I looked down the list of New York Mets hitters recently and the high water mark among them was lightweight Luis Guillorme at .277.   After that the numbers dwindled rapidly and it makes you wonder what the powers that be in the front office and in the dugout are doing about improving things.  

Now, to be fair, the players taking the field have been a motley assortment of substitutes made up of DFAs from other teams and poorly selected and projected talents for the regular roster.  I won’t go into the rabid hostility people have towards Albert Almora as a classic example, but the fact is that the ailing pitching staff that was struggling to find five members is even worse off when you’re hoping a .220 hitter can drive home the go-ahead base runner.  

As much as the fans would like to see the club improve its roster the fact is that pretty much everyone is replaceable (at least based upon 2021 output).  You hear people offering up guys like Dom Smith for a bag of balls and they’re even entertaining offers on previous favorites like Jeff McNeil.

When you look at the ballclub right now and how they will shape up in 2022, the fact is that there are definitely moves that could be made, but probably the free agents to be should be the bodies the Mets attempt to peddle away.  They cannot sign everyone in the off season no matter how deep Steve Cohen’s pockets actually are.  It would simply be good business to divest themselves of players who will either leave for nothing at all or just a minor league draft pick.

I’ve brought up the issue of Michael Conforto in the past about how he is a good but not great player.  Maybe it’s time to see what the rest of the league thinks about him for the 2nd half of this season.  He’s not truly worth a qualifying offer at nearly $20 million next year, though his agent Steve Boras will demand more than that per season to lock him up.  They could roll the dice and gamble on him turning down the QO in the hopes that the draft pick they get becomes the second coming of Fernando Tatis, Jr.  Or they could dangle him in trade now to bring back someone a little further along the development cycle to help themselves lock up a pennant this year or in the near future.  

The ability to trade Conforto has a lot to do with the relative health of the infielders on the club.  Right now Jeff McNeil could take over one of the outfield slots if the team knew that just-IL’d Jonathan Villar or substitute Jose Peraza or already on the 60-day IL partners J.D. Davis and Jose Martinez are not ready to play every day.  For now the club is relying on Luis Guillorme to be a semi-regular on one side of Francisco Lindor and McNeil on the other.  They need infield reinforcements for McNeil to return to the outfield.  

Now news has come out that Brandon Nimmo is close to a return in another week to ten days.  This development would enable them to start an outfield of Dom Smith, Brandon Nimmo and Kevin Pillar.  While it’s not the makings of an All Star roster, it is manageable if they get a sizable return for Conforto.  

As difficult as it is to consider, they would normally have to consider the same thing about Marcus Stroman and Noah Syndergaard.  Both are slated to hit free agency, but the overstuffed waiting rooms, ambulances and AAA shuttle mileage is going to make trading pitchers almost impossible.  Now in this case both of these starters would be pushing the QO limits.  Stroman may be the more valuable at this point with Syndergaard’s setback.  However, with no one in the minors ready to assume the innings you’d give up by trading away Stroman, it doesn’t seem to make sense to try to consummate a deal.  

Something has to change to propel the Mets to a more consistent winning formula.