Reese Kaplan -- From the Outside Isn't Always Good Business

One type of baseball fan has blinders on in that everyone on his or her team is by far the best option for the Mets to retain as the players in question produce otherworldly numbers when wearing some combination of orange and blue.  Then there are the other type of baseball fan who believes that consistent losing by the Mets as a team means that outsiders are needed to push the team forward into contention.  Furthering this belief are hot weeks or hot individual games that draw a lot of attention.  

This past week one non-Met who garnered an awful lot of attention is the Los Angeles Dodgers' version of Ben Zobrist, a player who is credible with the bat, the glove and can play all over the field.  For LA the man in question is Chris Taylor who started off with the Mariners back in 2014 at the age of 23.  He then played almost exclusively shortstop.  He was kind of up and down with the bat and after an even-up trade for pitching suspect (not prospect) Zach Lee, he's been with Los Angeles since 2016.

Upon arriving at Dodger Stadium Taylor was made into a utility man, adding other infield and outfield positions to his playing resume.  He has now six positions on his baseball card, only missing out on first base, catcher and pitcher.  In three of those seasons he's exceeded 500 ABs playing all over the place, delivering as many as 21 HRs and driving in as many as 73 runs while stealing in the lower double digits with his high being 17 in 2017.  His batting average as a Dodger is .265 to accompany all that versatility.  

Right away people are clamoring for him to be a primary target for the New York Mets as they enter the 2021-2022 off season.  There is surely merit to having someone who can play well all over the field, but his current salary is already $7.2 million and his Thursday night 3 HR feat in the NLCS will surely push his asking price well north of $10 million per season.  Given the Monopoly-money reality of baseball contracts, that's not an unreasonable number but you do have to question if it makes sense.

The Mets have also employed a player who has spent some time at second base, shortstop and third base who has had an up and down career playing all over the place.  This gentleman averages 16 HRs, 54 RBIs and 39 SBs over a full season along with a .258 batting average.  Jonathan Villar this past season for the Mets was more good than bad, finishing with 18 HRs and 42 RBIs in 454 ABs while hitting .249.  For this effort the Mets paid him $3.55 million for one year.  

So the question in my mind is whether or not it makes any sense to pursue Taylor who will command at least double what Villar earns when the Mets already have a guy capable of infield and outfield on the roster named Jeff McNeil.  For a refresher, McNeil is a lifetime .298 hitter (which includes his terrible 2021 season), averaging 16 HRs and 67 RBIs in a single season.  For that effort he was recently paid $642K for the 2021 season.  So wouldn't a combination of bench player Villar and versatile player McNeil cost a lot less in aggregate and deliver more?  

Granted, I am not usually in the Mets-Mania group when it comes to the roster (or front office) construction.  However, as a business proposition it would seem to make little sense to pursue the same-aged Chris Taylor when Jonathan Villar and Jeff McNeil combined would cost less than the NLCS hero looking to cash in on his high profile production. I'm all for reinforcing the roster with resources already here and from the outside, but not when it comes at prices that might deter the Mets from addressing other needs when that contract proposal really doesn't have to be made.