Reese Kaplan -- A Carlsbad Meeting for the Future Led by Sandy Alderson

Every week (and seemingly every day) we Mets fans are forced to revisit the personnel situation in the front office and the corresponding baseball meetings at which team executives are needed.

Starting Monday the GM meetings take place and unfortunately despite all the new names being bandied about regarding who could or might be interested in becoming a part of the Mets, the fact is that no hires have yet been made.  

There was news this week going to other way when the thin outfield roster was made to look positively anorexic when they announced Thursday that Kevin Pillar and the Mets have mutually decided to part ways.  Now this move won't keep me up nights but the fact is that with Michael Conforto likely headed out the door and Albert Almora Jr. already gone, the club is a bit needy in terms of who patrols the grassy patch between the left and right field lines.

To look at the roster today you have Dominic Smith regarded as an outfielder with Pete Alonso still at 1st base, Jeff McNeil likely regarded as an outfielder with the debate about bringing Javy Baez back to play second base, and the oft-injured Brandon Nimmo in center field.  I suppose you could call J.D. Davis an outfielder as well given that no-vacancy at first base and the unresolved question of who plays third.  That combination of players doesn't right now set anyone's heart aflutter though both McNeil and Smith have definitely produced offensively in the past.  Davis had a surprisingly good year given his injury, but after surgery we don't know how his power will be.

With the news that Nick Castellanos was separating from his temporary home in Cincinnati, everyone was immediately clamoring for the Mets to make a long term offer to bring this still under-30 slugger to Queens.  The problem is that defensively he is worse than Smith was when he first attempted the outfield and he only got pushed out there when his third base efforts were deemed unprofessional.  

Frankly, the Starling Marte free agency should be much more appealing to the Mets.  He adds dimensions of both defense and speed while providing decent power.  He's hit as many as 23 HRs in a season while leading the league in stolen bases and holding a career .289 batting average.  At age 33 he likely wouldn't require more than a 3-4 year deal and it won't be in the over-$20 million per season range like Castellanos.  Now if this kind of speed, defense and power came to the Mets to join on-base machine Brandon Nimmo and one other outfielder, that mix might actually work.  

The problem with all of these scenarios is the fact that Sandy Alderson essentially is the entire front office right now.  He'll be the one representing the Mets at the GM meetings and from what we've seen, he's not exactly anyone's favorite phone call to receive.  Consequently, the GM meetings could start and finish without anything definitive being done to lay the groundwork for improving the 2022 roster.  

Hopefully one of the rumored candidates for the GM role or the POBO role will emerge as legitimate over the next week or two.  With the CBA set to expire, it's hard to conceive of Sandy Alderson giving that issue the attention it deserves while simultaneously conducting interviews for the two office openings and then the on-the-field manager and coaching vacancies.  It is going to be an uneasy week in Carlsbad, California without the full mix of personnel at least identified let alone on the job.