Mike's Mets - A Very Early Look at Mets Position Players

 

By Mike Steffanos

When last I posted here, I took an early look at the Mets pitching*. This included the additions of Chris Bassitt and Adam Ottavino, but still pending the almost certain addition of at least one late-inning caliber lefty. Today we'll move on to the position players, whose ranks have been substantially overhauled this off-season. Eduardo Escobar will be picking up most of the 3B ABs this year, while Starling Marte and Mark Canha will be joining lone holdover Brandon Nimmo in the outfield. Barring a last-minute change of course, Michael Conforto will not be returning after seven mostly solid seasons in New York.

Starting at catcher, the Mets have James McCann and Tomás Nido returning. Both are solid defensively. Neither contributed much offensively in 2021. McCann slashed .232/.294/.349 over 412 PA, while Nido chipped in with a .222/.261/.327 line in 161 PA. That was some feeble offense, particularly disappointing from McCann, who had shown signs of an offensive breakout in 2 previous seasons with the White Sox. I wouldn't be surprised to see McCann bounce back offensively to at least some more respectable numbers. So many Mets hitters struggled in 2021. Even improvement short of the numbers McCann put up in Chicago would help greatly. Just getting back to league-average production would be helpful.

More problematic for the Mets, as it was last season, is the depth behind McCann and Nido. First up, if one of those went down, is still Patrick Mazeika, who offers less offensively than the top 2 along with much inferior defense. It's not reasonable to expect top prospect Francisco Álvarez to be prepared to contribute to the big league club this season. He's 20 and has yet to advance beyond A-ball. More likely up after Mazieka is a Quad-A type like Chance Sisco, who filled in for the Mets last season. If the Mets lose one of their top 2 catchers for more than a brief period, it's going to hurt.

Mets GM Billy Eppler has indicated that the team is unlikely to add another significant position player. While I don't discount the addition of someone if Steve Cohen is willing to push even higher past the Cohen Tax, I'm going to take him at his word for now and preview the infield and outfield with the players the Mets currently have on hand.

INFIELD

1B Pete Alonso (R)
2B Jeff McNeil (L)
3B Eduardo Escobar (SW)
SS Francisco Lindor (SW)
INF Dominic Smith (L)
INF Luis Guillorme (L)
INF Robinson Cano (L)
INF J.D. Davis (R)

OUTFIELD

LF Brandon Nimmo (L)
CF Starling Marte (R)
RF Mark Canha (R)
OF Jeff McNeil (L)
OF Dominic Smith (L)
OF JD. Davis (R)
OF Nick Plummer (L)
OF Khalil Lee (L)

Looking at the above list, I'm a lot more comfortable with the infield than I am with the outfield as the roster stands today. Guillorme is a good defender anywhere on the infield. Cano and Davis are probably destined to see most of their AB at DH. And yes, Dom Smith is a better defender than Alonso at 1B, but making your best players happy matters. Alonso doesn't like to DH and is far from a terrible defender at 1B.

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*Actually, I typoed the title as a Very Eary Look, apologies for that silly goof. Thanks to Tom from Mack's Mets for catching the error.