Reese Kaplan -- Evaluating How the Mets Did Preparing for 2022

While everyone is anxious to issue grades and evaluations for how the Mets did during this 2022 season, the issue that really must be examined more closely is how the ownership and front office did to prepare the Mets to ascend to the postseason.  

After all, they were coming off a first year performance under Steve Cohen and Sandy Alderson in 2021 in which they finished in 3rd place out of the running, 11.5 games back with a below .500 record of 77-85.  

During the first full off season the front office had to make some significant changes if they were indeed really going to make a movement into October baseball within the first five years of Cohen ownership.  Step number one was filling in the gaps to obtain some high quality ballplayers via trade and free agency. 

Step two was allowing Sandy Alderson to concentrate more on the business of baseball and allow someone else to take over roster construction and salary negotiation.  Step three was getting the roster to perform at its optimum.  Step four was addressing the needs that arose due to slumps or injuries that could curtail the team from progressing.

Well, on the roster part I think most people would take off their caps and salute what was done in the 2021-2022 off season.  The Mets felt they needed starting pitching to supplement the existing trio of Jacob deGrom, Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco.  

The front office went out and obtained the best pitcher available on the market via free agency in Max Scherzer.  They then swung a trade with Oakland to bring in the less well known Chris Bassitt to take over the other opening in the starting rotation.  

Ignoring temporarily the output of the returning three starters, instead focus on the overall output of the two newcomers.  Multi Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer did miss significant time with injury, but you can't argue over what he did on the mound overall.  He finished 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA, a WHIP of 0.908 and strikeout to walk ratio of 7.21.  Wow, you really can't ask any more than that other than ongoing health.

Chris Bassitt may not have been a household name in New York, but his recent work in Oakland showed a pitcher with a winning record and a 3.44 ERA.  With the Mets he went 15-9 with a 3.42 ERA, 1.145 WHIP and a 3.21 strikeout to walk ratio.  Considering the price to get him were prospects J.T. Ginn and Adam Oller.  

Considering Ginn finished the year with a 5.10 ERA in the minors and Oller in the majors went 2-8 with a 6.30 ERA, at this point it would seem the Mets were the winners in this deal.  

To supplement the bullpen the big acquisition was Adam Ottavino who had traveled around a bit from team to team, and had already proved himself on the big stage across town in the Bronx.  For the Mets he was indispensable, going 6-3 in 66 games with a 2.03 ERA.  He helped complement Seth Lugo, Drew Smith, Trevor May, Trevor Williams, others and otherworldly Edwin Diaz.  

On the offensive side of the ledger, the big additions were free agents Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha.  While Marte was a well known commodity worth every penny spent to obtain him, Escobar was an underperformer for most of the season until a player of the month honor late in the season.  

Canha seemed to be a right handed version of Brandon Nimmo, making pitchers work very hard to get him to swing at anything out of the zone.  His power was a bit down from what they expected, but the average was up and he fielded well.  These latter two were not at the top of anyone's radar for acquisition, but there was more good than bad.

So overall the grade for the front office in the preseason was most decidedly in an "A" for effort and execution.  Billy Eppler and Steve Cohen jointly get credit for identifying the quality players to bring to New York and then paying handsomely for them.  We'll continue the rest of the evaluation next week.