Reese Kaplan -- Notice How Other Clubs Lock Up Their Young Stars?

The Mets have been a team who seems to force their minor leaguers to compete long and hard before finally getting a chance at the majors.  Think, for example, about Jeff McNeil who didn't make his major league debut with his career .306 batting average until age 26.  The history of the franchise seems filled with many offensive players and pitchers who were playing longer against lesser competition than perhaps was reasonable given the need to help win games at the Major League level.

Granted, there are times that injuries forced a team to delay promotions.  For pitchers it is common for Tommy John Surgery to steal 18 months of a player's development.  For offensive players it could be anything from leg to arm to abdominal injuries that forced a player to the Injured List for much longer than was expected.

This trend under Steve Cohen's leadership may be changing.  While everyone was anxious to see top performing minor league players like Brett Baty and Mark Vientos (who didn't exactly set the world on fire), the fact is that everyone was really chomping at the bit to see 20 year old wunderkind Francisco Alvarez get summoned to the big club.  

So when the Mets chose to do just that with Darin Ruf sidelined with a surprisingly convenient injury to his neck, folks who follow the Mets were of two mindsets.  There were the ones who proclaimed loudly, "It's about time!" and then there were other more cautious ones who felt asking a youngster to make his debut during the final six games of the season (including three head-to-head with the Atlanta Braves) was asking far too much from a player not yet having had a full AAA season.  

When you throw in the less than spectacular debuts of Baty and Vientos, expecting baseball miracles out of Alvarez was like wishing on a star.  

One of the things that was especially frustrating during the Sandy Alderson, Wilpon family and Terry Collins days fans were asked to become accustomed to bringing in role players who somehow were supposed to convert into star regulars one they put on the blue and orange attire.  

People remember fondly the difference made when the Braves provided the Mets in 2015 with supplemental but professional players in Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe.  The younger players the Mets sacrificed -- Rob Whalen and John Gant -- never really amounted to much in the Major Leagues.  Whalen went 1-3 with a 5.75 ERA over three years and Gant flashed occasional competence, going 24-26 with a 3.86 ERA primarily as a starting pitcher.  Kelly Johnson hit .250 with 5 HRs for the Mets.  

Juan Uribe hit .219 with 6 HRs.  Neither were major difference makers, but given the choice between veterans at the end of their careers (a'la Darin Ruf) or youngsters who haven't yet adjusted to the next level of competition, I'd go with the fresh rookie faces.  

This past year the Mets have not been nearly as pitching oriented with rookies as they have been with offensive players.  The club did promote Bryce Montes de Oca and rapidly lost him to injury.  The rest of the pitchers who made appearances in the Mets clubhouse are littered with wannabes who have had a lot of previous experience.  Colin Holderman was a pure rookie but he's no longer a part of the Mets organization.  

Going forward the Mets are going to need to look back on what did work in 2022, including Starling Marte, Mark Canha, a late burst from Eduardo Escobar and the trade for Chris Bassitt.  

Then they need to look at what didn't work as well as they had hoped, including Darin Ruf, Tyler Naquin and inconsistency from Daniel Vogelbach.  The difference in the new Mets vision is integrating younger players into the mix with veterans and no longer hoping there's a few more miles left in the tank for someone whose best days are clearly behind him.  

Francisco Alvarez is most definitely going to be a highly regarded baseball player, but I'm of the opinion that asking him to put it all together for the big Braves series was not really fair to him nor to the Mets in general.  The club needs to decide going forward if he's going to be a catcher or a DH (and they still have James McCann under contract for two more seasons at $12.150 million in 2023 and 2024.  

They also have the now no longer embarrassing Tomas Nido as well.  Consequently what to do with Alvarez is still an unresolved issue.  

When you look at other teams who invite their top youngsters to play regularly in the early 20s and then lock them up to less expensive long term contracts through their prime development years, it seems that the Mets are going to be playing catch-up to this new way of doing business.  

Hopefully the club is no longer pursuing the Nth level players in trades and free agent signings and will instead provide opportunities for the rookies to do what they do best.