Reese Kaplan -- Ever Wish You Could Get a Major Do-Over?

Let's play a pretend game.  We all grew up wishing we were fireman or pilots or doctors even though we knew it wasn't real.  As grownups we play similar games to pretend to be more successful than we really are, or to live in the most desirable property in the area.

Today's "let's pretend" game is about the New York Mets.  For purposes of this exercise the rules are that Opening Day for the 2023 baseball season is actually on the date of May 5th.  Yes, it's a weird campaign for this baseball chase to the pennant, but at a record of .500 the season begins anew.  So going into the modified 2023 season, what must the Mets do to make themselves into a competitive, pennant-chasing ballclub?

First, let's assume for the moment that the starting pitching staff is headed by a pair of multi Cy Young Award winners in Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.  Regardless of how the former has pitched of late and despite the fact the latter gave up 2 first innning runs on the way to a loss for which he was virtually unhittable afterwards, pretty much all 29 other teams in baseball would be ecstatic to have them in their rotation.

After that comes Japanese import Kodai Senga.  He's been more good than bad, but he's also demonstrated an ability to dominate hitters.  It's a matter of adjustment that hopefully is a short term thing and he too would be welcome in most of the other major league teams.

After that it gets a bit murkier in the starting quintet.  With Carlos Carrasco and Jose Quintana still both down for the count, it leaves the 4th and 5th starter roles up to Joey Lucchesi and Tylor Megill.  The jury is still out on both as relatively long term solutions, but this pair has actually pitched better than any of the alternatives the team has tried up until this point.  Right now both men are pitching for their major league lives since Jose Butto and David Peterson are both heading up the Syracuse rotation.  With Carrasco's return imminent, one of them has to go (unless, of course, that one of them is kept around and pushed into the bullpen).  

The seemingly equal issue going forward is the way the offense is constructed for this new 2023 season.  Many fans are highly encouraged by what Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez have started doing with their bats.  That enthusiasm leads these folks to feel that Mark Vientos is the next missing piece needed to push the team over the top.  It may or may not be true, but at this point unless the club is planning a wholesale cleaning of the outfield and DH positions, there is precious little place for Vientos to get at-bats.

As most folks see it, Vientos is pretty much a DH-only option as first base and third base are already occupied.  He has made a very brief appearance earlier in his career as an outfielder and it wasn't pretty.  Think Todd Hundley as a defensive disaster.  

So if his future swinging the bat depends on him getting up to the plate regularly, being a right-handed only DH pairing with Daniel Vogelbach doesn't solve that problem.  Vientos would only play against left handed pitching which would limit Vientos to perhaps 2 starts per week.  Then if he doesn't develop a rhythm as a batter by playing so little folks will be ready to send him on the first Uber pointed towards Syracuse.

No, if you see Vientos as a potential solid contributor in the majors then you need to create the role for him to play regularly.  That would mean force feeding him into an outfield position in place of Mark Canha who earns too much money to sit on the bench.  Or it would mean telling popular but one dimensional Daniel Vogelbach that he is a substitute off the bench and a pinch hitter.  The dollars would make this approach more palatable as the big man only rakes in $1.5 million in salary.  Taking a quasi-successful DH (with limited HR power, oddly enough) out of this role to gamble that Vientos is ready to assume full time major league duty would require both courage and a gambler's penchant for better on the longshots.  

Perhaps the better bet is to attempt to trade away Vogelbach as Eduardo Escobar becomes a viable backup player should Vientos fail to deliver.  For now, however, it would seem that the new 2023 Mets season is verifiably Vientos-free.