Reese Kaplan -- David Stearns Has a Lot of Things to Do

David Stearns has a lot of work to do to reshape the Mets from a big set of missteps into a perrenial contender.  We've already discussed the issue of who will manage the club for next year but there are many other topics to consider when formulating a plan for the long term health of the ballclub.  

Minor League Operations

For all of the improvements the Mets made to their minor league operations during the 2023 season the fact remains that their system hasn't been very good at producing the kind of players year after year like other franchises have consistently done.  Even now as the club moves into the 2024 season most of the hottest prospects are at AA or below in the system, so there isn't going to be a lot of immediate help.  The club has been lucky a few times with AAAA players who flourish like DJ Stewart this year.  More often, however, you have one dimensional players like Tim Locastro or overall mediocre selections like Rafael Ortega.  While there is value to having some established former major leaguers in Syracuse, not much good has come from any of the selections made by the Mets up until this point.  From bottom to top the whole minor league infrastructure needs to be evaluated to see what is working and what isn't.  Then clear steps for improvements need to be developed and implemented.

Improving Health and Conditioning

Rather than dwell on any specific player injuries, step back and consider the number of minor and major league players who have missed huge chunks of their development time due to issues with their health.  It is reasonable to delve into the conditioning and rehabilitation processes to try to ascertain why so many players keep going to the IL and don't recover in reasonable amounts of time.  There has been progress made in the case of some patience with seemingly minor injuries leading to long stints of time away from the game.  Rushing someone back might pay some short term benefits but more often it can lead to multiple stints on the IL in the future as the player is forced to take compensatory muscular approaches to the game trying to avoid reinjury but losing the natural ability that got them to the majors in the first place.

Bullpen

Assuming for the moment that the bullpen is headed by Edwin Diaz, Adam Ottavino and Brooks Raley going into next year, there is precious little left on the current roster to address the needs for setup and middle inning assignments with any faith of long term quality.  It seems nearly every few weeks word comes out that another reliever is on the shelf.  This dearth of in-house options suggests that new blood is going to be needed.  These relievers could be veterans with a positive track record, minor leaguers who have over stayed their welcome on another team's roster or top minor league prospects who look good on paper but haven't yet put their talents to work in the majors.  There is occasional odd chatter about trading away Edwin Diaz to fortify the roster in a hurry, but until he pitches again his value is going to be highly compromised.

Starting Rotation

If you want to start a barstool argument (or fist fight) bring up the futures for David Peterson and Tylor Megill.  Both have been pitching among the worst ERAs in the league all season and save for a decent game here and there the consistency required for an appearance every fifth day is simply not there.  We're not talking about 23 year olds who are wet behind the ears.  These guys are approaching age 30 and simply have not found it.  Stashing them in AAA is a lazy thing to do but there are not a lot of higher level options readily available from Syracuse.  Joey Lucchesi and Jose Butto have not yet burned the bridges that Peterson and Megill have done, but neither is any better than a 5th starter or a fill-in.  Finding starters numbered three, four and five are top priorities.  We've all heard about Yoshinobu Yamamoto as well as soiuthpaw Shota Imanaga.  The success of Kodai Senga makes the team far more likely to entertain more offshore talents but even if they captured both of these stars from Japan, that still would leave them one starting pitcher short to accompany them with Senga and Jose Quintana.  Trades or free agent signings may be necessary.

Integrating the Baby Mets

We have discussed already where Ronny Mauricio, Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Francisco Alvarez will fit into the new 2024 Mets.  Each has shown talent but not enough consistency nor longevity to make a solid projection of how they will do with 162-game playing regularity.  It may indeed turn out that one of these players will need to be included in a trade to bring in other resources the club needs more than the amount of time it will take to discover if they are more prospect than suspect. 

David Stearns has bitten off a major set of challenges when he put his name on the dotted line for the next five years.  Some people are resistant to change while others understand that it is a necessary process to build a solid organization.  Here's hoping the changes being made weigh much more heavily on the positive side of the scale.