Reese Kaplan -- Who's Still Around After All the Roster Trimming?

After last week's continuation of the roster dismantlement it would appear time to sit back and take a look at what the team currently looks like and what areas need to be addressed during the remainder of the off season.  

It's well known now that the Mets 40-man roster is down to 28 members which is the greatest number of openings of any team in the major league.  Some of the roster paring was rewarded with surprise and elation.  We're looking at you, Daniel Vogelbach.  The man has now been released three times (and twice by David Stearns).  

His agent had to advise him that between his lackluster performance and the whole Eppler/Showalter brouhaha that his future in New York had come to an end.  Mets fans are still pinching themselves that the move which should have taken place actually did.

The reaction to Luis Guillorme's end of the road with the Mets wasn't quite so universal.  Most felt that between his multitude of injuries, his obvious lack of conditioning and his weak bat becoming even worse, he was certainly not the automatic termination that Vogelbach was.  However, Guillorme's greatest attribute has always been his stellar defense, but between the injuries and the scattered number of innings at various positions he was not providing that either.  

The lack of foot speed was always a bit puzzling and the heft he was now carrying would have made that condition still worse.  Stearns' decision to cut Guillorme loose had as much to do with these attributes as it did opening him a door to find a new deal elsewhere with as much time as possible given his service over the years to the franchise.  With a glut of new infielders demanding time and space on the roster someone had to be the sacrificial lamb.

The pitchers are no one that anyone will stay up nights sorely missing.  Stearns corrected the poor Trevor Gott trade that Billy Eppler made and sent a few others packing who were not on the radar to help the beleaguered bullpen.  They summed up a total of five guys who will be circulating their resumes, baseball cards and scouting reports to 29 other big league teams, foreign teams and independent leagues as well.

So with the dust now settling, let's take a look at who has a firm place on the roster:

• Pete Alonso
• Jeff McNeil
• Francisco Lindor
• Ronny Mauricio
• Francisco Alvarez
• Brandon Nimmo
• Starling Marte (if healthy)
• DJ Stewart

On the pitching side of the ledger it's a remarkably shorter list:

• Kodai Senga
• Jose Quintana
• Edwin Diaz
• Brooks Raley

So if push comes to shove, you're looking at only 12 semi-guaranteed spots for the 2024 season before any upcoming trades take place.  

Following them are a list of probable players who may or may not have a spot for the upcoming season:

• Brett Baty
• Mark Vientos
• Omar Narvaez
• Zack Short

On the offensive side, you might see Baty banished to AAA after a poor 2023.  Vientos is theoretically right now the DH with Vogelbach out the door, but his hitting in September didn't fully make up for his mediocre 2023 debut.  

Zach Short is perhaps the new Guillorme, also without hitting skills nor running ability, but he includes some double digit home run power.  Narvaez is a hard sell to other teams given his injury and performance problems in 2023 which make his salary untenable, but a buy-down or a trade for an equally overpriced player on another team.

For pitchers it's much more unpredictable, but it would appear that some of the following still have life left in them:

• Jose Butto
• Tylor Megill
• Joey Lucchesi
• Drew Smith
• Grant Hartwig
• Reed Garrett
• Josh Walker
• Phil Bickford
• Sean Reid-Foley

Obviously the Mets need some starting pitchers in reserve and it's possible one of the trio could come north with a bullpen/6th starter role, but it wouldn't shock anyone to see them all in Syracuse.  The bullpen needs major work and with the possible exception of Smith, none of the others seem to improve what didn't work last year.

On the next go-around we'll look at who is available in free agency since making trades is pure speculation about who is possible and who it would take to land him.  Free agents are simply a matter of paying dollars.