Remember 1969: Construction Ahead - Part 2

 

In my last post, I presented a possible offseason blueprint with the current free agents and some players rumored to be available via trade to accomplish the “pitching first” tradition of the Mets.

As we saw in the 2023 World Series, the option to build a winner with an offense first approach is certainly very viable.  Texas added some very good pitching, but their calling card was their offense.  No free outs there.  

So, let’s take a look at how the Mets might accomplish that.

This approach is somewhat limited in this year’s free agent market.   Obviously Shohei Ohtani is the best of the best out there, but for the money, he does not solve a lot of the Mets problem.   He would fill in at Designated Hitter and instantly strengthen the line-up, but does nothing to plug their other holes in Right Field, Second Base, and Third Base.   This is assuming that Jeff McNeil is the starting left fielder.  

A couple of assumptions are being made here: 

First signing Ohtani uses most of the budget for Free Agent signings.

Second, they need to now go all in on Mauricio and Baty at second and third, respectively.   They may (and should?) do that anyway, but there may be other less expensive ways to mitigate the risk if the 2023 years were all they had.  

Let’s leave Ohtani and his half-billion dollar DH spot behind and build an offense-first team without him. 

To build a truly dynamic offense, the best bat out there is Juan Soto.  There are a lot of very strong opinions out there with regards to trading for a one-year rental, but getting him in the line-up to one of the corners in the outfield (left is more suitable) is a must when building an offense-first team.   And passing on Ohtani leaves the funds to sign Soto to a long term deal.

Once Soto is in the fold, it’s time to look at the free agent market.   Cody Bellinger would be a nice bat, but he is going to be too expensive for the fix that he brings.   Also, he is a lefty, and with Soto, a righty would probably be a better focus.

So to finish up, Rhys Hoskins should be signed as the DH, bring in Lourdes Gurriel to play the other corner while keeping McNeil at second base.  

Brett Baty remains as the third baseman, as Ronny Mauricio has gone to San Diego in the Soto trade.

The other option is to include Baty in the Soto trade and sign free agent Matt Chapman to play third.    This is not my preference – the final three months of Chapman’s 2023 year were really poor.   They can get that from Baty. 

Two more pieces of business that must be done in this approach:    Sign Pete Alonso to be the first baseman for the next few years, and fill in the bench pieces.    They need a left handed hitting 5th outfielder that can run.  You obviously cannot build a team around a Travis Jankowski, but late inning speed and defensive substitution is very valuable to have.  A reunion with Jankoski would not be the worst thing. 

 The final ‘normal’ lineup looks like:

Nimmo CF

Lindor SS

Soto  RF

Alonso  1B

McNeil 2B

Alvarez  C

Gurriel  LF

Hoskins  DH

Baty  3B

The four subs are Jankowski, a catcher,  Nick Senzel (can play multiple positions) and a left handed hitting backup infielder that can play shortstop in a pinch. 

Starling Marte was packaged up in the deal with San Diego. (hey they had to take something back for the Mets to pay Soto's entire salary).   DJ Stewart flopped in spring training and was released.  

There are still a few too many strikeouts in the lineup, but with Nimmo and Soto being the on base machines that they are, they should get plenty of opportunity to score runs.  

This approach eliminates Yamamoto and any other big salaries for the starting pitchers, but they will be able to add some solid (and healthy) arms for a lot less money.  

I'm guessing this won't be the most popular option, but all comments are welcome to tweak this approach!