Remember 1969: Time to Build a Team: Part 1

 

Construction Zone Ahead!

  

Although I don’t think there is a lot of funding from the government’s Infrastructure bill, it is still time for some construction for the Mets roster.  

The goal of any construction project is to have a smooth road to the destination.   It is no different for building the best roster – smooth sailing to the World Series.    It often does not end that way as there are hidden potholes here and there and new ones opening through the year. 

So leaving the highway building analogy behind, there are several different ways to build a roster that will sustain a team and propel them deep into October.   

The common thinking is that the Mets have always been built as a pitching first baseball club.   But seeing as they have seen just two World Championships in 62 years of play, maybe that thought should be revisited.   But for now, because pitching is the assumed path of the Mets front office, let’s examine the market.  I will submit a second construction plan in a few days outlining a change in approach to “offense first”.    (Spoiler alert:  That will be much harder to do in the 2023-24 free agent market).

Pitching first approach:    This has always been the Mets way and this year there are several good options to build a staff.  To build a ‘pitching first’ team, they have to land Yamamoto from Japan, and at least two other good starters.   My vote would be free agent Jordan Montgomery and then take a flyer on a reclamation project like Lucas Giolito.   That would give them a rotation of Yamamoto, Senga, Montgomery, Quintana, Giolito, Megill, Lucchesi, and Butto.     At this point, there are no Hall of Famers (yet?) in that list, but there are a serviceable 8 starters.    With that they have now spent about $325M total, with about $45M of that being for 2024.    If Montgomery looks to get too expensive, Shoto Imanaga is an intriguing lefty from Japan that could fill a starter role.    Imanaga might even be a better option A than Montgomery.   Also David Peterson should be back in some capacity by mid-year. 

With a pitching first approach, having seven or eight decent (and healthy) starters to begin is crucial, but they still need to build the bullpen. 

A David Robertson reunion would be a good place to start.    Then keep going and bring in Jordan Hicks and Robert Stephenson.       With Diaz back as the closer, Raley, Hicks, Stephenson, Drew Smith and a spinning wheel of others with at least some major league experience (Gott, Garrett, Reid-Foley, Walker, Hartwig, Bickford, Brigham, and Coonrod) plus two or three prospects that may be ready in 2024 (Lavender, Orze, Clenney) will give them a decent depth.   

This alone would make up a pretty good staff without spending any ‘prospect capital’.     An alternate approach would be going the trade route for the second (and third) starters.   Instead of signing Montgomery, pursue a Corbin Burnes, Mitch Keller, or Dylan Cease via trade.   I have seen mention that perhaps Seattle would be a good trade partner, although they are looking for offense, and there may not be a good fit there.   On the bullpen side, we could resurrect the idea of uniting the Diaz brothers in the bullpen via a trade with Cincinnati, but that is unrealistic, as he is a core piece to their improving club.   Any of these trades cost some prospects.  Trade suggestions for each option won’t be offered up here, but the “who says no” exercise is always fun if you want to use the comments section to suggest trying to obtain one of these arms.   (or perhaps a full article with several trade proposals might be interesting). 

I will close this piece with a couple ‘Remember’s Ramblings’ opinion notes: 

The best way to build the bullpen is for starters to get deeper in games.   They should try to figure out how to build a culture of starters throwing 7 innings per start.   I hear all the ‘protect their expensive investments’, but I look at the amount of innings that some of the pitchers of yesteryear threw.   Tom Brennan’s piece on the 1969 starters throwing 51 complete games was spot on.   All those pitchers did not flame out in a year or two.   You might have heard of a couple of them – Seaver and Ryan – becoming hall of famers, and Jerry Koosman is a member of the hall of very, very good with a long career.   Why are today’s pitchers not allowed to throw more than 80 pitches?   

Notice that the names Aaron Nola and Cy Young winner BlakeSnell did not make an appearance in this piece.  This is because I believe that each will be far more expensive than their actual worth.   Nola has regressed too much to earn a top dollar contract (ERA in the 4.50 range 2 of the last three years) and Snell, while he had an amazing run of it in 2023 (and earlier with Tampa), walks too many batters for my liking.   I just sense that he had some good fortune keeping those free baserunners from scoring this year, mostly due to a batting average against .181, or 33 points below his already decent career mark of .214.   If the free passes keep coming (he lead the league in walks in his Cy Young year (head scratcher), he will show regression in the ERA when his BA against normalizes.

A couple images from the Mets past "Pitching First" strategy:

Wow..it has worked in the past!   Perhaps it is time to find the next Mets Cy Young winner.

Author's note:  this piece was written prior to the Friday 11/16 non-tender deadline.  It is possible some of the players mentioned here are no longer under Mets contract. 

 OK, time for the comments.   Is Pitching First the best option for 2024 and if so are these free agents the right ones or is the trade route the better path?    Let’s discuss.