Reese Kaplan -- The Holidays are Over. Where are Our Gifts?

OK, the Christmas holiday has come and gone...Yoshinobu Yamamoto is not a Met.  So what is Plan B?

To read a great many accounts, the Mets are disinterested in both Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and World Series Champion Jordan Montgomery.  Part of the rationale is age.  

Both pitchers are north of 30 and would be looking for 5 year plus deals which may be good in the beginning but likely would not in the end.  Part of the issue is inconsistency.  

Snell has had his share of on-again/off-again seasons in the majors.  Montgomery has recently come to a strong past couple of seasons but for his career he's been at best a 3rd starter.  Now having finished on top he's going to be looking for first starter money.  

Finally, there's the issue of draft pick compensation due to other teams if you sign someone who has turned down a Qualifying Offer.

Now for a team that gave $86 million plus to two starting pitchers last season plus the return of Carlos Carrasco, you would think these financial implications are not that big a deal.  After all, if you were willing to set a record level payroll with record level penalty fees to the league and finished well below .500, why all of the sudden is spending more like something out of the Wilpon days?  

For fans and media, the Mets team philosophical approach on filling the roster is somewhere between incredulous and hostile.

Of course, the Mets need a lot more than more starting pitching.  It is indeed possible they could go into 2024 with the group of Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana, Luis Severino, Joey Lucchesi, Tylor Megill and Jose Butto (with David Peterson as a long term resource currently in the recovery room).  That approach would be the polar extreme and likely not going to happen.  

Butto has not proven himself in the long term.  Lucchesi has had some health issues.  Megill hasn't delivered consistency and you have the health of Luis Severino to consider as well.  

They recently added Adrian Houser by way of trade, but he's a career 4.00 pitcher with mediocre control and not much strikeout ability which could account for his sub-.500 record.  That's not exactly a group with spares the caliber of Taijuan Walker, Chris Bassitt nor Marcus Stroman. 

For as much neglect as the starting rotation has received, it likely pales next to the restructuring of the bullpen.  Here the Mets have been far more active than they have in the starting pitching market, but to what end?   After you get past closer Edwin Diaz and southpaw Brooks Raley, your next man up is Drew Smith who faltered quite a bit in 2023.  

After that it's a rehash of returning pitchers who have never delivered on a full season basis like Grant Hartwig, Sean Reid-Foley, Reed Garrett, Phil Bickford and Josh Walker.  Then they supplemented this laundry list of would be relievers by adding Austin Adams, Jorge Lopez and Yohan Ramirez.  

Hmmm...there isn't an Adam Ottavino nor David Robertson caliber pitcher in this entire group.

For folks gnashing their teeth over pitching, it gets even worse when it comes to offense.  

Yes, the club apparently is planning to let some of the kids be the first round of attack on the daily lineup with Brett Baty projected to start at 3rd base and Mark Vientos probably leading the charge as a DH while Ronny Mauricio does injury rehab.  The additions to the roster include Joey Wendle, Zack Short, Cooper Hummel and Tyrone Taylor.  They would join the return of D.J. Stewart.  

Take a quick glance at the free agent list of available players and you're struck by the fact that Cody Bellinger, J.D. Martinez, Teoscar Hernandez, Jorge Soler, Amed Rosario, Justin Turner, Rhys Hoskins, Whit Merrifield, Gio Urshela, Joc Pederson, Tommy Pham and others are still available for dollars and no player resources.  

Don't take it as a gross criticism of Joey Wendle et al who have been added to the roster, but you'd think it's probably well past time to begin looking to either short term deals for higher caliber major league players who are a bit older or longer deals for ones who are younger.

Let's not even get started on the subject of trades.  It's not to put down the likes of Tyrone Taylor, but you have to wonder if anyone on the other 29 ballclubs wants any of the Mets organization players to provide in return someone ready to help in the starting lineup?  Right now the Mets are light on hitters either due to experience or health.  

Recently I went around and around with some friends about the new wave of players coming up through the minors which is indeed a very good thing, but it does start appearing as if they're waiting for both development and ascension of this group as well as the stellar projected roster of free agents in 2025.  What does that mean for 2024?  

Let's hope David Stearns knows, but for now we don't see even a matching offense for 2023 nor an equal number of highly credible starting pitchers.  Granted, they did not all remain healthy nor do as expected, but what can we expect from the folks currently taking up 36 spots on the 40 man roster?

Let's start the New Year off with a bang (and not just from fireworks).