Reese Kaplan -- Mets Front Office Having a Tom Petty Moment

One of the challenges in running any kind of business is mapping out a strategy and then figuring out not only how but also when to execute it.  This thought came to mind as the naysayers are already getting their pitchforks ready when the Mets came to Nashville and left with some minor league flyers on, to be charitable, non impact players.  

The needs going into the Winter Meetings were clear -- improve the starting rotation, build up the bullpen and find an outfielder.  Left unsaid was also the question of a Designated Hitter.  

Well, the great Juan Soto transaction took place across town during the Tennessee meeting.  Other teams have started securing quality players like Sonny Gray, Eduardo Rodriguez, Craig Kimbrel, Reynaldo Lopez, Nick Martinez and others found new homes by apparently more assertive and aggressive GMs and team owners.  

By contrast the Mets signed Ryan Ammons, Kyle Crick, Jose Iglesias, Andre Scrub and Michael Tonkin.  Prior to the Winter Meetings they did execute a moderately expensive and very high risk move to give $13 million to the oft-injured Luis Severino.  But all is not lost, they did add catchers Tyler Heineman and Cooper Hummel on waiver claims.  Somehow one of these things is not like the other.

Yes, everyone knows that the Shoehei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto contracts are kind of tying the hands of many others who hope their prices rise as resources are taken off the table, but it didn't stop teams like the Braves, Phillies, Cardinals and others from doing what they felt they needed to do.  

During the Wilpon years after becoming Ponzi paupers it was somewhat understood that there was some value in waiting to see who was leftover at bargain prices after the best quality players were already taken.  There was also well communicated conjecture that 2024 is a bit of a transition year with 2025 being considered the next big spending season when a ton of money comes off the books.  

Still, any way you slice it, Steve Cohen is not a Wilpon and David Stearns likely didn't come on board to try to find otherwise hidden gems at bargain rates.

A lot of stuff will happen as soon as the numbers one and two find new homes.  Then you will see top starting pitchers like Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, relievers like David Robertson, DHs like J.D. Martinez and Justin Turner all finding new homes.  Behind them are other solid if unspectacular options seeking employment and it would be foolish to think that spending big is the one and only way to win.  How did that go in 2023?

Still, as a long suffering Mets fan whose frustration, anxiety and anger go back way further than the season just concluded, it was surprising and disappointing to see the Mets come crawling out of the starting gates.  Even a second tier signing to buttress the bullpen or the outfield or the DH would have at least gotten some positive juices flowing.  Inertia has the opposite effect.

Of course, all of this rhetorical meandering means a whole lot of nothing, doubly so if they do wind up inking who they want and trading for new faces from other franchises.  Right now as Tom Petty put it, the waiting is the hardest part.