Reese Kaplan -- Our Patience is So Thin It's Practically Anorexic

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It's now December 18th and thus far the Mets have not signed a single starting caliber player who doesn't have either a lackluster track record of accomplishment or major questions concerning whether or not his health will make the decision to have him join the Mets will be money thrown away.  In the interim we've seen both trades and free agent signings from other clubs that seem to recognize you don't make it to October baseball by sitting still and doing nothing.

Going into the offseason the Mets needed multiple starting pitchers, multiple relief pitchers to support Edwin Diaz, some outfielders as only Brandon Nimmo is healthy and proven in that role, and a DH who isn't a laughingstock.  It's now been six weeks since the off season began and the Mets stillneed, well, why type the same list again?  What's true back then is still true right now.  

While everyone heard the line about 2024 being a transition year, no one truly believed that it would indeed be taking place.  Folks expected at least lip service towards club improvement.  Thus far they have not been in on any of the personnel who have changed uniforms.  

While the most blindly optimistic among us will assert that the lack of noise out of the front office is a good thing rather than drowning in a lot of leaks to the media, the more cynical (or dare I say realistic) among us will instead offer the refrain that no news is bad news.  

It's understandable if the team was working on some double secret and ultra stealthy maneuver to address the team's openings, but as on-the-field solutions become a dwindling commodity that silence is making a deafening roar.

We've all lived through Payson and Wilpon eras when the Mets dug deep down into the castoff barrels to come up with third tier quality grape juice they tried to pass off as Dom Perignon.  We were all pretty confident that with the Steve Cohen ownership the days of the likes of Omar Quintanilla, Rick Ankiel and the like as starting players was well behind us.  

Don't get me wrong.  While we would always want to field an All Star at all 9 starting offensive positions, all five starting pitchers and the top three relief pitchers, no single club can claim to have done that.  Cincinnati came close during their Big Red Machine days (at least from the offensive side).  

Even last year with two multi Cy Young Award winning starting pitchers, multiple All Star veteran players on offense and a Hall of Fame bound manager no one could have envisioned the kind of season that unfolded in 2023.

It's also possible that David Stearns has a high quality Plan A, a suitable Plan B and a treading water Plan C and a just-make-the-best-of-it Plan D.  We all know that reinforcements from mostly Binghamton and Syracuse will arrive in 2025 (or later).  That long range thinking is a part of the future but the problem right now is still what is going to happen in the present.  

Going into this coming season the projected starting lineup is still a huge mystery.  Assuming none of the above are traded away, you would have to figure on the following come April of 2024 for Opening Day:

Starters

• 1B -- Pete Alonso
• 2B -- Jeff McNeil
• SS -- Francisco Lindor
• 3B -- Brett Baty (theoretically)
•  C  -- Francisco Alvarez
• LF -- Unknown
• CF -- Brandon Nimmo
• RF -- Starling Marte (if healthy)
• DH -- Mark Vientos (theoretically)

Reserves

• Omar Narvaez
• Joey Wendle
• D.J. Stewart
• Unknown

Starting Pitchers

• Kodai Senga
• Jose Quintana
• Luis Severino
• Tylor Megill or Jose Butto or Joey Lucchesi
• Tylor Megill or Jose Butto or Joey Lucchesi

Relief Pitchers

• Edwin Diaz
• Brooks Raley
• Drew Smith
• Unknown
• Unknown
• Unknown
• Unknown

Go back to paragraph 2 and reread the needs and the solutions for a third time.  The Mets still need a lot.  The front office has not addressed the front line needs at all unless Luis Severino can replicate his occasionally dominating self.  There are no outfielders.  There is no DH.  There are no solid solutions to support the bullpen.  They still need at minimum two more solid starting pitchers.  

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