Reese Kaplan -- The Oddest Acquisition by David Stearns Thus Far

When the Mets bid but missed out on Yoshinubo Yamamoto, you at least felt they were trying to compete but didn't win the bid.  On Shoehei Ohtani stories are circulating that they never received a call from his management team, hence you wonder why the Mets did not press a bit harder.  Still, with the injury he has now and the record setting contract he received it is not a missed opportunity that will cause major heartache for the fans.  

Then came the influx of new players like the seemingly never healthy and off a horrific season Luis Severino.  When he's good he's very good but when he's bad he's not exactly better.  

Various other additions like Joey Wendle, Zach Short and a myriad of unheralded relief pitchers all felt like fringe acquisitions rather than key pieces.  Still, given the injury histories of a great many players and the somewhat barren bench and bullpen it was understandable but didn't check off the box about a key talent that would help push the team up and over the .500 level of competitiveness.  

In addition, I'd throw in the trade that brought Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor to New York as well.  Houser could be a healthy addition superior to the inconsistency of other options the Mets have tried towards the back of the rotation, or he could evolve into a long reliever.  Taylor and DJ Stewart form a credible if not spectacular 4th and 5th outfielders for the ball club.  

The one where it became a positive head scratcher was the contract extended to defensive whiz and offensive whiff, Harrison Bader.  No one is denying the elite skills he brings to center field.  The Mets have kind of run the gamut of great, good, adequate and awful in that position in the past.  The story goes that with an unknown commodity in the recovering Starling Marte, the acquisition of Bader enables the Mets to slide Brandon Nimmo to left field and between the three starters out there the club would be able to have a solid defensive team once the ball is lined, popped up or hammered over the infield dirt.

Anyone who has watched Bader over the years knows that the real issue is what he can provide with the bat.  Looking at the numbers suggest it is not pretty.  For his career he's just a .243 hitter with a little base running speed and a little bit of power.  He's expected on a 162 game basis to provide 15 HRs and 55 RBIs along with 20 SBs.  The problem is he simply doesn't play that much.  Between injuries and benching for his offensive liability he mostly is a part time player.  The longest haul he's provided is 427 ABs and that was back in 2018 for the Cardinals.  Since then it's been a steady downhill total of at-bats which makes one wonder exactly what the Mets expect of the man.

To be fair, he's got a pretty dramatic platoon split.  Being a right handed batter, as you would expect he does much better against southpaws than when facing righthanders.  For his career he is closer to a .300 hitter when a lefty is on the mound.  Against righties, well, let's just say we'd wish for the offensive exploits of Juan Lagares instead.  Bader is just a couple of steps above the Mendoza line.  

It would suggest, therefore, that a platoon arrangement with Bader starting against lefties and handling late inning defensive replacement and pinch running duties would make sense, but consider that the Mets forked over $10.5 million ($9.5 in salary and $1 million in signing bonus) which suggests they feel he's going to play quite a bit more against right handed pitching as well.  It is possible they'd move Nimmo back to center field on the days when Bader would be over matched against a strong right handed pitcher, but then is DJ Stewart or Tyrone Taylor the real answer to vaulting the team back into contention?

Then there is the happiness expressed by free agent to be, Pete Alonso.  He and Bader were college teammates and he viewed this move quite favorably.  There surely is a value in keeping your cleanup hitter with a positive impression of the organization when it's entirely possible he will be seeking greener pastures in 2025.  

Everyone here hopes that the defense-first approach taken by POBO David Stearns reaps rewards for the ball club but scoring runs may be as much (if not more) of a struggle than it was under Billy Eppler's roster last year.  Strong sophomore campaigns from Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Francisco Alvarez could make the Bader question moot.  A comeback of the year season from Starling Marte could, too.  For now, however, it was not a huge amount of money but even a moderate amount that may or may not have been well spent.