Reese Kaplan -- Tick Tock...the Roster Still Has Vacancies

In a rebuild year you tend to try things out, see who rises to the challenge and who should no longer be a part of your future winning baseball plans.  We've heard ever since the July 2023 trades of frontline starting pitchers that the front office considered the 2024 season as a transition year leading into 2025 when a lot of money comes off the books and there is a much more appealing group of free agent options.  

Thus far in David Stearns' short tenure in charge of baseball operations it would appear as if that plan is actually going to take place.  It is now well into the first week of January and the biggest acquisitions are oft-injured Luis Severino, former Brewers Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor, Harrison Bader, then an assortment of what we'll charitable deem bullpen depth pieces, plus a few infielders in Joey Wendle and Zack Short.  Based upon these modest roster additions it would appear what they told Max Scherzer to get him to agree to be traded might actually have been true.  Maybe he's a fan of Otis Redding.

Pardon a sidebar for a moment, but HARRISON BADER?  There are three possible reasons for this acquisition.  He is a premier defender.  He can steal bases.  He was a former teammate of one Pete Alonso while they were in school together.  

Now consider what Bader provides with his bat.  To be charitable, he has had a fair share of injuries.  However, there's no way to slice and dice the numbers to understand this acquisition at all.  He's a career .243 hitter who if capable of being on the field for a rare 162 game full season would add 15 HRs and steal 20 bases.  

Compare that to the last famous all-glove/no-bat outfielder Juan Lagares.  His one solid year with the bat in 2014 when he hit .281 raised his career average to .250, but he didn't even have the power nor speed of Bader.  Yet somehow in his final year as a Met he earned nearly as much, $9 million in 2019.  

I suppose given that poor deal would suggest $10.5 million for Bader isn't that far afield from what a questionable addition to the roster should earn, but wow...there is no one other than Pete Alonso who is visibly happy about this transaction.  Well, Bader himself likely is overjoyed to have a job at all, let alone one paying him more than a great many better players.

So what does it mean for the Mets if the season started today?  

Well, they are planning to take a long, hard look at Brett Baty.  He was a top prospect in the system prior to the 2023 purge of starting players and despite his rough rookie campaign they do feel that he is indeed a real talent who needs to regroup and do what he did in the past.  Having Eric Chavez become a hitting mentor should help and not looking over his shoulder to see Ronny Mauricio nor Mark Vientos gunning for his third base job also has to help.  Joey Wendle will be the new Luis Guillorme (with a better stick) but he's not exactly starting caliber on a postseason aspiring team.

Getting back to Mark Vientos, he is likely going to get opportunities to DH from day one and to spell Pete Alonso at first base when he needs a breather.  Yes, D.J. Stewart is still here as is Tyrone Taylor, but the potential for solid offensive output is higher with Vientos than the other two.  Besides, the team is so light on outfielders right now that no one knows who will man left field on Opening Day.  Vientos is a bat-first type of player as we saw in September after his niggling injuries subsided and he actually got regular at-bats.  

There are still three vacancies on the 40-man roster if you believe the published list so it would suggest that there is still some player acquisition to be made.  The aforementioned left field vacancy is one of them as is the starting rotation and the 8th inning bullpen assignment.  Whether or not they fork over money for 38 year old (or older) veteran DH options is still unknown but again how would you know what the younger players can do if you make them ride the bench?  

As of right now the world is still patiently waiting for some upper tier player arrivals via free agency or trade.  Even the popular if not always respected NY Post ran a recent article agreeing with the assessment that folks are running out of patience watching other teams improve significantly while the Mets are behaving as if the Wilpons were still the owners.  

Now that last statement isn't quite fair as they have done a bang-up job rather quickly with ancillary management and development types, but the fact remains that the fans care more about the won/loss record than they do lower level mentors whose results won't be seen for 2 or more years.  Towards that end the fact is there's a LOT of work to do and no one is really sure how the Mets will respond to these obvious unaddressed needs.