Reese Kaplan -- Maybe it is Always Darkest Before the Dawn

I'm going to take a deep breath and try real hard to remember that the 2024 season is one of transition and future preparation for contention, not for a more-or-less guarantee of October baseball.  Maybe I need to supplement that with some chamomile tea or something stronger.  I'll tell ya, there are times the frustration threatens to burn right through critical blood vessels.

Let's take this past week and weekend as an example.  For folks who are upset that the Mets have not inked Justin Turner or still available J.D. Martinez, David Stearns demonstrated his acumen by securing the services of now 33 year old Ji-man Choi.  This Korean-born Daniel Vogelbach replacement is, believe it or not, virtually identical to the man who the Mets unceremoniously (and far too late) kicked to the curb.  Don't believe me?  Which of these career metrics would you prefer:

Player A has been up 1567 times with 67 HRs, 238 RBIs and 6 stolen bases while hitting .234.

Player B has been up 1580 times with 80 HRs, 238 RBIs and 0 stolen bases while hitting .220.  

I'd like to say one of these things is not like the other but Player A from Korea is pretty much a carbon copy of the buffet table cleaner Vogelbach.

Oh, but it gets worse.  We can somewhat understand the Choi acquisition since he and David Stearns have shared some company in Milwaukee, but Saturday's headlines about the split contract being offered to Luke Voit makes even less sense.  By default Voit becomes Player C.  Let's have a look:

Player C has been up 1680 times with 95 HRs, 276 RBIs and 3 stolen bases while hitting (by comparison) a Tony Gwynn-ultra light .253.  Voit has stumbled and failed with five major league teams and additional minor league ones (including these very same New York Mets in 2023 after being dumped elsewhere).  Even he wasn't deemed a substantial enough improvement over Daniel Vogelbach to make the majors.  

Breathe in, breathe out...

It would be a far different kettle of fish if the Mets were taking chances on current or recently previous All Star level players, but we're fretting over the last few millions to spend on guys that have not established themselves as regulars, let alone mid season classic participants.  

Now if these strange roster additions were all that caused you to draw blood scratching your head in frustration, reference back the recent piece of the many well-below-average relief pitchers the Mets have brought on board to fortify their less than spectacular pen.  Give kudos for the return of uber-closer Edwin Diaz, the return of highly effective Brooks Raley, the signing of familiar face Adam Ottavino and new arrival of Jake Diekman.  Those final four of what should be an 8 man pen are certainly of good quality.  After that comes the guys with the most recent ERAs north of 5.00 (and in one spectacularly bad case, 7.16, yet given a free agent contract).  

Then there are the offensive additions to the roster that are appropriately enough, pretty offensive.  Harrison Bader?  Zack Short?  We'll give a pass on Tyrone Taylor as a low priced good glove with at least average hitting skills.  We'll also expect Joey Wendle to be a better hitting version of Luis Guillorme.  And we all will hope and pray (if that is how you try to ensure good things to occur) that Starling Marte is a lot more 2022 than 2023.  Again, however, it would appear that there is an awful lot of wildcards and less-than-star players they are giving an awful lot of opportunities much like the final four members of the bullpen.  

I hope I'm wrong.  I hope that David Stearns sees potential and productivity when the stat sheets don't show it.  I hope that the club can at least reach the .500 level this year with what they have.  Then again, I hoped they'd be a front runner for October baseball last year.  What did I know then?  All I can do is look at player history and see whether or not an average year from each individual represents an improvement.  In many, many cases, it just doesn't seem so.