Today let us take a very early and premature look at the major league offensive roster and who has a future in New York in 2025:
- Pete Alonso is in his final year before hitting free agency. Some say the Mets should extend him now. Others say trade him away midyear. Still others want him to remain here for the duration as the Mets make an outside drive towards October baseball. The fact is until they make a decision here, they don´t know what will be doing at the first base position.
- Jeff McNeil is a crafty hitter who got a long term deal. The price on him is not so high that it would prevent the club from offering him up in trades. He doesn´t have a lot of home run power nor much base running speed, so with a plethora of infielders in the minors it may mean McNeil is on the trading block.
- Shortstop Francisco Lindor is here for the duration of his $341 million contract. His price is too high to find ready takers and he delivers a combination of power, speed, defense and RBIs that would be hard to replace. Right now he is clearly the most productive shortstop the club has ever had.
- The big unknown here is Brett Baty. At times he flashes defense that might make him a starter on that basis alone. The real question remains his bat. He started off well, then backslid for the past few weeks. It is really a mystery of what kind of ballplayer he will become.
- Catcher Francisco Alvarez is out now with his unfortunate thumb surgery but he is showing the effort both with the bat and behind the dish to know he is the man with the catcher’s gear now and for the future. He earns next to nothing and is very young.
- Between his on-base ability and his defensive skills Brandon Nimmo looks like a winner. Last season he showed an increase in home run power. Thus far in 2024 it is too soon to tell how he will finish the year, but everyone seems to respect him and enjoys having him in the lineup every day.
- Harrison Bader has been better than many anticipated but at $10.5 million for a guy whose primary skill is with his glove no one knows what his future is in Queens. He was signed to a single year deal and there is no guarantee the Mets will want him back when other players may offer more overall skills than glove alone. If Pete Alonso goes, then the likelihood of Bader returning is extremely slim.
- Now people are remembering the player Starling Marte was for the team in 2022. If he finishes as he has started the season then the club has a tough decision to make for the future. They have him for one more year at a salary of $20,750,000. It may be time to take a Branch Rickey approach of dealing him away a year too soon than be saddled with him a year too long. At age 36 in 2025 it might make sense to sell high if he finished strongly (or even in 2024 at the break if the club is out of contention).
- J.D. Martinez is a professional hitter and despite his back problems he is generally going to play every day at DH which puts less stress on him than playing the field would. At the rate he is being paid, they may want to entice him to come back for another year if he finishes strongly.
- Many feel I am on a one-man dump D.J. Stewart campaign, but I simply look at the numbers. He is a career .218 hitter and doing worse than that this year. He cannot field. He cannot run. He kind of reminds me of the low average years of Dave Kingman. He will hit it out of the park or retire to the bench having done nothing much. He is not expensive but are one-dimensional players how you build for the future?
- Former Brewer Tyrone Taylor is a keeper for his glove and his bat. He may not be a regular starter, but as a 4th outfielder you won´t be embarrassed when he is inserted into the lineup. He is not even arbitration eligible until 2025 and not a potential free agent until 2027. Bring him back.
- Thus far Joey Wendle has been a bit less than expected. He is a .262 career hitter which isn´t bad for a backup player but he started off a little slowly. He offers up positional versatility but thus far his defense has not been all that good. At a $2 million salary for one year he is serviceable but his future in New York could go either way.
- Omar Narvaez is earning $7 million on a contract that ends this year. Buh-bye!
- Tomas Nido never has done much with his bat, so it is possible he finds himself off the 40-man roster once again as the Mets shop around for a stronger back as a backup catcher.
Monday we will start to look at the Syracuse Mets roster and who may or may not have a 2025 future at Citifield.
8 comments:
I wonder why they prefer Wendle, still, to Jose Iglesias, who has hit well his whole career and is hitting well at AAA.
If Pete hits .200, they won't keep him. If he goes to Chicago, he will do like Kingman did when he went there.
Bader has been quality - let's see how he does. Of course, the Mets may have 3 or 4 OFs - Ramirez, Acuna, Jett, even Morabito, possibly - to take his place in 2025, so the picture will be less murky after 2024.
80% of the season left - let's see what they tell us with their play
Lastly, not only will Narvaez be gone...let's fervently hope that Parada surges from here, to the point he can be # 2 next year from day 1. More likely positive scenario is Parada by mid-2025, so Nido services might be needed a while longer.
Tyrone Taylor has been a great add thanks to Stearns. He plays a solid outfield, good hitter with some pop and has some speed. When he's in the line up he always seems to contribute in some way
Jon G, he finished strong in 2023, after injuries earlier that year. His slug % after July last year was .560. I agree - a great addition.
It's always a mistake to look at bench players from the perspective of only one part of their game.
Stewart is one example. While his BA is low, his OBP numbrrs are at or near tge highest on the team, and his RBI per AB is by far the highdt. He has almost as many RBI as Pete and Lindor, with less than half as many AB of either of them.
On the other side of the coin, Nido is far from successful with the bat, but is clearly the best defender at his position and has been strongly praised by the pitchers in his years with the team.
Cherry-picking numbers and criticizing reserves because they are not everyday starters is not realistic. They are there to fill roles, and as long as they fill those roles they have value.
McNeil? He might be well suited for the Yankees and that porch, given how he can adjust his swing. Maybe an off season trade, if one of the kids is ready to assume 2B?
Baty looks better day by day. Wendel needs to go. Marte starting to look very old.
Who would want Jeff at this point? His production has fallen off a cliff since 22' and he looks lost at the plate so lucky us. I don't know why Iglesias didn't make the cut after a solid spring frankly and then we end up with Short and Wendle but at least DS doesn't wait to long to make moves so we'll see.
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