The near no-hitter on Saturday was partially a tribute to Braves starting pitcher Max Fried who has immense talent but also partially responsible by facing the anemic offensive wannabes in the New York Mets lineup. Give kudos to J.D. Martinez for breaking up both the no-hitter and shutout at the 11th hour, but 2 hits over a 9 inning opportunity is simply not acceptable.
The problem the Mets are facing is that there is not yet much on the farm to harvest to try to make the hitting improve. We have seen flashes from Luisangel Acuna of late, but injuries and poor performance do not make any of the other young guns of the future loaded and ready to attack.
So if you are David Stearns and Carlos Mendoza, what would you do to try to give a shot of adrenaline to the otherwise somnambulist members of the starting lineup? Now with Brandon Nimmo on the shelf for however long it takes for an intercostal muscle strain to heal sufficiently to allow a return to normal professional athletic use, you are looking at a mix of Tyrone Taylor, Harrison Bader, Starling Marte, D.J. Stewart and Jeff McNeil in the outfield which could open up the second base slot to Joey Wendle. It is not exactly a Murderer´s Row for the middle of the batting order.
It would seem that the long term goal remains evaluation for the 2024 season while planning for October baseball in 2025 and beyond. As a result, it is highly unlikely to see major trade acquisitions until the July deadline approaches. At that time all bets are off as the Mets need to make a firm decision about roster construction now and for the future.
The obvious big fish on the board is Pete Alonso. Based upon his 2023 and 2024 output, there are a great many folks who classify him more like Dave Kingman than say Carlos Delgado. His power is undeniable, but the batting average is troubling and no matter how much people preach the gospel of RBIs and HRs the fact is that a .215 hitter does not strike the same fear into opponents that a .285 hitter would.
The question becomes what is a fair price to pay Alonso for his future services? Right now he is at $20.5 million for an annual salary. Matt Olson is also struggling and Freddie Freeman is a career .301 hitter. Consequently a rational person would feel that at best Alonso is more of an Olson than a Freeman.
Olson´s contract is for many years at a $22 million per season average annual rate. Freeman earns $27 million per year. Given the history with the Mets it would seem that $25 million annually should be the maximum offer on the table for Pete Alonso.
The flip side is to trade Alonso for a passel of prospects to reinforce their offense and pitching for the future. The question about covering 1st base could fall to Mark Vientos who has yet to receive a full time opportunity in the majors. He has power, no doubt, but fans far too much. Still, a mixture of Vientos plus the trade returns for Alonso and a $24 million savings in payroll might appeal to the long term mid-market specialist David Stearns.
Allowing him to remain with the club until year´s end and receiving a QO draft pick in return for his many years in the organization would seem to be a far less equitable return for losing a half season of Alonso´s offensive production. Think what was received last year when Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer were sent packing.
It really comes down to where the Mets are in the standings by the 2nd week in July with 2 weeks left to engage other clubs in trades. If they are at .500, then it would seem that trading makes a lot of sense. If they are significantly better than that, then holding onto Alonso and working the pre-free agency contract would seem rational. Doing nothing, however, is not a good answer either way.
There are other pieces on the club that could be moved in July such as J.D. Martinez, Jeff McNeil, Starling Marte and (if anyone would take him) Omar Narvaez. As recently discussed, some of the starting pitchers could be on the block as well. Again, the standings in mid July would seem to dictate the best approach to take.
I sure would prefer to be writing and reading about the Mets incredible success. Instead, we read and write that Uncle Charlie is sick again, and what doctors do we need to take him to to try to solve the issue?
ReplyDeleteAnother example of why I wish baseball still had 15 hitters per team and not 13. Ben Gamel (.327/.441/.591) seems stuck in AAA Limbo, as does Vientos (30 RBIs in 31 games), while the bottom half of the NY Mets' line up this season is impotent as usual, as outlined in my 9:00 article.
Some feel Gamel is no longer MLB credible, but his #s say otherwise, and is McNeil and Bader having a miserable 14 combined RBIs in 267 PAs made better if there is a Gaeel also in Queens pushing their butts for playing time?
Nimmo with the walk off last night. I guess he's feeling better. As I've said before, my keepers are Nimmo, Lindor, Alvarez and Baty (just don't want to give up on him yet, even though he has shown little power). Everyone else, bye bye
ReplyDeleteThis is just hitters, don't know enough about the pitching staff to posit an opinion
ReplyDeleteAren't we in this position every year or is it just me? Another year same crap but with different FO management who haven't had enough time to correct this but need to real soon. Very disappointing about our top prospects this year who are either under performing or injured but come to think of it we've all seen this movie before also.
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