Reese Kaplan -- How Would Minor Roster Improvements Help?

Another week has come and gone.  Prior to the playing of the Sunday game, the Mets split the first two with the Pirates, sitting now at a record of 43-44, sitting now five games behind the tailspinning Atlanta Braves.  As the Mets seek to move up in the standings to ensure themselves an October berth somewhere better than the living room sofa to watch national broadcasts of playoff games, the manner in which the team has begun to resemble (to be charitable) the April Mets who were only slightly better than the club in May.

As outlined on Saturday, the Mets must face the “Are we in it?” question which accompanies “Who is smarter to trade than keep?” and “Maybe we need a full rebuild from the ground up!”  No one can foresee which way or hybrid of these options is what the team is thinking right now, but hovering at or around .500 may only represent progress given the injuries, slumps, new manager and the Edwin Diaz debacle.

Let’s first examine the subtle upgrade approach.  The team obviously needs bullpen help and if they are truly looking at doing the best possible for this one season, then the suggested Aroldis Chapman does indeed solve the left hander and experienced arm problems for the bullpen.  There are some others that hit one or the other of these check marks, but unless, for example, the Rangers want to ship David Robertson back here not too many of them fall into the “Proven Solution” bucket.

The starting rotation is still in a bit of flux with Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana, David Peterson and Christian Scott temporarily manning the fort.  Add in the return of Kodai Senga likely before the end of July and it becomes possible to upgrade the rotation internally.  Remember that necessarily-repurposed Jose Butto is also on the major league roster.  Tylor Megill has likely become trade bait given his up and down performance in AAA after a mostly down one in the bigs.

Bench options are also somewhere the Mets need to address.  No one is complaining at all about Luis Torrens and Jose Iglesias, neither of whom was even on the major league roster when the season began.  Tyrone Taylor has had some shining moments and at his salary, he’s arguably worth keeping around for defense and speed in addition to a major league backup level bat.  Then we get to D.J. Stewart who contributes walks (but clogs the bases with his girth), no defense, and a batting average currently sitting right around .176 and striking out in over 1/3 of his ABs.  Ben Gamel is a bit too new to evaluate here, but as a career .252 hitter with at best modest power he’s not likely going to propel the team forward either. 

So the advice here to David Stearns in the modest buy scenario is to find at least one and preferable two rock solid relievers, overpaying slightly if necessary so that the starting pitchers and manager will know that the moment the call to the pen is made it doesn’t necessarily mean that the summoned arm is carrying kerosene and not just a baseball glove.  The starting rotation seems quite fine and should improve with the integration of Kodai Senga and/or Jose Butto, but it may be time to move some of those expiring contracts if necessary if it can make an incremental improvement in the team.  There are not a whole lot of top notch arms available in the trade market (at least as has been reported) so someone who has been more good than bad like Luis Severino, Sean Manaea or Jose Quintana may generate modest interest.  Finally, when the team was without the bat and legs of Starling Marte, a day without Brandon Nimmo and you saw the outfield that resulted, the need for much improved bench players sent up major flag waving. 

Would an improved bullpen and a better bench help propel the Mets into the heretofore dreamland concept of playoff baseball?  It’s never a certainty, but addressing immediate needs is rarely a bad thing.  We have grown accustomed to the Mets often riding out whomever is not producing for way too long and seen the negative results.  When Stearns was brought on board to help shape Steve Cohen’s team the hope among the Mets faithful was that things would change for the better.  Let’s see it if they chose option number one.