Gather a group of Mets fans into a room and there is very little they will likely agree upon except mourning the loss of southpaw Jerry Koosman.
Going into the 2027 season the Mets have some very clear needs to address in the attempt to extricate themselves from the basement but here no one can readily agree pick a single one of these several areas and prioritize as the number one priority.
If the season started today the Mets rotation would included Gold Glover Nolan McLean, Zac Thornton, Christian Scott, Sean Manaea and one of the handful of starter number five contenders that include Tylor Megill, Jonah Tong, Tobias Myers and even Kodai Senga. While you could make the case that the top three are pretty good choices, it starts to get pretty murky after that. Both Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga are in contract walk years so it is entirely possible to trade one or both to another club not looking for a long term financial commitment (particulary if the Mets pay down some of the salary). As a result many are advocating that the Mets step up to find one or two veteran starting pitchers (including a true ace) to take the mound every fifth day.
Relief Pitching
Here the picture is extremely bloody. First you have the question of who closes games for the Mets. Devin Williams has face planted two straight seasons in the city of New York while the Mets remain on the hook for his salary through 2028. Laying aside the deferrals, he averages $17 million per season and it is pretty common practice in baseball that salary dictates playing time. Then there is the matter of Kodai Senga who shockingly pulled himself from the brink of a DFA by becoming the emergency closer during Wiliams’ injury departure. Right now in what is likely his final year in a Mets dugout many are not convinced what he showed in August and September is replicable yet at the same time not a single fan wants to see him in the rotation ever again. Still, you can’t argue with his sub 3.00 ERA as a closer.
After that the picture gets even less clear. During the great pitching selloff in August the Mets pretty much gutted their bullpen with A.J. Minter, Huascar Brazoban and Luke Weaver all being sold off for a passel of prospects. That’s a trio of formidable arms that have not truly been replaced. Yes, the got some good innings out of Austin Warren, Daniel Duarte and Nate Lavender. Others trotted out there including Dedniel Nunez did not help at all. It is clear that this segment is in major need of reinforcement.
1st Base
Ask anyone around baseball and they will all applaud the highly unexpected job done by fringe player Jared Young during 2026. The problem is that between the USA and Korea he’s never established himself as a regular and now on the wrong side of 30 it is highly unlikely to conclude he’s showing his true self in what most regard as an outlier year. Jorge Polanco was mostly injured and even worse at the plate. Mark Vientos was somewhat better with the stick but on the field at first he was even worse than he was at third while continuing to struggle mightily against right handed pitching. Many want to see the Mets come up with a starting capable and viable solution here but unless they engineer a trade they will either have to spend VERY big to land Teruaki Sato or they will hope for a platoon partner who can be the next Jared Young. Of course, if you ran the front office you still have that expensive sub Mendoza hitter on the roster, too.
2nd Base
In one of yet another Stearns disastrous roster moves he brought in a clearly over the hill Marcus Semien to fortify the defense when it became clear that his bat wasn’t the only aspect of his game that had deteriorated significantly. The Mets are on the hook to him for another $46 million between 2027 and 2028. Unlike Manaea and Senga, the club has already sent signals that the expensive keystone is not likely going to start again after his .215 season. The problem is that unless they plan to shift A.J. Ewing to second base for 2027 they don’t have a minor league replacement waiting in the wings other than perhaps Ronny Mauricio. Many feel addressing the second base issue should be at or near a top need to be addressed.
Designated Hitter
The black hole for the New York Mets who even got subpar performance out of veteran hitter J.D. Martinez who is now transitioning to become a professional pickleball player. Obviously the very fragile Jorge Polanco could fit here but other than transitioning Juan Soto to strictly a hitting role, it would appear there are no viable in-house options to make this spot in the batting order better than the embarrassment it has become.
Of course, many feel the number one priority is a General Manager, but that's a rant for another day.
8 comments:
Good list Reese
I would add catcher
Current contracts and the impending lockout will probably lead to little change in 2027
I will just stick with relief pitching. That is an area that I think is in good shape.
The relief pitching down the stretch was good. If they wanna replace senga with someone else that’s up to them.
But they’re getting Megill and Garrett back. And Lambert and Ross oughta be of Help this year. They still may want to go out and get one pen arm and they may want to try to figure out how to substitute that someone really good for Sanga.
Infield? I would get the kids up there as soon as possible. Just as an example, VOIT is someone who might struggle offensively, but he’s got great speed and great defensive skills. So he’s not a Vientos-type one trick pony that is either “hit or bust”. He will hit, but he maybe not be a lot in 2027 if he starts out the year of the Mets. But like I said, he sure can field and run.
no one wants the kids more than I do, but the reality is the Mets have over $90,000,000.00 committed to bad contracts in 2027
If you look at the salary, it becomes a bigger issue. Look at the amount of players that entails: Semien, possibly Polanco, Manaea can start and cutting him costs the Mets nothing in productivity, Williams can set up, Senga is a reliever. From my point of view, Semien is a waste but Polanco could give you something.
Tom is right. The bullpen is in good shape. The front of rotation is the biggest need.
Second base is just a money issue - the front office just has to accept that they committed to pay Semien and move on to the youth movement at second. Let Semien earn those bucks by infusing his wisdom into Rojas or Pitre.
Even Stearns says the team needs to have 8 starters available -- some obviously in AAA and perhaps AA. I have a post on that coming out next Tuesday identifying several options (at different levels of cost). Another thereafter on the bullpen. I am a believer in the view that top tier pitching staff is the sine qua non for the Mets to have sustained success. Their home ball park demands it. And like in basketball, where defense travels, pitching does in BB. SP is #1; back of bullpen is best thought of as insurance policy to protect against squandering winnable games; and middle relief is there to maximize the number of winnable games by putting out fires, keeping games in play and settling the team down allowing the offense a chance to catch up or to extend a lead. It's all part of complementary baseball on one side of the ball. And you have to develop a defense that supports the pitching staff and an offense that pressures even the most resilient of opponent staffs on a day in/day out basis
Face it guys, the Mets are stuck right now. They have to play Semien and Polanco in the hope that they show enough skills left where they could be tradeable. But for argument sake lets say that they both get released, who plays 1B/2B/DH?.
You can't sign players for those positions without blocking the prospects we traded for and you can't sign veteran players for those positions for more than a year. Exactly which good players would sign with the Mets for a year?. None. Good players will get contracts for multiple years which is something the Mets cannot do.
The BP has enough arms to improve it. The catching is set. You are not trading Alvarez to replace him with what? Senger?. No way Jose.
Bring back Holmes and maybe King as well and just move forward with that for now.
They can't play Polanco if he can't get on the field. They shouldn't play Semien if there are folks in the organization who can perform better at a fraction of the cost. And the 'play them to make them tradeable' move cuts both ways. If they play miserably, they hurt the Mets and make it harder to trade them. I am against that strategy. It's really not rational. Cut your losses; never compound them. If you think the youngster's aren't ready to play second, well then neither is Semien (going on the recent evidence). But forget that for a minute. Araaza has signed one year contracts for a couple of years now and he has the best bat to ball skills of anyone currently playing the game; and he has improved his defense at 2B dramatically. As to 1B, we don't have someone knocking at the door, so we are really looking at a 2yr need. I don't see why we couldn't sign Burger to be teh right handed platoon guy at 1B with Young. Sometimes there is not a fit between the urgency of making a move at a position and the availabilty of supply at that position. That's the situation at 1B.
Holmes does nothing on his own to elevate the starting rotation. The Mets have to invest in getting better now in order to be in. a position to invest again in getting better the year after. Standing pat when the competition is moving forward is just another way of saying you are willing to fall farther behind.
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