Reese Kaplan -- A Nice, Small Core for Sure

Who represents the core of the New York Mets?  There are a few obvious answers – Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Jeurys Familia, Michael Conforto, Amed Rosario and Yoenis Cespedes for sure.  After that it gets a bit murkier. 

Dom Smith’s introduction to the major leagues was surprising on a few fronts.  His batting average – arguably his biggest hit tool – was an unimpressive .198 with just a .262 OBP.  Those numbers don’t play well even at shortstop, let alone in a traditionally critical offensive position like first base.

On the flip side, however, he hit 9 HRs and drove in 26 in just 167 Abs.  Extrapolated over a full season and that’s a lot more pop than he’s ever shown before – 32 HRs and 91 RBIs.  Was he consciously swinging for the fences which might account for the drop in hard contact for singles and doubles, or is it a matter of his power starting to become a viable part of his game?

Regardless, many folks have already soured on him and are now looking forward to Peter Alonso, but I think given his run production and defense he gets the whole of 2018 to show what he can or can’t do.  Maybe against some particularly tough lefties you might want to substitute someone like Wilmer Flores at 1B, but I’d really like to see what the Mets have in Smith.

Conversely, everyone is giving Rosario pretty much a free pass as the shortstop of the future.  His initial 1/3 of a season was less impressive to me.  He hit at a higher average -- .248 – but his 4 HRs and 10 RBIs do not translate to a solid line extrapolated over the course of a full season.  Like Smith, however, his defense and his speed – 7 stolen bases – cement him as a part of the future. 

Much of the rest of the team does not include many sure things.  Right now they have holes at 2B, 3B, CF, RF (until Conforto heals), starting rotation and bullpen.  Catcher is likely a tag team of Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki since the pickings are fairly slim across MLB for catchers. 

I’d call Wilmer Flores a part of the core and your second baseman going into 2018, but hey, I’ve seen enough of the Collins/Alderson era to know that they don’t respect his offensive potential.  Obviously you’ll hold your breath every time the ball is hit in his direction, but didn’t we all do the same with Daniel Murphy? 

A.J. Ramos is also pretty much part of the core as is the surely-to-be-exercised free agent option Jerry Blevins.  A three man pen won’t cut it and after watching the balls sail over the fence from the likes of Hansel Robles, Josh Smoker and others, there should be quite a few job opportunities available for anyone who can earn it.

Matt Harvey, Steve Matz and Zack Wheeler should be part of the core, but their health won't get them membership into that elite cadre.  Neither Rafael Montero, Robert Gsellman, Seth Lugo (and seemingly countless others) showed enough to consider them seriously for membership either.  

So the  first question I pose is this one – if the Mets are indeed going to add major league caliber players to their roster this off-season, where should they go first – infield?  Starting rotation?  Outfield?  Bullpen?  Part two of the question is how you would go about acquiring your preferred targets?  Trades?  Free agency?  Remember, the Mets may have parted with a lot of salary dollars but they’ve also gone on record saying that the payroll will be reduced.