Mike's Mets - Welcome to the Dynasty

 

Who needs George Springer?
I'm Albert Freaking Almora!

By Mike Steffanos February 7, 2021 

Now that the Mets have added Albert Almora Jr, I think that most of us can agree that the future dynasty is complete. Okay, so maybe that was a bit of an overstatement but, at least to me, it was a decent signing. He was once a #6 overall pick in the amateur draft. It doesn't seem likely that he'll ever play up to that level, but if he could bounce back to the level he was at from 2016-2018, he could be a decent bench player for the Mets. There's a little more upside there than with Guillermo Heredia, who's my leading candidate to be replaced on the 40-man, despite the preponderance of pitching on the roster. As I mentioned yesterday, 26 of the 40 spots are currently occupied by hurlers. Barring trades, some of these pitchers are likely to go before opening day, but right now it seems like Heredia is superfluous, although they might want to jeep him around into spring training for some OF depth.

I confess that my initial reaction to the news about Almora popping up on my phone was "who cares," but that was uncharitable of me. Almora is a decent CF and a good baserunner, skills which are useful for a bench player. He's a right-handed bat which, considering how skewed the Mets lineup is to the port side, is an absolute must for a fourth OF on this squad. His offensive numbers are fairly ugly, but he's hit lefties for a .280/.332/.402 line over his career. He hasn't hit them well the last two seasons, however, although it's a fairly small sample size. Look, there's at least as good of a chance that Almora doesn't hit enough to justify a spot on the active roster as of him bouncing back and being a really valuable contributor to the club, but this is the sort of relatively low-cost gamble good teams with big-boy payrolls can take.

After the previously mentioned first reaction to the deal, my next thought was to wonder if this might signal the end of any possible pursuit of Jackie Bradley Jr. While I admit that a JBJ signing is a long shot with the NL DH hanging in the air, I have to rationally conclude that it shouldn't. The Mets would still need a right-handed hitting OF on the bench with a starting OF of three lefty swingers. Joel Sherman at the New York Post still thinks JBJ is a possibility:

...[the Mets] have done so much background work on Jackie Bradley Jr. that I will continue to believe that if the designated hitter is adopted by the NL and Bradley remains a free agent at that time, the Mets will at least consider him.

In the last week, the Mets had an extended Zoom meeting with Bradley that included team president Sandy Alderson, acting GM Zack Scott, hitting coach Chili Davis and first base/outfield coach Tony Tarasco. Scott, in particular, knows Bradley well from their shared time working with the Red Sox.

I think Sherman is right, but at this point I would be shocked to see MLB and the Players Association come to an agreement on anything before the season started, and more so if that decision would happen anytime soon enough to still bring JBJ in as the CF. From a defensive standpoint, however, it's really intriguing to imagine a Mets up the middle defense of James McCann, Jeff McNeil, Francisco Lindor and JBJ. They'll already be considerably better than they were last season even if they have to go with Brandon Nimmo in center. Replace Nimmo with a Gold Glove-caliber centerfielder and put Nimmo in LF, and run prevention will be a thing here in Queens after quite a long absence.

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