Reese Kaplan -- So, If They Start Up the Season Again...

This week there was finally a bit of movement on both sides of the lockout that suggests that the season may indeed begin at some point.  How long the delay will be, how short the preseason will be and how much the labor strife affects the enthusiasm of the fan base are all still great unknowns.  Right now we are aware that the union has already capitulated on the earlier free agent provision timetable, so being losers at the table seems to be in the cards for them once again.

With this so-called progress, my coterie of Mets fans last night started talking about the prospect of real baseball once again.  After getting past the introductions and some personal updates from folks, we rather quickly launched into an age old debate with pitching advocates on one side and hitting advocates on the other.  

There was a widely publicized article on Thursday suggesting that the Mets are merely looking to tweak the roster when the new CBA is signed.  They are not looking to add any more headline-level free agents nor making trades that fundamentally change the prospect of winning.

Now you have to take such rhetoric as a conservative form of blowing smoke because no one wants to think the Mets are all of the sudden shutting their wallet.  It's kind of hard to accept that the free spending ways to improve the team have ground to a halt and what you see is pretty much what you'll get.  The last time anyone looked at the roster they were still overloaded with infielders, infielders miscast as outfielders, missing starting pitchers and housing several vacancies in the bullpen.  

Some folks were advocating the priority of addressing hitting.  The reference point of the 2021 season was indeed a painful one as it called to mind some of the long-losing Mets teams who knew that if they fell behind by more than 2 runs the game was pretty much going to be an "L" at the end of the night.  

You can't argue with that, but you do have to admit that with all of the injuries and poor performances that if it wasn't for the full time efforts of Pete Alonso, the part-time efforts of departed Jonathan Villar and the between-injury efforts of Brandon Nimmo, the rest of the lineup was pretty much ineffectual.

The counterpoint on the hitting advocates is the hot and cold streaks of different players.  By season's end, Francisco Lindor was performing as they had hoped, but he had 2/3 of a season worth of mediocrity that suppressed his final numbers.  Robinson Cano was gone for all of 2021 as a result of his second indulgence in PEDs.  Current free agent Michael Conforto was awful.  Ditto Dom Smith.  Ditto Jeff McNeil.  Ditto James McCann.  

So, going into 2022, if you get a career average season from Lindor, a healthy season from Nimmo and a typical season from Alonso, you're already ahead of the pace of the previous year.  Then add in Starling Marte every day, Eduardo Escobar and Mike Canha.  Then remember you're getting back hopefully the offense of the 2020 version of Robinson Cano.  That pretty much leaves McCann as the only offensive variable on which you might not want to bet the farm.  It would seem that the offensive side of things has been addressed fairly well.

On the pitching side, however, once you get past the acquisition of all-world starter Max Scherzer, they have done little else.  They watched Marcus Stroman, Noah Syndergaard depart from the starting rotation.  They saw Aaron Loup cash in on his stellar bullpen efforts and no one was lining up to anoint Jeurys Familia as their new closer.  There are holes in both the starting and relieving sides that need to be addressed.  

Now let's come back to that concept of merely tweaking the roster.  Does that mean you are after more buy-low candidates like last year's Taijuan Walker or seeing to fill in middle inning relief with veteran but inexpensive acquisitions like Tony Watson or Steve Cishek?  Or do you think they will try to parlay some combination of Jeff McNeil, Dominic Smith and J.D. Davis along with some minor league poker chips into more conspicuous solutions?  At this point we really don't know.

I'm not looking for the Mets to become the Big Red Machine with an All Star at nearly every starting position, but by the same token I don't want them to expect that a two-man unhealthy pitching duo of Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer is enough to win regularly. The same holds true for the pen.  Even if Edwin Diaz morphs into the type of pitcher he was in Seattle, he can't do it alone.  

Whether these vacancies are filled via free agency or trade, the fact is that the Mets need to fortify their pitching far more than they need to enhance their hitting.  They spent a lot of time and effort doing that already.  Now it's time to find folks who can retire hitters like they were 2021 Mets at the plate.