Reese Kaplan -- Adding Minor Pieces As a Prelude to Bigger Ones

Are you all done popping champagne and setting off fireworks over the Mets acquisition of Griffin Canning to become a leader in the 2025 starting rotation?  

I kind of skipped over the adult beverages and didn’t light so much as a firecracker over the news that David Stearns secured the services of the guy who led all of baseball in runs allowed in 2024.  Granted, the price for mediocrity isn’t that high at $4.25 million for a single year, but the move left a lot of people scratching their heads to the point of bleeding.

My initial reaction was similarly negative and underwhelmed until I took a breath and realized that he’s not a Corbin Burnes substitute.  He’s not even a Frank Burns substitute.  What he is for the Mets is another arm available when the injuries and ineffectiveness from Cy, er, Frankie Montas and company need some time off. 

The second thing that occurred to me was that by stacking the deck with lower level major league pitchers and AAAA minor leaguers it is opening up the possibility of making trades that could include the likes of Jose Butto, Tylor Megill, Blade Tidwell and others who you might have been totally against sending away as part of a transaction because there was no depth behind them.

Don’t get me wrong.  You still have the unproven ace-in-waiting in Brandon Sproat, ex Pirate Max Kranick, and various other pieces in differing stages of professional development and health.  Remember Christian Scott?  Yes, he’s a part of the mix but is out of action for 2025.  

Then you have guys like Joander Suarez who has a very live arm but no sense of pitching rather than merely throwing.  Then there’s long-injured Paul Blackburn, too.  Yes, he’s no solid rotation arm, but for an occasional spot start due to injury or piled up doubleheaders you can live with him. 

Right now there are still some very solid arms out there in free agency but evidence has shown that major league clubs are willingly paying way more for them than you would consider reasonable.  That then makes the trade route worth exploring.  

The tough part of that approach is figuring out who you can afford to give up to obtain the kind of top of rotation arm you’re seeking.  Yes, it would be easier to obtain a Walker Buehler or Jack Flaherty without giving up draft picks nor organizational player assets, but sometimes you need to look under every rock to expand the pool of available pitchers worth consideration. 

Right now the biggest problem for the Mets, their fans and the media is the seeming inaction taken by the front office who some perceive feel they are one and done after securing Juan Soto for the rest of his career.  

Yes, they did add Clay Holmes who may or may not succeed as a starter after flourishing as a reliever, and Frankie Montas who had a hot end of 2024 but whose career metrics don’t suggest quality starting pitching.  Outfielder Jose Siri is supposed to be a power hitting replacement at minimal cost for the departed FA Harrison Bader.  None of these moves with perhaps the exception of Holmes seemed to make the fans happy. 

Obviously the unknown resolution to Pete Alonso’s free agency, the Roki Sasaki international bidding war that is also open, the suitors for other key free agents like Corbin Burnes, Jack Flaherty, a possible return of Sean Manaea, the missing-in-action Jose Quintana and a collection of others make people wonder what exactly the Mets are waiting to have happen before they take more conspicuous steps towards improving the 2025 roster.