Well, while the Mets continue building foundational pieces of AAAA and lower level major leaguers it appears that the other 29 organizations are actually looking for more significant pieces to assist with winning games in the 2025 season whose Spring Training begins in early February.
Where this flurry of activity affects the Mets perhaps most directly is their still unsolved question of who is going to play first base for the club. Over the past few days we’ve seen Christian Walker, Paul Goldschmidt, Carlos Santana and other DH/OF/1B types sign deals elsewhere.
As an example, the Washington Nationals were rumored to have been interested in signing Alonso but then they just turned around to ink elder statesman Carlos Santana to a short term deal. The Yankees were thought to be a gut-punch player for Alonso after losing out on Juan Soto, but they arranged to add both Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt. Christian Walker just hooked on with the Astros who stand a strong possibility of losing third baseman Alex Bregman, so they needed to reinforce the run production Walker can provide.
Regarding the hometown team that employed Alonso through the minors and his first six years in the majors, well, no one really knows what it is they are planning to do. Some say that Mark Vientos could move to first base thus opening up third base for a Bregman signing, a Nolan Arenado trade or a cross-your-fingers possibility of handing that corner position over to youngsters Ronny Mauricio or Luisangel Acuna.
Then there’s always the question of where Jeff McNeil will play. The outfield is a little crowded with Brandon Nimmo in left and Juan Soto in right. If he plays second then the youth movement needs to develop patience or be relegated to third base.
Now the name Josh Naylor has come up more than once as a possible target for trade with the Cleveland Guardians but like other more proactive teams they already sent him to the Diamondbacks who needed a Christian Walker replacement.
On the free agent list right now the output from the available players drops off pretty quickly. After the aforementioned now-employed first basemen, you have the choices of folks like Justin Turner (age 40), Josh Bell, Donovan Solano (age 37), Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo. There are others but they are even less appealing than these leftover choices. Solano hits for average but not for real power. Bell is highly inconsistent and last earned $16 million for well below average hitting. Gallo has never achieved more than a Dave Kingman type of all or nothing profile. The Yankees gave up on Rizzo last season as he’s been on a downhill slide for some time now. Turner would probably laugh at the Mets if they called considering how his career in New York ended, but as recently as 2023 he hit 23 HRs and drove in 96 for Boston. Last year was not nearly that good.
Pretty soon David Stearns will have to start looking at trade possibilities as the free agent pickings other than Pete Alonso are getting mighty slim.
Right now Mets fans and media participants are getting rather frustrated with the folks who might be good, could be used as substitutes when regulars who are unavailable and not seeing where the roster is headed to improve upon the 2024 squad.
18 comments:
Reese, the Mets waited until you wrote and posted the article to let us know they signed Sean Manaea; what jerks they are! So, that helps the arms.
But, to your point about the bats, there seems to be an undertone of:
1. Are the Mets preferring to wait a year for Vlad Jr.?
2. Are Alonso’s demands so out there that so many teams are jumping to other options?
Just yesterday the Nationals traded for Nathaniel Lowe and Santana went to the Guardians. The Yankees signed Goldy and Astros took Walker. It seems that Alonso’s market is Seattle, San Francisco ans the Mets.
Manaea dropped his ask from four years to three years and got it done. With the Mets looking at Bregman, Alonso may want to do the same.
Question for those who have had businesses:
If Alonso settles at a 4/$110 contract with the Mets, would he have bitterness at, for example, the Nimmo deal being 8 years or more money or some other deals, and have it affect his performance? Is it better to let him go and not deal with it? Or, will he just accept a fair deal and move on?
Great point Gus, I never thought about that. I know he will be disappointed in his contract but if we are the only team offering him a contract how bitter can he be. Do you think it's possible the Mets just don't want him?
Glad to have Manaea back without going to 4/5 years. Now just steal Buehler and we are set.
Great points. Pete may have to take a lot less than he hoped, with an early opt out. He is a victim of Citi Field being a pitchers park and shrinking his offensive output. Career .489 slug in Citi, .538 elsewhere. He ought to be bitter about that. Manaea? Great.
Tough to figure out Stearns' thoughts. Could Alonso fall to the Boros trap and be left out until signing just before ST with a contract with options. I believe that Stearns will decide sooner than ST by getting Alonso on his terms or swing for a third baseman.
Pete’s Ks went from 128 to 151 to 172 in 3 seasons, with about the same number of plate appearances in each. Rate up by 35% since 2022. sDisturbing trend. Every interested team notices. I think Nimmo played banged up in the second half. He hit just .190 in 60 second half games. I expect a bounce back from him.
The Alonso deal is the elephant in the room, since so many dominoes will fall once we know if he'll be here or elsewhere.
I expect him to sign quickly, in either place, so that Stearns can move to other decisions.
With what’s left on free agent market, I would suggest trading for Arenado. Moving Vientos to 1st base and moving Nimmo to Center for a year and play Marte in Left until he gets injured. Saving our money and 1st base for Vlad Jr next year?
Spend the rest of free agent money on Buehler and Relief Pitchers. This way we save our prospects for future trades or fill ins.
Eye opening K stats Tom...did not realize that. That's because he stopped hitting the ball to right/center and was pulling everything.
I know everyone keeps saying to move Vientos to 1B. But it's really not that easy. Vientos is not very athletic. Pete played the position all his life and he was just average.
Also, Zozo the outfield you mentioned would give us the worst defensive outfield in the history of the major leagues. Offensively it would be great...would love it but defensively the would have to rename former Pepsi Porch to the Butcher Shop.
The Mets need at minimum three new bats for the infield, outfield and DH. And then there's the bullpen...
For the infield, I only see one bat needed. Answer the first base/ third base question with Vientos in the other spot. Vientos surprised a lot of people with his defense last year that i believe he can play first this year. I see the outfield set with Siri and Taylor in center. Marte at DH. I believe that the starting rotation is now set with the signing of Manaea and the return of Senga. Could there be upgrades? Sure
Agree, then there is the bullpen...
Agree about only needing 1 bat. Right now, Marte is the DH unless traded. What we really need is 2 relief pitchers. One has to be a solid set-up man.
At some point this year I hope one of our prospects forces his way into CF (wishful thinking). Because as good a CF as Siri is his .200 BA is ridiculous.
Sasaki
Are there three potential prospects for the CF? Williams, Gilbert and Acuna? With two of them for second base with Mauricio as a potential third prospect?
If the Mets can have a different year regarding the prospect development than last year ... Oh Boy
I doubt any of our prospects will be ready before the summer. Realize that practically all of our top 30 were either hurt or had subpar years and no one did well at AAA except Scott. I hope Manea does well, but has he really turned his career around at age 33? We’ll see. Meanwhile everyone else is a question mark. If Strider comes back we have the third best pitching staff in the division. We need an ace, we have the money so sign Burnes. We need another reliever or 2. We need a hitter(Alonso) to protect Soto. Face it, I have no problem signing Alonso and Bregman and telling Vientos “we love your hitting, but your best position is DH”. I would hate to trade our prospects when their value is low. Hopefully a year free of injuries will increase their value.
The Mets missed the boat. The 1B should have been Santana on a one or two year deal. Why? because it wouldn't lock the 1B for more than a year if one of the kids performed well enough to take over because you could just move Santana to the DH spot if signed for two years.
Another missed opportunity was Buehler who just signed a one year with Boston. If you were going to take a chance on a pitcher, why not one with ace like potential?
I think that Stearns is likely to add one more SP, as he’s been pretty open about going with a 6-man rotation all season - a commitment they surely made clear to Sasaki. And currently, while they have a number of marginal arms (Blackburn, Megill, Canning) the least risky in-house option is Butto, who the might prefer to leave in the pen. Not sure that they want to add another $20/25 mil, as I’m pretty sure they’re already looking at a significant tax penalty, so obviously Sasaki would fit perfectly, but no way to really know what their chances are there.
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