One of the things I don’t miss much from my working life prior to retirement is the organic “To Do List” that seemingly morphed into longer, thicker and more complex lines day after day as you tried desperately to steer the overall project towards success no matter how many tasks threatened to have you stepping onto work-related land mines when you least expected them.
The obvious place to begin is the unresolved situation up the line from where Francisco Alvarez will be calling games from behind the plate. As of right now it still is a mystery who is going to play there. Some think the return of Jesse Winker who has been vocal about his desire to play this position.
Others envision Mark Vientos making this transition from where he played almost exclusively third base. Others still feel a new resource from outside the organization could be obtained via late free agency or trade. Finally there’s the one everyone keeps expecting to hear every morning when firing up their list of Mets-related headlines — that Pete Alonso is coming back on a higher AAV three-year deal and all involved can hold their heads up proudly and not have to live in shame for what transpired.
This position has been recited to death recently. Is it Jeff McNeil? How about Luisangel Acuna who likely is higher in the rookie hierarchy than others? What about still recovering Ronny Mauricio? Or does the world seem ready to see an unlikely flip from third to second for power hitting mystery Brett Baty?
I could just copy and paste the whole second base crew of wannabes here with the addition of Mark Vientos depending on what they do to resolve the still very open position of first base. It may be that the Mets want to start Mauricio in the minors for awhile to see that he’s back in the swing of things.
Baty could be tapped for the third straight year as “ready” or he could be dealt away to address another need. Acuna was never thought of as a third baseman and McNeil has not done well there defensively while his suspect offensive abilities don’t necessarily make him “the man” there either.
Most folks would agree that Tyrone Taylor is a very good 4th outfielder. Jose Siri is a budget version of the still unemployed Harrison Bader. Neither should be considered starting caliber players on a team with aspirations for October baseball.
Does that mean that someone from outside via free agency or trade is a better option? We’ve all speculated on the White Sox center fielder Luis Robert, Jr. as a possibility as he’s only one year removed from a monster season with the bat. There are others available as well.
As we enter the 2025 season with a starting rotation consisting of Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, reliever-turned-starter Clay Holmes, 2024 wunderkind David Peterson and then 5th starter acquisition Frankie Montas. About the only one without major question marks is Manaea. Senga needs to show health.
Holmes needs to show he can take the ball every fifth day as his workload increases from a single inning to 6 or 7. Peterson was incredible last year. Was it a flash in the pan or can he replicate for the upcoming season. Then there’s Montas who showed he can pitch in New York though not especially well. Behind them you have still recovering Paul Blackburn, the ever present Tylor Megill and reliever Jose Butto. Many feel a legitimate starting arm would be most welcome.
Assuming for the moment your bullpen includes Edwin Diaz, A.J. Minter, Jose Butto, Dedniel Nunez, Reed Garrett and a hopefully health Sean Reid-Foley, there are a great many folks vying for innings out there to round out the late inning duties. It would seem that another formidable arm like David Robertson would be most welcome as an addition.
It would seem that Jesse Winker is a solid return to the squad whether as a platoon partner for someone as DH, at 1st base or as a role player. After that thinks get a lot murkier. There is room for a proven infielder like Jose Iglesias and some clarity on where Starling Marte fits if he’s still in the 2025 plans.
Right now the Mets are under the $300 million budget and whether or not the remain three depends an awful lot on players like Marte, McNeil and the great unresolved Polar Bear question. Bringing in others via trade or free agency means the team either is crossing that high water mark or that David Stearns and owner Steve Cohen have decided where they need to be on the bottom line.
Many more moves still need to be made and no one is sure what number if acceptable to baseball’s wealthiest owner.
13 comments:
Four posts a week on a team doing nothing in a dead off season.
Gawd
Who's the dumb sumbitch running this place.
?
That being said, remember the old days when an owner or YM would take reporter questions and say that they were everything in their powers to solve who is going to play a certain position?
Or a reporter could go and knock on the door of a player and see what they had to say.
Not anymore
As you know, the only thing I hate more than discussing an unsigned Pete is predictions
But for all you today only:
By end of Sunday
Alonso to Mets
4 years. 100mil
Opt out after 1 and 3 years
That sounds reasonable for both sides
I really believe they're gonna go with Taylor and Siri in CF. Defense wins games
Mack bold prediction. We are now watching, Mack.
Hi Reese, great rundown. I’m not worried about 2B, where I expect a bounce back season for McNeil based on last year’s second half where he seemed to figure it out for the first time since the shift was outlawed. I’m also OK with Taylor/Siri in CF, giving us GG defense (or very close) every day out there. Siri also has one of the best CF arms in baseball. With Nimmo on one side and Soto on the other, we’re going to appreciate all that CF range. Taylor did show flashes of offense last season and Siri has serious pop (when he hits the ball). I’ll leave the Alonso question aside, and say that I do agree we need one more SP for me to have confidence in a 6-man rotation, and we’ll clearly bring in a backup MI, likely Iglesias, since right now there is no one. As to the ‘pen, I’m sure that Stearns has a list of 5-10 internal candidates that he’d like to look at/shuffle through thinking he can find one or two unexpected contributors out there, so not sure he spends more to bring someone in right now (the deadline is another matter).
If your bench is Acuna, Winker, Seri and a catcher, where would Iglesias fit?
Did y’all see what Santander signed for? 5/$92MM, but $62MM was deferred. Present value is 5/$67MM, or less than $14MM per year! His paycheck will be based on $5MM per year, or a measly $200K per week! Does Vinnie Pasquantino know about this? Oh, he’d have a melt down.
If I had to give Stearns a grade so far, it would be a B-. This was a year in which the Mets could have addressed a lot of the issues with the team. Yet, we still don't have a solid pen or rotation. On the 1B side, there were plenty of good players with power available on a one year contract yet the Mets are still in limbo.
Now, this is not to say that Stearns is done, I am just going by what has been done so far. The Juan Soto to me was a pissing contest between the Mets and Yankees. No player is worth that kind of money but Soto was in the right place at the right time. You can make a great argument that the Mets could have gotten three great players for that money.
The Mets came two games away from going to the WS. The Mets needed to keep that core and add to it. How is Winker more important than Iglesias who was the borderline MVP for the Mets?. How is giving a reliever a starting position better than giving Walter Buehler a one year contract?. Frankie Montas? really?.
The Mets had holes that needed to be addressed for 2025. Stearns to me, has added to it with his questionable signings.
Viper, interesting points, but in part it is like a team that is 3 runs down after 8 innings. But then score 4 in the 9th to win. We have to wait until Howie puts the off-season deals in the books. He might still score 4 in the 9th.
Gus, I am starting to hate this deferred salary loophole.
In that case Acuña’s spot is the backup MI spot, and no room for Iglesias. But I don’t think they’re going to bring up Acuña to sit on the bench.
I've hated it for a while, and even more when I saw the Ohtani deal.
I'd be OK with postponing payouts, but if there's a luxury tax/draft pick component to budget, the salary for that purpose should count as the AAV each year.
Sad that Billy Eppler lost his job for manipulation of the IL (which most teams do), but the Dodgers get away with manipulating the payroll in a way never seen.
Guys, we shouldn’t even care…
On Stearns: A+ from me. He played everything perfectly.
Cohen: D. Did the Mets really need to spend so much on this guy, for so long? I know that I am questioning people with much more success than I, but I am on my feet everyday to make money and I cannot throw away that much to an arrogant right fielder whose perks are so good, MLB puts an extra $10MM value per year, so his deal’s Luxury Tax Value is $61MM per year. Steve Cohen better have gotten a Christmas card from Hal Steinbrenner with some gift cards to some nice restaurants for bailing him out on that one!
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