Reese Kaplan -- The Mets Have Not Designated Star Hitters to be DH

Believe it or not, the Mets in 2024 finally found aggregate quality at the Designated Hitter position when combining what you received from the primary participants J.D. Martinez and Jesse Winker. 

Don’t believe it?  How about these numbers — 19 HRs, 82 RBIs and an unimpressive batting average of about .238.  While that last number is not good, the 19 HRs and 82 RBIs is far better than what the club has received in the past.

Need a reminder?  Well, in 2023 the club used primarily Daniel Vogelbach and someone named Mark Vientos (yes, that Mark Vientos) to combine for 22 HRs (good), 70 RBIs (not so good) and about a .222 batting average (worse than what the team got in 2024).

Before that in 2022 the team employed big Dan again along with Darin Ruf, Tyler Naquin and J.D. Davis to net at total of 14 HRs, 66 RBIs and an overall batting average of about .229.  Ugh.

So looking back to 2024 it seemed that the Mets were not getting All Star production out of the DH slot, but 19 HRs and 82 RBIs is a damn output better than what they’d gotten in the two previous years when the DH finally made its way to the National League.

Going into 2025 no one initially knew what the Mets were planning to do with the DH position.  Some advocated a reunion with J.D. Martinez who has put together a nearly Hall of Fame career and could be forgiven for a poor (by his standards) 2024 in the hope he would rebound to what he did in 2023 for the Dodgers. 

Others thought that Mark Vientos would become a young DH or first baseman before the club brought back Pete Alonso.  It could still happen if Brett Baty continued his hot hitting based upon his Port St. Lucie audition, but it’s not as likely to happen because...

In a much less expensive than J.D. Martinez transaction the Mets offered up lefty swinging Jesse Winker a return engagement for the sum of $7.5 million.  Wait...isn’t J.D. Martinez still unemployed and coming off a poor year for which he was paid $10 million?  Doesn’t that suggest his paycheck in 2025 is likely to be roughly the same?

Winker is an interesting player opposing teams love to hate.  He plays with a reckless enthusiasm wearing his emotions of his sleeve proudly.  That part is good if he’s on your side.  What’s bad is that he’s never really made it as a full time player, excelling against right handed pitchers but struggling against lefties.  He’s never had 500 ABs in a season, but once back in 2021 with the Reds he was an All Star when he provided 24 HRs, 71 RBIs while hitting .305. 

So the thinking here was to have him be a DH against right handed pitchers which is likely 5 games per week and offloading the right handed swinging part of the DH equation to someone else like Starling Marte who lost his RF job to some scrub named Juan Soto. 

During his career Marte has had some ups and downs facing southpaws, but in 2020 he surged forward with his batting average against lefties advanced to about .290.  Given his baserunning speed and occasional power, it seemed like pairing him with a lefty swinging Winker could indeed be a solid aggregate option. 

Of course, what you want out of the DH position is the first question you need to answer.  I always cite Edgar Martinez of the Mariners as the role model for what you strive to obtain from someone whose only skill required is hitting.  For his career, the now Hall of Famer averaged .312, 24 HRs and 99 RBIs.  The Mets are not going to achieve that single season total except perhaps for the 24 HRs.  They would have been able to throw 30-40 stolen bases to the total before Marte’s knee started acting up but that attribute was not a part of most slugger-only players’ games.  Martinez averaged just 4 swipes per season.

The interesting approach taken by the front office is also an acknowledgment of Marte’s age and defensive decline.  The 2025 Mets DH role is a one year thing with Winker on a single season contract and Marte on the last year of his Billy Eppler negotiated deal.  What that means is that even if the combined Winker/Marte role worked solidly for an aggregate .270 batting average with 25 HRs, 75 RBIs and 25 SBs, you’d have to reinvent this role for 2026 and beyond.

Now a lot depends on what Brett Baty does in the major leagues this year and how Ronny Mauricio, Luisangel Acuna and Jett Williams perform in AAA.  All you need is one of this quartet to thrive and then Mark Vientos perhaps can become a full time DH (unless he is asked to cross the diamond in a Pete Alonso vacancy or a missed contract offer to Vlad Guerrero, Jr.)

For now it would appear the potential for the 2025 DH is actually better than the already good but not great result of 2024.  It’s also possible a last minute deal could be made sending Marte or Baty elsewhere, then things need to be reassessed completely.