Good morning.
First... not that many topics here. Gonna let us concentrate on Kyle Tucker this morning.
Currently, the Mets have committed to a 2026 40-man salary of over $320,000,000.00 and:
1. They have no legitimate first baseman.
2. They have a new old second baseman committed to three seasons that simply doesn't hit anymore at a major league caliber level.
3. They still haven't locked down their 2026 starting third baseman.
4. They have no left fielder. This isn't a misprint. I didn't mean they don't have a good one. They have no one.
5. There currently have a sub-in-waiting centerfielder waiting for someone to show up with a bat.
6. They have a starting right fielder who charted the worst defensive stats at that position... in the league.
7. They have a current rotation that is the same one that missed last year's playoffs.
8. And, they have pen that is missing last year's top four pitchers, all of which signed elsewhere.
All this for $320,000,000.00.
You know me. The always optimistic Mack. The defender of the Cohen brain trust. The President of the David Stearns fan club.
But, you might have seen the Mack ship shifting directions and heading away from the sun. What I described above is nowhere near Nivana. It's closer to Coldplay.
Now that Kyle Tucker has taken his bats and moved west, the Mets must once again shrug it off and move on. 60 million dollars a year is just stupid money to pay for someone with this stat result history. Ohtani, yes... Judge and Soto, definitely. But Tucker? A salary figure like this takes the sting off pretty quickly.
I went to bed just before this went down but forgot to turn the sound down on my phone. It began pinging away, so I immediately turned it off, but couldn't help take one more peek at the sources of those pings.
Turned out to be drops from other writers, telling me that Tucker joined the talent-poor Dodgers. I immediately reached out to Steve and told him this was no biggie, that he should take a run at Bellinger. If that fails, move on to The Three Amigos in the chain. Hell, you pitched three starters before their time at the end of last season... why not one outfielder to start on opening day.
I then reminded him that teams that build an all-star like bat lineup are easily defeated with a team that has an all-star like pitching staff... and the 2026 and beyond Mets should concentrate on that and let the prospect bats take over in the next 1 1/2 years.
I then went to sleep.
Thomas Nestico - TJStats
Top 50 Starting Pitchers for
2026
https://tjstats.ca/2026/01/13/top-50-st arting-pitchers-for-2026/
37) Nolan McLean
P, Age: 24, Throws: R, 6'
2"/214 lbs
DOB: 2001-07-24, Willow
Spring, USA
Nolan McLean is by far the safest bet of this
trio of dynamic young arms entering 2026. His arsenal is jam-packed
with polished offerings including a pair of breaking balls that grade out as
some of the best in MLB. He is extremely athletic, and command gains have
propelled him to #1 pitching prospect in baseball status. His cup of coffee
last season went as well as the Mets could have hoped, and he has the talent to
cement himself as one of the best starters in MLB next season.
MACK –
This is about the best someone can say
about a ROY candidate. Impressive synopsis from Mr. Nestico.
Tobey Schulman @tschulmanreport
Jacob Reimer should be a consensus
top-100 prospect by the end of 2026. The 21-year-old generates a solid amount
of pull-air contact, and excelled vs. AA pitching in 61 games.
.282/.379/.491 slash line
between A+/AA in '25, with 17 HR, and a 157 wRC+..
MACK –
I too am a fan of Reimer…
just not a BIG fan yet.
Also, let’s say Brett Baty doesn’t
work out at third, the Mets stop trying to make Mark Vientos into
a decent fielding third baseman, and Ronny Mauricio remains, well, Ronny
Mauricio
Is this guy talented
enough to become the starting third baseman for the Mets, no less any other
team in the league?
2026 is a critical year
for him to prove it, at least, to me.
9 comments:
Well, the morning after has brought a necessitated pivot away from the flavor of the winter. A few days ago I wrote that Tucker was the best fit for the Mets between him, Bellinger and Robert.
As I now tried to figure out who is a better fit, Bellinger or Robert, something hit me. Without knowing what Chris Getz wants for Robert yet, what if you get both Bellinger and Robert? You keep Taylor as a fourth outfielder, you have good defenders at both positions - and the Yankees finally let Dominguez play - but would you rather have Tucker and Taylor or Bellinger and Robert? I’d rather have Bellinger and Robert. I can live with the Mets lineup if you add both those guys and take out Taylor.
I had a feeling with age creeping into the Dodgers lineup they needed Tucker, but I guess that I underestimated their pocketbook.
I think we all underestimated the once nicknames Da Bums.
As for Robert, he's never rang my bell. Bellinger yes, and I would make a healthy run with a 3-4 year offer... past that, the kiddies
One would think that the Dodgers have to be running out of money. That is insane.Sucker for Tucker contract. Baseball is irretrievably broken. Willie May’s top annual salary would not have paid for even one game of Kyle Tucker, who is no Willie Mays. Irretrievably broken. I hate to see players sitting out during a strike, but I hope the next strike is really long, because this is insanity.
Reimer will show us this year if he is the real deal or if he is the next JD Davis or Zach Lutz. If you reduced Kyle) Tucker’s salary by three zeros, which would make it $60,000, he’d still be making more than Reimer. Baseball insanity.
Off topic, but Mack posted Monday about OOPSY projections. OOPSY did a top 30 prospect hitter and top 30 prospect pitcher list for the major league. It was done just before the end of the season last year.
Remarkably, they had Jonah Tong 2nd, and McLean 5th. No Sproat.
Only Ryan Clifford made their hitter list, and he was high, around 10th.
https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/oopsys-top-60-prospects-final-2025-update/
So… I looked at baseball references 2026 projections for Kyle Tucker. Here’s what they projected.:
532 plate appearances, 24 doubles, three triples, 23 HRs, 73 RBIs, and 78 runs scored.
$60 million a year? For that? Insane..
I'm gonna assume Baty is the winner here going forward
Reimer doesn't have the pop to DH
And he doesn't play enough positions to become a major league utility infielder
I don't know... I don't know
.
Oh, and a Tucker slash line of .273/.373/.493? $60 million? Insane.
They must have one hell of a media contract out there
Dodgers signed a $8B tv contract.
As for Robert, there’s upside… better than Taylor. What would y’all give up? Getz probably wants a decent prospect, like Ewing.
I don’t see that stat line for Tucker. The guy has been a legit 5 bWAR player for five years, or on the way to that when healthy. He is good. But, $60MM? Wow.
Tom, the owners aren’t going to put up with this. The players love it. It will be long. Maybe over a year. The players union has put money aside to pay players. The players making boo coo money though are shit out of luck. It will be ugly.
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