Reese Kaplan -- The To Do List for David Stearns

While folks are understandably excited to see the new-look Mets with all of the changes made to the roster, it is also time to explore the necessary David Stearns To Do List before anyone will fully endorse that the team is ready now and for the future.

1. In a very un-Mets way, it’s imperative to lock up Freddy Peralta to a contract extension that benefits both the ballplayer and his employer.  The Mets have not been good at offering up extensions to players slated to leave and after sacrificing two prime prospect players for a one-year rental it makes sense to take advantage of your exclusive bargaining position as his current employer to buy him out of his desire to test free agency.  That strategy would reinforce the sense of the price paid to bring him here and it would demonstrate a commitment to the future which was not really present at the end of 2025.
2. As frustrating as it is, it’s necessary to be patient with injuries particularly when the season has not yet even begun.  There are several players whose health is being closely monitored.  Francisco Lindor is recovering from surgery.  AJ Minter has his lat injury that shut him down during May of last year.  Various players are on slow tracks this spring due to minor injuries such as Brett Baty and Luis Robert, Jr.  Right now it’s a 162 game marathon that doesn’t need to be won in April.  Too often players are rushed back before they are ready and it is more beneficial to allow them to take as long as it realistically takes to confirm they’re ready for the remaining nearly 6 months of baseball activity.
3. Tied into that latter philosophy is the need to prepare the reinforcements for advancement in the future.  Sometimes that preparation is done by temporarily giving them a taste of major league baseball for a few weeks until the regulars heal.  Other times it involves rewarding lesser veteran ballplayers with promotions to do that fill-in duty while the hot prospects instead travel to Syracuse and Binghamton to focus on what they need to do to improve their game performance for long term success at the big league level.  Christian Scott, Jonah Tong, Carson Benge, Nick Morabito, AJ Ewing, Ryan Clifford and others on the high end of the prospect list need to ease into their futures, not be overwhelmed by premature promotion when there is not a real pennant race until season’s end.
4. The last two issues are old hat by now but still need to be addressed.  The club needs to identify who is truly going to play right field for the upcoming year.  Many want it to be Carson Benge, but his limited exposure to AAA suggests he could be a later year promotion to assume that role.  Unfortunately the others include unspectacular fringe players or folks who have no experience as a full time outfielder.  Something needs to be done. 
5. Ever since the National League embraced the DH, the New York Mets have used it as an offensive black hole.  Even when they made an 11th hour decision to bring in star J.D. Martinez didn’t deliver the caliber of run production that most clubs receive by properly valuing and using this role.  To look at the current uncertain roster it could be a platoon of Brett Baty and Mark Vientos or could go to Vientos full time if Baty gets the nod in right field.  Here both solutions would be potential rather than solidity.  It is worth seeing who else might be out there.