While the MLB offseason isn’t over by any means, pitchers and catchers reported to camp yesterday. Yet, there are still a plethora of free agents who haven’t signed with a new team. My assumption is that before Opening Day, April 1, we will see a multitude of moves happen during Spring Training. Players will be sent down to he minor leagues, and sadly injuries will occur, which will cause teams to show their hand and make deals with free agents.
Coming into the offseason the team that everyone had their eyes on was the New York Mets. New team owner/CEO Steve Cohen came to Queens with his 14 billion dollar net worth and promised that the team would make moves. Did he deliver on his promise? Oh yes he did. Don’t kid yourself, Mets fans!
Let me start by getting this off my chest. The Mets knew all along that they wouldn’t be able to sign George Springer, Trevor Bauer AND J.T. Realmuto. They had a limited amount of money to tack onto the payroll without going past the luxury tax. Fans assumed that Cohen would spend like, as he said, “ a drunken sailor,” and deliver the best MLB offseason in recent memory. When the Mets gave James McCann $40M instead of $100+ million to Realmuto, it subsequently allowed the team to be able to afford Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco financially. I’d take those two and McCann over Realmuto any day.
This offseason has seen the Mets add 17 players to their 40-man roster, which that alone, is very rare for any team in one offseason. The Mets also signed Trevor May who is a top 15 relief pitcher in the sport and brings along with him a rising brand like Bauer’s. Recently the Mets traded a PTBNL and one of the handful of prospects they received in the Steven Matz trade, for CF Kahlil Lee of the Royals in a 3-team trade that saw the Red Sox send Andrew Benintendi to Kansas City.
Lee now joins the Mets as their 7th best prospect in the system. The Mets at the end of day have shown a willingness to sign any of the top names on the market and that alone should be exciting Mets fans, since that has never been the case before. If we didn’t acquire Lindor, and missed out on they players that we ended up “missing out on”, I’d be the first to admit my anger. But we have Lindor who is arguably a top five player in the game! Relax.
With that out of the way, let me get to business. The Mets now have a top five lineup, starting rotation, and bullpen in the game. The team has improved, and their acting GM is seen as one of the brightest up-and-coming minds in the sport. Team President Sandy Alderson has done, dare I say, a masterful job in his second stint with the team? Think about it. The team now has by far their best catcher since Paul Lo Duca, and arguably the best shortstop in Major League Baseball. Definitely the team’s best since Jose Reyes.
The Mets, for the first time in a very long time, also have a lot of depth at both the major league and minor league level. That is something that could really help out the team in the long run. With injuries likely to occur, it’s important to have a deep 26-man roster, and players in the minors who can come up at any time to help out. While the Mets theoretically need another starting pitcher, they really don’t. I believe they have enough depth there to suffice. They have a lot of players who play multiple positions and that’s always something nice to have. Jeff McNeil can play anywhere but catcher and first base, J.D. Davis plays 3B, 2B and LF, Dom Smith can play LF and 1B, while Jonathan Villar can play SS, 2B and CF. Versatility is key, and the Mets finally have a versatile lineup and bench.
If the Mets really want to cap off an already stellar offseason, I’d sign free agent RHP Taijuan Walker. Walker in 2020 was fully healthy for the first time since 2017, and had a great year for Seattle and Toronto. Over 11 starts Walker pitched to a 2.70 ERA, 4.56 FIP, 1.16 WHIP, and had a career high 8.4 strikeouts per 9-innings. At the young age of 28, and a few years out of being a top prospect on the rise making some noise in the MLB, why not take a flyer on Walker? deGrom, Carrasco, (Syndergaard in June), Stroman, and Peterson makes for a great rotation. Throwing Walker into the mix could put pressure on Peterson to prove he has a spot in this rotation moving forward.
I’m really enamored by new Mets catcher James McCann. Manager Luis Rojas in speaking with the media yesterday had nothing but great things to say about the new backstop. According to Rojas, McCann had already spoken with every Met pitcher prior to reporting to training camp. Rojas also said that every time the Mets had acquired a pitcher during the offseason, he’d get a text from McCann wanting that pitcher’s contact information. I’d argue that nothing is more important, on the field, than a pitcher’s relationship with his catcher. We heard about how crucial McCann was to the 2019-2020 White Sox pitching staff, and now we’re starting to see it here in Flushing.
The Mets had a phenomenal offseason that, yes, saw its fair share of controversy at times. But there’s a new king in New York, and he’s hungry to win a ring. Will the Mets trade for Kris Bryant or Eugenio Suarez at the trade deadline? Who knows, but if J.D. Davis proves that the Mets need to make a change at 3B, Cohen and company have shown that they’ll make a move to upgrade the position. Past ownership would’ve begrudgingly made a move for a has-been, or a nobody, and would then go through another circus with a new showman. Steve Cohen bought a circus, and has made them into a powerhouse.
Lets Go Mets!