What Needs Addressing in the New York Mets Offseason?
The Mets had a crazy season that culminated with a trip to the World Series for the first time in fifteen years. They departed in five games but certainly did not go quietly, making the Royals work hard for every on-field victory. So now that the champion has been decided, what’s next for these Metropolitans?
Let’s start with the starting pitching, since that’s where it all begins with these Mets. Matt Harvey riled the fans and the media with his “does he or doesn’t he want to pitch” circus late in the season, but his incredible World Series Game Five performance would seem to indicate that all is forgiven. He ended up pitching 216 innings, which is twenty-six more than his agent would have liked and is also more than any pitcher has gone the year after returning from Tommy John surgery. Will there be any effects next season? Hopefully not, but there’s really no precedent here.
Harvey will still be joined in the rotation by fellow young studs Jacob DeGrom, Steven Matz (who could conceivably win the Rookie of the Year award even after starting a game in the World Series), Noah Syndergaard, and veteran Jon Niese. In case that’s not enough, Tommy-John-surgery-sidelined Zach Wheeler comes back early in the season too. There are bound to be some injuries and growing pains among this Fearsome Fivesome, so re-signing a guy like Bartolo Colon (or getting a cheap-ish, older, and reliable arm elsewhere) to eat up some innings might not be a terrible idea, nor would it be catastrophic for the Mets to return to a six-man rotation to save some wear-and-hopefully-not-tear on their young arms. You would be hard-pressed to find many teams in baseball history with this many good, young arms blossoming all at once.
The Mets offense was a mess for much of 2015. In July, they had Kirk Nieuwenhuis batting clean-up with a batting average that was actually lower than the weight of your average high school freshman. It all changed after their July trade deadline acquisitions (hello Yoenis Cespedes!) and the return of captain David Wright from multiple injuries. Cespedes carried the offense and the team into first place when the Nationals imploded, and then went ice cold at the end of the season and never really found his stroke again even deep into the World Series. He had a shoulder injury and that could have been a factor, but without his offense in the second half of the season, the Nationals might have limped into the playoffs after all. He’s a free agent and it’s intriguing to wonder whether they will bring him back. They need a good power bat in that lineup, and Cespedes fits that bill perfectly – he’s had twenty+ homers each of the four years he’s been in the majors, and hit thirty-five last season. We all know the Mets’ owners have had limited financial flexibility for several years now, so it does remain to be seen what kind of offers end up on Cespedes’ table. It helps them that Cespedes’ awful postseason might cost him a good forty or fifty million dollars on the open market from what he might have otherwise commanded. Already there are some rumblings that the Mets won’t bring him back, which might or might not be a negotiating tactic.
Their other big free agent this offseason is Daniel Murphy, he of the Babe Ruthian exploits in the first two rounds of the 2015 playoffs. The problem with Murphy is that he’s mainly a .280-hitting middle infielder with some pop who has his issues fielding the ball. He can play three infield positions (plus left field), but none of them especially well. He may end up in the American League where “DH” can be added to his resume from time to time, but it does look like his Mets career has come to an end. The Mets seem poised to go with second base prospect Dilson Herrera, with Ruben Tejada resuming shortstop duties after his Chase-Utley-affected broken leg recovers. Wilmer Flores will also remain in the mix, allowing Tejada to play some third base if David Wright’s age and injuries (and diagnosis of spinal stenosis) require him to rest either willingly or via a visit to the disabled list.
At thirty-five, Curtis Granderson is in the twilight of his career and it’s hard to know when there might be a drop-off in his performance — though he did just fine in 2015 and in the World Series. If he, David Wright, and the aging Michael Cuddyer bat well enough to keep the offense consistent and a power bat like Cespedes can anchor the line-up, the Mets bats should provide enough gas to fuel the pitching.
They have some “ifs”, but so does every team. The 2015 Nationals seemed to have no flaws and then they played golf in October, so these predictions are a funny business. Still, with their army of young starting pitchers, these New York Metropolitans can easily enter 2016 with the highest expectations they have had since guys named Doc and Darryl called Shea Stadium home.
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