Philly Front Office

The Mets had a strange winter. They had a lot of contracts coming off their books and a lot of money to spend. Opportunity and their bottomless checkbook were set to be unleashed upon the market in a tidal wave of signings set to leave all desired targets floating in new tax brackets.

That’s exactly how it started. Right out of the gate, Juan Soto was in their sites, the big game that both New York clubs were hunting. There was simply no way Steve Cohen wasn’t going to try to make the Yankees look like chumps. He succeeded. At 15 years and $765m, Juan Soto was going to Queens.

This is where the strange part comes in. They didn’t really do anything else. Other than adding mediocre starters Frankie Montas and reliever turned Opening Day starter Clay Holmes, the Mets only resigned Sean Manea (good deal) and Pete Alonso who they alienated as much as possible. That’s it. Despite alpha starters Blake Snell and Corbin Burnes being available along with Tanner Scott and Jeff Hoffman out of the bullpen, the Mets stood pat. That financial tidal wave looks to have been just an isolated swell. That’s not to say the Mets aren’t good, I was just bracing myself for a hurricane rather than a tropical storm.

Lineup

I’m not going to sugar coat this, the Mets rolling out MVP runner up Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Mark Vientos, and Pete Alonso is pretty awful for us Phillies. Vientos only has the one year of production that was floated by an incredible start, but he looks like a star considering his post season. The Mets will need him to be. As for Alonso, I think he’s a giant cornball, but he obviously puts up numbers. Him thumping 35+ homers with the other three in front of him should be an easy 100+ RBIs for the goon.

The only good news is that the rest of the offense isn’t exactly ripping the cover off the ball. They do have some seriously annoying a-holes in Jesse Winker, Jeff McNeil, and Brandon Nimmo, but all are on the wrong side of 30 and were starting pretty steep statistical descents last year. Could they bounce back and make my jugular explode? It’s on the table for one or two, but not all three.

The Mets have been waiting for former uber-prospect Francisco Alvarez to break out. Unfortunately, they are going to have to wait a little longer because an injury is going to sideline him for the next two months. If he becomes a quality offensive piece, that could be the deal breaker in how far they go this season. At catcher, his offensive output could make up for a lot.

Is that really it for the Mets offense, four guys? We saw what the Yankees did last year with Soto and Aaron Judge. While Lindor is no Judge at the plate (not an insult), he is certainly no slouch either. Plus the Yankees didn’t have anyone like those other two guys behind them. The drop off after the top is crazy though.

As weird as it is to say considering the Soto signing, the Mets did not exactly go for it this year. After the top 4, this lineup is underwhelming at best. I hate to say it, but it looks like their measured approach to team growing won’t fully bloom until next season. You can expect them to go full bore after Vlad Guerrero and Kyle Tucker while jettisoning all of those mid-30 somethings in the lineup.

Rotation

The Mets brought in Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes while saying goodbye to Luis Severino. This was a huge sigh of relief. Why in the world didn’t they go after Corbin Burnes or Blake Snell? No idea. Especially when Burnes hung on the line for so long, he looked destined for Queens. Thankfully, it was not to be. Then there were rumors that the Padres were trying to move Dylan Cease before he hit free agency like they did with Juan Soto. Again thankfully, that hasn’t happened either. Because of this, it doesn’t seem like the Mets have a true #1 starter.

They will be running out a bunch of 2/3 caliber arms though:

• Clay Holmes
• Sean Manaea – once he’s healthy
• Kodai Senga
• Frankie Montas – once he’s healthy
• David Peterson

Really, why didn’t they go after Burnes again??? How much better would all of that look if they were knocked down a peg? They all have the capability of going off on any given day, but over the course of the season, they could also all be hovering in the upper 3, low 4 ERA territory.

My Mets fan friends (what am I thinking?) have been raving about Clay Holmes. He is a 32-year-old reliever turned starter who was admittedly pretty good in his time with the Yankees…as a reliever. He has pitched a total of 337 innings in his 7-year career, but the Mets are going to pencil him in for 180 this season? I’m not sure how well that is going to go. His previous high is 70 innings in 2021. Sure, he looks good in limited action in Spring, but we’ll see how that translates. It worked for the Braves’ Reynaldo Lopez last season.

Another free agent pick up was Frankie Montas. The Mets gave him 2/$34m despite being 32, a high 4 ERA last season and a pretty awful and injury filled time with the Yankees before that. That money could have been used a lot better it seems.

Manaea was formerly terrible but discovered something last season. If those changes stick, he is their best starter and I don’t think it will be very close. Senga missed almost all of last season but was dangerous as a rookie. Both have tremendous stuff but are now getting up in age at 33 and 32. No one in this rotation is particularly young.

Bullpen

This was another area where the lack of additions seemed puzzling. Edwin Diaz is good, but he is getting further and further away from the dominant runs he had previously. The Mets did add AJ Minter who tormented us for the better part of the last decade in Atlanta. He had injuries last year which could have added to the reason why the Braves let him go. Other than that, there is no one else who stands out. You can imagine them being at the top of the reliever market come trade time.

It is again very puzzling why the Mets didn’t go after the exact same guys the Dodgers went after. Late into the off season, the Dodgers brought in Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott. Jeff Hoffman went to the Blue Jays shortly thereafter. The Mets didn’t win on any of those guys? What were they waiting for? Their best chance for the bullpen might be Clay Holmes flaming out in the rotation.

Prospects

Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams are two solid prospects that are close to the major leagues. Sproat is a high velocity, 2 pitch pitcher. The fastball/changeup mix might be better as a bullpen edition later this year assuming there is no room in the rotation. Williams is a shortstop by trade which means he needed to find another position with the Mets. Lindor has him working the outfield. As a name like Jett would suggest, he is fast. He is also very small. At 5’7″ power is not going to be one of his calling cards.

Money

Even with signing Soto, the Mets did not go all out this winter. They are not running a crazy payroll even if it is the second highest in the league. Steve Cohen is clearly keeping the powder dry for next year when Kyle Tucker, Vlad Guerrero, and Dylan Cease are all available. When most teams experience unexpected success and are flush with cash, they usually spend it wildly. The Mets didn’t. We have to just hope they missed their opportunity.

Last year was the kind of year the Mets don’t have. They had good vibes and great luck, absolutely destroying great bullpens in the process. The luck eventually ran out against the Dodgers. In the offseason, they seemed to do what they could to get rid of those good vibes. Mr. OMG is now with the Padres and the cornball was dragged through contract negotiations all winter. The Mets were probably right not to pay him, but from an image perspective, it could not have gone worse for either side. Finally, as someone who remembers you can’t Dance on Your Own for too long, Grimace isn’t walking through that door this year Mets fans.