When the Mets fell out of first place within the NL East in late September, many have been fast to name it a collapse and level fingers. Of course, these fingers didn’t come from contained in the Mets group. The membership acknowledged the unbelievable second-half run the Atlanta Braves have been on that led to the 2021 World Series champs overtaking the Mets to win the division, and for probably the most half, appreciated the resilience the workforce confirmed all through a lot of the season.
However, that doesn’t imply the Mets aren’t making an attempt to handle the deficiencies that appeared late within the season. The drawback was that the roster was very top-heavy, so when the important thing gamers went down, like Starling Marte, the Mets didn’t have sufficient energy and depth to make up for it. Tyler Naquin was simply nice within the place of Marte, however he’s a light-hitting outfielder and the remainder of the lineup was hitting fairly gentle by the point Marte went down as effectively. The Mets didn’t have many choices when different accidents occurred late within the season and when gamers like DH Darin Ruf weren’t performing.
The membership can forestall this drawback subsequent season by including extra top quality depth items. These aren’t at all times the sexiest names available on the market however they’ll complement the celebs and ease the stress off of the prospects that may not be able to play day by day simply but.
These are additionally the kind of strikes that may be made not solely now, as the new range begins to fireside up, however all through the winter. While a lot of the Mets’ offseason plans will likely be dictated by what Jacob deGrom and Brandon Nimmo do, they may go get a fourth outfielder or one other utility infielder proper now in the event that they recognized particular gamers as matches for the workforce and the tradition, or they may wait to see how the outfield shakes out with Nimmo and determine what they want from there.
For occasion, if Nimmo indicators elsewhere they may goal Michael Conforto for proper area and transfer Marte over to his pure centerfield place. If that’s the case, they could need to herald a reserve who sometimes performs extra proper area or heart area than left, like Adam Duvall or somebody like Kevin Kiermaier, who is thought largely for his glove.
In the infield, that might imply somebody like Matt Duffy, a former school teammate of Jeff McNeil’s at Long Beach State. Duffy isn’t the participant he was in 2015 when he completed second in NL Rookie of the Year voting, however the 31-year-old is an honest utility participant who can play third base, second base and shortstop. He’s additionally performed a handful of video games within the outfield and if the Mets might convert McNeil into an outfielder it is likely to be value giving him some fly balls in left throughout spring coaching.
Not for nothing, Duffy additionally performed in a World Series as effectively.
The Mets grabbed Stephen Ridings off waivers from the Yankees earlier this week for pitching depth and so they’ll proceed to work the waiver wire and look into younger, controllable relievers. This is one of the simplest ways to make additions to the bullpen with out giving up a ton of growing expertise.
The rotation is a bit of trickier. The Mets have Carlos Carrasco on the again finish however they’ll want to search out one other arm as a fifth and even sixth starter and it ought to come from outdoors of their system. Pitchers on this class may carry some query marks, however that’s typical of many No. 5 or 6 starters.
Left-hander Sean Manaea is coming off of a down season in San Diego and he had shoulder surgical procedure in 2019. Lefty Andrew Heaney was horrible for the Yankees and by no means actually grew to become the ace the Los Angeles Angels hoped he would develop into, however he had a bounce again season with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2022, going 4-4 with a 3.10 ERA and a 3.75 FIP.
The query for all pitchers who expertise profession resurgences with the Dodgers and Houston Astros is whether or not or not they’ll replicate that success outdoors of these organizations, however in lots of instances, it’s nonetheless value taking a shot at gamers who have been capable of finding one thing late of their careers and discover success.
The Mets are at all times going to have high-end gamers and the prospect pipeline is in good condition, however the total roster could possibly be improved and the outlook for subsequent season could possibly be improved with much less of a drop-off between the celebs and the position gamers.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com