An lively offseason for the Mets appears to be like to be largely accomplished. President of baseball operations David Stearns prompt throughout a session with the group’s beat Wednesday that the Alonso deal was seemingly the group’s final big splash. Requested if felt he was completed with main additions, Stearns replied:
“I feel so. We’re at all times going to be concerned in conversations. We’re at all times going to be making an attempt to see if there are methods we will get higher. We additionally really feel actually good concerning the group we now have that’s reporting proper now, and I’d anticipate, by and enormous, that that is the group we’re going ahead with.”
Whereas it’s not a decisive declaration that there are not any additional transactions on the horizon, it appears seemingly that these would come through non-roster invitation. The Mets possess a veteran roster of gamers with five-plus years of MLB service or who’ve exhausted their minor league choices. Additional veteran signings/acquisitions might exacerbate some pretty restricted roster flexibility. Stearns’ response when requested whether or not the group was transferring on from infielder Jose Iglesias is slightly telling in that regard:
“I feel the place we are actually, for that position on our group, it’s vital for us to maintain some avenues open for a few of our youthful gamers. We predict it’s vital for us to have some roster flexibility with that spot. It’s actually robust to freeze your whole place participant roster. We did that for a portion final 12 months, and we really form of received away with it, however there very simply might’ve been a circumstance the place we received caught with a totally frozen place participant roster, so having some flexibility there in that position is, frankly, in all probability wanted for us proper now.”
That’s a disappointing reply for Mets followers who fell in love with Iglesias in what proved to be a renaissance marketing campaign for the 35-year-old. Initially signed to a minor league deal, Iglesias was summoned to the majors on the finish of Could and have become not solely a extremely productive position participant however a fan and clubhouse favourite because of his OMG track that grew to become a rallying cry. In 85 video games, Iglesias made 291 plate appearances and batted .337/.381/.448. Nevertheless, that manufacturing was manner out of sync together with his profession norms (.279/.319/.382 coming into the season) and was buoyed by a sky-high .382 common on balls in play that he’s not more likely to repeat.
Past some justifiable questions on Iglesias’ potential to maintain his 2024 output, Stearns’s reply’s “flexibility” facet is price drilling right into a bit additional. Proper now, the one Mets’ projected lineup member who will be optioned to Triple-A is catcher Francisco Alvarez. They’ll have three bench gamers — backup catcher Luis Torrens, backup outfielder Tyrone Taylor and outfielder/DH Starling Marte — who can’t be optioned. (Outfielder Jose Azocar can also be out of choices, so he’ll must earn a roster spot or be DFA’d later in camp.)
Including Iglesias would create a fourth, successfully “freezing” the group’s whole group of place gamers, as Stearns prompt. That might be why the group opted to carry infielder Nick Madrigal into the combination. He supplies related bat-to-ball abilities and infield versatility but in addition has a minor league choice remaining, creating extra flexibility because the season wears on.
It’s related on the pitching workers. Kodai Senga and David Peterson are the one starters who will be optioned. Reed Garrett is the one member of the projected ’pen who will be optioned. Every of Edwin Diaz, A.J. Minter, Ryne Stanek, Jose Butto, Griffin Canning, Danny Young and Sean Reid-Foley is both out of choices or previous 5 years of MLB service.
That lack of flexibility is magnified when a participant within the lineup may have two to 4 days off however in all probability not a full IL stint. It’s additionally notable when a selected reliever or the reduction corps as a complete is overworked and the group want to add a recent arm to the combination. There might very effectively be some uncomfortable DFAs on the horizon for the Mets, although accidents or poor spring performances could make these choices simpler.
If the Mets are certainly completed, they’ll enter the 2025 season with the sport’s No. 2 payroll, trailing solely the reigning World Collection champs in Los Angeles. Stearns famous that he and proprietor Steve Cohen mapped out varied eventualities relating to their potential payroll early within the offseason, and the Mets have now landed towards the very best ranges the pair mentioned on the time. RosterResource projects the Mets for a $331M payroll, with $325M on their luxury-tax ledger.
