One of the goals for David Stearns was to improve the Mets’ defense. And there are few center fielders in the game better than Harrison Bader when it comes to defense. Signing Bader allows the Mets to move Brandon Nimmo to left field. If Starling Marte returns to form, that gives the Mets a strong [...]
In the offseason before 2023, Brett Baty rocketed up prospect lists, finishing as high as No. 17 with Baseball Prospectus’ ranking. This caused some fans to want him to take over as the Mets’ starting third baseman. Then he had a very good Grapefruit League season, which caused even more fans to jump on the [...]
We heard right away once the offseason started that the Mets were interested in Luis Severino. And he was the first major player they signed under David Stearns. None of us were really sure how the offseason was going to play out. But if we put more weight on the Severino deal at the time, [...]
A lot of us thought that the Mets overpaid to get Francisco Lindor, sending out a non-insignificant package of players to acquire him and then extending him to a 10/$341 contract before he hit free agency, in a season where there were multiple top-shelf shortstops available. But Lindor has been tremendous as a Met. In [...]
Of all the major moves David Stearns has made this offseason – say with an AAV of $1.5 million or more – my favorite is the signing of Sean Manaea. While he doesn’t have the long-ago upside of Luis Severino, Manaea also has 81 starts since 2000, compared to 37 for Severino. And that’s with [...]
For the second time in three years, Jeff McNeil turned in a disappointing season in 2023. He posted a .108 ISO last year, compared to a .109 mark in 2001. And McNeil’s BABIP was .288 a season ago, compared to .280 in ’21. Lifetime, McNeil has a .140 ISO and a .321 BABIP, numbers that [...]
From 2014-2017, Jose Quintana posted four straight 4.0 or better fWAR seasons. Then, from 2018-2021, he recorded a combined total of 5.6 fWAR, with 3.5 of that coming in 2019 alone. Quintana then had a big bounceback season in 2022 (something the Mets are hoping Luis Severino can duplicate) with a 4.0 fWAR split between [...]
Most people see Pete Alonso hit 46 HR and drove in 118 runs and figure it was another great season. But his wRC+ - the most-advanced tool we have to rate offensive productivity – dropped 20 points, putting 2023 just a single point ahead of his 2020 season. And after posting 3.8 fWAR in 2022, [...]
This begins the 12th year we’ve done projections here at Mets360. These are important to me because people who say they “just knew” Player X was going to be good or bad after the fact drive me up the wall. You want to impress me? Share that knowledge before the season starts. Even with all [...]
Each year it’s a rush to get all of the projections in. And inevitably, after the year is over, you wonder why more weren’t done. It’s a vicious cycle. Anyway, the season starts for the Mets on Thursday and there’s still at least four players who deserve a projection. So, this piece will be a [...]
It’s hard to know what the upside for the 2023 Mets is without knowing what to expect from Kodai Senga. The good news is that on a team with Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, there’s no pressure on him to be an ace. The bad new is that Senga is essentially replacing Chris Bassitt, who [...]
Starling Marte showed no dropoff in the batter’s box in his first season with the Mets in 2022. After posting a 132 OPS+ in 2021, he recorded a 132 for the Mets last season. But his stolen base numbers fell off considerably, which we learned was in part playing thru groin injuries. And he went [...]