These past two weeks have been tough for Mets fans. Two weeks ago we learned that that both Jeremy Hefner and Jenrry Mejia were not going to be pitching again this season. This past week, we found out that Matt Harvey, the most exciting story this season, went down with a torn UCL. Harvey’s future is uncertain: He could try to go the Adam Wainwright route and rehabilitate the injury, or he could go straight to Tommy John surgery.
On Saturday, fellow Mets360 writer David Groveman wrote a piece outlining the possible free- agent pitchers the Mets could bring in to fill out the rotation. The Mets will probably need to bring in some quality arms, but Sandy Alderson should also focus on some offensive upgrades. The Mets were supposed to be competitive in 2014, however even without Harvey, a stronger offense should still be part of the plan for a multitude of reasons.
Although the projected 2014 free-agent class is weak compared to free agents in years past, due to an increase in teams signing their young stars to contract extensions, it’s still better than what’s to come. This year’s free-agent class includes high quality outfielders such as Jacoby Ellsbury, Curtis Granderson, and Shin-Soo Choo — all of whom the Mets should consider bringing in as upgrades.
These players may not be considered cream-of-the-crop MVP type players, but they’re still very useful. When you look at the 2015 free-agent class, it’s pretty spare. Hanley Ramirez is likely to be a free agent in 2015, however the Dodgers are probably going to lock him up. After Ramirez, the next best player is Brett Gardner, who’s good but just not that exciting.
On the other hand, the Mets don’t necessarily have to add talent through free agency; they could always add talent through a trade. They could cash in some of their top pitching prospects — such as Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard — for a premiere bat. Then again, we just learned how easy it is to blow through pitchers. Alderson should keep the depth of pitching talent, and add talent through free agency.
The 2014 season does not revolve around Harvey; it takes a team of quality players to make a playoff run. Deciding not to make moves because one player is likely to be out for the whole season is pretty foolish considering it will be a long time before quality free agents will hit the market.
I like the mets chances if they get an OF (Choo would be my target), a second OF who can play 1B (Corey Hart) and see if they can get bullpen pieces. I would also try Ike Davis in the OF like he did for team USA to improve our team versatility (or maybe a reliever/pinch hitter).
A rotation Starting with Wheeler, Niese, Gee, Mejia, with possibly Harvey returning, Degrom, Syndergaard or Montero has ample depth and talent.
Our Pen might need some FA veteran help but starting with great arms in Familia, Black and Parnell, a long man/6th starter in torres, along with camp competition with Rice, Carson, Edgin, FA
Lineup
My LF competition would be between Brown, Corey Vaughn, Puello, or Corey Hart
My SS competition between Quintinilla, Tejada (unless a better option becomes available via trade)
Choo, Murphy, Wright, Brown, d’Arnoud, Davis, Lagares, Tejada lacks great power, but should be good at getting on base.
Bench
Hart, Recker, Satin, Turner, Young has speed, has gotten big hits and postion flexibility.
Davis played the outfield for USA? And, why did they put Duda out there but never Davis?
Any thought as to why every starting pitcher(except Wheeler)has had an arm injury? The mets offense didn’t score runs for Harvey so even if the pitching is adequate the offense still can use an upgrade, What was the Mets record when Harvey started? Just curious. How many games did the bull pen not hold a lead? I think the bull pen ERA was near the bottom this year. If the Mets can solve their bull pen woes the team has a chance at playing 500 or better.
The Mets need to upgrade four offensive positions. Right field, left field, first base and shortstop. There is nobody in their system ready to fill these positions and have an impact on 2014. The recent injuries to the pitching has temporarily thinned the pitching corp. Trading a pitcher would be high risk because of that. It appears these four positions could be filled via free agency this winter. There is no reason that the Mets should not be a .500+ team in 2014 with these upgrades, even if it means having a rookie as a 5th starter.
I expect the Mets to pursue Choo aggressively for baseball and financial reasons. From a baseball standpoint, Choo has a career triple slash of .288/.387/.465 and has been consistently in that range for the past 4-5 years. He’s a left-handed hitter that plays a corner outfield position, both of which the Mets will need in the near future.
From a financial standpoint, he’s not projected to be as expensive as Jacoby Elsbury (although both are represented by Scott Boras so you never know.) Also, the fact that Choo is one of two Koreans in baseball is going to make him a draw in Flushing. Andrew Keh of The New York Times wrote a column when the Reds came to Citi Field in May. He wrote about how his family growing up and many other Koreans would fill up Shea Stadium to watch Chan-Ho Park pitching against the Mets. Flushing is home to the largest Korean community in the New York area and having a marquee attraction on the home team to an untapped fan base located within 30 minutes of the ballpark is not lost on Alderson. He seems to be aware of this. Flushing is home to a large Chinese community as well and in 2011 the Mets acquired Chin-Lung Hu and unlike other marginal players, the Mets actually had a press conference to announce his acquisition. I would expect the same or more for Choo since he’s an established player and, unlike Hu, makes sense for baseball reasons too.
I just don’t get the obsession with Choo. He is the sabremetricians wet dream and vastly overrated. He gets caught stealing almost 1/2 of his attempts, which would be ok if it was once or twice a year, but he’s a 20 steal, 15 cs guy. He doesn’t score runs for all h is 400 OBP. So there is a problem on the bases.
What we have right now, is as good as he is and he is CERTAINLY not worth the 7-10 mil/yr that he will get.
The only stats that matter are RS and RBI.
Hate to break it to you, but Choo is going to get more money than that.
And if you think that Runs is one of the two stats that matter, you should absolutely love Choo, as he’s second in the NL in Runs.
Please oh please tell me the guy in the Mets system, it doesn’t even have to be an Outfielder(but not named Wright), who can hit .280-.290 with an OBP near .400 and an OPS north of .800.
Choo as of today has an OBP 100 points more than Young. He would lead the Mets in Home runs with 19 in the lead off spot. He would be second in slugging right behind David Wright. He has twice as many walks with only 60 more at bats than Young. He has only played 10 more games than Young but has outscored him by 30 runs. With 50 extra base hits Choo would be leading the Mets in that category. His 140 hits would place him second behind Murphy who has 155 hits in 60 more at bats. With Choo leading off and Murphy batting second the Mets would have a much better chance at increasing their run production at the top of the order. One last thing Choo is only 31. Maybe 15 million for 4 years?
Now add Ellsbury to LF and leadoff, move Choo to 3rd and RF (where he won’t need to steal) and Wright in the cleanup spot and you are looking at 125 RBI’s and a potent enough offense and defense to match up nicely with their fine young pitching.
Now that would be money well spent! Your starters move up one spot and add any of the youngsters to the back end of the rotation. Stop wasting money on reclamation projects and apply your savings to the free agents your signing.