How David Stearns assembled the current Mets’ roster

As a GM/PoBO, part of your job is to bring guys into the organization. But another part of your job is to divvy up playing time, which means both promoting and demoting/cutting guys. It’s both easy and proper to congratulate David Stearns for signing Sean Manaea and Jose Iglesias. But we can’t just acknowledge the wins and disregard the others. That’s the kind of thinking that leads you to believe that Wilmer Flores was a great clutch hitter, because you focused exclusively on the successes and ignored everything else. Let’s not ignore everything else.

No one should expect executives to bat 1.000 with their moves. But what’s a good percentage? None of us know. One thing we can say for sure is that 56 players have appeared in a game so far for the Mets. If you grew up watching games in the 20th Century, that’s a lot of moves. The 1972 Mets used 34 players all season. But 56 isn’t all that unusual here in the 2020s. The Braves have used 53 players so far while the Marlins have used 61.

When you’re not a great team, you have to do a certain amount of throwing stuff up against a wall and seeing what sticks. And Stearns inherited a 75-win team. It was completely reasonable for him to have to sort thru a lot of trash to add some treasures to the mix. So, let’s take a look at some of the trash and treasures for Stearns this season.

First, let’s look at the guys who were in the majors last year for the Mets who’ve seen time for the club this season:

Pete Alonso, Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, Jose Butto, Edwin Diaz, Reed Garrett, Grant Hartwig, Francisco Lindor, Joey Lucchesi, Starling Marte, Jeff McNeil, Tylor Megill, Omar Narvaez, Tomas Nido, Brandon Nimmo, Adam Ottavino, David Peterson, Jose Quintana, Brooks Raley, Sean Reid-Foley, Kodai Senga, Drew Smith, DJ Stewart, Mark Vientos and Josh Walker.

That’s 25 guys. And Stearns has completely moved on from three of those in Narvaez, Nido and Walker. Four more are on the IL in Raley, Reid-Foley, Senga and Smith. And five are in the minors – Baty, Hartwig, Lucchesi, Megill and Stewart. Which leaves 13 on the MLB roster.

Now let’s look at the guys who were in the farm system last year but who hadn’t made their MLB debut prior to Stearns’ arrival:

Tyler Jay, Dedniel Nunez, Eric Orze and Christian Scott.

Ideally, you’d have a few more in this grouping. But Nunez has been a definite asset and Scott has a load of promise, so it’s not like it’s been a complete washout, even with just one on the roster here in late August. Now let’s look at the players Stearns imported that were on the Opening Day roster – or were promoted as soon as they were ready:

Harrison Bader, Jake Diekman, Adrian Houser, Jorge Lopez, Manaea, J.D. Martinez, Yohan Ramirez, Luis Severino, Zack Short, Tyrone Taylor, Michael Tonkin and Joey Wendle.

That’s 12 players, seven of which are no longer in the organization. Manaea’s been a home run, Martinez has been a double off the wall, Severino has been a bloop double, Taylor’s been a seeing-eye single and Bader’s been an infield hit. Given the constraints of no one with a long-term deal, five hits isn’t bad. And it’s not hard to squint and seeing a couple of others working out with better circumstances.

Next, let’s create a group of guys who were brought in to be depth but who were parked in the minors at the start of the season:

Ben Gamel, Iglesias, Cole Sulser and Danny Young.

Iglesias and Young are on the roster in late August and will finish the year with the club. Gamel was fine when needed and was quickly scooped up by the Astros when there was no longer a spot for him in Queens. That’s outstanding. The only thing you can quibble with is not having Iglesias start the year in the majors instead of either Short or Wendle.

Finally, let’s look at the mid-season additions:

Ty Adcock, Paul Blackburn, Huascar Brazoban, Matt Festa, Joe Hudson, Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek, Julio Teheran, Luis Torrens, Jesse Winker and Alex Young.

That’s seven trades and four picked up off waivers or as a free agent – Adcock, Festa, Teheran and Young – and five currently on the roster. Maton has been a strong addition and several others have been at least useful. And we should give Torrens extra credit for getting both Narvaez and Nido off the team. The only dud was Teheran, who should have never been on the radar in the first place and it was criminal how they jumped thru hoops to get him only to watch him predictably stink. And done so they didn’t promote Butto.

Here’s how the current 26-man roster shakes out

13 – MLB holdovers from previous regime
1 – Inherited farm system guy
5 – Offseason acquisitions for MLB roster
2 – Offseason depth acquisitions
5 – Midseason acquisitions

If we were to do this same exercise next year on this date, the hope is that there would be more players in the first two categories. Shoot, let’s take a look at what it might be like:

Holdovers – Alvarez, Blackburn, Brazoban, Butto, Diaz, Garrett, Iglesias, Lindor, Marte, Maton, McNeil, Nimmo, Nunez, Peterson, Raley, Reid-Foley, Scott, Senga, Taylor, Torrens, Vientos and D. Young – that’s 22, a potential 9-player improvement from 2024.

The hope is that as you progress, you’ve built up a big enough of base of good players that you need to rely less on catching lightning in a bottle from dumpster diving in its various forms. If that 22-player group listed above was on the Opening Day roster in 2025, the Mets would need to add a 1B/3B – depending on where Vientos plays – 2 OF and a DH. And if they want to go with a 6-man rotation from the jump, they’d have to eliminate one of the relievers and add a SP.