To say it’s been a busy winter for Mets general manager Billy Eppler and his front office group would be an understatement. The club ended the season with 13 free agents and several holes to fill. The holes were filled and then some and Eppler and company worked through the night making a handful of late-night transactions in December.
One of those late-night moves famously did not pan out. Carlos Correa ended up right back where he started with the Minnesota Twins instead of on the Mets. It was a move made with the future in mind so it doesn’t affect the 2023 projections a whole lot, but still, it leaves some questions with the lineup.
Now, in the waning days of winter, the Mets have been negotiating with key pieces of their young core, signing first baseman Pete Alonso to a record one-year contract to avoid arbitration, locking up catcher Tomas Nido through his remaining arbitration years and extending All-Star second baseman and NL batting champ Jeff McNeil to a four-year contract last week.
Spring training invites have been announced and the roster is more or less set. The offseason is quickly coming to an end, so let’s take a look at how the Mets did and hand out some grades.
Losses: RHP Jacob deGrom, RHP Chris Bassitt, RHP Taijuan Walker, RHP Trevor Williams
Additions: RHP Justin Verlander, RHP Kodai Senga, LHP Jose Quintana
Retained: RHP Carlos Carrasco
No one can ever truly take the place of deGrom, who left the Mets for the Texas Rangers before the team that drafted him could even make a final offer. But shortly after he broke the hearts of Mets fans the club signed a future hall-of-famer in Verlander. The three-time AL Cy Young Award winner and 2011 MVP will be entering his age-40 season but he hasn’t shown many indications of decline. His winning pedigree is invaluable and if he competes with Max Scherzer, as the two did back in their Detroit Tigers days, it will make the rotation even better.
Quintana was signed during the winter meetings to give the Mets a left-handed veteran on the back end and picked up the option on another veteran back-end starter in Carlos Carrasco. The big acquisition in the middle was Japanese righty Kodai Senga.
But no one truly knows how Senga will adapt to playing in North America, which is Quintana and Carrasco are so important to the overall starting depth. Right-hander Tylor Megill and left-hander David Peterson are around in case the Mets decide they want to use a six-man rotation to get Senga acclimated or to take starts in case of injuries.
The Mets played this perfectly. There is depth, leadership, a couple of fireballers and some guys who know how to mix pitches, exploit hitters and get outs, even if they aren’t flashy about it. Age is a concern with so many pitchers over 30, but Megill and Peterson provide plenty of insurance.
Losses: Williams, RHP Trevor May, RHP Seth Lugo, LHP Joely Rodriguez, RHP Mychal Givens
Additions: LHP Brooks Raley, RHP David Robertson, right-hander Elieser Hernandez, right-hander Zach Greene, RHP Jeff Brigham, LHP Stephen Ridings
Retained: RHP Adam Ottavino, RHP Edwin Diaz, LHP Joey Lucchesi, RHP Tommy Hunter
The biggest bullpen move of the winter was the first. The Mets signed Edwin Diaz to a five-year contract – a record of its kind for a reliever – shortly after the conclusion of the World Series. Diaz was arguably the best closer in baseball last season and the Mets didn’t want him going anywhere. A five-year deal for a reliever is risky, but the Mets value him as one of the faces of the franchise.
The club put a great deal of emphasis on roster flexibility when it came to the bullpen, using the waiver wire and the Rule 5 draft to grab cost-efficient arms with options. But they did smartly supplement that with a proven high-leverage stopper in David Robertson and added an established left-hander in Raley. They also brought back Ottavino, who was a stalwart down the stretch for the Mets in 2022.
They also have Lucchesi, a swingman, making his return from Tommy John surgery and Megill and Peterson will factor into the bullpen plans in some capacity as well.
The 2023 bullpen looks a lot like the 2023 bullpen with a few more left-handed options. That bullpen had the 10th-best ERA in baseball (3.55 ERA) but it wasn’t without its struggles, especially late in the season.
Running the same bullpen back isn’t terrible, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Mets make some upgrades throughout the season.
Additions: C Omar Narvaez, reserve OF Tommy Pham
This is where the Mets are really running it back. The roster construction will be debated all season with the biggest question being whether or not the Mets need more power in the lineup.
Eppler likes athletes up and down the lineup who can get on base and hit for contact. The GM put together a lineup full of them last season and just about everyone from that lineup will return in 2023. That’s not bad, considering the Mets did have the third-best OPS+ last season (116). The lineup produced runs, but it also fizzled late in the season.
Correa wouldn’t necessarily have added a ton of home runs but he would have been a long-term solution at third base, a position the Mets have struggled to fill since David Wright’s injuries took him out of the game. Offensively, he would have been an upgrade over Eduardo Escobar. However, the Mets are still in good shape with Escobar lower in the order.
Catchers Narvaez and Nido hit well in from the No. 9 spot enough but aren’t exactly sluggers. Francisco Alvarez, one of the top prospects in baseball, could be a solution to the slugging problem but it’s unclear what his workload will be like next season. He could start the season in Triple-A.
Pham and DH Darin Ruf will see time against left-handers if the 21-year-old Alvarez isn’t used as a DH. If Ruf doesn’t bounce back, then the Mets might have to go in another direction to get production against lefties.
Eppler likes hitters who can beat pitchers in a myriad of ways. This Mets lineup can do that, but will it be enough in a division that features the homer-heavy Atlanta braves?
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