The New York Mets made the signing of left-handed reliever Justin Wilson official on Monday, and the 31-year-old southpaw appears to be exactly where he wants to be with Spring Training just a couple of weeks away.
Judging from what Wilson told the media (quotes via Kevin Kernan of the New York Post), Brodie Van Wagenen’s slew of moves to bolster this roster since he took over the Mets’ baseball operations in November clearly affected the lefty’s decision to come to Flushing.
“I had other offers on the table, but I really wanted to play for a contender,” Wilson told the press corps. “What Brodie has done, with the additions here, the core here, clearly the Mets are going to be a contender.”
Let’s run through Van Wagenen’s busy offseason once more, shall we?
The former CAA agent began his general managerial tenure with a doozy; trading away two of the Mets’ top prospects in Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn (as well as Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarzak, and Gerson Bautista) for second baseman Robinson Cano and 2018 American League saves leader, Edwin Diaz.
Van Wagenen then added a top-tier backstop in Wilson Ramos, multiple depth pieces in Keon Broxton, J.D. Davis, Luis Avilan, Hector Santiago, among others, signed the ultra-versatile and offensively-gifted Jed Lowrie, and brought Jeurys Familia back to give the Metsies two closer-level hurlers to effectively (we hope) leave opposing teams dead in the water after the seventh inning.
“Clearly, now the back end of the bullpen is in great shape. The starting rotation I would put up against any [rotation] in the league. You got the pitching part down and then [the] offense […]. There’s no reason why the Mets shouldn’t contend,” Wilson said. “I think we are going to have a great clubhouse, personality wise. My main goal is to be on a contender and have the opportunity to win.”
Adding the ingredients Van Wagenen has thus far to the simmering stew of solid arms in Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler, and Seth Lugo, to name a few, and the young, talented positional core of Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Amed Rosario, and Jeff McNeil has unquestionably improved this ball club — even without signing one of the big-ticket items that are out there in Bryce Harper or Manny Machado.
Whether contention is actually in the cards for the 2019 New York Mets will only be determined by how things shake out on the field. Here’s hoping Justin Wilson’s instincts about this team are in tune.
