The New York Mets certainly have plenty of holes to fill this offseason and now it seems they may entertain bringing in a veteran stop-gap at first base.
Young first baseman Dominic Smith struggled offensively and defensively in his very brief major league experience in 2017 and could find himself starting 2018 in the minors according to Marc Carig of Newsday.
Mike Puma of the New York Post also suggests that the Mets are expected to look at free agents that can play first base and the outfield such as Logan Morrison, Adam Lind and former Met Jay Bruce.
It’s not the first time this offseason that Morrison’s name has come up involving the Mets already. Jim Duquette of MLB Network and John Harper of the New York Daily News predicted that the Mets would sign Morrison after his big year for the Seattle Mariners.
Smith, 22, hit only .198/.262/.395 with six doubles, nine home runs, 26 RBI and 49 strikeouts in 183 major league plate appearances last year after posting an .905 OPS in the minors earlier in the year.
The bigger surprise was how brutal Smith was defensively at first base with -7 defensive runs saved in just 378 innings. As a whole, albeit in a small sample size, Smith posted a -1.2 WAR in his first major league action.
Bruce, reportedly asking for five years, $80-90 million contract to start this offseason, played 12 games at first base in 2017 combined between the Mets and the Cleveland Indians. The veteran slashed .254/.324/508 with a career-high 36 home runs and also drove in 101 runs.
