Eppler: Mets Would Be Comfortable With Marte in Center

Mets general manager Billy Eppler was a guest on The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman recently to talk about the important upcoming free agent class for New York. There’s no doubt that Eppler will have his hands full this offseason with the Mets having up to 14 free agents including key contributors Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Díaz, and Jacob deGrom.

You could argue that Nimmo is the Mets’ most important free agent this offseason and certainly their top position player that will hit the open market. Nimmo isn’t just the Mets’ top position player to hit free agency, but he’s also clearly the top outfielder aside from Aaron Judge. That means the Mets’ outfield options were a hot topic on the podcast.

“Can Starling (Marte) still play center field? We believe he can and that opens up some optionality for how we ultimately fill out that outfield,” Eppler said.

Starling Marte played right field 116 times for the Mets in 2022 after having never played there before in the big leagues. It was also the first season in Marte’s career that he didn’t start a game in center field.

“That said, it’s not a closed case by any stretch of the imagination. Brandon (Nimmo) knows how we feel and we know how he feels too, perhaps something can be accomplished there, but we do have the ability to slide Marte over to center,” Eppler said.

Marte, 34, had a fantastic first season with the Mets hitting .292/.347/.468 with 24 doubles, five triples, 16 home runs, and 63 RBIs in 118 games. He stole only 18 bases and was caught stealing nine times a year after stealing 47 bases with only five caught stealing. The 136 wRC+ he posted this year was a career-high, though his negative BsR and so-so defense factored in had him at 3.0 fWAR, down from his monster 5.5 fWAR season in 2021.

The biggest issue for Marte during the 2022 season was his being 100% when he was on the field and missing the final stretch of the season. Marte missed a month at the end of the regular season after getting hit by a pitch that broke the middle finger on his right hand. He did return from that injury to play in the Wild Card Series.

However, the quad injury Marte suffered early in the season, clearly changed his game as a base stealer and how much ground he could cover in the outfield. For the first time since his debut season in 2016 Marte was a negative defender by outs above average at -2 in 2022. The more detailed outlook shows that he had difficulty moving laterally and coming in on balls, receiving negative scores in each area. Marte’s overall issue on defense was likely due to a career-low 28.0 ft/s sprint speed that I’m sure the lingering quad issue played a role in.

With the possibility of moving Marte to center, let’s take a quick look at what the corner outfield market looks like after Judge. Joc Pederson, David Peralta, Trey Mancini, Joey Gallo, Andrew Benintendi, Michael Brantley, and Mitch Haniger lead the group that also features Ben Gamel, Adam Duvall, Corey Dickerson, Robbie Grossman, and Tyler Naquin.

Given the free agent market and the importance of Nimmo in center field and at the plate, the best option would likely be to re-sign Brandon and keep Marte in right field.