Brodie Van Wagenen’s first off-season as the Mets’ GM proved eventful (to say the least) and provided no shortage of head-scratchers as his roster moves appeared to many as being questionable in terms of asset valuation and strangely redundant.
While injuries prevented the overlap in certain positions from resulting in what could have been a roster jam, one still has to wonder what the thinking was behind the amassing of so many candidates for second base, third base, and left field when the possibility of finding sufficient playing time for each seemed remote at best.
Yes, a case can be made that injuries are inevitable and yes, platooning and spot-starting are legitimate strategies in management (witness the legacy of Earl Weaver), yet were it not for essentially season-ending injuries to Dominic Smith, Jed Lowrie, and Yoenis Cespedes along with the loss of Cano for a significant piece of time, it is unlikely that J.D. Davis would have received the opportunity he did to emerge as a legitimate bat.
Consider it a fortunate side-effect of what appears more and more to be a flawed approach to roster design and one that can likely be attributed to BVW’s pedigree as a player agent instead of one who came up through the ranks of a typical MLB organizaiton.
So we find ourselves at season’s end contemplating the things that went wrong, savoring what went right (praise be to Polar Bears), and wondering how best to address the shortcomings that prevented what could clearly have been a playoff team from fully realizing its potential. The obvious place to start would be finding some way to fix the record-setting awfulness of the back end of the bullpen, but much of that will likely rest on the shoulders of the coaching staff rather than the front office.
The real question now is just how will the seeming reincarnation of “Trader Jack” McKeon that currently occupies the Citi Field executive suite best utilize the chips he has to bring a winner to Flushing and shake a team label of “underachiever?”
A month or so ago I wrote a piece suggesting that in light of the present state of the Met roster heading into 2020, J.D. Davis was profiling as a primary trade chip rather than as an integral part of the team’s core going forward. The response from the MMO faithful was, shall we say, largely in disagreement. A few commenters were even what some would term “vociferous” in their refutation of my thesis, not to mention (to put it politely), somewhat disparaging in their assessment of my perspicacity. No matter – everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
Regardless, even though Mickey Callaway recently stated that Davis was “penciled in” to left field for the upcoming season (suggesting that one could infer that the Mick was also penciling himself in as manager despite the looming possibility of his replacement by someone with a better grip on sensible substitutions and in-game strategy), it is clearly conceivable that before opening day of next season arrives we will be looking at a team sans Davis if there is a reasonable expectation of Cespedes being available to provide a degree of value for his $29.5 million salary.
Let’s get something straight – I’m all in favor of the Mets retaining the services of J.D. Davis. If you choose to interpret this as a mea culpa to those who suggested that I possess an intellect in keeping with a standard toilet brush, so be it. My point has always been that if one were managing the Met roster with the expectation that all possible components would be available, you could do worse than trying to use a what could translate as a highly desirable trade chip (i.e. a highly valuable asset) to land players from another organization to fill a glaring hole and/or restock a depleted farm system.
As they say, “It takes money to make money.” If the Mets retain Davis and go into spring training with both a healthy Cespedes and J.D., I won’t be disappointed. I’ll just wonder where the at-bats and (in the event Davis is slotted in at third) the defense will come from if the team is faced will carrying both on the roster simultaneously.
Now, the obvious comeback to this concern would be to point out that a modicum of patience would likely serve to put these concerns to rest as Cespedes will almost certainly be gone after next year and that Davis’ defense could improve with a degree of dedication. Still, one has to ponder whether or not this represents the optimal use of the resources the Mets have going into the next few seasons.
The very things that make Davis such a no-brainer to retain are the same things that make him a hugely valuable trade asset. A young, cheap middle-of-the-order hitter with mid-line power, the ability to play multiple positions (albeit as a defensive compromise), who has demonstrated the ability to hit .300 along with a clear enthusiasm for the game is someone to desired, right?
Right.
Which is exactly why he could fetch an equally valuable component as a trade return.
Lest we forget, Zack Wheeler’s future with the team is in question. Personally, I’d have no hesitation in offering him an extension but my opinion matters as much to the Met front office as it does to much of the MMO readership. If he’s allowed to walk with a qualifying offer, the team will look to replace him from one of three places, these being the bullpen, with Seth Lugo being the best choice due to his established dominance over hitters and professed desire to start, the free agent market (where Wheeler himself would likely be the best available starter), and the trade market where it would probably take an asset like Davis to obtain a proven starter.
With the farm system largely stripped of upper level talent by virtue of the deals that netted Cano, Diaz, and Stroman, BVW will go into the off-season with Davis and Smith as his primary trade chips. I, for one, am praying that we don’t witness the departure of the likes of Ronny Mauricio, Brett Baty, Andres Gimenez, Matthew Allan, Thomas Szapucki, or Francisco Alvarez if possible, and if we do, that we get someone damn good in return.
This is a team that is clearly close to dominance and one that would appear to only need some judicious tweaks to rise to the level of play required to land a post-season berth with regularity. Could installing Joe Maddon on the bench be one of those tweaks? Guess that’s a question for another column.
