A few fringe major leaguers were removed from the Mets 40 man roster on Thursday. Not a single tear was shed onto my iPhone when I read that Mike Baxter, Robert Carson, Sean Henn, and Greg Burke were no longer Mets. No one can argue that the current roster of the New York Mets was the one taking us to the promised land.
These last few lean years were the holdover years. Sandy needed time to rebuild the farm and let some bloated contracts expire. Ownership needed time to free up money to use in free agency. The lean years were painful and miserable. Save a few bright spots like a Cy Young winner, the emergence of a true all star power pitcher, and David Wright doing David Wright things, the lean years have left nothing much to cheer for in the late summer months.
Now the promise of investing in and building the next great Mets team awaits. We have a nice depth of pitching in the system right now. Even with Matt Harvey out until 2015, there are others waiting in the wings and developing their craft in hopes of taking the mound at Citi one day soon. Noah Syndergaard, Rafael Montero are the names you hear most often and the most likely to see big league time soon. While no one should be untouchable, its nice to see a great depth of pitching building in the Mets system again. It has been said time and again that pitching wins championships. Certainly the shock and disappointment over Harvey’s UCL tear showed us that you can never have enough pitching in your system.
As far as the majority of the roster goes, there is now the promise of re-investing the money coming off the books back into the many many holes in our lineup. If this promise turns out to be as empty as the stands on a weeknight in Septmeber, then shame on us for believing their lies yet again. No one can speak for what the front office is actually thinking this offseason, but we are all well aware of their thrifty ideologies. They have had time to evaluate what we have, and I personally am hoping for “The Purge” to continue.
Ike Davis closes eyes” src=”https://metsmerizedonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ike-davis-swing-and-a-miss.jpg” width=”352″ height=”234″ />Can we afford another season of Ike Davis and Lucas Duda fighting to be the best mediocre first basemen in the league? Perhaps. Can we stomach it? If things don’t change for the better for at least one of them, probably not. International 1B mega-prospect Jose Abreu has signed a nice deal with the White Sox. This deal was no doubt aided by the outstanding debuts of fellow Cubans Yoenis Cespedes and Yasiel Puig.
While many wanted to see the Mets land Abreu, many say he projects to be no better than Ike Davis at his best. Is that really our biggest deficiency? In my opinion, there are too many others to worry about. Among other things we also need a shortstop, a backup catcher, two outfielders if they end up keeping Juan Lagares in CF, and a starting pitcher to eat the innings that Harvey won’t be able to next year.
As the weeks wear on we will likely see more fringe players that no longer serve a purpose dropped in favor of bringing in mid-level talent. Kirk Niewenhuis and Jordany Valdespin will likely see the door. Should the Mets sign Shin-Soo Choo? Will they target Nelson Cruz and Jhonny Peralta? As long as we continue to drop dead weight and bring in talent that will actually help the team, I and many others are on board.
No one on the current roster should be safe from trade talks except David Wright. Case in point: if Daniel Murphy can bring in something of value, then he should be traded. This team hasn’t given you anything but 5 straight losing seasons. We don’t owe them anything.
This is the most important offseason in years for the Mets. If they fail to act, they will lose what little trust they have left in the fan base. If they begin the process of a roster overhaul, however, there is a chance that something special may begin to happen in Queens. Will the highest paid front office in baseball make the right moves? We can only hope.
One thing is for certain, this is by no means an overnight process. This is going to be a work in progress straight through spring training and right into the season. It will get downright exhausting waiting for the moves that go down this winter. But when April rolls back around, I’ll be watching every game. Hopefully the majority of them will be wins for a change.
Let’s Go Mets.
