An MMO Fan Shot by Chuck Banker
What would the Mets look like if we spent $120 million in 2014?
Okay, so we made some waves, singing Curtis Granderson, Chris Young and Bartolo Colon. But were they the right moves? Were they the best moves? What if we spent more?
I love the Granderson signing, very pumped about that… I am confident he will have a solid year and, as importantly, bring some winning experience to a team desperately missing that kind of leadership. I also like the Bartolo Colon signing, especially coming off a fabulous year and bringing more of those intangibles to a pitching staff that is sorely in need of some winning experience.
Chris Young is not a bad signing, but it just doesn’t make much sense as a one-year maneuver when there is nobody behind him. We could have done better here. I like him a lot as a 4th outfielder – just not at the price we paid.
We came into the offseason with multiple holes and after filling a couple of them, multiple questions still remain. We need to stop with this never-ending “building towards next year” philosophy that has us moving the goalposts each new season.
So, what could we have done? And is it too late?
As I said earlier, Granderson and Colon were solid moves, and they will be worthy additions. But we could have signed Nelson Cruz for our other outfield spot at the same price as Curtis, but for three years at $15MM per instead of four. By the way, it’s not too late – – I know we have Chris Young, but he is just a better version of Eric Young only a lot more costly.
We could have had Grant Balfour ( 2 years at $7MM per) examined the day after the Orioles changed their mind, but we sat around and waited until it was too late – a common ailment of ours.
We could have signed Stephen Drew (3 years at $11 per) – – I don’t understand all the noise. He is there waiting for us and has been for months. Again, we show no love to a major upgrade on the field, at the plate, and in the clubhouse.
The other obvious issue remains first base, and we have nothing but multiple question marks with Ike Davis, Lucas Duda and Josh Satin – – oy vay! We need a glove and bat here, a big bat, and two of these three guys have no business in the big leagues. Probably why all three logged time in Las Vegas,in 2013. So, the question we have all considered is whether Ike deserves that shot or whether he should be banished to the desert with Duda.
Given the circumstances, I would say our best play is to get Wilmer Flores into the first base battle. Let’s see how they do in spring training and play one or both.
However, if we would have increased payroll to a reasonable $120 million, our lineup could have been quite formidable in defense of our promising pitching.
- 1B – Ike Davis, Wilmer Flores
- 2B – Daniel Murphy
- SS – Stephen Drew
- 3B – David Wright
- C – Travis d’Arnaud
- LF – Curtis Granderson
- CF – Juan Lagares
- RF – Nelson Cruz
- Bench – Anthony Recker, Ruben Tejada, Josh Satin, Chris Young, Eric Young
Our starting pitching, even without Harvey, is pretty exciting with lots of young depth and upside. Balfour probably would have helped our bullpen considerably more than Farnsworth or Valverde, but given our young bullpen options I believe we will still be fine.
In my opinion, our current pitching coupled with the above lineup, challenges for the NL East division title and at the very least wins a wild card this season. How long has that been?
So, what do we do now? Is it too late?
I don’t think so. We clearly don’t have the guts to add Cruz, who would be a bonanza at today’s going rate, but we can keep our fingers crossed with CY knowing we have little behind him. Or, we stick CY in center instead of Lagares, and sign Cruz for a brand new outfield – – now that would be gutsy.
Either way, we need to recognize that we are in desperate need of a major league SS and that Tejada is not the answer if we want to win now. We have two choices – the simple answer is to sign Stephen Drew, or else we need to step up and make a trade for one of the young studs from Arizona, which will probably cost us Montero.
We are not as far away as you think. Let’s step up, make 2014 a playoff year, and become a perennial contender when Matt Harvey returns.
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This Fan Shot was contributed by Chuck Banker. Have something you want to say about the Mets? Share your opinions with over 25,000 Mets fans who read this site daily. Send your Fan Shot to [email protected]. Or ask us about becoming a regular contributor.
