Isn’t it amazing how quickly October has turned to November, and now November turns to December? Believe it or not, just one week from today, the 2010 Winter Meetings will commence in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. and run from December 6-9.
By then, we’ll know whether Pedro Feliciano will still be toiling in our bullpen in 2011, or if we need to add a lefty specialist to our very long offseason shopping list.
Using the updated 40 Man Roster posted by Hojo’s Mojo this morning as a guide, I tried to create a hypothetical 25 man roster that I filled with those players who are a virtual lock to be on the Opening Day Roster, and seeing how many spots we still need to fill.
Lets begin with starting pitching and see how many of those 12 spots we can fill.
1. Mike Pelfrey
2. R.A. Dickey
3.
4. Jon Niese*
5. Dillon Gee
Closer – Frankie Rodriguez
Setup – Bobby Parnell
Middle – Ryota Igarashi
Middle – Pat Misch*
Long – Oliver Perez*
RH – Manny Acosta
LH – Pedro Feliciano*
At the very least, what the Mets don’t have right now is a fifth starter who they can slot behind Pelfrey and Dickey, preferably a a second southpaw.
The Mets should have a solid end game with Parnell and K-Rod, but if they have to carry Perez again or fail to bring back Feliciano, things can get pretty dicey for us next season.
In an ideal situation, the Mets should sign a left handed starter, a Takahashi type long reliever and spot starter, and upgrade one of their short reliever spots.
That leaves 13 spots for our starting lineup and bench.
1B – Ike Davis
2B – Luis Castillo
SS – Jose Reyes
3B – David Wright
C – Josh Thole
LF – Jason Bay
CF – Carlos Beltran
RF – Angel Pagan
1/3 – Daniel Murphy
2/S – Ruben Tejada
OF4 – Lucas Duda
OF5 –
C –
The only players who are virtually a lock to return are Ike, Wright, Pagan, Bay and Thole. Otherwise all bets are off. As it stands now the Mets definitely need a backup catcher and a defensive minded fifth outfielder who can get on base and steal bases too.
Tejada could start the season in the minors if Murphy wins the second base job sending Castillo to the bench or out on the sidewalk. Justin Turner could factor into the equation too with a big spring.
The outfield configuration, particularly Pagan and Beltran, get talked about a lot, but regardless of what some say, I’m betting they will both be back next season.
Jose Reyes could get traded, but again I seriously doubt it.
I’m thinking that for most of this week, Alderson, Depo and J.P. are probably scouring through pages and pages of reports on available mid level starters and backup catchers. I wouldn’t be surprised if we fill one or both of those spots before the first week of December is over.
