Compared to the 2020 New York Mets, the current group getting ready for 2021 in Port St. Lucie is much improved. One area that’s seen a major lift in expected production from top-to-bottom is the starting rotation. If we’re simply talking about the five hurlers expected to occupy the rotation at some point, the transformation this area of the roster has gone under in just a couple of months is rather impressive:

When also looking at the hurlers manning the sixth, seventh, and eighth spots in the rotation, the Mets finally appear able to withstand injuries over the course of a 162-game regular-season schedule.

New York entered the winter with a number of holes to fill prior to Opening Day, and they did a reasonably good job of trying to address each of them. However, one of the biggest and most glaring needs was the rotation. This area of the roster was decimated by injuries, opt-outs, and lackluster performances last year, which also led to a weakening of the bullpen because Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo were needed to plug immediate holes.

While the Mets had Jacob deGrom, David Peterson, and lots of question marks after that heading into the offseason, Alderson has seemingly filled out the rotation with the necessary depth to perform at a high level. A number of the team’s moves either carried direct or indirect implications for the rotation, but this type of focus isn’t necessarily something new for Alderson when looking back at his recent history in New York.

Pursuing Lots of Options

Three of the five players currently taking up spots in the Mets’ expected Opening Day rotation, according to Roster Resource, were either signed or acquired this winter: Marcus Stroman, Carlos Carrasco, and Taijuan Walker.

From the perspective of depth, New York also acquired the following hurlers: Joey Lucchesi, Jordan Yamamoto, Sean Reid-Foley, Sam McWilliams, Yennsy Diaz, and Jerad Eickhoff, among others.

That’s a lot of dudes, and these results ultimately came from an active winter of pursuing many others. The highest-profile hurler the Mets attempted to sign was Trevor Bauer, but there were many more on the radar. On various levels of progress in negotiations, New York also pursued James Paxton, Jake Arrieta, Corey Kluber, Jake Odorizzi, Rich Hill, Trevor Williams, Mike Foltynewicz, Garrett Richards, Anibal Sanchez, and Julio Teheran.

Considering the Mets experienced a less-than-stellar rotation performance during 2020 and had recently inherited deep pockets with the sale of the team to Steve Cohen, none of this is shocking. At certain points, though, it was interesting to see just how much of a priority the front office put on it, specifically when comparing the pursuits of George Springer and Bauer.

While the two situations were very different — signing a player in their 30s to a six-year deal (Springer) is much different than a three-year deal (Bauer) — it’s hard to ignore that the Mets were comfortable offering Bauer an annual average value of $30-plus million, but were unwilling to up their offer to $25 million per to potentially appear more attractive to Springer.

How Other Acquisitions Impact the Rotation

Without a doubt, two of the most impactful signings from this past winter will end up being shortstop Francisco Lindor and catcher James McCann. While both players are projected to be assets on offense, it’s their contributions on defense that will loom large.

Alderson mentioned at the start of the winter that improving the team defense needed to be a priority and these two acquisitions help raise the performance floor for that area of the squad. And even though they didn’t end up getting a natural center fielder to pencil into the lineup every day (yet), the signings of Albert Almora and Kevin Pillar show it’s something on the front office’s mind. Who knows, if the universal designated hitter somehow makes a comeback for 2021, maybe we’ll see the Mets turn around and make a move for Jackie Bradley Jr., as well.

The up-the-middle defense is a crucial aspect for all competitive teams, and New York has completely transformed that area of its defense by adding Lindor and McCann, along with adding more options in center to complement Brandon Nimmo, while Jeff McNeil is expected to play second base regularly.

Sandy Has Always Wanted a Top-Performing Starting Staff

During Alderson’s first stint with the organization, there was one thing many of us were sure of while suffering through the rebuild and leading up to the 2015 National League pennant-winning season: New York was aiming to have a rotation full of young, elite arms. DeGrom, Matt Harvey, and Steven Matz were already in the organization when Sandy was hired in October of 2010, but he doubled down on this by also acquiring Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard via trade.

Then, it was more about being patient and waiting for these guys to reach the big leagues. First, it was Harvey in 2012, then it was Wheeler in 2013, followed by deGrom in 2014 (and Rafael Montero, which obviously didn’t work out) before Syndergaard and Matz made their way to Flushing in 2015. The Mets’ rotation was among the league’s best from 2015-16 and 2018-19. In fact, when looking at cumulative fWAR, New York’s rotation ranked 11th or higher in baseball eight out of nine times between 2012 and 2019.

Obviously, Sandy had a significant influence on all these squads, even though he wasn’t around for the 2019 campaign. Now that he’s back, it’s clear he wants the rotation’s future performance to get back in line with what was being accomplished prior to 2020. We all knew that was necessary this past winter, and Alderson stayed true to what his recent goals were in Queens the last time he was calling the shots.