2024 Mets Superlatives
🎧 Mets Fix Podcast: Episode 45
☀️ Good Morning:
As we hit the sweet spot between the end of the 2024 season and the onset of Hot Stove season, let’s take a look back at an amazing year.
In our latest podcast, Blake and Peter run through the highlights of a magical Mets season while offering a preview of what’s ahead.
Make sure you’re subscribed to the Mets Fix Podcast on your favorite platform (Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud).
✈️ HAPPENING NOW: Fire up the engines, Steve Cohen plans to travel to Southern California next week to meet with Juan Soto and Scott Boras, as first reported by Mike Puma.
Boras clients: Beyond Soto, Cohen has plenty of reason to meet with Boras, the super-agent who has been buoyed by the emergence of an owner willing to spend jaw-dropping amounts to field a competitive baseball team. Boras represents several other potential offseason targets, including Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell and Alex Bregman, not to mention Pete Alonso.
You can add Mr. OMG, himself, Jose Iglesias to that list, according to Newsday. “We truly have the first MLB two-way player,” Boras quipped.
Acumen: Steve Cohen knows how to conduct a business meeting.
via The Athletic:
“Those who have dealt with [Cohen] in negotiations and job meetings say Cohen can sniff out sincerity. He’s mindful of not wanting to be used. If money and winning matter most to Soto, then authenticity shouldn’t be an issue; the Mets can check those boxes. Also, Cohen takes a skillful approach to these meetings, as shown last year through his encounters with Yoshinobu Yamamoto. It didn’t work out because Yamamoto ultimately picked the Los Angeles Dodgers, but Cohen tried to get the little things right while taking a big swing at someone he really wanted.”
👉 POSITIONAL STRENGTH: The Mets have several positional prospects with undefined positions that they could use to their advantage this offseason.
❶ The hot corner: One path David Stearns could could take this winter is to secure a top-flight third baseman (i.e. Alex Bregman), moving Mark Vientos to first base and/or DH.
While the team hasn’t given any indication they plan on doing this, it would offer them the potential to improve defensively at third, while recovering lost production at first and/or DH, assuming the 2024 incumbents at those positions don’t return.
❷ What about Garrett Crochet? White Sox general manager Chris Getz didn’t pull any punches in announcing what he is looking for in a potential trade for the 25-year-old right-hander:
“We are focusing on position player return,” Getz told Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. “That is our primary focus in any trade talks. The right players have to be there. We can’t force anything. We certainly need to improve our offense. That is very clear.”
The Mets certainly have their share of up-and-coming positional players, some without a clear opening on the major-league roster, from Drew Gilbert to Ronny Mauricio to Brett Baty.
ICYMI THIS WEEK
Earlier this week, I used some fancy charts to help us understand how David Stearns might be thinking about his roster entering the offseason.
🔗 The rare combination driving Juan Soto’s free agency to unseen heights, by Joel Sherman, NY Post: “Basically, the opportunity costs have to be baked into an offer for Soto because something that looks like him — this special, this established, this young, this available — is not going to come around again for a while.”
🔗 How Will The Market Value Pete Alonso? by Anthony Franco, MLB Trade Rumors: “We all feel that he could land a deal in the low nine figures if he’s willing to accept it relatively early in the offseason. If he begins with loftier expectations, he’ll need a team or two that places a lot of value in the counting stats and accolades. That’s not impossible, but it’s not something we wanted to assume. It’s a tough case, one that led us to a prediction that represents our best approximation of the middle ground in a free agency with wider error bars than most.”
🔗 What the Mets absolutely must add this offseason, with or without Juan Soto, by Joel Sherman, NY Post ($): “The Mets’ offseason spree must, like last year, include the addition of three established starters. It was Adrian Houser, Sean Manaea and Luis Severino last offseason — and they still were compelled to obtain Paul Blackburn at the trade deadline. The Dodgers retained Clayton Kershaw, signed James Paxton and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and traded for and extended Tyler Glasnow — and they still were compelled to obtain Jack Flaherty at the trade deadline. Yes, there is no such thing as enough starting pitching.”
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The Soto Sweepstakes > Ohtani Waiting Game, especially since the Mets have a shot.
Mr. Ballone, what is a reasonable trade for Crochet? Is Baty, Gilbert, and, Vasil sufficient?