Five questions for the Mets this offseason
Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom looks on from the dugout against the Chicago Cubs during a game at Citi Field on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Mets’ offseason arrived sooner than they expected or wanted, but it arrived nonetheless. Now they have a lot of work to do. Heading into these crucial — and busy — few months, here are five questions that will be central to what is to come.
1. Which free agents will the Mets keep?
Their large free-agent class is headlined by Jacob deGrom, Edwin Diaz, Brandon Nimmo and Chris Bassitt and also includes two other top relievers (Adam Ottavino and Seth Lugo) and potentially two other starting pitchers (Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco), plus other ancillary pieces.
Even Steve Cohen has limits to how much money he’ll spend, so they’ll have to be careful with whom they decide to retain. DeGrom is going into his age-35 season and has a lengthy, well-documented injury history. Diaz, as good as he was this year, is a reliever, and relievers can be volatile year-to-year. Nimmo, like the other two, should enjoy a strong market as probably the best free-agent outfielder not named Aaron Judge.
Whether it is with their own players or new names, the Mets have a ton of roster-building to do before spring training starts in February.
2. Will there be any major front-office changes or additions?
This is a loose end that needs tying, or at least addressing. Before the Mets landed on Billy Eppler as general manager last November, president Sandy Alderson said the eventual hire would have a one-year runway to prove he deserved the job. That is because they initially wanted to add a president of baseball operations but failed to find one, so they settled for a GM.
Does Cohen want to add a president of baseball ops now? If so, would Eppler be comfortable with a de facto demotion to the role of No. 2 baseball decision-maker? What does Cohen think of Eppler’s performance in his first year on the job?
3. What will the Mets do with all those prospects they kept?
The Mets’ trade-deadline approach — smaller moves instead of bigger ones for the sake of keeping their best minor-leaguers — failed. But they still have their top 19 prospects, in Eppler’s rankings.
Key to that July/August thought process was the Mets’ desire to build a sustainable winner, and young, inexpensive talent is central to that for any organization. The Mets got glimpses of Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty and Mark Vientos late in the season, but most of the rest are to come.
It’s easy to wonder if the Mets refrained from dealing major prospects over the summer because they genuinely like those players, or if they were saving them for a bigger to-do this offseason. They’ll face the question again this winter, especially with all those holes to fill: Keep the minor-leaguers or deal some of them to bolster the major-league roster now?
4. Will any Mets get a big contract extension?
Atlanta has set the standard in this area, including by signing righthander Spencer Strider to a six-year, $75 million deal announced Monday. They also inked Michael Harris II, Austin Riley and Matt Olson to long-term deals in recent months and Ronald Acuna Jr. and Ozzie Albies in years past.
The benefits of such an approach include locking in stars at reasonable salaries and cost certainty for a half-decade and beyond (affording them a better idea of what sort of financial flexibility they’ll have in the years to come). It also helps build a strong culture for the organization and the clubhouse, showing players that if they play well and are good teammates, Atlanta is happy to keep them happy with money and security.
The Mets don’t have as many candidates in this category, in part because their farm system has yielded fewer impact players the past few seasons. But there are two obvious ones: Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil. Both are two seasons away from free agency.
The Mets should at least broach the subject with both before or during spring training. If those guys are content to wait it out and eventually reach the open market, so be it. But both are excellent homegrown players worth holding on to and rewarding.
5. Which big names will the Mets inevitably be connected to?
This is part of the fun of the Mets’ still-kinda-new reality under Cohen, the richest owner in baseball. They’re going to be linked to all sorts of big names, whether they’re actually involved in acquiring that player or not.
If and when Shohei Ohtani trade rumors persist, you can bet the Mets will be mentioned, especially given that Eppler was the one who wooed him to the Angels to begin with. Judge, a known commodity in New York, will be looking for (and receive) a gigantic contract, and wouldn’t it be kind of funny if the Mets stole him from the Yankees? Justin Verlander, an older ace a la Max Scherzer who could serve as a deGrom replacement, is a free agent. So is shortstop-and-sometimes-second-baseman Trea Turner.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
