The New York Mets and Generation K 2.0

The New York Mets and Generation K 2.0

 

If you’re a lover of pitching than look no further than the New York Mets. There will be an arms race in Flushing that would make Americans and Soviets blush. Young power arms, veteran placeholders; you name it the Mets have it. What they don’t have is an offense or any hope of one in the future without a few moves. David Wright can’t do everything by himself, despite what the World Baseball Classic may have you believe.

The Mets have a lot of offensive needs but the most pressing is shortstop. Ruben Tejada cannot get out of the starting lineup fast enough, and there are options out there. Before the season starts something needs to be done at the position. Whether it’s giving in to Stephen Drew and his opt out clause, trading for either more offensive minded Chris Owings or defensive minded Didi Gregorius in Arizona, or trading for and renting Asdrubal Cabrera from Cleveland because with Francisco Lindor on the way they don’t need Cabrera. Having a replacement ready will lower the demand from Cleveland as far as what they get back, and it gives the Mets the inside edge to signing Cabrera to an extension after the season. Playing in New York with David Wright and all the young arms long term is a proposition that many shouldn’t pass up.

They also need to hope that Travis D’Arnaud develops into the player that he has projected to be for what seems like forever now. He is an injury risk and a guy who had been traded twice before ever seeing a Major League field, so the question marks are there. Curtis Granderson is in a steep decline and the inflated home run numbers will disappear with no short porch in right field. Chris Young has never been good except for stretches here and there. For 2-3 weeks he may look like the best player in the game and then he will fall back to Earth hard.

Enough with the doom and gloom let’s get to the optimism. There are very few teams, if any, who can lose their ace for an entire season (Let’s be real, if the Mets pitch Harvey at all at the end of the season Collins and Alderson should be immediately fired) and not miss much of a step when it comes to the roatation. Zack Wheeler has looked great in Spring Training thus far and will only get better. Noah Syndergaard doesn’t necessarily have to start the season with the big club, but if he were to do so he can handle it. Either way, it will not be long before you see him anyway. Bartolo Colon dominated the American League on steroids so if he’s clean he should handle the National League pretty easily. Jon “Nosejob” Niese is working his way back from injury and is slated to pitch Opening Day for the second year in a row. If he can stay healthy he gives them a good lefty arm and a solid back end of the rotation starter. Rafael Montero will probably see action come September and will be another arm to add to the stable. Pitching in offensive gold mine Las Vegas, Montero dominated logging a 2.87 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP in nine home starts.

Having all these arms in cavernous Citi Field will be a joy to watch, unlike Ike Davis and Lucas Duda at bats. Sandy Alderson made the statement that this team can win 90 games, and I completely understand why he said it but he needs to add better bats around David Wright before that can realistically happen.

We will be back tomorrow with a look at the very active, although not much improved Baltimore Orioles. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @changingspeeds for all our coverage of the national pastime.