Mets Offseason Plan Revealed!

Mets Offseason Plan Revealed!

What is up Mets fans? Welcome back to another episode of the Metsub podcast. We’ve got some big words, some news from David Sterns talking at the GM meetings. We also got a Josh Naylor signing to the Mariners. We’ll talk about briefly what that means for Pete Alonzo moving forward. It’s just kind of an episode to go over the Mets offseason plan because it appears like we have a better look inside what’s going on the Mets front office, what the plans are moving forward. Got comments from Carlos Beltron. This team very clearly has a plan. It seems like they’re going to execute on that. We’re going to talk about everything. Before we do, make sure you subscribe. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Most of you aren’t subscribed who are watching this. So, make sure you click that subscribe button so you don’t miss out on all the content as well as follow us on all our social media. Metsup on Twitter, Instagram, and Tik Tok. James back back in the setup. Ready to roll. Let’s start talking about some Mets. First time in a minute with the background back to the way it’s been. But I like these kind of weeks before the offseason really starts. Now, we actually had the first big signing of the offseason with Naylor. So, it feels it. It’s just kind of kind of searching through the weeds, trying to find the hints of what the plans could possibly be, trying to like basically translate the GM speak, the coach speak into learning what these guys are actually going to do. Do you want to start talking about Naylor, though? Yeah, let’s briefly talk about Naylor. We, at the time of recording, we don’t have money, which is crazy because it happened like three hours ago after we were recording. There’s a rumor out there by what was his name, James? Do you remember? Ari Alexander. By Ari Alexander saying 90 to 100 million for five years. We could have probably told you that as well. That’s the range. We were like 90 would be great for Pete Alonzo’s market. 100 would be a little concerning because there definitely is a difference between these two guys and we’re trying to figure out what Pete Alonzo’s price is on the open market. But that’s that’s surely got to be where Naylor signs. If we see 90, I feel great about that. Yeah. The first thing I texted you and I sent the messed up Discord when we had it but no money. I said five for 90. And I think that was also exactly what Kylie McDaniel predicted in his free edition predictions for ESPN. So again, it’s a pretty fair estimate. You said 90 and 100’s a big difference. No, it’s not. That’s 2 million a year in a 5-year deal. It’s No, it’s not a difference for like the idea, but for Scott Boris, Pete Lonzo talking about what Pete Lonzo’s contract value is. Pete’s going to be like, I’m worth more than that guy by more than 20 more million dollars over five years. Totally. But I think especially seeing the five years for Naylor, I don’t think this is as meaningful to Pete Alonzo’s cost as I think some people have thought it to be so far. one because Josh Nell is just two years younger than Pete. So, I think that I I thought Josh Naylor would wind up kind of waiting around the offseason and get a smaller deal, but that’s not the case. I was wrong about that. But seeing him get these extra years and knowing he’s younger and again understanding that could be between 90 and 100 million if we’re going to go with that number. It’s a low AV. It’s a very low AV made much more than that in a single year last year in terms of one year of that contract would be worth. the the 18 to20 million dollar AAV isn’t exactly what you’d consider an elite player. I think Pete would there’s still probably a world where Pete gets a three or four year deal that pays him like an elite player. If he wants the five and now this can actually be a template for that money leaning towards. Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. So now if Pete wants like five at 24 million per like that’s kind of what we said initially which was the five for 125. That’s my that’s my shake my hand deal every single time. Every time I talk about money I’m like five for 125. It gets it done. And while you might not love paying was it like 36, 37y old Peter Alonzo $25 million a year, like this team needs to win now. This team can worry about those issues later. And I know that’s like a classic mistake every organization makes. But I don’t really care about what the Mets look like in five years right now when this team is in a place where they need to win now and should be looking to win now. Yeah. And just to give a sense again of players, free agents who have signed deals with AAVs between 20 million and $18 million over over the last few years, active contracts right now. The Josh the Christian Net Walker contract was three for 60 and he was five years older than Josh Naylor at the time of signing that 33 versus 28. Nick Castiano’s five for 100. The Schwarber contract with the Phillies, which we said at the time was a coup. Stling Marte $19 million like Jung Hu Lee $18 million. Jock Peterson’s on a two-year $37 million. Anthony Sans Sandere, which was the comp I also made the messed up discord. When this contract happened for 30-year-olds, a little bit older, bit of a shakier profile there, less defensive value, but that those are the kinds of things. Wols contras was a catcher at the time, so that’s a little different. Michael Good for made $17 million for one year this year. Like, this is the contract you pay someone who you like, but you don’t love. The five years is more of a love. And I tweeted this too, which I think is kind of fascinating that Naylor is now the fifth first baseman in the league to have a contract of more than two years. It’s Naylor, Vlad, Christian Walker, Matt Ols, and Freddy Freeman. It’s not just small list. You don’t really give those guys that that kind of that kind of commitment. But I do expect Pete will also get something like that too because he is he is just way better than Josh Naylor as well. Definitely way better. People mentions being like better than Pete. I was like, no, he’s not. It’s not even close. Absolutely not. But I think that Yeah. Five years low AV actually I think is not what um Boris and and Pete would have wanted to see for this. No, that’s that’s why I brought it up in the first place is like when if we see five for 90, I’m like great because then it feels like five for 125 is actually realistic and might happen. Where we see five for 100, I could see being like well this guy my worst year is what this guy just did in his best season. Like we’re not the same. And I think that that still may like we said originally, I still I still think that makes five for 125 the ceiling of what anyone would offer Pete Alonzo. And I I really stand by that and believe that. I think it’s also relevant that Naylor signed this deal back with the Mariners. the while he had the qualifying offer, it didn’t come into play and Pete doesn’t have qualifying offers. That’s also part of this. Yeah, but I think that’s all we really need to talk about. Naylor, we can move on now to the rest of the Mets offseason plans. Like we said, David Sterns gave us some sound bites, some interviews at the GM meetings. We also heard Carlos Beltron talk at the PRDR All-Star game out at City Field. One thing that sick, it did look sick. One thing that both those guys stressed immediately, like one of the first things out of their mouth, defense, defense, defense. And you heard it from David Sterns in his postseason conference press conference. Defense, defense, defense. It’s not sexy. It’s not fun. But when you look at this Mets team last year, they didn’t play very good defense. And that definitely cost them some games. The difference between making the playoffs. Yeah, Sterns mentioned it specifically that it was when the defense was near the worst in the league and the pitching was bad is when this team played their worst baseball and wound up losing their playoff spot. He said that in the press conference he did with SNY when they had all the scrum reporters. He said that when he talked to Brian Kenny and LB Network. It’s just this is the thing that’s going to be a key part a key part of this offseason. Seems like the number one thing he wants to improve with this team is defense. like that was mentioning that the defense was bottom of the league I think was relevant because based on all the numbers that again we have access to it was never bottom of the league. We saw the Mets being lower half of the league which I think does tell us that they’re grading the Mets on a much sharper scale than we h we can see with things like DRS OAR stuff that get in the public forum we could we can access. Yeah. And we we know that too just from watching this team like as much as we love Wanoto hitting defensively he wasn’t great especially in the first half of the year. Brandon NMO wasn’t great in left field. Uh Mark Venzos couldn’t play third base at all. Pete Alonzo was bad defensively at first base. Like there there were definitely some clear and obvious problems defensively with this team along with the fact that while Lindor is still great defensively, he didn’t have the defensive numbers he had in previous years. So you could take that away from the Mets defensive value, the moving the rotating door at second base. Like there was a lot of instability with this team defensively. And it does seem like they want to probably and I’m not gonna say to be the starters necessarily. I still think they’re going to take bat over glove when push comes to shove. But I think a lot of the fill-in guys, a lot of the guys who would be in a Mark Viento spot, a Luis Anelkunia spot, Ronnie Mauricio, those last four guys on the bench, they’re going to be looking for defensive guys, guys who can come into the game and make an impact with their glove. He also mentioned specifically in a few of those things that Mark Vento is a bat first player and he’ll get opportunities based on his bat, which is like no [ __ ] but it’s cool to see like the lead executive like say that so contrightly. He mentioned that the hiring of Kai Koreah to be our new bench coach as one of the best defensive minds in the league and he was excited to what Kai could do with this team defensively because he Sterns mentioned specifically the big part of what the Mets should do to improve their defense is players improving the defensive abilities of existing players. And then another comment later, someone asked if you can improve the defense by Sodo DH. He was like no second half of the year we saw Sodos being an average defender and in his career he said we’ve had times where Sodos’s flash as a good defender as well. So, I think they’re like he’s going to be playing the field. And again, like he mentioned in the off the end of season press conference, he mentioned some players changing positions. He said that twice now. Someone I guess someone’s going to be picking up a new glove this year. I I don’t want it to be Jeff Mcneel, but I think that’s the most obvious one being a first baseman. You You’ve been flirting the idea of McNeel, especially now with the the to surgery. Like, he’s probably not going to be able to really throw very much. So, that completely takes away like playing any outfield at all. And then second base, while it’s not a big throw, can’t really not throw still at that position. How many times ever in the history of baseball has someone gone from besides Cody Bellinger, I guess, from playing center field to first base. It’s not a good It’s not a good move. That’s not even a good look back to be like playing center field last year. Jesus Christ. Like first Jeff didn’t actually grade that bad in center field. He wasn’t great. No, he was fine, but his arm was very bad. And again, like that like even losing Tyron Taylor as much this year, like the it’s going to kill the outfield. And also start the funny comment about NMO’s defense. Someone asked specifically about that. He like kind of froze and kind of did that chuckle. He’s like, you know, he made made some good plays. Some plays we know he wish he would have gotten to too were like still confident. Brandon, all this stuff was just it was the the the freeze talk. Freeze talk was like a very funny way that Davis Sterns went like kind of went around talking about Nmo’s defense. Yeah, I think everyone who’s a Mets fan or watch any Mets games this year was like that NMO did not move well in the outfield. He did not get to almost any baseballs that were hit not directly at him. Yeah, you eloquently called him the tin man on more than one occasion. Yeah, he he moves like a robot. It’s crazy. And I love Brandon NMO, but he he just needs to be better for this team defensively as well in the outfield. He was so good in center field that one year. He was moving like a [ __ ] gazelle. And now it’s he’s he’s tighter than ever. And again, we keep saying this because it seems like this is going to be a big part of this offseason. Not also be a first base guy, too. That’s what I’m saying. This is not that we’re turning off all this stuff about wanting to resign Ponzo, but it just seems like the defense is really really critical. And then Beltron like doubling down on it too. Like David Sterns can say what David Stern says, of course. But Beltron doubling down and being like, “Yeah, we got to get this defense better.” Like that’s especially coming from a guy like Charles Beltron, you kind of I take that I take that kind of literally because how good of a defensive player he was. Of course, too. It’s just it’s even the John Gibbons was on Terry Collins podcast today. I don’t I didn’t get to catch that and he talked about what went wrong for the Mets. Did you did you watch it at all? I I listened to someone on 2xPB that might train ride home today, but it was he was it was very much like he was like, “We just didn’t perform.” He’s like, “People want to point fingers.” He was like, “We have all the talent in the world. Guys just didn’t guys just couldn’t do it.” And it was I think it was kind of nice to hear him say that because I think some people want to hear like salacious things when a guy like that goes on and talks, but I think that’s true. And it’s kind of you can kind of feel that still in what Sterns is saying. It’s like we really should have been a lot better than this. We just were not. And it’s nothing wish we could have done something better about that. Just that was it. Holiday shopping season is here and we have you covered from head to toe. Let’s take talk about an area that’s not quite close to the toes. Let’s get crazy with this holiday season. 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And as a fan, that’s nice because you as much as we think Davis Sterns is would spend on Pete Edwin and like I know people love to pretend that Sterns is going to operate like it’s the Brewers and he’s not going to go after a first baseman and a closer typically, but we we know that those guys have value that are a little bit different than what the dollar signs would be for a player of those caliber. But also at the same time just putting on the fan hat there. It’s really nice to know like guys that we want back, they also want back too. Totally. Some leading questions being asked by the reporters. If you guys go back and listen to this about like strategy and ideas about signing declining players or big giving big money for reliever and Sterns kind of shut them down both times. So either just really great campaigning and politicking by Sterns if that’s actually the way he thinks. Not telling us that but just he’s like I’m not scared of paying big money for reliever. We evaluate every single player individually. If you think he’s worth the money, we sign the player. and he would kept kind of double down the bullpen being like we know we have to sign more than one reliever this offseason. He’s like we got to we got we got to fill this baby out and mention the fact that if you want good players in free agency you’re going to have to be willing to pay for decline years. I think that’s fine. It’s like he said there’s going to be a tipping point for that but again every player is individually being analyzed. Let me ask you this question James. What can not because I want this but can the Mets have a better bullpen than they had last year with no Edwin Diaz? Is it possible? I mean, anything’s possible. Like, how’ the Mess ballpin even line up by the time last year ended? Like, middle of the pack in RA. Like, yeah, but like, can they get better without having Edwin? One thing that we kind of talked about a lot and it felt it based on how many losing streaks the Mets had is that we would go a month at a time and Edwin Diaz wouldn’t even be a part of the bullpen. Yeah. And I think that there was another comment that Sterns made in one of the little offshoot press availabilities that he did. And I think this might be another thing we talked about a lot this year, trying to maximize more of the 40man roster. Yes. Is being more willing to having relievers, saying this for four years, guys. When this finally happens, man, they’re going to freak out. Get guys who are going to throw two or three innings at a time. Just that’s it. That’s what it comes down to. I think they tried to do that with Cranic, but he broke instantaneously. So, it’s like just the idea of I still struggle to say a better bullpen because I’m also thinking in terms of a regular season bullpen. I don’t think there’s any way the Mets can have a better postseason bullpen if it if it doesn’t have Edwin Diaz in it. And again, the end of the year, guess where the Mets ranked the bullpen? Total ERA. 15th. Exactly 15th. Yeah. And ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays, who went to the World Series. Edwin does a lot of the heavy lifting there. And the Dodgers had one of the worst bullpens in baseball. So like, and we had the third most innings thrown for a bullpen. So that’s probably that’s probably the bigger issue is that how many innings these guys had to throw because we knew outside of Edwin Diaz, it was kind of nothing for a while. Totally. But one thing that I think would change seriously with this bullpen if you don’t have Edund Diaz just because we talked to you guys last week about some of the replacements out there and it’s not that great. The bullpen market is not great. I think the free agent market actually kind of sucks. I think that as we’ve like been analyzing them more, doing a lot more talking about all the free agents on the wind up looking stuff for my own channel. These free agents aren’t I don’t think it’s a good class at all. This is the classic like 10 years ago in baseball like 2015 2014 you’d be seeing a lot of these guys getting mega deals and then looking back and be like why the [ __ ] did you ever like like when Jason Hayward got paid all that money you were like why the hell did you do that in the moment it didn’t even make sense but it was like he’s one of the best free agents available this is a weak class and this free agency like there’s three elite guys and that’s kind of it. Everybody else is like in that range. Who Who were your three? Well, you’d go with Edwin, elite, elite closer. Kyle Tucker, elite. If you’re talking hitting at first base, Peter Lonzo is an elite hitting first base. I think on the wind up we ranked those three and Schwarber as elite free. Oh yeah, Schwber too. Okay. Four. I forgot we had one more. Yeah. But so how what do you think’s the second total besides after Kyle Tucker? I think Kyle Tucker will comfortably get 350 million to 400 million. Yeah. the what’s the second highest total dollars committed to free agents this offseason and and who is it? It’s probably Bo even though I don’t how much do you give Bo Bashette? I don’t want to even think about 33y old Bob Bashette. Bobette’s a miracle for him that he’s 27 and hitting this market but like if someone gives Bobette a seven-year deal if he touches 200 million that’s crazy. That was kind of my points. I don’t even think there’s another $200 million guy this off season. And like it’s not Bregman. I don’t think it’s unless unless a Mai I think a Mai could actually be the sneaky one that sneaks up there. How though? What do you What do they give him like a 10 year deal like an eight like a seven for I don’t know 26 still? Yeah. Know I think so. I think I think Amay I think I might could wind up being the big the most coveted pitcher by far this free agency. That’s fair. I think the teams care so much about the QO. It is crazy the the drop off in money. Like Pete’s obviously not going to be the next highest guy. It’s not going to be Schwarber. Yeah. It’s got to be Bo, right? That’s That’s got to be the guy who gets paid the most. And it’s it’s pro it’s probably just because the the age. Yeah. And it’s because he’s gonna be 28 next year. So you get two more years in his two more full years in his 20s and then he is still he’s probably still going to hit in his 30s. It’s just what’s the actual value you’re going to get outside of like hitting for average from him, which I don’t know about when he gets older. And Bo does all the things well that don’t age well. Like also he doesn’t really run anymore. And Bo’s like so good like making contact on weird pitches. That’s something that gets so much worse. like your bat to ball and like weird batted balls when we’re done. Like but he had a he had a great season. There’s no doubt. I I think B’s going to have two more three more really really good seasons. He could be a quick drop off guy and like I even Tucker like Tucker’s great like Tucker’s nowhere near the the level the tier of a solo judge Otani. I think going into last season everyone was like oh he’s going to be like a $400 million guy. Like no doubt I still think he might. I still think he is. But is he is he as close to that AAV as he should be? I don’t know. I I love Kyle Tucker. I think he’s awesome. I think like right now pay him $40 million a year, I don’t give a [ __ ] I’d be happy with whatever team he went to. If my if I was a fan of that team, they signed him for sure. But this free agent class is mega ass. Like this is not a good free agent class at all. We especially on the pitching side, which sucks because we need pitching. I have like almost no interest in any of the pitchers on the market, especially if the rates are going to go for the whole thing that started me on this tangent. I’m I’m going to shift after this talk about the starting pitchers. I think Stern says some cool [ __ ] about them is that this year the Mets actually had the fourth highest average fastball velocity from relievers. It’s kind of crazy at 95.7 which I’m kind of shocked about. Rockies were second, Cardinals were first. Cardinal Rockies were third, Cardinals were second, Giants were first would never ever and the Padres’s were fifth. Never ever would get guess that top five in that order, but shock belove behind the Padres’s. That’s the thing that you lose I think when you lose Edwin just yes I don’t know how else you’re going to find this philosophy unless you give the keys to Lambert and Dylan Ross. I also think the Mets might too because two other things that Sterns really really harped on is the fact that we want to give young players a chance but also this starting pitching market. He basically said through his teeth is [ __ ] ass. Yeah. And I think it was a good way to let people know that someone keep like how how high is getting a number one starter there on your list? He goes I don’t know how many true number one stars are out there. I don’t think there is one. He said if a number one pitcher is available we will be involved in discussions. and he doubled down saying that we know that we have the strength of system, the depth, and the quality of prospects to get any deal done and not worry about how that affects both our major league team and our minor league teams. That was like that was like important to me. That was awesome. I was like, “Oh my god, yes, please.” Like, you’re hinting that you will make the right trade. You will take this shot if it’s there and that’s all we want. That’s why you build up this farm system. That’s why you’ve seen the teams like the Dodgers and you saw the Padres’s take these shots. You build up this farm system and you can gut it like the Padres’s and not win anything, but like they they go for it. I [ __ ] appreciate that they go for it as one of the smallest markets in all of sports. Dodgers obviously continuously have one of the best farm systems in baseball, but that’s what makes this organizational philosophy and how you build this team so much fun is that now you can be interested in every single guy that’s ever available because you have the pieces and you can pick and choose the right ones. Like it’s not it’s there’s a difference between finding a way to trade for Framber Valdez. I’m finding a way to trade for Terub, but also giving a six-year contract to Framber Valdez. Like it’s just not like it’s I would rather trade the prospects every single time than give Framber six years. Every single time. It’s not even close. And then this is the other thing that’s going to be the reverse of this that you guys might not want to hear. If you guys didn’t like our nightmare offseason episode last week, you’re going to love this. The best way David Stern said the best way to have an ace on your staff is to develop the ace of your staff. It’s fair. And he said, I think we have a good shot to do that based on the guys that we have. And it’s like it’s very clear that what he was saying is like we’re openminded. We think we know we’re going to have to go into this offseason adding pitching. But he also said about the guys last year, it was a lot of injuries that affected performance. I think that’s specifically talking about guys like Shawn Mania that saying who I think are comfortably still going into the years like the three and the five of the staff. So I don’t think we’re super relying on him as things them as things stand right now. But they should they have to provide some value. Yeah. No, and that’s the that’s the worrying part that I can understand why Mets fans are are scared about this rotation is because we did just see a season of Kodi Sanga and Shamaya that was horrible. And if those guys stink again, then it’s like pants are down. We don’t we oh [ __ ] we we just did the exact same thing we did last year, which is not really enough actually good starting pitching. So that’s that’s why the Mets are in a weird scenario where we have like nine guys, but how many can you actually rely on to be good? That’s the problem. We have nine guys and we have like six threes. Like this team doesn’t have a one. They might I mean but Mlan’s probably a great two, but there’s then it’s just it’s threes and fours and a couple of fives. Like you need to find a way to get any elevation there. And it’s like I think that they know that there’s a chance that happens again. I don’t think there’s a [ __ ] ton of confidence in that room about either of those guys because there was like more comments about Sango like he’s consider starting pitcher right now like we know that he’s someone who can contribute not someone like to be relied upon. I think also Maniah like [ __ ] sucks but the way we talked about him through last year it’s like when you change your arm slot like that you’re just begging to get hurt like your body did some one thing one way forever. Now you’re going to tell your body to do one thing that you’ve always done totally differently. It’s like, and then we saw his arm slot dropped even more this year and that was a bad drop because he was just getting absolutely tattooed every single time. The pitches were flat. They had no juice. It was it was bad. And that’s the contract again you are worried about signing. Luckily, it is only a three-year deal, but like that’s where the biggest mistakes happen last offseason. Like everyone’s kind of focused on Frankie Montas, but like two years, 17 million per like it sucks ass dog [ __ ] for that. But like maniah getting paid more like a tier above and he wasn’t even anywhere close to that and didn’t show up and when he pitched he wasn’t even good. It’s like that’s the [ __ ] that really can kill your team and really bog down what you can do like giving those contracts out are scary which is scary. It was like kind of the Southern Marte contract where it’s like five years from now which we saw last year it’s like I he had a fine season Marte he hit okay but he kind of had no value to this team besides fives. No, it’s get finding more value. Like damn, that’s I think why Starks talked a lot about the young players, too. Yes. He said we need to give young players a chance to play. Mentioned the fact that we need to build in the room on this roster to give young guys a chance. And I think that the two sides of that, a little bit of that is about the pitchers. I think for sure. Yes. I think that I think wants to give both Joe Tong and Brandon Spro chance to prove themselves next year. And they should 100%. And I also think another part of that he mentioned actually specifically by name, it’s about Carson Bench. Yes. about not signing guys in the outfield to not give Carson Benj a chance. I think that there’s a real he said that that was the quote that kind of made their rounds from this media availability that Sterns did that Carson Benj going to come this spring training with a chance to make the team when he was specifically asked about center field. Super awesome as well by the way like I love to hear that kind of confidence from the president of this team being like this first round pick we think’s a home run. If he shows us that he’s that dude he’s going to be our center fielder. And I also think from a fan perspective and even players on the team, you kind of have to respect the idea. While there’s no, again, there’s no real center fielder to go sign on the free agent market. If you’re going to go get someone, it’s like Luis Rober. And as much as I love him, it’s risky. There’s risk involved with a guy like Luis Rober. He might suck. It’s cool to see that like your organization like this guy’s good. He’s going to help us win. And if he shows us he’s that guy, we’re going to put him in there right then and there. He’s going to be thrown into the fire, which I kind of like, especially if he earns it. like come into spring training with a chance to win. It’s like we’re very open-minded to what this guy can do. If you can help this team win, you are going to be on this roster. And I don’t know if we’ve had that conversation about previous Mets teams all the time. Totally. Which is also funny because when he did his three weeks of Triple A, he was [ __ ] ass. He was terrible. Yeah. Not good. But like else get three weeks TripleA like no big deal there. He was one of the best hitters in AA. Something a wrist or an ankle. I don’t remember what. But double A, he was one of the best hitters in the entire league. So I think it’s like when you see a guy do that who already has college under his belts, like you can do that. And you kind of need if you want to be a team that kind of is like beats odds on I can never say the Mets are like an underdog based on having watch on their team but like to take a step forward as a team. You kind of do need to build in room for these young players to take their steps. Like you that’s how you get production pass projections. Like that’s how you add something new to the roster. And I do think that ironically that did actually happen by the end of the year this year. Like when we got to September Bailey and Alvarez were absolute like surefire stud players. like we’re going into the season and it’s like there’s kind of no question about either of them and I’m comfortable saying that unreal confident about both of them. I we’ve always been Brett Batty podcast has been Brett Batty podcast through and through and it feels good that he’s playing so well and David Sterns also gave him a little vote of confidence too talking about how like he’s going to get significant time at third base. That’s one of our guys there and he should he plays good defense at third. He hit really well last year got better as the season went on. There’s no reason why Brett Batty shouldn’t be the starting third baseman on opening day. And then for Francisco Alvarez behind the plate, we always talk about his age, but when he went down to TripleA and went back to being the hitter that he was, how [ __ ] awesome was it to watch him play baseball again? The guy is just a beast. He’s a freak at the plate. Again, not wanting to rehash any of the [ __ ] that happened to in that end of the year, whatever. But Alver is one of the best, not even catchers, hitters in baseball from when he came back up. It was basically the whole second half. He had 100 almost 150 play appearances of being an absolute lights out rock solid like masher. someone who could hit fifth on a playoff team, you only feel bad about it. So, just the fact that if that was one of the goals last year, tons of goals last year that were not reached. One of the goals, one of them, but one of them was figure out what the [ __ ] is going to happen with these two guys. And it was a little bit fortuitous to get to that spot, especially the way both guys started their seasons. But by the end of it, you know that you have the space now. We have these two guys who are rock solid towards the back middle of the lineup and can be trusted and and they’re free. If they and if you get one more guy to do that this year and bench that’s such a huge deal too especially if he can do that at premium position because on the other side of this coin David S was non-committal about J Williams rolling about that. Someone asked after about the bench stuff I was like what about J Williams? You see him in the same light and he was like nah not really. I think he still has more room to grow more room to develop. He said though defensively he likes Jet that he can play all three optimal positions at a high level, but that was kind of where that stopped. I think that’s also like uh because he talked about Akunia and that they they plan to use Akunia a lot still next season that they’re confident about what he can be, especially defensively. Defensively, we know that Jet like if he can do what Akunia can do defensively, which is play the middle infield positions in center field, we know he’s a better hitter. We know he’s going to have a better bat. I think that’s also maybe a little why he’s a little non-committal too is they kind of have someone right now. Yeah. And if you they might be looking to move Akunia too I think at some point this offseason. I think they’re dying to move Akunia because Akunia is simply put an incomplete baseball player. He’s smacking home runs in the winter league though which is kind of funny to see. But we know that his bat speed dropped and when he was good, he was taking hacks. And while that version of Akunia probably strikes out 30% of the time and probably is not patient and doesn’t get on base, if he’s going to hit the ball any sort of harder than he did last year and play defense and run like he did, that’s a player I love to have on the bench. It’s just the 2025 version has no place on this roster. Yeah, Luis Helakunia between 2024 when he came up to be a spark plug and it was kind of like, “Hey, young man, save the team.” and he kind of did. He had 75th percentile bass speed. It was average bat speed of almost 74 miles per hour. Then this year with a lot more swings, the average bass speed was under 71 miles per hour, which is bottom 30 percentile bass speed. That seems like a pretty easy fix. Like if and if for Luis on Helakunia, there’s again there are a lot of discussion right now about legitimately not tendering him. I think that would actually be a mistake given I think so too his age, his defensive value, his athleticism, and the fact that we did see two weeks of him swinging the pit side of the bat and just actually hitting the ball. Well, at the worst case scenario, even if it’s just for this year until you get one more year of seasoning with Jet, if Luis Helkunia can be Luis Gor with pop and speed. Yeah. And like again, me saying it’s Pop, you guys probably guys know [ __ ] Pop. I watched him all year last year. Like we saw there was a version of him with Pop. We saw him swinging the bat hard. For some reason, he just didn’t do that this year. I think someone instructed him to like maybe be a little bit more slappy, which make a little more contact. If someone was doing that, I think that someone likely doesn’t have a job right now. And I think we all know why that person doesn’t have a job. But for him to have not shortened up his swings, now I’m even looking at baseball. Now I’m interested about it. Same swing length and he lost three miles an hour in his bat speed. That’s like incomprehensible. It’s incomprehensible. And that is intentional as well. That is an intentional take a different swing. I see. And you know, he’s still making contact in a similar spot too. It’s just it’s very very terrible. But if he can just get back to plus bat speed and be a plus defender and be the fastest guy on your team, there’s a great spot on the roster for that. Like you need this backup infielder that can play around and saw he could play short, could play third, he’s going to be great second. Like it’s it’s a fine player to have on your roster. You’re not like you’re not freaking out excited about Luis Hakuna being one of the last guys in this roster. But to be the 24th 25th guy, like that’s a very very useful piece. I also really liked what Sterns had to say about Ronnie Mauricio too. just to talk about more of these like fill in guys that cuz Ronnie’s back in the lead dom playing and he was like his injury has it was like a freak thing. We don’t care. We want him to get better. We’re not going to stop development because of a fear of an injury. Like and I like hearing that too cuz Ronnie needs to play more baseball. Like that’s the biggest thing with him is he just needs more reps, needs more swings if he could ever figure out how to even be a little better hitting right-handed. Like he has a spot on this team big time. And we know that the only reason Ryan Reo was on the roster at the end of last year is because they wanted to preserve that option. Yes, 100% the whole thing. And if he would have been sent down, would have gotten a player, well, maybe you win one more game when you reach the [ __ ] postseason. So, I think that was a a misread by Sterns there, something he did wrong. Yes. It’s it’s important that they wanted him to get that. So, while they knew he was on the roster, not able to play baseball at the end of the year, like, yeah, please go play in the lead dumb. like get get your hacks in, get reps because that’s just important for a guy that missed so much time and he was so raw anyway. Now he’s he’s sneakily going to turn 25 years old during the season which is it’s crazy that Ryan Reese is gonna be 25 years old because I remember when [ __ ] signed him internationally, seven years ago, whatever the [ __ ] it was. But yeah, 2017 they signed him internationally. Eight years ago they signed Ronnie Mauricio be nine by mid-season next year. But it’s just reps reps reps game game. But that was some an area where the classic threading the needle did not work. No, it did not work. All right, I’m gonna ask you the f favorite question, James. Yeah. Luis Helakunia, Mark Ventos, Ronnie Mauricio, who’s on the Mets 2026 opening day of those three. So, I don’t think Mauricio will be. I think he’ll be in the organization, but I think he was guaranteed to start seasona. And I think that I think that Akunia is and Ventos is not. I’m still steadfast that Ventos is not. The disrespect that concerns delivered to him in that press conference being like, “Yeah, bad opportunities.” And he’s like, “I know he’s gonna be motivated.” And he kind of he said something that basically instructed that the positions that Mark Ventos plays will be filled. But he said we he has to come to spring training knowing an opportunity will arise. I also liked or it felt like you know reading the tea he leaves about Stern’s comments too kind of hinted to he’s like he’s a bat first guy and the bat wasn’t there last year so can’t really play him. And the way that Carl Mendoza kind of doubled down on that by the end of the year being like hey he can’t play this position which is we can’t put him back. He never will. No. And I think that Gibbons also mentioned the fact that he loved the process between the coaching staff and the front office. He said he said definitely wasn’t a problem, but you felt like based on the failure that things had to change and he was okay with that. I mean, that’s a that’s a respectful opinion. Yeah, I think John Gibb was old school baseball guy. It’s respectful. Go hang out in uh in Anaheim with the Angels coaching staff, which is with real coaches. We could really do baseball stuff because he mentioned he said another comment about analytics being like the way that like this front office like integrates data. It’s like a young man’s game to be a coach now. You’ve seen that with these Mets hires. Kai Kareah, Justin Willard, um Jeff Albert. I think those guys if you add up all their ages, you barely sneak over 100. So, it’s like I think the Angels, the average two coaches get 100. The Mets are average three coaches get to 100. And Kurt Suzuki on a one-year deal, which is crazy. A one-year coaching deal. But, um I think that him it was he seemed like kind of like nice about it. He was like, “Hey, they were gonna fire me. I just wanted to leave before I could beat him to the punch.” He was like, “It’s fine.” Exactly how he felt as a a manager. It seems like that’s always his comments are kind of like, “Yeah, whatever.” He’s like, “The way they’re going to run this team. Probably want more young men involved here.” Yeah. I shouldn’t be involved. No, which is totally fine. But I do I do think that like after this week, like it’s it’s nice to get some of these morsels of news. It’s nice to actually get a piece of real news in Josh Naylor. Some other funny comments that Sterns made a few times. People asked him about lowering payroll and he was like, “No.” He’s like, “That’s not part of the plan. He has our plans to lower the payroll.” He was like, “I think it was really nice here that we know that that’s never an issue.” Yes. And someone asked him again said, “Is there actually a plan to lower the payroll?” He just said no. Just a stern look. He was a GM. He was the president of baseball in Milwaukee and they were cheap. Surely he’s going to run the Brewers the exact same way. Even though there’s clearly different financials involved. No, we’ve already offered the biggest contracts ever since he’s been in this team for hitter and pitcher. That’s not him. James, that’s Steve Cohen. And that’s why Pete Alonzo was back. It’s anything that any big contract is not David Stern. He only signed Frankie Montas. Ignore Klay Holmes. One of the best free agent pitcher signings of the season last year. No one’s talking about Klay Holmes. Sauce. Klay Holmes is so good this year. There’s another 20. Awesome. A minute on Klay Holmes again. Just again60 innings, 35 erra. Get the [ __ ] out of here. Like that’s better than almost every free agent pitcher that was signed last off season. Klay Holmes this season again. We’ll say it again. So the Met So the Mets Cobwebs have really started to come off. Like we were here doing the podcast the whole month of October, but you guys probably tell our souls weren’t in it because of how depressed we were about how how everything went down. No, it’s uh it’s nice to like not be depressed. Klay Holmes threw the 46th most innings in baseball this season. Klay Holmes threw more innings than Luis Everino. $13 million a year. Clay Holmes. That’s so funny. That’s crazy. Turns had another really funny comment. Brian Kenny asked him. He was like, you know, great season for Jan Solo. Like in terms of personal success, success in year one, team success, you know, not so much. But like when he leaves for the offseason, a guy like that in a mega contract, how much communication do you guys have with him? Certain like constant communication. You think we’re just letting him go for three months and we’re going to see him when he gets back. That’s how this works. How much this guy gets paid? We’re going to lose track of him. How about STO’s comments at the uh the player rewards, too. Interesting, too. You’re right. He he wants Marte back, which please God, no. Unless he wants to be a coach for free. He can hang out and be a vi the what is it? Uh we call Dusty Baker the cultivator of vibes. If he wants to be a cultivator of vibes, I’m cool with that. Be on the staff. Player, absolutely not. But what I really like from Sodto, he wants Pete back, too. I love that. So, they want to have more fun together. But then the other side of that, he again referred to Marte as the leader of the team. Yes. Which we keep saying that we kind of known that the leadership’s always been a little weird with this team. Not from a negative standpoint, but Lindor, Alonzo, NMO, and then like the pitchers that they had in the past. Like it’s never been conventional like there is a clear team leader. Rah. But also look around baseball. Like I don’t know. Aaron Judge is so [ __ ] good. Is he really like do you like look at him you’re like that guy’s the the leader? You feel like inspired by him. He’s just [ __ ] sick. Well, he’s more similar I think to the Lindor lead by example kind of guy. Like I don’t think you need the How many teams actually have that kind of leader truthfully? It’s kind of the same conversation with teams how badly you need an ace. You know what I mean? Like it’s funny to have that have that [ __ ] go back and forth. There was also the narative also there was the funny thing this week. It was John Haymon versus Will Sammon and you guys know whose side we’re taking that report the war will will where Heymon was like Mets are fielding offers on Jeff McNeel. Sammon’s like well there’s no formal offers made. There’s there’s preliminary interest around the league in a player who still has Jeff McNeel’s versatility and was still a plus hitter this year. Yeah. And then we also got a little uh little craziness of the Edwin Diaz Blue Jays is the perfect storm. I I was shocked to see the Edwin Diaz rumors just on a random day and there’s like the Blue Jays are interested because they blew the blew the World Series with Jeff Hoffman. I was like I mean I think every team in baseball is interested in Edwin Diaz. He’s the best closer in the game and every team probably should be a bit but also the Rockies. Yeah, I know. Honestly, I bet the Rockies kind of are. I have a feel I have a feeling that might be on Edund Diaz. What’s the first step to being a big big time team? Closing out the [ __ ] ball game. can’t win without a closer. But there’s always going to be this element of collusion that goes on to find to not be able to find a better word where these teams are all dealing with the same sets of data. They all have similar player evaluations. It’s not like the old days where someone just blows a free agent out of the water. Like it’s just you Angels. Yeah. Right. Or or unless you’re 45 47. But it’s like you are going to every team the same idea of what kind of years you’re going to give a guy. Like if no team’s giving NDS has a 5-year contract, he’s not getting a 5-year contract. I know he wants a 5-year contract, maybe some team gets there, but they lower the AEV. Like the same thing we’re talking about Pete Lonzo where it feels like, especially with Edund Diaz having the qualifying offer, it’s like who’s really blowing this out of the water for Edwin Diaz. Maybe the Dodgers, that’s probably it. The Dodgers are one I actually don’t see likely for at all with Edwin Diaz, mostly because they just made this mistake last offseason. They just gave Tanner Scott a fat four-year deal. But those two are also vastly different in their talent sealing floor. Very different. But I think the Dodgers, similar to the Mets or any team, are going to be like, we already have so much money committed to this bullpen. Like we think we want, especially the way especially the way their lineup ended the season. Like the Dodgers couldn’t [ __ ] hit the way when their World Series ended. Like I think if they have to throw money out of position, I think it happens in the lineup before it happens in their bullpen. I think the Blue Jays thing makes sense because I could see the Blue Jays tilting at the end of the offseason and if the DS thing has kind of stretched out. Blue Jays miss on Bo Bashette and they don’t sign Kyle Tucker. I can see being like [ __ ] if if those parts of our team are going to stay the same or get worse, especially if they lose both depending who the second baseman is. Speaking of total fantasy world now 38 minutes the podcast now we’re talking about early February scenario where the Blue Jays have had another disastrous offseason after World Series appearance. Yeah, Po signed by this point. He lost his sign three days. He signed back with the Mets three days before on a four for 90, but four for 95. But then you get to the spot with Edund Diaz where they’re like, “Fuck, you know what? [ __ ] let’s just give him the fifth year. Like, just give him the fifth year. Who gives a [ __ ] anymore?” Like, that is is a point where that can happen. But there were murmurss about the Edwin Diaz market moving quickly this week. And that I think it’s like only if it’s the Mets. Like I don’t think there’s another team that’s jumping out like that. It’s just that City Field for the game. I think Yeah. Right. I think a lot got big cheer. I think a lot of people want free for agency to move quickly and it just won’t. It just doesn’t. And I I want to go where have you guys been? Like have have you have you been paying attention to baseball? Cuz this is not a Mets problem. This is this is this is how baseball offseason operates. It’s not the NBA. It’s not the NFL. A deadline doesn’t fix the MLB offseason. If anything, that [ __ ] players even more. Yeah. Hey, you have to sign by this time. Think about how insane that sounds. By the way, you have to sign a contract. And people love love that for the NBA, but I think there’s a huge fundamental difference between baseball teams and basketball teams or baseball teams have 26 guys. Basketball teams have like 13 and six of them matter. Yeah, maybe seven, eight. It’s just that kind of what this [ __ ] always comes down to. But it’s like it’s going to take a while and that’s totally fine. Like the patience is a virtue with this stuff. We’re going to get a lot of action in the next few weeks, but last year, do you remember what day Blake Snell signed? We kind of said that was like the one that started everything. It’s got to be what, like November 20th or something like that. November 26th. That’s Thanksgiving, like the day before Thanksgiving. I think that’s because the GM meetings are the couple days after that, first week of December every year. So that’s when we start to get action. Winter meetings, winter meetings, sorry, this was GM meetings this past week. But like again, like that was all spurned based on the fact that the Blue Jays met with Edwin Diaz. Everyone’s meeting with everybody right now. Like you’re take you’re just taking meetings right now and it’s just whenever there’s nothing else to do right now. Whenever whenever you guys hear reports about like a preliminary offer or soothers emerge, it’s all [ __ ] fake and just you can click on it. Yeah. It doesn’t it doesn’t mean that the Blue Jays might not sign Edwin Diaz. This is us being like sign Diaz. No, for sure. But just meeting with a guy is like the least interesting thing I could ever hear about. It’s all puffpuff [ __ ] for these few weeks. Like it just is simply and that’s why it’s also funny when like the Mets sign a minor leaguer. Jackson Kluff gets a minor league deal and invite to spring training and for some reason gets like this kind of weird outro backlash when like [ __ ] my fault. Yeah, it’s part of your fault. I mean, usually a lot of these things are, but everything everything just that’s it. We just get reported because they know that we’re such a vivacious, ferocious fan base. We’re going to click on things. These reporters know they can use the Mets to kind of do that. That’s just the game. The game is the game. Mets are the only team in baseball signing guys that you have never heard of. Don’t don’t look at what the Yankees did. They signed Yiovanni Cruz to a minor league contract who’s like had a 5year RA in double A last year. Don’t look at any other anybody else’s transactions. Only the Mets sign these guys. Mr. Row, we were hanging out on Saturday and you said how it’s ridiculous you say tending to sign these minor league free ages right now. Every team’s doing it. No big deal. We just do it because we know we’re getting clicks on. And like again like when John Haymon’s like the Mets are fielding trade offers for Jeff McNeel. Who’s lining up to trade for Jeff McNeel? Like especially now with the info that we have about that he blew out his shoulder and needs the Atlas surgery. shirt teams are like, “That sounds like a guy that we have to have.” Pirates signed a guy, by the way, Dugan Darnell. You know why Mets fans don’t hear about those either? Because you don’t look up the news of these other teams. All you care about is Mets news. Yeah. I don’t think all these other teams have this many [ __ ] aggregators who are like who some of them maybe are associated with fantasy football apps and then they they come out for these teams and make the sloppiest, most lazy, [ __ ] horrible content in the world and just make Nice. He likes us. He likes us. Not his problem. It’s the company’s problem. That guy’s fine. Totally fine with that guy. But it’s just the fact that No. No. It’s Yeah. 100% get your bag. Run an account. Make your money. Do get do that. Put on your resume. Get the next one. But it’s the fact the idea that there has to be 30 of these out there. Oh, it’s insane. Just reciting slop slop slop. Backing up our boy Jenny Mets, too. This guy got [ __ ] down his for doing this. And now there’s different accounts. I see them crediting each other. That’s insane. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, oh, account X told me about like, what are you guys talking about? Just it’s outrageous. It’s kind of It’s kind of like what all the writers like tweet out like 25 minutes later. Yeah. Like Jeff Pass will break the news and then Mark Fein’s like Josh Taylor Naylor signs 5-year deal with the Mariners source. You’re like, “Great tweet, bro.” Like, but again, everyone now you make money on Twitter, get your bag. No big deal about that. But it’s just it’s it’s very funny to to watch all this stuff unfold at this time of year when there’s absolutely nothing going on. And that’s why you listen to the Mets podcast because we gave you 45 minutes talking about no big free agents that the Mets are gonna side pieces. Just the guys that we had. We want him back. They’re probably going to come back and then we’re like, “Hey, you know how you guys want a not happening unless his name’s Terrick Scubble.” Like, yeah, sorry. I mean, again, or I don’t know, maybe Pablo because now we got the report that Pablo’s more available than Joe Ryan. I’d take Pablo in a heartbeat, but he’s probably again probably a really good two. Probably not an ace. Yeah, I think you put him with another two, Nolan Mlan. Now you’re cooking with gas. I think I think in real life I like Pablo more than Joe Ryan. Fantasy baseball I take Joe Ryan over Pablo, but real life I probably take Pablo and Sandy over Joe Ryan. I think that’s a fair I think that’s fair. I’m interested to see what Joe Ryan looks like in a couple years. Not from a like injury standpoint, but just like it’s such a unique profile. How does that play? We haven’t really seen that for an extended period of time. Would you rather Pablo or Freddy? Freddy. Yeah. Do you say that more of just because you think Freddy’s a better pitcher or it was also the idea of like taking the best pitcher off another NL competitor? I just think Freddy’s probably a better pitcher. I think I love Pablo, but I do get a little nervous sometimes when you’ve just like been pitching the AL Central for a couple years and putting up like the best of your career. Like you’re playing at least the White Sox the Royals have two major league players on their roster like Yeah. Right. I we we did our rankings on the wind up of current rosters and I think the AL Central was four of the bottom 25. Like the rosters are pitiful. Really really bad that league. But it’s nothing’s happened yet. I still think a lot’s going to happen this Mets off seasonason. Like I think this team’s going to look I think this team’s going to be very active. I think there’s a good chance they look a lot different. They missed the playoffs. They have to do stuff. Yeah. Every single time Sterns does one of these availability like last season was a disappointment in many ways. One that we could like were shocked by. People on Twitter will tell you that Sterns is not going to do anything different. He’s gonna have a bad off season. Yeah, of course. Because they know. Of course. Everybody knows. Do we even know? Of course we No, we don’t know anything. Don’t know [ __ ] I think we’re done, right? 45 minutes. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. Guys, subscribe. Mets podcast. If you’re listening to us, Apple podcast, Spotify, Google. Drop us a rating. Drop us a review. Download and subscribe. You can follow James on social media at James Shiano. Subscribe to the Wind Up. Not even going to plug the Subscribe to the Wind. Link will be in the description. Thank you guys for watching, listening. We’ll catch you all on the next one. Peace out. Peace out, guys.

The stove is hot. Josh Naylor is going back to Seattle which could start a domino effect for Pete Alonso. Also, we heard David Stearns talk a lot at the GM Meetings this week and try to figure out he’s plan this winter based on those sound bites.

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