Despite all of the whining and complaining from the vocal minority this off-season, the Mets are doing all the right things.
They have already made two major upgrades at shortstop and center field.
Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran are much better players than Alex Cora and Angel Pagan.
For those that just want to look at the Mets record last year and ignore the fact that we had injuries to three of our four best offensive players, let me remind you that the Mets entered June seven games over .500 at 28-21 and just a half game out of first.
If someone told you at the beginning of the season that Reyes, Beltran, and Delgado would miss most of the year and David Wright would have the worst power hitting season of his career, I could have told you it was a lost season.
If the Yankees had lost Teixeira, Jeter, and Cano, does anyone think they would have won the World Series?
Now granted, we haven't yet replaced the offense we lost from Delgado. But it isn't even Christmas yet. Last year the Dodgers signed Manny on March 4. There's no need to act crazy and make huge offers to players that we'll regret later.
At this point in the off-season, we would have to seriously overpay to bring in a big bat. The offers will come back to Earth and maybe we sign them for a reasonable price. If we do, great. If not, time to move on and stop complaining.
We went into last year fully expecting to contend for a title. Other than losing Delgado's bat, what's different this year? Replace Delgado and we actually have a better lineup than last year (Francoeur is a huge upgrade over Ryan Church).
Our real problem appears to be pitching. Pelfrey hasn't given anyone any reason to believe he can be a number two starter. Maybe it was a down year and he will come back strong this year. Maybe he just isn't any better than a third or fourth starter. Either way, the answer isn't overpaying a free agent pitcher that is only slightly better than Pelfrey. Lackey was the answer in free agency and that didn't work out.
If we want to solve our rotation problem, it's looking like we need to make a trade. Martinez is still just 21 years old and a top prospect. Brad Holt, Ike Davis, and Jenrry Mejia are players teams want too. There are plenty of teams looking to rebuild that could be potential trade partners.
Now I'm not in favor of trading our entire farm system for someone. But if we get the opportunity to trade a couple of guys we think will be good for a guy who has proven he can have success, I think we need to do it.
And if we do nothing the rest of the winter and go into the season with this team, maybe we should do something drastic. I'm not talking about boycotting games or switching allegiances. No I mean really drastic. Like support our team anyway. Crazy right?
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