Today, across Major League Baseball pitchers and catchers will officially have to report to Spring Training. Truth be told, many players have already reported with the hopes of helping their teams win a World Series. Of course, there are any number of players who have not reported partially because they do not have a team to report. In shocking fashion, the still pending free agents could comprise a postseason team:
C – Martin Maldonado
1B – Marwin Gonzalez
2B – Josh Harrison
3B – Mike Moustakas
SS – Manny Machado
LF – Carlos Gonzalez
CF – Adam Jones
RF – Bryce Harper
UTIL – Derek Dietrich
SP – Dallas Keuchel
SP – Gio Gonzalez
SP – Clay Buchholz
SP – Ervin Santana
SP –Edwin Jackson/Doug Fister/Bartolo Colon
RP – Craig Kimbrel
RP – Ryan Madson
RP – Sergio Romo
RP – Jim Johnson
RP – Santiago Casilla
RP – Erik Goeddel
RP – Jake Diekman/Tony Sipp/Xavier Cedeno
Say what you want about teams thinking they’re smarter than years past. Say what you want about players being unrealistic as to what their real value is. Everyone has their own perceptions, right or wrong. Ultimately, no matter what your perception, having a collection of players like this still being free agents is embarrassing for baseball.
It’s long past the time for teams to step up and do what it takes to bring key free agents onto their rosters to get them closer to a World Series.
As for the Mets, even if you do not support them pursuing a player like Harper or Machado (which is a bizarre stance), it’s hard to believe this is a complete team. A pitcher like Gonzalez or Jackson should be brought in to push Jason Vargas. With two defensive specialists like Juan Lagares and Keon Broxton who can’t hit, they could certainly use a Jones.
For that matter, to make this team even deeper, they could use a Dietrich, Gonzalez, or Harrison to combine with Jeff McNeil and Jed Lowrie. It also couldn’t hurt to have a Romo or Madson to bolster an already good bullpen.
When you boil it down, there are still difference makers in this free agent market. At this point, if you are not signing some of the pending free agents, you are not even trying to take advantage of unique opportunity before you. If that is the case, you are not doing all you can do to win in 2019.