Edwin Diaz
If this was 2024, the New York Mets should have given everything they had to get Tarik Skubal. He is the best pitcher in the game, and when the best pitcher in the game potentially becomes available, you do all you can to go out and get him.
Short of Nolan McLean, there should not be one untouchable for the Mets in a pursuit of Skubal. He could be what Mike Hampton and Johan Santana were. He’s the left-handed ace that puts the Mets in position to make the postseason (yes, I know the 2008 Mets collapsed, but Santana was brilliant in Game 161).
That all said, the way the Mets have operated this offseason, there is no way this team should pursue Skubal. It would be a massive mistake.
Since taking over as the President of Baseball Operations, David Stearns has been restrained in handing out long-term deals. So far, the longest contract he has handed out to a pitcher has been the three year deal given to Sean Manaea.
Take Juan Soto out of the equation. He was a once in a generation free agent, and he was someone whose contract was handled at the ownership level in conjunction with Stearns. Soto was an outlier and should be treated as such.
Taking Soto out of the equation, Stearns has not handed out one contract longer than three years. Most of the deals have been two years with a player option.
Stearns holding to three years has been impacting the Mets this offseason. Pete Alonso left for a five year deal when the Mets wouldn’t go past three. The Mets unwillingness to go to four years was a reason Edwin Diaz went to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
If the Mets are stuck in that mindset trading for Skubal is a non-starter. He is going to have a prospect cost that will require you to sign Skubal to an extension. That is just not going to happen.
First and foremost, Skubal is represented by Scott Boras. Boras does not typically allow his free agents to sign an extension prior to hitting free agency. If you are going to convince Boras and his players to sign an extension, you are going to have to blow them out of the water.
Certainly, we saw with Francisco Lindor and Soto that Steve Cohen is willing to do that. However, we have also seen with Cohen he is willing to mostly sit back and let Stearns do what he wants.
That is not a criticism of Cohen. It is a strength. We see all the years other New York teams have been encumbered by ownership interference. Cohen’s willingness to open his checkbook and listen to the advice of those he employs is why we are lucky to have him running the Mets.
However, with Stearns, there are limitations. That limitation is signing marquee free agents who are not in their early prime. Looking at his entire history as a GM or president of baseball operations, Stearns is not going to give Skubal, a soon to be 29 year old pitcher who has had Tommy John and flexor tendon surgery, the 10 year deal Skubal is going to demand.
If you are not going to go all out to sign Skubal, why drain the farm system you’ve worked so hard to build? It simply doesn’t make sense.
Stearns has been inflexible not giving out more than three years. It’s at the point where they trade away five years of Brandon Nimmo for three years of Marcus Semien even if Nimmo will be the same age Semien will be when their contracts are over.
We an have the discussion over how prudent Stearns’ position has been. We can talk about how it helps or hinders the Mets. At the moment, we just have to acknowledge how that position should mean the Mets cannot pursue Skubal. ‘
Hopefully, with McLean, the Mets have the ace they need. We can envision a rotation led by McLean and buttressed by Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong. With any luck, they can do what Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, and Noah Syndergaard did in 2015.
Just like in 2015, that group will need a veteran leader to lead the staff. They most likely won’t have a Skubal or other pitcher of that ilk as they would command too many years.
It’s time to abandon that pipe dream . . . at least until Stearns is ready to show some flexibility in his approach in dealing with giving out contracts.
New York Mets fans are devastated Pete Alonso has left the New York Mets for the Baltimore Orioles. It’s an especially tough hit after Edwin Díaz left to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
There are some differences and similarities. In reality, who cares what they are when the end result is Alonso is a former Met.
With Alonso, he’s a forever fan favorite with some truly great moments. He was the Rookie of the Year breaking the rookie home run record. That would also be the first of back-to-back Home Run Derby titles.
He’s the Mets all-time single season and career home run leader. We can tick off all of our favorite memories, but we should all be able to agree his best moment as a Met was in Game Three of the 2024 Wild Card Series:
Imagine telling a Mets fan on October 3, 2024 that come 2026 Alonso would be gone, and Devin Williams would be a Met.
From a Mets perspective, it’s hard to argue with them not re-signing Alonso. There are plenty of slugging first basemen that fell apart at this point in their careers.
Fred McGriff had 262 homers through his age 30 season. He hung around for another 10 years and never got to 500 homers. For reference, Alonso is at 264.
Ryan Howard had 253 through his age 30 season. As we know, his career fell apart after that, and he’d only hit 129 homers over the next six years.
Yes, there are other examples for guys who were successful past 30. We don’t have to look far with the Mets bidding for Kyle Schwarber before Schwarber returned to the Phillies on a five year deal.
Whatever the case, we can look to last offseason as to the big reason Alonso likely left.
Alonso was looking for a massive payday, and no one was willing to give it to him. The negotiations irritated Steve Cohen with Cohen remarking, “I’m being brutally honest. I don’t like the negotiations. I don’t like what’s been presented to us.”
Both sides were angry and hurt with the bitterness apparently still lingering. After all, Alonso didn’t even wait to get out of his full uniform before announcing he was opting out of his deal.
For their part, the Mets never made a formal offer. That was on the heels of their pursuit of Schwarber.
Let’s be honest. Both sides were ready to go separate ways. The Mets didn’t want to give him a massive deal that will likely age badly, and Alonso wanted to go somewhere that would pay him like a superstar.
Alonso wanted to go, and he found a home. Unlike Díaz, he didn’t go somewhere to win a World Series. He went and got paid. There is nothing wrong with that.
All this means is that LFGM is dead like OMG died when Jose Iglesias left. A future Hall of Famer left the door with the Mets searching for ways to replace him.
Pete Alonso is an Oriole, and the Mets are in transition. That’s for the best for everyone. Best of luck to him, thanks for the memories, and for one last time:
https://x.com/we_are_met_fans/status/1955449841515155954?s=46&t=C-cAjvMjkzGA7iCb6Xr6ng
LFGM
Perhaps New York Mets fans should’ve expected it, but we were all shocked and disappointed Edwin Díaz signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The fans immediately directed their ire towards David Stearns, and correctly so.
Spin the story any which way you want. In all iterations, Stearns completely and utterly failed.
There were reports the Mets were “shocked” Díaz left without giving them a chance to match. They expected him to return. Put another way, Stearns completely misread the situation.
There were reports Díaz was upset the Mets fired Jeremy Hefner. Remember, Hefner fixed Díaz’s stride and helped him become the best closer in baseball.
Hefner was fired partially as an overreaction to the Mets pitching staff collapsing. Remember, that was because of the pitchers Stearns obtained and not anything Hefner did.
As an example, Stearns let Luis Severino walk (when he wanted to return) to sign Frankie Montas. Somehow, Hefner was to blame for Stearns signing broken starters and relievers.
There’s Stearns no fifth year rule. Remember, Diaz said he’d return to the Mets if he got the same deal he got last time. If the Mets gave him that offer, he’s back for a lower AAV they were offering him.
Instead they opted to gamble they could outbid everyone. They weren’t even given the chance with them now looking at Robert Suarez amongst others.
By the way, if Suarez gets a two year deal, he wlll be signed to his age 36 season. If the Mets wrapped up Díaz by giving him five years, he’s would’ve been signed through his age 36 season. But hey, it’s length of deal and not age.
The Mets said their three year $66 million deal had “wiggle room.” That’s just about the dumbest way to negotiate. Hey, we’re offering this, but we have more money for you but only after someone else engages you in contract talks.
Please, come back to us after someone offers you more, so you can hear our best offer. Why let Díaz actively seek out better offers to get a better one out of you? You run the risk of letting him: (1) get an offer you won’t match; (2) be blown away by another team; or (3) never give you a chance to match or counter.
The Mets let Díaz shop their offer. The Dodgers bettered it, and they were impressive enough (or Díaz was upset enough) Díaz opted just to leave.
Díaz was also apparently upset the Mets signed Devin Williams without talking to him. Certainly, it must’ve been a shock to see the Mets sign another closer when they’re telling you they want you back.
Now, the Mets tried to make it clear to everyone they wanted Williams as a bridge to Díaz. That’s good and all, but why not just tell Díaz?
It goes to a growing criticism of Stearns. He’s a poor communicator with the players. That’s a very bad quality for someone entasked with building relationships to entice people to either stay or come to your team.
There are some accusing Díaz of ring chasing. Guess what? The Mets haven’t exactly put together a roster to convince Díaz they can compete with the Dodgers now. Again, that’s on Stearns.
The Mets expecting and hoping for some loyalty from Díaz is also a little thick. Stearns forced Brandon Nimmo out the door. Remember, Nimmo was a homegrown Met who loved being a Met and never wanted to waive or be asked to waive his no-trade clause.
Nimmo was partially persuaded to accept the trade to the Texas Rangers by Jacob deGrom. Stearns had partially opted to not retain the homegrown Met because he wanted more years. Again, years are standing in the way of signing impactful free agents.
At the end of the day, the Mets offer was to come back to a team who fired his pitching coach. They asked him to return to a team showing no loyalty to anyone. There’s rumors of a toxic clubhouse.
The Mets didn’t want to give him what he wanted. They don’t have the best roster amongst the teams who were vying for his services. They didn’t have the best offer, nor did they make their best offer.
Overall, the Mets not only misjudge the situation, but they also misjudged their relationship with Díaz. That doesn’t happen to a competent GM who is supposed to have good working relationships with his players and their agents.
Stearns botched the Díaz situation from every single angle. That led to Díaz signing with the Dodgers, and the Mets being left in shock and an already bad bullpen losing their only reliable arm.
Stearns has work to do here not only in terms of fixing this Mets roster, but also in ensuring something like this never happens again.
Weird things happen in the MLB postseason. Since the expanded postseason format, things rarely, if ever, goes as planned.
The first expansion was in 1969. The New York Mets shocked the world that year. Even though the Mets had won 100 games, they beat the favored Atlanta Braves in the first ever NLCS.
The Mets went on to shock the world by beating the 109 win Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.
Four years later, behind the Tug McGraw mantra of “Ya Gotta Believe!” the 1973 Mets won the NL East with only 82 wins. That team beat the Cincinnati Reds in five games (back when the NLCS was five games) to advance to the World Series.
To hear Howie Rose tell it, if Yogi Berra pitched George Stone in Game 6 instead of Tom Seaver, that team likely wins the World Series. Still, an 82 team in the World Series highlights how crazy things can happen.
In 2015, aided by a Washington Nationals choke job (insert Jonathan Papelbon–Bryce Harper joke), the 2015 Mets won the division. Daniel Murphy became Babe Ruth, and the Mets trio of Jacob deGrom–Matt Harvey–Noah Syndergaard led the Mets to the pennant.
If not for Terry Collins, the Mets win the 2015 World Series. He was as bad as you can be, and the Mets largely didn’t win because of him.
It’s also worked against the Mets.
The Mets dominated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1988 season. However, Orel Hershiser would come up huge, and he’d help the Dodgers with a huge upset. Fueled by Kirk Gibson’s shocking homer in Game 1, the Dodgers beat what could’ve been seen as an all-time great Oakland Athletics team.
In 2000, the Mets had some luck with the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Atlanta Braves. That cleared the way for the Mets to beat the Cardinals and win the pennant.
In the World Series, they faced off against an 87 win New York Yankees team, who ended that season on the verge of an epic collapse to miss the postseason. If Todd Zeile’s ball bounces over the wall, or Armando Benitez throws a strike who knows?
The less said about that World Series, the better.
In 2006, the Mets were the best team in baseball and seemed destined to win the World Series. El Duque got hurt warming up the NLDS, Billy Wagner faltered in the postseason like he always does, and Carlos Beltran struck out looking.
Meanwhile, we watched on with horror as the 83 win Cardinals beat an imploding Detroit Tigers team to win the World Series.
No matter the win total, if the Mets make the postseason, they will be sputtering in. Who cares?
This is still a team who can win a World Series. Everything they need is here.
Nolan McLean is a real ace, and Edwin Díaz is the best closer in baseball. As we saw with the Dodgers last year, you can win getting 2-3 innings from everyone.
We’ve already seen that Clay Holmes–Sean Manaea piggyback work well. It can certainly work with the rest of the staff.
Pete Alonso and Juan Soto had series winning homers last postseason. Francisco Lindor led the way like he’s doing during the current stretch run. Mark Vientos shook off late season struggles to be the Mets best player last postseason.
This Mets team can win the World Series. They have what it takes. They just need to get there. Even if you’re still skeptical, just look at past postseasons to look at how crazy things get.
The New York Mets landed Juan Soto, and it just seems like everything got crazier. The starting pitching market is starting to heat up, and the team is going to be pushed to sign Sean Manae or look elsewhere.
If not, Manae, then who? Walker Buehler? Wait out Roki Sasaki?
Oh, and by the way, are the Mets going to be able to keep Pete Alonso?
While this is all happening, the Mets have yet to address their biggest need – the bullpen.
The bullpen was easily the Mets biggest weakness in 2024. It almost cost the team a chance of being competitive, and later, it almost cost them a chance of making the postseason.
By and large, the biggest disparity between the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers was their respective bullpens. The Dodgers rode theirs to a World Series, and they annihilated the Mets bullpen en route to winning.
As we know, the Mets are set at closer with Edwin Díaz. Now, they need to work on building the bridge to him.
Ryne Stanek served that role extremely well in the postseason. He had only allowed one earned over his first 5.2 innings, and he had that incredible 2.1 inning appearance in Game 5 of the NLCS picking up the win.
He’s won a World Series with the 2022 Houston Astros. Overall, he has a 2.89 postseason ERA going 4-0 with a 0.821 WHIP and a 9.3 K/9.
He’s a clutch postseason reliever. For Mets fans of old, it’s reminiscent of Dennis Cook. With the goal being to win the World Series, you want Stanek in your bullpen.
Now, the regular season has been a different story. Truth be told, he had a bad 2024, and that included his 6.06 ERA in 17 appearances with the Mets.
Still, he is a quality reliever with a career 114 ERA+. Also, as noted by Eno Sarris of The Athletic, Stanek is one of the best relievers available per that Stuff+ metric.
As noted by Fangraphs, Stuff+ “aims to capture the “nastiest” pitches in baseball, using a decision tree-based model to capture the nonlinear relationships that exist across release points, velocities, pitch movement, and more.” Read the article for more detail.
This is again where Jeremy Hefner factors into the equation. He’s long been a good pitching coach, but this past season was likely his best. He did wonders across the pitching staff. That included his work with Stanek.
Stanek has always had great stuff. He’s at his best in the big moments. He’s shown he can handle the stage. He’s everything the Mets need and want, and the team should make sure to keep him.
There was a report from Hector Gomez of Z101 Digital that Steve Cohen has discussed making Juan Soto the highest paid player of all time. Based on Soto’s statements after the season, that should mean the New York Mets are going to sign Soto.
For what it’s worth, this is the same Gomez who had reported in 2022 that Soto was nearing an extension with the Washington Nationals. After that, we saw Soto twice traded.
Still, Soto hired Scott Boras, which is unusually indicative of a player who wants the largest deal possible. In Soto’s case, that’s the largest ever deal.
During Cohen’s tenure, we’ve seen him and Boras have a good rapport. The Mets did sign Max Scherzer with Cohen taking a part of those negotiations with Boras.
Cohen has also shown a willingness to open the checkbook for players in their prime. His first big move was to trade for Francisco Lindor and give him the largest deal in Mets history.
Similarly, Cohen made sure to keep Edwin Díaz and Brandon Nimmo. Certainly, Cohen had shown he understands the prudence in signing players in their prime in the hopes of bringing the Mets their first World Series since 1986.
As we know, he’s not always successful, but there are caveats. Carlos Correa failed a physical. The Los Angeles Dodgers matched Cohen’s offer for Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That said, in both cases, Cohen made the best offer.
When it comes to Soto, if Cohen wants him, it’s hard to imagine another team makes a better offer. With Soto seemingly wanting the best possible contract, it would appear the Mets look like they will be the team best suited to sign him.
We can have discussions about whether this is the best course for Soto or the Mets. We can and should have those discussions, but at the time, with Cohen flying to meet with Boras, it does seem like the Mets are best positioning themselves.
While this sounds like a Mets fan setting himself up for disappointment, it appears the Mets will sign Soto before the offseason is over. With Cohen wanting it, this is something that should happen.
Good on the New York Mets players for making the decision hard for the front office. What once looked like a team that would be sellers is now a team who is in Wild Card position.
Certainly, the players don’t want to waste this opportunity. Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo have already publicly put pressure on the front office to be buyers.
However, this is David Stearns at the helm, and he’s cut different. He looks to sustainable winners, not one-and-done teams. Remember, this is the same person who traded Josh Hader when the Milwaukee Brewers were in first place.
Looking at the Mets, they’re on the precipice of building that sustainable winner. They have starting pitching prospects less than three years away. They have position player talent closer than that.
The question for this organization is do they sacrifice the future for this year. Of course, it’s a balancing act. Certainly, the Mets can be on the alert for more Phil Maton type deals. However, the real difference making players come at a real cost.
There’s an argument for an alternative path. That path has been forged already by José Buttó.
For his part, Buttó had struggled in his early Major League starts. He was far better this year, and eventually, partially out of necessity, he was moved to the Major League bullpen.
As a reliever, he is 3-0 with one save and a 0.84 ERA. With him and Maton, the Mets have two reliable arms in front of Edwin Díaz. Obviously, a team with a 4.07 FIP, the tenth worst in the majors, needs more help.
If the Mets aren’t inclined to trade off top prospects to do that, maybe they should be using those top prospects in 2024.
Again, Buttó’s move there has paid dividends. There’s a chance Tylor Megill can help there. Looking at David Peterson, his experience out of the pen last year appears to be helping him as a starter this year.
It’s something we have seen work against the Mets in the past. No one needs to be reminded of Adam Wainwright striking out Carlos Beltran to end the 2006 NLCS.
Keep in mind, Wainwright was struggling in Triple-A with the Cardinals. He had a 4.64 Triple-A ERA. He proved to be a better Major Leaguer.
At the moment, the Mets have a trio of struggling starting pitching prospects in Triple-A: Dom Hamel, Blade Tidwell, and Mike Vasil. Looking forward, Hamel and Vasil will need to be added to the 40 man roster before the 2024 Rule 5 Draft this offseason.
Rather than trade these players (or others), why not give them a look in the bullpen. Let’s see Hamel’s high spin rates fool batters. Tidwell’s fastball/slider combination appears ready for a MLB bullpen now. Let’s get Vasil away from the ABS system.
Let’s see what these young arms can do now. We’ve seen teams do this all the time to help them win. For that matter, Stearns did that in Milwaukee with Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, and Brandon Woodruff.
Stearns knows how to execute this plan. He knows how to take starting pitching prospects and move them to the bullpen with an eye towards eventually using them as Major League starters here.
The plan makes sense for the Mets in the short term. It could payoff in the long term. Perhaps, this is the way to improve the Mets bullpen now while working to develop their top prospects.
If you tune into WFAN (why would you do that yourself), you will hear the narrative being pushed that the Steve Cohen tenure as New York Mets owner has not been successful. If you hear someone espouse that, please ignore them because they are just espousing ignorance.
That’s not to say there haven’t been missteps. Of course, there have been missteps.
Since purchasing the Mets, Cohen has had difficulty building the front office he envisioned. A very large part of that is the fact Cohen wanted the best of the best for the role, and David Stearns was not available until this year. When Stearns became available, Cohen pounced.
What is important with the rocky GM history is Cohen’s response to each of them. With Jared Porter, his alleged improprieties cost him his job. The same for Zack Scott. This led to the hiring of Billy Eppler, which was a mixed bag.
What was interesting during Scott’s tenure is he traded Pete Crow-Armstrong for Javier Baez and Trevor Williams. At the time, the Mets were in first place and the only team in the division over .500. At the time, no one knew injuries would dismantle that team, and the thumbs down drama would ensue.
What Cohen did learn from that is not to double down on a flawed team. We saw that at the trade deadline this past season as the Mets moved David Robertson, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Tommy Pham, and Dominic Leone. Having learned lessons, the Mets completely revamped their minor league system.
Looking back on that 2021 season, Luis Rojas was foisted upon Porter and Scott. With Stearns being hired, he was permitted to fire Buck Showalter even though he was a popular figure with the media and players. Again, Cohen learned a lesson.
People will want to harp on and mock the signings of Scherzer and Verlander. However, that purposefully ignores the 101 win season. You can’t mock the signings while ignoring where it was successful.
We can opt to hold the Mets payroll and failures against them in 2023. It was definitively a failure. However, it was a failure borne out of an owner attempting to win and build off of a successful season. When it didn’t work, Cohen changed course.
Keep in mind, this wasn’t the Mets 2017 sell-off to save money and collect right-handed relief prospect after right-handed relief prospect. No, Cohen continued to use his financial might to fortify the farm system.
Cohen is now entering his fourth year of ownership. Let’s take stock of where the Mets are now.
They have Stearns as the POBO. They have a future Hall of Famer in Francisco Lindor. They kept Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil over the long term. Top prospects like Francisco Alvarez and Mark Vientos have had successes to build upon for 2024. Kodai Senga was phenomenal, and Edwin Diaz is coming back healthy next year.
The Mets are in great shape to build a competitor in 2024, and they have what they need to make the Mets contenders year-in and year-out. If you don’t think this has been a success, you’re a fool.
As had been detailed here when the Mets fired Luis Rojas, Buck Showalter was never the right man to manage the New York Mets. When you’re looking to overall your organization top to bottom to be more analytically driven like the Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Tampa Bay Rays, you can’t hire someone who never was willing to adapt his style of managing to suit the modern game.
Assuredly, there were people who loved him. He talked a good game. He kept the media in check even despite the Mets collapse of yesteryear. A lesser respected manager would have routinely mocked for the way he handled the Joe Musgrove glistening ear situation in the deciding game three.
Perhaps, that was also the result of low expectations and an unwillingness to recognize just how good and deep the 2022 Mets roster was. Certainly, that was a driving force behind his winning Manager of the Year.
As for this year, he and the Mets were a bit snake bit. Edwin Díaz was injured during the World Baseball Classic. José Quintana had a cancer scare and bone graft surgery. Starling Marte never fully healed from offseason surgery. Justin Verlander was injured to start the season.
There was the Mets inability to adapt to the new rules right away. Max Scherzer had difficulty adapting to the old rules. The list goes on and on with that article from The Athletic doing him no favors in terms of just how ill suited he was for the job this season.
That’s not to say Showalter is too old to adjust. That’s unfair and unwarranted. He still has a sharp mind, and he knows what he knows. The issue is he was taught to manage a certain way, and that worked wonders for decades. He has just been unwilling to change.
Part of the issue is his apparent loyalty and affinity for older players. In the case of Tommy Pham, the Mets were better for it as Pham had a good year, and it led to a great trade at the deadline. However, in the case of Daniel Vogelbach, it severely damaged the team in the short term and the long term.
Maybe the Mets were always going to hire David Stearns. Certainly, it didn’t seem like an accident Craig Counsell‘s contract was up the same time as Stearns’, and Counsell wasn’t looking to sign a contract extension with the Milwaukee Brewers.
To that end, it does seem like Showalter was hired for two years with a chance to force himself upon Stearns. Certainly, if Showalter was more like Dusty Baker in his willingness to balance his strengths while accepting the analytics more, perhaps we would have seen Showalter remain on the job.
However, for better or worse, Showalter wanted to manage this team like he wanted to manage. In the case of players like Francisco Lindor, they loved him for it. Perhaps, they would’ve loved him more if he changed even a little bit, and the Mets won the World Series.
All this said, Showalter does deserve respect for taking this job and not embarrassing the Mets organization in the process. He did come at a time when things were going sideways, and he did in fact restore some public credibility, and he did keep the media pressure off in ways Bobby Valentine and Willie Randolph (two better Mets managers) ever could.
He deserved the dignity of being able to end it publicly on his terms. He earned the respect of his players, and he does deserve some gratitude from the fans, especially with all the damage that had been done to the organization since Brodie Van Wagenen and Mickey Callaway did, and the shadow it cast until Showalter’s hiring.
In all honesty, hopefully, we will see Showalter get one more crack at managing. Hopefully, like Baker, he will accept the game has changed, and we can see his strenghts carry him to that elusive World Series title. With that, he may eventually get into the Hall of Fame.