Mets Spring Training 2024
date
Feb 28, 2024
Files & media
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mets-spring-training
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Published
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Baseball
Mets
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Free agency has essentially passed us by and Steve Cohen, under the discrection of David Sterns has made some seemingly underwhelming acquisitions…
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Post
Free Agency has essentially passed us by and Steve Cohen, under the discrection of David Sterns has made some seemingly underwhelming acquisitions.
It was apparent the twenty five year old Japanese ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, was their “big fish” on the market, as with many other ball clubs, with clear vacancies in the pitching staff but the Dodgers swooped him up, and the strategy shifted to sustaining the present while growing the future in house.
Some fans would view this as a negative thing, after all Steve Cohen has already built himself quite the reputation as a spender and everyone seems to know how deep his pockets are, but he is still licking his luxury tax wounds, paying the salaries of players he no longer employs and might be viewing this year as a bridge year to clear up the teams’ payroll going into a saturated 2025 free agency pool.
The term ‘bridge year’ doesn’t necessarily mean the team has no expectations to win in 2024. Sterns himself has come out and said he believes this current roster is capable of being a playoff contending team and I don’t see why they can’t. The current format of the playoffs allows for “fringe teams”, that don’t necessarily have the highest expectations to make a run if they hit their stride at the right time, for example the 2023 Diamondbacks.
I don’t dislike the veteran signings the Mets have made up until this point, Harrison Bader is a perfect prove it deal for a guy who has so much left in the tank in my opinion. I would’ve preferred a better option at DH than Luke Voit or Ji-Man Choi, but the teams’ hopes of success will largely be dependent on increased roles from the young guys and key players like Marte, Nimmo, and Mcneil playing to their capacities.
All this being said, the season has not even started and once again the Mets have major injuries and drama putting the season into question immediately. Ronny Mauricio, after having a promising September last year will likely miss massive amounts of time with a torn acl suffered playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic.
Kodai Senga, a day removed from a bullpen session in Port St. Lucie has been placed on the injured list laboring a shoulder issue with some possibly horrifying implications.
Furthermore, the extension of Pete Alonso has been and most definitely will be a topic of discussion throughout the year that has the potential to end sourly depending on Pete’s production.
It just seems like the Mets continually find themselves in a poor image, even when things go right there is the propensity for complete implosion at any moment, however, I trust in the vision that David Sterns is implementing to avoid being in a position like 2023 again. The direction of the Mets is geared more towards being sustainable and it may be unbearable to see the Yankees and Dodgers filling up the back page of the paper now but the time will come for Cohen to spend again.
Whether or not the team is in a sound place at the moment, the season will start in three weeks. The roster will start to take shape as each spring training game passes and hopefully there aren’t anymore landmines to trip over before March 28th.
Strap in folks, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride