Off-Season Grades to Date: NL East
Jul 4, 2013; Mr and Mrs Met at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
New York Mets
SHORT TERM GRADE: C-
LONG TERM GRADE: C
Payroll state:
- 2013 Opening Day Payroll: $93.6 million
- 2014 Opening Day Payroll: $84.9 million
- 2015 Projected Payroll: $99.0 million
Key Additions:
Key Losses:
- Daisuke Matsusaka
- Bobby Abreu
That’s it. Positively boring.
The signing of Cuddyer looks fairly shrewd – if he indeed produces like he did in Colorado (hitting .331 and .332 in 2013/14, though with only 49 games in 2014). Even away from the amplified confines in Denver, he hit roughly .296 over the past two years.
There are some downsides, though: Cuddyer might not bring a lot of power to the Mets (13 “away” homers) over the past 2 years, plus he will be 36 years old before Opening Day as he takes the outfield. In fact, Cuddyer might end up being worse in left field than Evan Gattis.
The Mets also lost a draft pick for the privilege of adding Cuddyer to their outfield – one that saw 9 players used in 2014. Not sure that he’s the kind of guy you blow a mid-first-round pick for on a 2 year deal.
Clearly, they are hoping for improved offense from Curtis Granderson (under contract through 2017) and a full season from Juan Lagares. If that happens, then signing Cuddyer might look pretty good. If I’m facing the Mets, though, I’m hitting the ball down the lines… keep it away from Lagares and you should be good.
Aside from that, the Mets are clearly counting on their young pitching to emerge: Matt Harvey should return at some point to join Jacob deGrom, Dillon Gee, Jon Niese, Zack Wheeler, and – yes – Bartolo Colon in the rotation. The Mets apparently tried to move one or more pitchers to make room for Harvey and/or Noah Syndergaard, but haven’t made that happen so far. This gets them a downgrade since moving starting pitching should be an easy task.
Perhaps this might work better if they stop changing the conversations from Gee or Niese to Colon?
Other Transactions:
- Rule 5 Draft: LHP Sean Gilmartin (for the bullpen, I guess)
- Traded RHP Gonzalez German to the Yankees for cash after he was DFA’d
- Signed LHP Scott Rice – minor league contract
OVERALL: This looks like a club that’s not trying to challenge for the division via trades and free agent signings, but instead is counting on players returning from injury and reaching their optimistic potentials. That’s possible, but usually doesn’t pan out.