Becoming relevant won’t come cheap
IF THE Mets were any less relevant at this point, they’d be the metric system. They did no serious advance work to play in the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes and earned a quick elimination. They watched Giancarlo Stanton leave a divisional rival, only to join their biggest geographical rival.
They’ve made it pretty clear that they won’t be swimming in the deepest freeagent waters. They don’t have the prospects to pull off a blockbuster trade.
So all that’s left is to do good work, starting this week at the Winter Meetings, and hope like heck that somehow, they can laugh last.
With the fates of Ohtani and Stanton settled, this Hot Stove campaign, which to date has been quieter than an ice-cream parlor during a blizzard, should finally get moving. And when that happens, the Mets must be in the middle of it.
Once free agents start coming off the board, the Mets know, they have to come home with some gifts for their emotionally bruised fans. They intend on doing so.
They’ve set themselves up for this moment by dumping as much payroll as they could last July and August, and by vowing to jump right back into contention after their miserable 2017. The next phase comes in the form of reinforcements.
You know what they want. It hasn’t changed in the last month. The Mets intend to strengthen their bullpen with someone like Addison Reed, Bryan Shaw or Joe Smith; land a guy who can help at both first base and the outfield like Jay Bruce, Adam Lind or Logan Morrison; and find a second baseman (think trade targets Jason Kipnis, Ian Kinsler and the newly available Starlin Castro of the Marlins, or free agent Neil Walker). For now, you won’t find a starting pitcher on the Mets’ radar.
Their inaction to date has no impact because of the industrywide inertia. When Ohtani signed with the Angels on Friday, the ultra-intriguing Japanese rookie became only the second member of The Post’s Top 30 free agents to sign, following catcher Wellington Castillo (White Sox). Last year, nine of our Top 30 had wrapped up their employment searches by the time team executives and player representatives arrived in National Harbor, Md., for the Meetings.
In the recent past, the Mets sometimes stood still as others leapt forward and came out looking smarter. Two years ago, waiting until late January, they defied virtually everyone’s expectations by retaining Yoenis Cespedes on a three-year, $75 million contract with an opt-out after 2016, far more team-friendly terms than anyone envisioned, and Cespedes rewarded them with a stellar ’16 that in turn won him a reasonable, four-year, $110-million commitment to stay in Flushing.
Last year, the Mets exhibited supreme patience in a cluttered relief market, and that got them the extremely useful Jerry Blevins for a guaranteed one year and $6.5 million, with a $7 million team option for next year that they exercised. Though they have received their share of grief for not upgrading their bullpen even more, their greater 2017 sin was exhibiting a lack of patience when it came to treating banged-up players, which led to extended disabled-list time and the 70-92 record.
This offseason presents a different path for the Mets. By holding onto Blevins and, more to the point, Jacob deGrom last season, they made it clear that they regarded ’17 as an aberration. With a new manager in Mickey Callaway, they’re aiming for a third postseason appearance in four years. And they’re in dire need of guys to supplement the pillars — Cespedes, deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and (if he’s healthy) Michael Conforto — and to support the youngsters Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith, after cleaning house of a group of pending free agents that included Reed and Walker.
The terrible ’17 results widened the trust deficit between the Mets’ fans and their ownership that never fully vanished despite the success of the two prior teams. With that in mind, you can understand why the Mets didn’t want to tear things down once again. But in order to honor that initiative, the short-term repair job must be substantive.
The runway has been cleared with the departures of Ohtani and Stanton. Now this baseball winter has to take off, right? The Mets can’t miss this flight back to relevance.