We Hit Dingers: Baseball Offseason Preview

Sunday, November 27, 2016

New York Mets

National League	East Division
87-75	8.0 GB of Division Lead Lost in the NL Wild Card Game
Manager: Terry Collins	GM: Sandy Alderson
AAA Affiliate Las Vegas 51’s	AA Affiliate Binghamton Rumble Ponies

Pitcher Noah Syndergaard was New York's best pitcher in an elite pitching rotation as well as the team's best player overall. He was the Mets' youngest pitcher out of the group of young, elite pitchers and has developed into their best starter. Syndergaard pitched a full season for the first time in his very brief career, was an all-star, and finished 8th in Cy Young Award voting. He has developed an elite repertoire that includes a upper-90's fastball and a slider in the low 90's with lots of movement and he should just get better at being able to throw all of his pitches.

Success - After reaching the World Series last season and losing to the Royals, the Mets made the playoffs for the second consecutive year. The team didn't achieve their ultimate goal of reaching the World Series again, and hopefully win it this time, but they still had a good year considering they were injury-riddle for most of the season. They began the season with the league's best rotation but by the end of the season, only Jacob deGrom and Bartolo Colon remained. The Mets also had to deal with injuries to third baseman David Wright and outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, both of whom missed significant time. They went out at the trade deadline and acquired outfielder Jay Bruce for basically pennies compared to his value last trade deadline. Bruce brought a decent amount of value to the Mets after the deadline, and was at his best down the stretch. He could prove extremely valuable next season if the Mets are unable to re-sign Cespedes, in which case Bruce would still fill in as the team's third outfielder.

For the Mets to have success next season and make the playoffs, they will almost have to re-sign Cespedes. Without him, the team's lineup is not productive at all and will struggle greatly to score runs. They will also have to hope that Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey are able to recover from their injuries and pitch healthy next season. The front office will need to address a few key positions before next season, including first base , where they have the future at the position taken care of in Dominic Smith, but he's currently at AA, and at third base, where David Wright was limited to under 40 games for the second straight season. They did, however, extend a qualifying offer to second baseman Neil Walker, who accepted it, locking down that position for the team. I'm curious to know if they will be a playoff team again next season and I'm not certain it will even be a possibility without Cespedes returning. Regardless of their future with him, the Mets' future success is going to be through their young rotation.

*All stats and information come from baseball-reference.com, fangraphs.com, rosterresource.com, baseballamerica.com, and spotrac.com