PORT ST. LUCIE — The Mets have a couple of candidates for the utility infield function, together with Nick Madrigal, Brett Baty and Luisangel Acuña. There may be an argument to be made for and in opposition to all of them.
Madrigal is injury-prone, undersized and has by no means performed shortstop within the Main Leagues. Nevertheless, the 27-year-old is a hard-working, gritty infielder with naturally fast fingers, and might hit to all fields.
Baty hasn’t performed shortstop at any degree, arising as a 3rd baseman and solely getting reps at second base for the primary time final season in Triple-A. 5-time All-Star Troy Tulowitzki took Baty below his wing a couple of years in the past. If he’s going to study the basics of the center infield from anybody, Tulowitzki is the man. The Mets are proud of Baty’s positional versatility, however they’d prefer to preserve him at third base, even when he’s blocked by Mark Vientos.
Then there’s Acuña, a prime prospect who had a robust exhibiting within the Main Leagues late final season, hitting .308 with a .966 OPS in 14 video games. It was a small pattern dimension, however he then lit up the Venezuelan Winter League. The brother of 2023 NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. can also be undersized at solely 5-8, however there’s loads to love between his bat-to-ball expertise and pace. Nevertheless, the Mets have to contemplate the difficulty of enjoying time. At 22, he may have to play every single day, and he might try this in Triple-A.
“That’s a discussion we’re going to continue to have throughout camp,” president of baseball operations David Stearns stated Thursday at MLB’s spring coaching media day. “It’s a possibility. He’s in that competition [and] he’s part of that competition, but we’ve got a lot of time to make that decision. We’ve got a lot of things that could happen between now and when we need to make that decision.”
The one one who shouldn’t be within the dialog is 2024’s standard utility man Jose Iglesias. The veteran remains to be on the free agent market searching for a contract. The Mets felt it higher to present alternatives to younger gamers somewhat than reunite with Candelita.
“We think it’s important for us to have some roster flexibility with that spot,” Stearns stated. “It’s really tough to freeze your entire position player roster. We did that for a portion last year, and we actually kind of got away with it, but there very easily could have been a circumstance where we got stuck with a completely frozen position player roster. S having some flexibility there in that role is frankly probably needed for us right now.”
PAYING UP
Now that the Mets have signed Pete Alonso to a two-year, $54 million contract and Drew Smith to a one-year, $1 million deal, the payroll is, for all intents and functions, set. The projected payroll is $331 million with an estimated luxurious tax invoice of $325 million, in response to Fangraphs, the second-highest in baseball behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“This was certainly a scenario that we discussed and there were other scenarios with lower payroll numbers that that we discussed as well,” Stearns stated. “You know, I don’t think as an organization, we want to remain consistently this high, but in this offseason, given the opportunities that were in front of us, we had tremendous ownership support to get there, and I’m really grateful for that.”
Proprietor Steve Cohen has made no secret of the truth that he would really like the payroll to return down sooner or later. It’s not clear whether or not that future is within the near- or long-term since proper now, the Mets see a window for competition open and need to take benefit. Cohen desires to win and has the assets to spend what deems essential to take action.
But when there’s a probability to enhance the crew, Cohen will log off on it. The Mets haven’t shut the door on a better payroll for 2025.
“Sure, yeah. We plot out everything and anything,” Stearns stated. “In this case, this was probably among the higher of the scenarios we plotted out. I think the general path that this offseason took is one that makes sense for the organization at this time.”
By no means say by no means when Cohen is asking the photographs.
GREAT SCOTT
“I knew that was probably going to end up being the case,” Scott stated. “I’m just being as positive as I can about it and controlling what I can. It’ll all work out.”
Scott will begin enjoying catch March 10, taking the largest step but in his rehab.
