Mets to trade their key play to the Cubs to avoid Him leaving as fr..

During six discussions over the New York Mets’ winter, the team’s first under President of Baseball Operations David Stearns, a trend emerged with opposing scouts and executives.

Generally, a third-party assessor would rate the Mets as satisfactory for their efforts.

The same assessor would then inquire about what the Mets failed to accomplish, specifically, any noteworthy actions pertaining to star first baseman Pete Alonso, who is scheduled to become a free agency following the 2024 campaign.

“The one thing I don’t understand is, if the future is more important, then why not take advantage of this winter’s market and trade Alonso?” remarked a scout.

A different scout described the Mets’ actions as illustrations of Stearns’ kind of “calculated intelligence.” “Now, is that cool-headed, risk-averse Stearns going to get aggressive with his thinking on (resigning or extending) Alonso?” he queried.

When it comes to potential candidates for the greatest Mets narrative, Alonso’s future starts off by itself. Stearns stated the Mets are “certainly invested in trying to keep Pete a Met, and I’m hopeful that” during his appearance on “Foul Territory” on Wednesday We’ll be able to figure that out eventually. When you combine that with Stearns’ declared objective of qualifying for the playoffs in 2024, Alonso’s situation begins to make a little more sense. Both parties appear happy to let the season run its course. From there, it seems likely that the Mets will make a strong bid to keep him. They intend to compete well on the pitch in the interim.

The Mets would compete for one of the three wild-card positions, according to the scouts and executives The Athletic spoke with. Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA rankings, which predict the Mets will win 83 games and qualify for the postseason, are consistent with this way of thinking.

Pitching and defence have been given priority by the Mets. According to a few executives, enhancing the defence in particular could be worth five or six victories.

One National League scout stated, “David did a nice job firming up the floor for the team with some of these signings.”

For now, rival evaluators sound torn on the issue. Some see a huge hole worth addressing in the Mets’ lineup. Others see Vientos, a young player with just 274 plate appearances in the major leagues, without anything left to prove in Triple A.