Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 lessons the team can learn from last offseason’s misfires

Where did New York Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns shine brightest? It definitely wasn’t in the 2023-2024 offseason. Other than the success provided by Sean Manaea and Luis Severino, he seemed to be at his best with in-season moves. Promotions that worked out incredibly well during the regular season and some wise trades are what helped turn the Mets around.

There are always lessons to be learned from failures in the past. The Mets certainly had their misfires. Avoiding some of these mistakes can get them off to a better start in 2025.

1) The Mets don’t need to create a situation where they have too much roster redundancy

The Mets really wanted a strong defensive team in 2024. The odd thing about it is through the first few weeks of the season they weren’t that great with the glove. It held them back offensively. Zack Short and Joey Wendle? They were never necessary together.

It wasn’t just those two versatile infielders who gave the impression the Mets put too many eggs into one basket. Harrison Bader and Tyrone Taylor essentially swapped roles by the time the season was over with. There was never much of a need to have both together. While an acceptable attempt to give themselves two good defensive players on the roster, it handicapped them at times because this was a team that employed J.D. Martinez. For a good length of time, Martinez was joined on the roster by DJ Stewart who is essentially a DH himself. Jesse Winker is nothing special with a glove either and the Mets wisely moved Stewart to the minors in favor of him.

The way this roster was built seemed more focused on types of players rather than checking off all of the necessary boxes. The only speed they had on the bench came from Taylor. Then there was the bullpen where things were questionable from the start.