NY Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 offseason decisions David Stearns can do a 180 turn on

2) Going cheap in center field

Combined, Jose Siri and Tyrone Taylor are making less than $6 million this season. That’s before agent fees and whatever Ticketmaster is able to charge them for breathing oxygen. It was a cheap plan resembling what the club did last year at a much lower payroll rate. They needed to find some way to pay Juan Soto, right?

This plan hasn’t gone as…uh…planned? Siri has been on the IL for most of the season. Taylor is looking increasingly like the fourth/fifth outfielder he has always been. The Mets didn’t have much they could have realistically done in center field outside of trading for someone better than Siri or re-signing Harrison Bader who played his way out of the starting job last season.

Surely, there was something the Mets could have pulled off in center field that would’ve been pricier either in terms of dollars, prospects, or dollars and prospects. They could be on the verge of it by trading for a player.

Luis Robert Jr. is the most popular name at the moment with Cedric Mullins trying to catch up. Something more outlandish, like Oneil Cruz, seems incredibly unlikely but exists nonetheless.

For any truly satisfying upgrade in center field, the Mets are going to have to pay in some format. Like Windows 10, this plan of cheap defensive-oriented center fielders had an end of life that came up a little more quickly than the Mets would have liked.