3 types of players the NY Mets should avoid adding to their roster this offseason

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The New York Mets won't have a general manager this year. They've put that on hold and will allow President of Baseball Operations David Stearns to call the shots fully. This doesn't prevent us fans from playing GM from home.

Mets fans will be in agreement on certain players the team should pursue this offseason. We know they need to get the best possible starting pitcher. A legitimate starting left fielder feels like a must as does a DH. We can spend all day reviewing the holes in the bullpen. Let’s save that for another day.

We know what the Mets need. What about the types of players they should avoid?

The oft-injured starting pitcher

Poor health can ravage the career of any athlete. It seems to take its greatest toll on pitchers. The Mets will be in search of several of those both for starting roles and spots in the bullpen. While they don’t need to stick only with those channeling their inner Cal Ripken Jr., the team should avoid the starting pitchers who seem to make annual trips to the IL.

There is an exception, however. If the Mets load up heavily at the top of the rotation, taking a flier on someone with a poor track record of staying on the field might not be the worst choice. The team just can’t put their faith in someone staying healthy. So a player like Luis Severino who hasn’t made more than 20 starts in a season since 2018 only makes sense if he’s a complementary piece and not a major one.

The healthiest pitchers aren’t always the most effective ones. It’s about finding the right balance between talent and being able to stay on the field. Lucas Giolito, for example, is a generally healthy arm whose abilities on the field come into question. Former Mets starter Chris Bassitt is one of the better examples of a guy who has the right balance. He’ll never win a Cy Young but you know what you’re getting.

The DH who doesn't own a glove

Daniel Vogelbach never played a single inning in the field for the Mets. Never. Not once. He must not even own a glove.

The idea of a DH who only hits (there is some irony there in Vogelbach’s case) doesn’t seem so palatable anymore. It feels like such a waste of a roster spot when the guy goes cold and can’t even give you innings in the field as a defender.

This is something the Mets need to avoid. Shohei Ohtani is excluded from the conversation because signing him is hoping he’ll be able to pitch in 2024. The DH exclusive players in the league right now are pretty limited with J.D. Martinez as probably the only player you could make a serious case for the Mets to actually sign. Preferably, they stay away.

An opinion I’m not willing to budge on is the concept of carrying a player on the roster that doesn’t actually play the field. The situation needs to be nearly perfect for a team to afford to have a traditionally untraditional DH-only player. The Mets cannot afford to have someone like this. There are far too many other questions with the offense.

Selecting the right choice(s) to take on those DH at-bats isn’t easy. The Mets may end up choosing wisely and still suffer at the hands of an injury, unexpected underperformance, or other problem. The only way to get it wrong from the start is to commit to a player incapable of offering enough to the overall game.

The overpriced free agent coming off a great year

Congratulations are in order to Blake Snell for an amazing year that earned him a Cy Young. He had an awesome season at the perfect time. It shouldn’t be enough to convince the Mets he’s the right fit for their rotation.

Those overpriced free agents who dominated right before hitting the open market seem to have a tendency to flounder once paid. Have they really phoned it in because they now own three swimming pools made of pure gold instead of two? Whatever it is, the Mets need to be cautious about overpaying for a guy whose stock is at an all-time high because of one season prior to free agency.

Candidates for this go well beyond just Snell. Was Jorge Soler motivated by the opt out in his contract? He was almost irrelevant for the Miami Marlins in 2022. Last year he was one of the best sluggers in the game.

Unfortunately, a lot of free agency is paying for what a player has done in the past. Specifically, it’s the recent 12 months that tend to reward players. Many are already on the decline by the time they do become available.

There are certainly exceptions. Navigating through which players are about to take off and which are going downhill can be difficult. Apparently, the Mets didn’t foresee Zack Wheeler becoming one of the best pitchers in the game when they let him go.

Just because a guy was really good in 2024 doesn’t mean the Mets should buy into him being excellent again in 2024 and beyond. They need to pay close attention to the overall score of what he has done and more importantly what he will do.

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