3 things the NY Mets can do to become World Series favorites

1 of 3

As buyers at the trade deadline, the New York Mets are eager to get going and buy and go all in for a World Series run this season. However, to solidify themselves as World Series favorites, the Mets are not done, yet.

The Mets have already made multiple trades to bolster their roster, picking up Daniel Vogelbach from the Pirates and Tyler Naquin from the Reds. Now there are three things left for the Mets to do to take their roster and catapult it past the Yankees, Dodgers, and Astros for supremacy in baseball discussions.

The Mets should acquire catcher Willson Contreras from the Chicago Cubs (or designated hitter J.D. Martinez from the Boston Red Sox).

As good as the Mets offense has been, it can get even better. Entering play on Saturday, they ranked 12th of the 30 teams in the majors in OPS and 19th in home runs. Willson Contreras can make the lineup better because of his excellent hard hit rate and give the Mets desperately needed offensive production from the catcher position, which has been barren between James McCann, Tomas Nido, and Patrick Mazeika.

Contreras would instantly upgrade that position, and offer a constant protection for Pete Alonso as a middle-of-the-order impact bat. Contreras also sports an OPS over 1.000 against lefties.

While Contreras’ pitch framing is okay, he does have an excellent pop time to second base, ranking ninth of 75 catchers with at least 5 attempts with an average time of 1.92 seconds. Compared with what the Mets have now, Nido’s average is 1.98 seconds, while McCann’s is 2.05.

Now, the Mets are expecting James McCann to return from the injured list by Thursday, and that would already knock Mazeika down to the minors, a trade package featuring McCann or Nido to be dealt back to Chicago is possible, if not likely should a trade go through, so Contreras can get as many at-bats as possible, including as a DH.

If the asking price for Contreras is too high as reports suggest, the Mets can always pivot to the Red Sox for J.D. Martinez, who likewise would make an impact on the Mets lineup as an automatic upgrade over J.D. Davis, as he is batting .362 against lefties this season.

The Mets should call up Mark Vientos to get both experience at the big league level and the opportunity to take at-bats coming off the bench.

Before the season, the Mets figured to have a huge strength in their bench compared to their other divisional foes. It hasn’t been great offensively for the bench as a group compared to their bench mob of 2021, as J.D. Davis and Dom Smith have struggled sharing the DH duties, Travis Jankowski’s last hit was in early May, while Nido and Mazeika have not elevated their offensive games.

Now, it looks like the bench will consist of Naquin, a fourth outfielder, either Eduardo Escobar or Luis Guillorme, the backup catcher, and J.D. Davis.

Mark Vientos is another person who can come up and take some big at-bats off the bench. He’s been excellent this season for Triple-A, and has been better lately, batting .298 with 8 home runs and a .619 slugging percentage since June 29

Vientos is also the most major-league ready of the prospects the Mets have, and may be called up if the Mets can't find an impact bat between now and Tuesday.

Having a roster of position players full of versatility and moveability is a big plus on Buck Showalter’s checklist, as he has shown in the past as manager, as he likes to spread the wealth among the role players.

The Mets should add two high leverage relievers to form a “super bullpen.”

The Mets have had their own obstacles around several components around the bullpen this season, with injuries to Trevor May (soon to come back from the injured list) and Drew Smith. But for the bullpen to properly complement the starting pitching, it is going to take more than what the Mets currently send to the mound in front of Edwin Diaz.

We said the other day that the Mets have relievers who just are not trustworthy in that bullpen right now, including Joely Rodriguez. So, it would be useful to get a lefty reliever, more specifically.

Even though Daniel Bard is off the board after signing a contract extension with the Rockies, there are still plenty of reinforcements around selling teams the Mets can choose to trade for. David Robertson of the Cubs is the best example of that and would be great for the Mets, carrying experience from winning the 2009 World Series with the Yankees with him to Flushing in a potential trade.

Every single World Series winning team in recent memory has gotten great bullpen pitching in October, and the Mets need to work between now and Tuesday to make it more trustworthy.

Next. 3 relief pitcher trades to replace Drew Smith's roster spot. dark

Home / New York Mets News