The best DH situation for the Mets next year aside from signing Shohei Ohtani

Signing Shohei Ohtani gives the New York Mets an obvious DH solution. What about all of those other options out there?

After a year and a half of Daniel Vogelbach, the Mets need to approach the offense-only spot in the lineup differently. Pass on C.J. Cron. Ignore any thoughts of J.D. Martinez repeating what he did for the Los Angeles Dodgers while in Queens. Instead, go after Ohtani and when that fails accept you're okay with no DH at all.

The best DHs are the everyday players who just need a break

It's sometimes said in the NFL world that if you have two quarterbacks it means you have none. Translation: sharing doesn't work for the QBs.

DHs are quite different. It's rare to have David Ortiz implanted in the middle of your lineup. Other than a few exceptions in modern history, teams do best when the DH at-bats are spread out.

Wasting a roster spots on a player who will never grab a glove every half inning can handcuff you quickly. MLB benches can get real short, real quick. Usually made up of three position players and a backup catcher, what happens those day-to-day injuries pile up?

The Mets have enough players suitable for regular DH starts. Pete Alonso is a natural for it. If Brett Baty's bat can at least reach major league ability, the team can find a way to keep him on the roster. Carry three catchers for a period of time to keep Francisco Alvarez at the plate. Whatever it takes. Just don’t give us a rerun.

As obvious as it was for the Mets to turn their focus away from Vogelbach this past year, they never did. Only he and Mark Vientos had more than 100 plate appearances as a DH. Vogelbach had 301 of them. Vientos’ second-place was looking way up with 132. Tommy Pham finished in a distant third with 52 plate appearances as the DH.

Roster flexibility was a menace for the Mets this past year and probably one of the years why Billy Eppler is in hot water right now due his alleged misuse of the IL. Combat running into the same problem by not offering one of your 26 spots to someone who will never field a position.