2 bold Mets strategies that'll work out well in 2024, 1 that'll be a failure

Using what he did with the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets fans have tried all offseason to predict what David Stearns values most. The situation is much different than it was in Milwaukee. In fact, one could argue the Mets are in a spot very few teams ever get to. They have so much dead money on the books and yet they aren’t completely punting on the season. There’s a little bit of purgatory they’re stuck in; hopefully not for too long.

The look and feel of this team is different with some notably bold strategic thinking along the way. Which of those choices will work out for the best and which turns into a failure?

The Mets only signing short term pitchers will work out for the best even if they aren't

The Mets didn’t limit themselves to only offering short deals. The Yoshinobu Yamamoto pursuit would’ve changed the narrative of this team if they were successful. By choosing the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Mets were left to stick with the shorter term options available.

Frankly, unless the team wanted to overpay Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery, there really weren’t all that many great options in free agency. They’ve hesitated to trade away prospects and they probably wouldn’t have had the minor league pitching to acquire any noteworthy arms anyway.

There should be lingering doubts about exactly how good the starting staff can be despite some impressive performances this spring. The absence of Kodai Senga doesn’t help matters, but armed to the tooth with a variety of options, this is a ball club that can survive injuries.

The Mets have allowed themselves as much flexibility as possible in this regard. Something as extreme as DFA’ing a player like Luis Severino if things don’t work out is possible because of the limited financial cost. Available escape pods with all of these pitcher additions will work out whether the Mets are good or not.

The Mets will find a way for the DH spot to not be their Achilles heel

Up for debate, the plan at DH is imperfect and yet not something we have to worry about much for the simple fact it’s the one with the easiest solution. All the Mets have to do is plug in the best hitting player they have who doesn’t have a place to play on the field.

Geared up to hand the DH role primarily to Mark Vientos, it might not begin looking so great but can evolve into a strength rather easily. All it will take is one of the prospects to start hitting well enough to the point where he needs to be in the majors. For example, Drew Gilbert in the majors can push Starling Marte to the DH spot more regularly.

A competitive Mets team has an abundance of directions they could go toward at the trade deadline, too. As long as they avoid repeating the same mistakes from the past by adding players with too strong of limitations like they did in 2022, they should be fine.

Vientos will get a lot of leeway to prove he is or isn’t the man for regular DH at-bats. It’s necessary. The Mets have delayed finding out what he has to offer them for too long. If it doesn’t go the way they want it to, they can bail and look elsewhere.

The far bigger issue than getting production from the DH spot will be solving third base. Vientos is a butcher. Brett Baty isn’t much better and his bat speaks in whispers.