NY Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 strategies working for the Braves to copy more often

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How was your weekend? Four games between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves in mid-August on the schedule looked like must-watch baseball. Unless you derive pleasure from pain, you probably tuned out at least a little bit. Friday’s loss was bad yet expected. Getting beaten down as badly as they did in both games on Saturday was more than a trainwreck. It was a plane, train, and conglomerate of automobiles all colliding together.

Bad weekends like this aren’t anything even the greatest of teams can escape. Imagine if the Mets were actually competing for a playoff spot and this happened. It would feel a lot worse.

Because it happened against the Braves, it served as a reminder of how much further behind Atlanta we are. If the Mets want to catch the Braves, they need to act more like them in these three ways.

1) NY Mets must develop young starting pitchers

The Mets have done a decent job at developing young position players. Unfortunately, the luck runs dry there. Their minor league pitching products haven’t turned into much of anything. There are some guys on the farm now with promise. Many are outperforming expectations. The Mets will need them to continue to exceed their draft placement to have any shot at building an organization close to what the Braves have.

The Mets have needed to rely on free agents and trades to build up their recent rotations. This year was built almost exclusively through the dollar. Carlos Carrasco came over in a trade while Tylor Megill and David Peterson are O.G. Mets draft picks who’ve teetered on looking like big leaguers or not.

Promising minor league starting pitchers have at least created some hope of a Max Fried, Spencer Strider, or someone else to come up. Atlanta has been fortunate and skilled when it comes to identifying young arms early on. Fried came over in the 2014 Justin Upton trade with the San Diego Padres, saving this from being a mostly nothing return otherwise. Strider was a fourth round draft pick and Bryce Elder was picked up in the fifth round.

Are the Mets headed this way, too? Players like Christian Scott (5th round), Tyler Stuart (6th round), and Mike Vasil (8th round) along with additions like Justin Jarvis fit the model. The Mets might have the sneaky-good personnel. It’s a matter of getting each to the next step to mimic the Braves.

2) NY Mets must swing trades for players like Matt Olson and Sean Murphy

Matt Olson and Sean Murphy were really good ball players before getting traded by the Oakland Athletics to the Atlanta Braves. Since joining the Braves, they’ve reached a different level.

The Mets have made only one trade anywhere close to this. We know they have it in them. It’s something they must do again.

The 2021 Francisco Lindor deal is the lone big swing for a younger star in need of a contract extension. The Braves didn’t hesitate to award Olson and Murphy with lengthy deals. New York was able to eventually agree to terms with Lindor long-term. A little too much time has passed since they last made a move like this.

Unfortunately, there might not be as many players around the league who fit into this scheme. Many of the salary basement dwellers have either already extended players or traded anyone about to make a lot of money away. Someone may emerge. Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes seems like an offseason trade candidate.

Where the Mets have the most leverage is Steve Cohen’s willingness to pay dead money. Something as simple as acquiring Trevor Gott while paying the remainder of Chris Flexen’s deal is powerful. More so, how the Mets traded away a pair of $40+ million pitchers at the deadline and picked up a part of the team to land better prospects shows they don’t always have to do things “the Braves way.” The Mets have their own creative plots. Let’s see if theirs is as effective.

3) NY Mets must sustain the core of the roster

The Mets have plans for sustained success. However, at least with the major league roster, many of the parts have been short-term. They’re still waiting for many of the prospects to arrive to the major leagues. Players such as Brett Baty need to prove they’re MLB-prepared.

Any notion of completely blowing up the Mets roster is preposterous. We’re a month and a half or so away from the end of the 2023 season. There’s a winter of Pete Alonso trade rumors upon us. The moment the Mets trade him is one second before his new team offers the Polar Bear an extension and he signs it.

Pieces can be removed from the core along the way. The Braves have done it. Notably, they let Dansby Swanson walk in free agency. The Mets don’t have as deep or strong of a core as Atlanta has put together during the current run. However, as players like Francisco Alvarez become more entrenched as big league stars and other prospects make their way to the big leagues, New York can feel a little closer to Atlanta.

The first step is keeping Pete Alonso around. The buzzy trade rumors about him need to just go away already. It’s too much to start from scratch. He might not be a young and budding star, but he is a valuable piece of this roster and someone they could spend years trying to replace.

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1) NY Mets must develop young starting pitchers

2) NY Mets must swing trades for players like Matt Olson and Sean Murphy

3) NY Mets must sustain the core of the roster

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