Mets Monday Morning GM: The only 3 directions to go with the current core

2) NY Mets can dismantle the core and start anew

The core won't be ripped completely apart. However, Jeff McNeil is increasingly expendable. Would the team seriously trade Pete Alonso in the offseason? Sadder things have happened.

Disassembling the core, even somewhat, isn't the worst plan for the Mets. Starting anew has its benefits. Ask everyone who told their boss how they really felt about them only to land a cushier job later on. Also ask those same bosses who went on a firing rampage and found much better employees. 

A tear down already began at this year's trade deadline. Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander weren't going to be in New York forever, but all of us expected to at least have them on the roster for 2024. Despite their importance, the label of “core” didn’t belong to them. 

Stack the odds against the Mets going this route. Because Lindor and Nimmo are already on contracts they'd be hard pressed to move anyway, a large chunk of the core will remain. Enough starting and stopping has taken place in the last three years in the front office, dugout, and just about everywhere else. Keeping the parts that work together feels like a must. It’s too much of a step backward after so many made forward.

This leaves the team with one other direction. It’s a personal favorite.