Mets offseason solutions are far more complex than what MLB insider makes them seem

Jon Heyman of the NY Post took his shot at finding some solutions for the New York Mets this offseason with a heavy focus on what they should do instead of signing Shohei Ohtani. Knowing Ohtani won’t pitch in 2024 has had Mets fans turning in other directions. As much as we’d love a power bat, it’s pitching that concerns us most.

Heyman always has some juicy inside information. Discovering what he had to say about the Mets this offseason was too tempting to pass up.

Unfortunately, his four-step process felt a little too “homerish.” It’s almost as if he’s one of us cheering along for the Mets while believing the best and most obvious solutions will all come true.

The NY Mets offseason plan proposed by Jon Heyman has some flaws

These are the four items Heyman wants the Mets to do:

1) Sign two starting pitchers
2) Sign many relievers
3) Sign one big-time hitter
4) Extend Pete Alonso

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Part one requires the Mets to select correctly. Yoshinobu Yamamoto seems to be the best fit for the Mets and there’s little to debate. What about those other pitchers? Blake Snell has priced himself up so much this year but given some other past performances it does feel like a dangerous game to play. Aaron Nola has been down this year in a career with plenty of swaying from one extreme to the other.

Yes, the Mets do need to sign two starting pitchers (at least) but does this really fix them? Does getting Yamamoto and Michael Lorenzen (one of the names Heyman mentions) make this team all that much better?

The “sign many relievers” is my favorite part. This tends to be the mission of every team in the offseason. It’s the most impossible to predict. Signing many from a single free agent pool tends to not work in the end. The Mets will need to get creative. Find another Brooks Raley to acquire in a trade. Guess right and turn one of your young pitching prospects with starter potential into a reliever for a year. Transition another one of your starting pitching depth pieces into a bullpen arm, too. Throwing money at this problem has no guarantee of being effective.

Heyman mentions Josh Hader as one of those “many relievers” to sign. No shot. Why pay a setup man closer money? It’s a ridiculous notion to see David Stearns do something like this as much as it would improve the Mets. It’s those other innings they need to worry about and pay players to secure.

The big-time bat Heyman wants for the Mets is Cody Bellinger and I can’t disagree. However, with the year he had, Bellinger is going to have a ton of suitors. We should also give an immediate edge to the Chicago Cubs who took a chance on him and seem willing to spend money. He’d be a great addition, but it feels like the Mets would be having too much luck to get him.

Matt Chapman is the other hitter Heyman mentions. He hasn’t been all that terrific this year. It feels like you’re paying for a great defender with a questionable bat.

Finally, there’s the obvious signing of Pete Alonso to an extension. Yep. The Mets should.

The Mets suffered a lot this year for more than the personnel they had. Jeff McNeil took a long time to get going. A summer slump by Alonso didn’t help. The absence and decline of Starling Marte. Little production out of third base. The punting at the DH spot. So much mashed together made the Mets what they are.

Heyman’s solutions are a nice start but offer no Plan-B. The Mets had to resort to those even when handing out the biggest free agent offers. Where do they turn one someone just doesn't want to play in New York?