2) 2021-2022 NY Mets offseason
We know the results of the 2021-2022 offseason. Max Scherzer lived up to the hype as long as we exclude his poor playoff performance. The trade for Chris Bassitt was a mighty success. Free agent Mark Canha and Starling Marte were important pieces, particularly the latter who was an All-Star.
Even the Eduardo Escobar signing wasn’t too bad comparatively to some other dud additions over the last five seasons. At least he hit for power and got hot late in the year.
The Mets didn’t have any major misses in the offseason. The lack of adding a quality DH from the start might be the lone weakness when we look back. They bought into the idea of Robinson Cano, J.D. Davis, and Dominic Smith sharing time.
To go from a sub-.500 ball club to 101 wins in one year was a massive upgrade for the team. It paid off and began with the offseason additions. None, however, was bigger than picking Buck Showalter to become the manager.
1) 2022-2023 NY Mets offseason
We don’t know how the most recent offseason will turn out, but considering all of the work Billy Eppler had to do, the Mets do seem to be situated in a very good spot. The club might win fewer games. It’s not at the fault of the front office.
The Mets had two major things they had to do this offseason. One was to replace all of their free agents. The other was to find better options. The former was a huge success. Retaining Edwin Diaz and Brandon Nimmo for long-term contracts falls into this category as well. So did immediately pivoting to Justin Verlander when Jacob deGrom departed and all of the other positive moves the Mets made.
There doesn’t seem to be any obvious miss for the Mets other than, again, feeling comfortable enough with the DH situation. With plenty of options to choose from, it’s hard to take off too many points.
Will we look back in another five years and view this as the best Mets offseason of all? Last winter’s additions will be tough to live up to.