3 familiar Mets roster mistakes David Stearns must avoid

2) Not giving younger players a look when you need them

The most frustrating part of the last two years with the Mets was the cowardice with the young hitters. This insanity needs to end. All it would have taken was a look.

Let's first go back to when this mistake revealed itself. Unsatisfied with the DH situation in 2022, the Mets made a lot of terrible decisions to try fixing it. The worst was not giving more at-bats to players like Brett Baty, Francisco Alvarez, and Mark Vientos sooner. Instead, the Mets introduced us to the deplorable platoon of Daniel Vogelbach and Darin Ruf.

This same timid philosophy carried into 2023. It was Ronny Mauricio who was held back this year. And for whatever it's worth, none of the other Baby Mets were on the Opening Day roster even with clear openings to have a role. Each was only recalled due to injury or in Vientos' case, an attempt to spark a cold offense. It only worked for about a week.

There may not be a more obvious roster mistake than this because of how consistently consistent it repeated itself. An earlier promotion for any of the kids in either season might not have been the difference. However, holding them back failed to work, too.

Although none of the kids have looked especially great thus far in their major league careers, a couple of big games from them in 2022 could’ve led to a division win and a longer survival in the postseason. Let’s hope the Stearns-led Mets are at least willing to capture some lightning in a bottle with the youngsters when they have the room.