3 burning Mets roster questions without the easiest solution

Tampa Bay Rays v New York Mets
Tampa Bay Rays v New York Mets / Sarah Stier/GettyImages
2 of 3
Next

If you’re batting 1.000 with your 2023 New York Mets predictions, please use those skills somewhere more useful. You’ve stunned even yourself by knowing all of these surprising facts about your favorite baseball team.

Your skills may come into good use by taking a closer look at these three burning Mets roster questions. None have an obvious clear answer to them. Maybe you can help us and the team out by coming up with a solution.

1) What do the NY Mets do if Gary Sanchez is a huge success?

Gary Sanchez on the 2023 Mets bingo card felt like a death sentence. Thanks to this surprising move, you’re now a promotion for Ronny Mauricio away from claiming your prize.

Signing Sanchez and giving him a chance to play in the majors after tearing it up in Triple-A makes a lot of sense. The trouble is what the Mets should do if he continues to succeed at the big league level. What if Sanchez has a monster start with the club by the time one of the other catchers is ready to return?

The Mets aren’t built to carry three catchers. With Daniel Vogelbach on the roster, it makes it virtually impossible. Even if Vogelbach was dismissed, there are other roster questions revolving around the catcher spot and specifically with Sanchez.

Options are limited with Sanchez. He’ll either stay and thrive or leave via release or trade. An unexpected trade would certainly be nice if it could bring the Mets a piece at a position of greater need. The bewilderment from this burning roster question would be worth it if the Mets could somehow turn Sanchez into a younger player or an optional relief pitcher with talent.

Creating an even greater itch behind the plate is this next roster question.

2) What’s next for NY Mets catcher Tomas Nido?

The million-dollar question for the Mets right now is what happens with Tomas Nido. The organization loves him. Pitchers have given him rave reviews in the past. But the future is now. Francisco Alvarez has proven he needs to stay on the MLB roster.

A massive failure from Sanchez does provide us with some answers for this question. The Mets could move on from him and at least temporarily invite Nido back onto the roster to see what he can offer.

This is a temporary solution. Eventually, the Mets will need to pick between Nido and Alvarez for the MLB roster. As long as Omar Narvaez is healthy, they can’t have all three.

Here is where your magical powers of prediction come into play. The Mets aren’t going to put Nido on the IL and just dump him so abruptly. What do they do? What’s next for the once-beloved backup backstop?

It’s very hard to imagine how the Mets could possibly continue on with Nido this whole season. Even with a contract signed through next year, his time will come to an end. The player option with Narvaez for next year is trending toward getting picked up. There is no room left for him and what he does offer. An underwhelming trade is how it feels like it’ll end.

3) Can Mark Vientos knock one of the NY Mets veterans off the roster?

Let’s stop talking about catchers. A more fun question is who Mark Vientos knocks off the roster. His call up led to a demotion for Luis Guillorme. Vientos is only replacing Guillorme on the roster on the paperwork. His role could be much more.

The three veterans Vientos could knock off the roster are Daniel Vogelbach, Eduard Escobar, and Tommy Pham. Mark Canha is making too much money for us to reasonably believe the Mets would dump him. The other three are eating much less of the payroll and closer to the type of role Vientos could have on this roster.

Vientos and Vogelbach on the roster work together as a platoon partnership but it makes Escobar and Pham less relevant. Trust in Vientos to at least play third base makes Escobar a potential DFA candidate as does his poor performance on the field. Pham’s job is in jeopardy because of Vientos mostly because he was meant to be the guy to start whenever Vogelbach didn’t. 

This can be really confusing if you aren’t following the Mets.

First, Vientos is going to need to produce at a high level to justify keeping him on the roster. The Mets are fine without Guillorme. Escobar is the emergency shortstop if something were to happen with Francisco Lindor. Second, how Vogelbach, Escobar, and Pham are performing over the next few weeks could determine which of the three inches closer to seeing his time with the Mets expire.

Health of multiple position players will have a role in determining this roster question. The answer might not matter much at first because all three of those players could eventually receive their walking papers.

manual

Next