The biggest issue is of course, money. They have no money we all know that, but that's their personal fortunes, the team is in New York, baseball's largest market with a small-market payroll. For the past few years they make one minor to major move and then basically pack it in for the rest of the offseason. Last year it was Curtis Granderson who had a horrid year hitting .226 with 20 home runs and only 66 RBI's. I've never been the biggest Granderson to begin with, he strikes out way too much for my liking. I think he'll hit for more power this year but will still hit for a low average and strike out a ton. Enter Michael Cuddyer, a solid player, versatile, and a great clubhouse veteran but he isn't a player who is going to take this team to another level. He also has had trouble staying healthy the past few years.
Basically what i'm getting at is to compete in New York the Mets need to make more of an effort to try in bring players in, in positions of need. i.e. they can tell us till they're blue in the face that Wilmer Flores is going to be their everyday shortstop but we all know he cannot play the position in the big leagues. They could have gotten Stephen Drew for 5 million dollars and there wasn't even an inkling that they were interested. They could have signed Asdrubal Cabrera for one year and 8 million but again not even in the conversation. You cannot field a winning team when you have such glaring holes in high priority positions such as shortstop and the bullpen. We were told that they wouldn't sign anyone to a major league contract in the bullpen this season. So you're telling me they couldn't have gotten Craig Breslow for a few million dollars? They were satisfied with dumpster diving through minor league free agents instead of signing a proven reliever. They've been telling us wait until next year when all of our young pitching is ready. 2014 was supposed to be the year and then Matt Harvey got hurt, okay that's understandable one of the best young pitchers in the game had Tommy John surgery and Zack Wheeler was entering his first full season with Noah Syndegaard starting in AAA Las Vegas. But now in 2015, a healthy Matt Harvey, a Zack Wheeler who had a decent season, Rookie of the Year Jacob DeGrom, Bartolo Colon who won 15 games last year and of course Syndegaard, you would think they might actually try and spend some money and try and compete this year. Guess not. Which brings me to Ian Desmond, a personal favorite of mine a one heck a player. The reports from Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal among others was that the asking price for Desmond was Noah Syndegaard another top prospect, and the Mets had a similar deal in place for Ben Zobrist but balked at both of them.
The Mets are a team with window, a great starting staff and a mediocre offense, Zobrist and/or Desmond would make them a legit contender. They wouldn't want to give up their top prospect for a player that has only one year of control left, but when you're a young team on the rise you take chances. You take the chance that Noah Syndegaard could become that ace everyone projects him to be, but he also could become a bust and if the Mets made a serious run in the postseason then giving up Syndegaard would be worth it in my opinion. Now that the Nats have traded for Yunel Escobar there is a possibility that Desmond could be moved and the Mets may be more inclined to deal Syndegaard. My guess is it's not Syndegaard they are worried about, it's Desmond 11 million dollar salary. You decide.
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