Wednesday catch-all thread (1/1/25)
Please use this thread all week to discuss any Mets-specific topic you wish.
Happy New Year everyone! Hope no one’s head is hurting too bad.
J.D. Martinez was the Mets’ primary DH last year and he put up a 106 OPS+. Martinez is now a free agent and there doesn’t seem to be any thought to bringing him back due to the belief that he’s essentially done as a hitter.
If the season started today, Starling Marte would likely by the club’s DH. Two years ago, Marte had a 74 OPS+ as he recovered from offseason surgery. Last season, he posted a 104 OPS+ - so he rebounded some but not to a level where you’d want him as your primary DH.
Everyone’s attention right now is on the 1B/3B question and that needs to be addressed. But the Mets need to find a better answer at DH than Marte, too. Maybe that’s a platoon partner, like Jesse Winker. Or maybe it’s a full-time upgrade.
Marte’s on the roster and it would be nice to get some value from him. But it’s next to impossible to count on him for 150 games. He’s played fewer than 100 games the past two years and even his first season with the Mets, Marte logged just 118 games. It’s funny how some players get tagged with being injury-prone yet you never hear that applied to Marte. Even under the best of circumstances, he’s guaranteed to miss a month of the season.
My opinion is that counting on Marte as anything more than a fourth outfielder/third option at DH is setting yourself up for disappointment. And he may not be able to fill that role, either.
From SNY:
The Angels are the latest team to be connected to Alonso.
"Angels looking at it," Jon Heyman said on Wednesday during a Bleacher Report live show. "Again, I think it's the years -- possible gap there. They certainly are weighing that. I do believe Arte Moreno does want to get another big bat in there."
Heyman added that free agent outfielder Anthony Santander "is probably a little more likely" for Los Angeles than Alonso.
https://sny.tv/articles/pete-alonso-free-agency-buzz-mets-2024-25
Happy new year everyone. So the Mets are stuck with Marte’s contract, but keeping him off the field can only help him stay healthy so they can take advantage of the talents he still has to be the DH. Would prefer to have one strong DH instead of two complementary pieces, neither of whom can be relied on to play full time. The Edgar Martinez’s of the world are just few and far between. Are they better off signing Winker, or seeing if Baty or Mauricio can do the job and be a backup infielder? Why can’t they rotate players in the DH spot as a way to give them a partial day off? A new year with some of the same questions.