An active offseason for the Mets looks to be largely completed. President of baseball operations David Stearns suggested during a session with the team’s beat yesterday that the Alonso deal was likely the team’s final big splash (video link via the Mets). Asked if felt he was done with major additions, Stearns replied:
“I think so. We’re always going to be involved in conversations. We’re always going to be trying to see if there are ways we can get better. We also feel really good about the group we have that’s reporting right now, and I would anticipate, by and large, that this is the team we’re going forward with.”
While it’s not a decisive declaration that there are no further transactions on the horizon, it seems likeliest that those would come via non-roster invitation. The Mets possesses a veteran roster that’s largely made up of players with five-plus years of MLB service or players who’ve exhausted their minor league options. Further veteran signings/acquisitions could exacerbate what’s already some fairly limited roster flexibility. Stearns’ response when asked whether the team was moving on from infielder Jose Iglesias is rather telling, in that regard:
“I think where we are now, for that role on our team, it’s important for us to keep some avenues open for some of our younger players. We think it’s important for us to have some roster flexibility with that spot. It’s really tough to freeze your entire position player roster. We did that for a portion last year, and we actually kind of got away with it, but there very easily could’ve been a circumstance where we got stuck with a completely frozen position player roster, so having some flexibility there in that role is, frankly, probably needed for us right now.”
That’s a disappointing reply for Mets fans who fell in love with Iglesias in what proved to be a renaissance campaign for the 35-year-old. Originally signed to a minor league deal, Iglesias was summoned to the majors at the end of May and became not only a highly productive role player but a fan and clubhouse favorite thanks to his OMG song that became a rallying cry. In 85 games, Iglesias took 291 plate appearances and batted .337/.381/.448. However, that production was way out of sync with his career norms (.279/.319/.382 entering the season) and was buoyed by a sky-high .382 average on balls in play that he’s not likely to repeat.
Beyond some justifiable questions about Iglesias’ ability to sustain his 2024 output, the “flexibility” aspect of Stearns’ reply is worth drilling into a bit further. Right now, the only member of the Mets’ projected lineup who can be optioned to Triple-A is catcher Francisco Alvarez. They’ll have three bench players — backup catcher Luis Torrens, backup outfielder Tyrone Taylor and outfielder/DH Starling Marte — who cannot be optioned. (Outfielder Jose Azocar is also out of options, so he’ll need to earn a roster spot or else be DFA later in camp.)
Adding Iglesias would create a fourth, effectively “freezing” the team’s entire group of position players, as Stearns suggested. That could be a reason the team opted to bring infielder Nick Madrigal into the mix. He provides similar bat-to-ball skills and infield versatility but also has a minor league option remaining, which will create more flexibility as the season wears on.
It’s similar on the pitching staff. Kodai Senga and David Peterson are the only starters who can be optioned. Reed Garrett is the only member of the projected ’pen who can be optioned. Each of Edwin Diaz, A.J. Minter, Ryne Stanek, Jose Butto, Griffin Canning, Danny Young and Sean Reid-Foley is either out of options or past five years of MLB service.
That lack of flexibility is magnified when there’s a player in the lineup who perhaps needs two to four days off but probably not a full IL stint. It’s also notable when a specific reliever or the relief corps as a whole is overworked and the team would like to add a fresh arm to the mix. There could very well be some uncomfortable DFAs on the horizon for the Mets, though injuries or poor spring performances can make those decisions easier.
If the Mets are indeed done, they’ll enter the 2025 season with the game’s No. 2 payroll, trailing only the reigning World Series champs in Los Angeles. Stearns noted that he and owner Steve Cohen mapped out various scenarios regarding their potential payroll early in the offseason, and the point at which the Mets have now landed was toward the highest ranges the pair discussed at the time. RosterResource projects the Mets for a $331MM payroll, with $325MM on their luxury-tax ledger.
Oh my God haha said it first
This is outrageous
No, it’s not.
I guess Stearns is happy with third again and hoping they get lucky in playoffs once more.
You can say what you will about the sustainability of his success last year, but he was really clutch in right positions last season and he probably was just slightly beneath Lindor in an ancient statistic called “GWRBI”. The Sabermatricians and statheads never consider the intangibles that players like Iglesias bring to the game of baseball. He was a leader and bought the clubhouse together after they had been languishing at the bottom of the division for the first quarter of the season. He was their secret weapon that helped them rise out of the ashes. I hope the Phoenix gets another chance and helps catapult a team to a title. I would love the Angels to bring him back. He was great for us. His best friend in the team was Shohei.
The underlying issue with Iglesias is that he has to hit .400 on balls put in play to make his offense work. It’s very, very rare to do that even for one season, let alone repeat that as it’s dependent upon where you hit the ball, how the opposing defense does fielding it, and how fast you can run to first base. He might not be so lucky this year, and at age 35, can you realistically expect him to be as fast as he was in his prime?
In a small sample size in 21, he joined the Sox in September and they would not have made the playoffs without him. Although he could not be on the roster, he was a cheerleader and great clubhouse guy then. Would love him in Boston if there is room on the bench.
YES! troutahni? Jose to the Angels!!! Brilliant. Maybe write them a post card to let them know we want JOSE,
Jarred KBC? are you suggesting that Jose and his hitting must beware of the other teams defense and how fast Jose runs? Plus, WHERE jose hits the ball? Come on man, all that is kind of hard for one fellow aged 35? You must be a coach.
Trout – Well said!
And you’re right, the stat-heads don’t know about the intangibles because they don’t watch the games or follow the teams closely …. they watch the stats, nothing more. They aren’t baseball fans, they are Christian Wolff numbers fans.
They sign Soto to the largest contract in all of sports, and still managed to keep Alonso. I think they could and should have done more to add to the pitching staff but this team can bash their way to a playoff spot.
Might do. It’s easy to see the Mets with 8 players with a 100 OPS+ or better, and with 5 of those 8 well above 100.
Looks something like a rerun of last year, modest, fairly deep pitching that supports a good lineup. A pity, though, that Stearns settled for another arm in the $4m Reliever aisle rather than aiming higher with someone Robertson.
Well they resigned Sean manaea (who was HIM in the playoffs and late in the season) and signed clay Holmes so they did ok on the pitching front
If they think this a championship caliber roster they’re in for a rude awakening. Ahahahahaha!
AZ made it all the way to game 6 in 2023 with the power of friendship and rookies.
Iglesias was offered a one year deal. Unfortunately, he turned it down because he wanted a multiyear offer. The Mets pivoted to Madragil.
He’s not getting a multi-year deal. This is a 35 year old utility infielder that got lucky on batted-balls last year. Good for the Mets not buying high when you know regression is coming.
“To all the teams I’ve helped before
I’ll soon be knocking on your door
Just give me a spring invite
I’ll bring my own Bud Light
To all the teams I’ve helped before
To all the teams I once impressed
And may I say, I’ve joined the best
I’ll work for minimum wage
If you just ignore my age
To all the teams I’ve helped before” – J. Iglesias
Nice!!
If a role player, a backup MIer like Iglesias at 35 is still on his couch going into the third week of February, he’s a fool. And / or has Boras for an agent.
He might even have parlayed his good albeit fluke 2024 into a 2/10m contract with a second division team with a dismal IF and no one in the upper minors that’s better than replacement level, or at least 1/6m from that team for what’s likely to be something close to a 1-win contribution in 2025. At this point, though, 1/3-4m wouldn’t surprise me.
As for the foolishness of bringing back Alonso when $30m or a $27m AAV could have gotten the Mets a badly needed TOR for either cash or the equivalent when trading in prospect value, and left them well placed to get a couple of wins at 3B from Acuna-Mauricio-Baty—-that reeked of Cohen diving in at the last minute to play GM. Again.
I’ll be impressed with Stearns’ sang-froid if he gets through all five years of his deal.
Lol, there was no TOR starter available. Burnes was never agreeing to a deal with a team on the east coast and nobody but the Dodgers wanted to give Snell 5 years.
What are we even talking about here?
Read for comprehension, son: “…for either cash or the equivalent when trading in prospect value,”
Life must be very hard for you…. My sympathies.
Wait, so you think Acuna, Mauricio and Baty are getting you a TOR SP in return? Lol, yeah sure.
One of those players is still rehabbing and the other players value is at an all time low. Why would anyone want to give up an asset for those guys.
You are just making nonsense up.
Why the ‘son’ reply?
Because he’s a tough internet guy.
I disagree. The relentless Acuna pub has made him a significant trade piece. Mauricio need only prove he is healed and he’s a fine prospect. Either plus a couple of useful and youthful arms might get you Cease or King or some other TOR guy.
Truth be told, one plus a bucket of Cohen-dollars will get you Montgomery — who was pretty good for the NYY.
For Alonso’s money could have had Jack Flaherty, Detroit’s not on the West Coast and Sunny, and had money left over for OMG.
Kids could have got some more AB’s
But what can I say, were stuck with the Polar Beer.
And Mets still don’t have a TOR arm and a lot of question marks in the rotation, injury and or short sample size; you will pay more dearly for TOR at the deadline in my humble opinion.
Flaherty will get you nowhere.
Detroit has a pitching m coach Flaherty thrived under. He’s likely trying to bolster his value having a 2nd solid season opting out and securing a multi yr deal.
Jose was a 3.1 war in limited time. Gosh and golly G. Jose? What ya say
It’s what happens when a team commits too much money to someone like Jeff McNeil.
That’s not even remotely true. You just lied.
Nick Madrigal….. A more worthless player you will not find. But I guess having 2 first round flops is better than 1 (Baty being the other)
Winker and Marte are both like 0.5% of an OF tho
They don’t have a starting pitcher who doesn’t have major question marks.
For what it’s worth, Iglesias has carved out a darn fine career for someone who supposedly wouldn’t even be able to hit .200 in the majors. Twelve seasons, a .283 batting average, 1,142 hits and an All-Star nod.
The Mariners should 100% try acquire Jose Iglesias as Insurance for the ‘J Polanco at 3B experiment.’ Rotate with R Bliss and D-Mo at 2B and give JP Crawford the odd game off his feet. Theoretically the FO should still have money available since they have yet to spend all of their titanic FA budget fund.
It’s a bloody shame that the Seattle Offseason has come down to this- pleading for the Org to add a 35 yr old journeyman INF who was close to retiring at the start of 2024. Talking myself into liking a player whose reputation of being a good leader in the Clubhouse will help balance the fact that his offense will almost certainly regress closer to his career OPS+ of 88.
I’ll say this though – both Edgar and Dan Wilson would love a veteran INF contact hitter who had the most productive yr of his career in 2024 by hitting more pitches to the Opposite Field. Last yr he increased OPPO% total by roughly 35% over his last 5 seasons. Thats not an insignificant amount
Iglesias won’t play for free, so it’ll never happen.
If we’re to believe the Org when they said $15M would be made available for this Offseason that means $3.75M should still be available.
Btw I just looked at the list of all teams 2025 FA contract values- CLE has spent nearly 5 times what SEA has. Only 5 teams have spent less than SEA. How did we (M’s fans) get here!?
The Mariners operate a little differently than that. Sure, they could sign another utility infielder with an okay bat, but they would rather hang onto that as extra ammo for a midseason trade and get a more impactful player at the deadline. Or, maybe one of their relievers gets hurt 3 weeks from now and then suddenly they have to sign a new one, like they did with Stanek last year.
@ayrbhoy He was returning to the approach that served him well in 2015 (>25% to the opposite field) but then did him in in 2016 (26%) when his BABIP collapsed by 54 points and left him with a 74 OPS+.
That’s when he gave up going oppo until 2024.
He’s enough of a ground ball hitter that he’s very susceptible to luck good and bad playing an outsize role in his results, but he was somehow hitting the ball noticeably harder in 2024 at age 34 when he hit it on the ground, so he seems to have made a fair bit of his own luck. That and the shift ban opened literal doors for him.
With 28.6 fps sprint speed he wouldn’t be a bad bet in 2025 for a team that won’t overuse him and can sit him often againstrighthanders.
The fact that he can’t hit RHPs as well as he does against LHPs makes it harder for the Mariners to justify bending over backwards to get him. Between Polanco, Solano, Bliss, Moore, and Rivas they have plenty of righty/switch hitting bats. If anything, they could use another left handed bat somewhere to balance things out a bit.
OMG!!!
Cobble Hill Rules!
3rd place for my new team. At least it will be familiar ground. The Red Sox have been 3-5 for a long time now.
More like Marte replacing Martinez at DH
Yikes, Jose batted over .350 and i do not know the whole story. He did have a 3.1 war!? Dang!
Surprised Iglesias continues to have trouble getting any sort of contract (and surprised at some of the hate he’s getting on here). Never been awful with the bat, decent D, excellent clubhouse guy. Wouldn’t cost much to add either. Overall better than a lot of middle infield bench options
@manfraud He aimed too high and has Boras as an agent. Some guys get visions of diving into a swimming pool filled with 100 dollar bills when they probably shouldn’t. There were a lot of rumors he was aiming for a multiyear deal, something in the neighborhood of 2/16m.
There’s risk in his profile. I’m surprised he hasn’t been signed, but not surprised that teams aren’t overvaluing him based on a random career year.
Normalize Iglesias’s BABIP to his career number, .315, and you end up with a pretty decent slash line, something like .292/ .336/.395. For a backup IFer, even on a contender, that’s solid.
Regress for age-related decline and you get something like .277/.320/.370. You can live with that if he’s willing to do some drills in your training center to compare his speed and reflexes with the end of last year.
The fact that Iglesias hasn’t signed with anyone else yet, and that we got him on an MILB deal last year, is telling.
Love the guy and his personality to death, but our farm system is higher ranked than a year ago and many more guys are knocking at the door.
Y’all are high if you don’t think this is a significantly better roster vs the one we started with last season. I’m sure everyone here was questioning Severino and Quintana and Iglesias last year.
It’s no guarantee of success – last year we had that magic for the last 4 months and playoffs – but Stearns is doing all the right things IMO and we have a healthy roster, healthy farm system, and flexibility to make in season moves, all while reducing our tax hit.
And if a few guys get hurt in April and he still hasn’t signed elsewhere, I bet we sign him then.