For The First Time Since The 1980's, The Mets Finally Have Competent People In Charge

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In the 1980's, the Mets had Davey Johnson managing the team, Frank Cashen as the GM and Nelson Doubleday and (to a lesser extent) Fred Wilpon as the the ownership. Under that triumvirate, the Mets won 90+ games six times and obviously won the 1986 World Series. 

For the next 30 years, the Mets had people like Jeff Torborg, Art Howe, Al Harazin, Joe McIlvaine, Brodie Van Wagenen, Luis Rojas, Mickey Callaway directing the present and future of this team with a "Bernie Madoff-swindled" Fred Wilpon being in charge. 

The reason the Mets have been a laughing stock for so long is because of the men I listed in the above paragraph. They are to blame for LOLMETS. Ex-GM Sandy Alderson has said that Wilpon's finances were so up in the air for years that if Alderson was told there was money to spend on players, he had to do it quick or else Wilpon could tell him days later that the money was no longer available. You can't run a MLB team like that. It's a miracle that the Mets have even made it to two World Series during that stretch of internal ineptitude.

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That failure is behind us. I'm not saying the Mets are going to make it to the NLCS every single year for the rest of our lives but I finally trust the people running this baseball team. Mix that with the amount of money coming off the books for next year and I haven't been this optimistic about the Mets in a very long time. There are many pieces they will need to replace but look at these dollar amounts that are now freed up:

2024 Salaries

Max Scherzer $30.8 Million Dollars

Justin Verlander $25 Million Dollars

James McCann $8 Million Dollars

Omar Narvaez $7 Million Dollars

Brooks Raley $6.5 Million Dollars

Adrian Houser $5 Million Dollars

Jake Diekman $4 Million Dollars

That's over $86 Million Dollars that either barely or didn't contribute at all to the 2024 Mets. That's basically the payroll for the Cleveland Guardians. 

Now, the Mets do have a bunch of guys to replace. The best three starting pitchers in 2024 (Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana and Luis Severino) are all free agents. The Mets are getting Kodai Senga back but there are some massive holes in that rotation currently. Pete Alonso is also an impending free agent. Remember though after the 2022 season, Brandon Nimmo and Edwin Diaz were free agents and Cohen signed both back pretty quickly in the off-season. I would not be shocked at all to see a couple of guys sign back before Thanksgiving. 

What's the best way to use all of this money (over $150 million dollars coming off the books)? I'd love to see them go out and get an ace free agent pitcher like Corbin Burnes or Blake Snell. The bullpen could use some work too. Having a true elite set-up man for Diaz was something that was clearly missed this post-season. Our new wise GM David Stearns also didn't trade away any Top 15 prospect at the deadline. We also have a bevy of minor league prospects to trade as well.

Mary DeCicco. Getty Images.

Of course, the real prize is impending free agent Juan Soto. He'd be the perfect fit for this team. The Mets have a pretty deep lineup with many solid players but it doesn't have enough great ones. A lineup with Soto, Francisco Lindor, Mark Vientos, Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso (or an Alonso replacement like Christian Walker or Alex Bregman (you could move Vientos to first)) would be incredible. Soto is the closest thing I've seen to Ted Williams. He's 25 and has over 200 home runs with a career OBP of .421.

The Yankees are going to make a massive offer to keep him. They know they need him. However, ask any Yankee fan if they can say with total certainty that the Yankees will match any offer the Mets make. If you look closely, you'll see a hint of fear on their faces.

I'm not entirely wearing orange and blue glasses. I'm not going to say that 2024 Mets team was great. They clearly got beat by a better team. But that 2024 Mets team was damn good. With Steve Cohen, Carlos Mendoza and David Stearns in charge with over $150 million dollars coming off the books, the 2025 Mets will have a better team on the field than the one we saw in the playoffs.