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| Still From Baseball Bugs |
The biggest question on Mets fans minds these days is the Bellinger of it all… is there any chance our esteemed general manager will go all in for an incredible defensive outfielder/1st baseman who was a one time most valuable player and can still post great numbers offensively but will require at least a five year contract worth upwards of $200 million? And honestly, if not Bellinger, then it’s hard to think of anybody who can potentially offer that kind of pop, combined with quality defense, who has been known to be a very positive clubhouse influence without costing an arm and a leg from our minor league surplus.
(If we were to sign Bellinger, I could envision a Bugs Bunny-like team, where Jeff McNeil and Cody Bellinger could play basically every position, although not quite all at once like Bugs Bunny did…)
Now, of course, the signing of Jorge Polanco is not going to make anybody forget Pete Alonso anytime soon, or ever, and there is no way that will be the end of our off-season acquisitions. We are just not sure amongst recent speculation if owner Steve Cohen is going to want to spend big on another free agent acquisition, and it also depends on what Stearns has in mind on the trade market; it just seems that first base being manned all season long by Polanco is not the reality of a playoff contending team. He also does not provide the kind of pop at the plate necessary to back up Juan Soto the way Pete did as protection in a lineup which is now severely diminished.
There are deeper issues than lineup protection facing this team right now as there has also been a massive exodus of talent in the front office and coaching staffs this offseason. The most recent and biggest loss has been out of talent maven Tommy Tanous, who has been responsible for finding and drafting the majority of our top-tier talent in the minors across the last 14 years. There are two thoughts regarding his leaving, one is the fact that the Mets may have not valued him enough for his contributions to give him a position and salary worthy of what he has contributed to the team, and the second thought is that one has to wonder if there is an issue within the Stearns front office where some of the existing talent is not getting along with the new regime. I am not sure about either point, but one has to wonder with so many defections there might be fire behind the smoke. Ever since Sandy Alderson was brought back as the original general manager under new owner Steve Cohen, the front office has been a combination of multiple regimes, from both the Wilpons days to Stearns, a Frankenstein stitching together of Anderson, Porter, Scott, Eppler & Stearns personnel (not to mention those from Sandy’s prior tenure, Brodie, etc). You almost do not blame Stearns for wanting his people in positions of importance. Great people are great people regardless of who is in charge and should be able to work with any professional leadership team. The operative word is “should” and in reality that is not always the case. Hopefully, this is a one time talent exodus and we maintain some continuity over the next few years at the least. Another thing that we have to consider is that perhaps for the first time in a very long time, our organization is filled with quality talent all throughout the majors and minors and people are trying to poach that talent, so their success means that we are choosing and developing the right personnel.
Furthermore, you have to wonder about the overall philosophy of the current regime regarding spending when it comes to fan support. We have recently found out that the Mets refused to go a little bit higher to re-sign our All-Star closer Edwin Diaz who did give the Mets an opportunity to sweeten the deal and make a bit better offer than the one he ended up accepting from the Dodgers. Between falling a few million short there and not even offering Pete a contract at all, you have to wonder if signing Soto, one mega free agent, colored the entire philosophy of the organization to where they are now gun shy of signing anyone over a certain age to a lucrative, free agent contract. They should not discount all the disappointed fans who spent ungodly amounts of money on Diaz and Alonso merchandise. It does not have a correlation to success on the field, but the fan base should always be considered when making moves of this sort with their most popular and successful players. You can say we root for the laundry all day long, but if my closet is in the indication, I have over 100 jerseys and only five of them do not have a players name on the back.
Moving forward, there is no world in which the current teams payroll can be anything less than 300 million and they are already going to be paying a substantial penalty tax so going all in will not create any future savings at this point and would leave us with an incomplete team. Not being able to field a high-quality team capable of competing for a playoff spot after all the money that uncle Steve has spent does not seem consistent with his modus operandi. Therefore, we have to figure that there is still going to be a number of trades and smaller signings to come to fill out the fringes of the roster.
When I was trying to make a list of free agents who could still potentially make a difference for this team, I started with the bullpen and the two names that stood out to me were Brad Keller, the former Cubs reliever, and Luke Weaver, the former Yankee. After the first draft of this article had been written and while editing it turned out that the Phillies signed Keller; later that same day, the Mets countered by signing Weaver and state one of my off-season blueprint a bit completed. There are plenty of arms to fill out the rest of the bullpen, including a few intriguing, minor league, arms plus you have to figure that maybe one or two of our young arms who won’t make the rotation may start off in the bullpen giving us necessary innings (I am thinking of Christian Scott, for one).
The gaping hole in the lineup is not one that can be easily filled in free agency as even signing Bellinger would still necessitate acquiring another bat which would best be filled via trade.
The names that we have been hearing have not exactly been exciting, with most of the speculation centering around Padres outfielder and former Athletics steroid-cheat Ramon Laureano. At one time he looked like an all-star centerfielder for years to come, but these days he is best suited to a corner outfield role. The other names we’ve been hearing have all come from the Red Sox surplus and they would need another rotation piece in exchange, which would mean somebody like Senga or Peterson in return as I do not think they want another prospect while they are in a win now mode.
Besides the hole in the middle of our lineup our biggest need is still a top of rotation starter. There were very few on the free agent market who are capable of giving us that the top of rotation arm who would also be worth investing 5 to 7 years and upwards of $30 million per year in. This means we would have to set our sites on either a trade acquisition or simply getting an innings-eater who could stabilize the rotation as our young lions continue to blossom around them. Skubal will most likely not be traded this winter and the haul that Detroit could demand would not be worth a single year of control. However, if he fits into the team’s long range plans and they could work something out to get him under contract or whatever it takes, and there’s almost no prospect this side of McLean & Benge who would not be worth considering in exchange. Wow that remains a pipe drain.
Enjoy your day with some future MLB player Tatsuya Imai pitching highlights 🔥pic.twitter.com/lYlTrzgICV
— js9innings (@js9inningsmedia) November 24, 2025
There may be another alternative which would fit in with the youth strategy that Stearns favors. An intriguing 27-year-old potential top of the rotation pitcher came onto the free agent market this off-season, but there is a big catch- he has never pitched in the big leagues in the United States before. He is the 5’11” Japanese import, Tatsuya Imai, and he definitely would fit into long range plans as a potential young Ace, who happens to have the moxie to state clearly that he’s not interested in joining the Dodgers and would like to take down the team built partially on Japanese superstars. Score 1.4 competitiveness, that’s for sure. Of all the other arms that are available you could find at least something to disqualify their long range candidacy. Framber Valdez for instance, has a lot of miles on his arm and he is already in his early 30s and will command at least a six year deal upwards of 200 million. Zac Gallen has been up and down and also would be commanding a substantial layout of cash and years and has quite a bit of mileage on his arm as well. So outside of a trade there really is no sure thing right now and Imai might just represent the best gamble in this current market.
Today is a great day to sign Kazuma Okamoto pic.twitter.com/tBShV803DY
— The Bucco Beat (@TheBuccoBeat) December 22, 2025
Another potential bat that might be worth exploring is the 29-year-old Japanese first baseman/3rd baseman Kazuma Okamoto. Unlike the recently signed Munetaka Murakami (White Sox), Okamoto is a right-handed bat also known for his power, but happens to be a better fielder and better all around hitter. The deal that Murakami signed with the White Sox would certainly be a reasonable gamble for the Mets if applied to a similar deal with Okamoto. Like with Imai the signing would not cost us prospects or losing a draft pick, it would only entail money, and if that is truly one of our biggest competitive advantages, and we need to use it once more to fulfill the promise that uncle Steve made to us almost 6 years ago.
There’s still so many ways this off-season can go, and there are still two months to go until spring training. Stearns makes moves and does not talk about them so anything that is speculated on by the media is merely speculation at this point. He holds his cards close to the vest as he should because it’s nobody’s business what his plans are. That might be hard for sports riders and fans who are climbing for news, but as we have seen over the past three years, he has his own timetable and doesn’t force things to happen. We can just hope that his diligence and planning will lead somewhere better than last season’s outcome. We have come this far - it is far too early to give up now. And as always, LET’S GO METS!!
Author's Note:
This was written about five days before finding out that my dream of Bellinger and McNeil playing every position on the field together will unfortunately now never happen (lol) unless Bellinger signs with the Athletics . As we all know, McNeil will now be playing in Sacramento for the next one to two seasons as the Mets received a young pitcher from Cuba, who is probably 3 to 5 years away from the majors as Stearns continues to break up the core of this team.
Once again, we remember that we root for the laundry...
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