While it seemed like the New York Mets might take a more cost-efficient approach to MLB free agency this winter, the franchise’s new president of baseball operations suggested today that might not actually be the case.
It could be argued that the New York Mets were the biggest disappointment during the 2023 baseball season. The team had the league’s most expensive payroll ever, yet injuries and poor play from quite a few stars led to them shockingly being sellers at this year’s MLB trade deadline.
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In the process of moving some of their most expensive assets, the organization took on a huge amount of debt for next season so they could get premium prospects back in deals for aces Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.
Following the deadline, reports claimed the Mets’ internal stance for 2024 was to pay off their debt, make smaller moves to improve the roster they have left, and look toward 2025 as the year where they make a strong push to build a World Series contender.
New York Mets president not opposed to spending big on ‘right’ players this winter
A key part of trying to turn the team into a title contender sooner than later is the new head of baseball operations, David Stearns. The former Milwaukee Brewers top executive has had great success building a team on a limited budget. Making him seem like a perfect fit for New York in the short term.
However, in his introductory press conference on Monday, he made it seem like the team may not be penny-pinching this winter.
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“Having resources is an advantage. I don’t want to confuse correlation with causation. It’s not the case that you spend money and therefore you’re not going to lose. We have the resources to compete at the top end of free agency. Steve has proven that. That’s an advantage for us, and at the appropriate times, we’re going to use that advantage. But it has to be at the appropriate times, and it has to be for the right players.
“That may surface this offseason and it may not. There are going to be offseasons where the top of the free agent market makes sense. And there are gonna be offseasons where it doesn’t. And we’re gonna have to evaluate them each offseason in the construct of where we are as an organization, what our team looks like, and go from there. I’m excited that we have the resources we do.”
– David Stearns (h/t SNY)
While it doesn’t mean they will spend this winter, his thoughts were a far cry from some of the reports at the deadline. The big question is will players like Shohei Ohtani, Ian Snell, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto be the “right” players the Mets are willing to splurge on in a few months.