2014 Outlook: New York Mets

For the first time in several years, the Mets made headlines in the offseason for reasons other than losing money or not spending it fast enough.

Curtis Granderson was the big splash the Mets needed to make, and as of writing this (afternoon of Friday 2/21) it would appear as though they are not going to come to terms with SS Stephen Drew and are likely done spending.

As a Mets fan, I'm OK with that, and I'm looking forward to this year.



I don't expect the Mets to contend for anything but to stay out of the bottom of the NL East. Citi Field is going to be a lonely place come August and September, but like the Cubs before them and the Astros and Twins even before them, the future at Citi is going to be very bright.

I've been calling for a breakout season from Ike Davis for a long time now, and after going 0-for-2 the past couple years, I'm done. First base is a mess in Queens, as is shortstop, but I must admit, Drew is not the answer.

Nor is Ruben Tejada.

The answer lies in a long time highly touted prospect, Wilmer Flores. Every Mets fans reading this are going to kill me because all your "experts" say Flores (left) is not good enough defensively to play SS. But where else on the infield are you going to put him? Murphy and Eric Young Jr. pretty much have 2B locked down. The Mets are overly committed to Lucas Duda/Davis at first, and you're definitely not displacing David Wright at third.

While shortstop is a position where you'd prefer premium defense, the Mets can get away with not having it for one reason:

Juan Ligares.

Ligares (right) is so good in center field, anything hit up the middle is going to make base runners and base coaches think twice because of his stellar defensive presence in the center field. Plus, there are so few shortstops in the game that give you both good defense and good offense. In fact, we had one, and let him walk. The Mets need to put Flores at shortstop IF Ruben Tejada struggles. I would agree Tejada needs to be the shortstop to start the season, but it's my belief if he struggles offensively, Flores needs to be the guy.

The Mets are going to be offensively challenged enough, the bat of Wilmer Flores shouldn't be left on the bench or in the minor leagues too long.

When you look at the rest of this lineup, other than Granderson and Wright, I can't say right now, there's much that excites me.

I like the future of Travis D'arnaud, but unless he can stay healthy, we may never see this kid's full potential. Now that said, if he is able to get 350-425 at-bats this summer, we may be in for watching something special.

One guy that is probably not on a lot of radars, at least away from the Mets fan and organization, is Cesar Puello. Puello has been a top prospect for a long time, and is just now starting to fall off a lot of "top prospect" lists. And while an outfield with Curtis Granderson and Juan Ligares excites, my excitement decreases significantly with the addition of Chris Young. But, I truly believe, if he starts the year in Triple-A, and plays well, there's no reason Puello shouldn't get a shot come August or September, if not sooner if the opportunity presents itself.

Puello (left) was well on his way to a 30/30 season in Double-A, and may just have matched Houston's super-prospect George Spring with a 40/40 season had he not had his campaign cut short by a 50-game Biogenesis suspension. To this day, I don't think anyone knows what Puello's involvement in the whole thing was, but coming into last year, it seemed pretty apparent, either that or he just hit a major growth spurt by coincidence, that he was on something. Everyone around the Mets were talking about how much bigger he was. And that increased muscle and girth translated into a big time break out. So far in spring training, I really have no reason to believe that break out was a coincidence. Puello looks great at the plate. He's comfortable. He's running well. And I hate to even throw this comparison out there, but he and Springer have a little Yasiel Puig in them. Not necessarily the exuberance for which they play the game, but the talent levels they boast.

I think Puello gets a shot at this Mets outfield at some point this season, and I think when he does, it's all over. He'll be here to stay, and he could very easily be a perennial All-Star.

It's funny, when you look at so many other teams, I reference the Cubs, Twins and Astros mostly because, they are almost entirely built on about three or four strong offensive players, and then the organization, one would think, is going to pursue pitching via free agency or trades.

Whereas the Mets, are doing the exact opposite.

When you look down on the farm for hitters, there's guys you can get excited about yes, but they aren't to the caliber of Javier Baez, George Springer, Byrton Buxton, Miguel Sano, etc etc.

When you look at the Mets rotation this year, I can't say I'm as excited as I thought I'd be.

A lot of that has to do with Matt Harvey going down.

The Mets were almost forced to bring in a veteran arm, and they did so in big fat Bartolo Colon. They've also got insurance policies in Dice-K and John Lannan.

Part of my lack of enthusiasm about this pitching staff is Jon Niese. I've never been a Niese guy, and if I could make a comparison, I'd compare him to Jeff Samardzija of the Cubs. If you read my Cubs piece, you know I think Samardzjia is a competent big league pitcher, but he and Niese have for a while been regarded as "ace" type pitchers, when really they're not. Because they are the only model close to that for their teams, they get the hype of those types of guys, and have been disappointing ever since because of that.

Now, when (if) Niese gets joined in this rotation by Harvey, Wheeler, Syndergaard and (likely) Montero next year, he'll be a number-three or four starter in a fifth starter spot, and will be much better for where he will sit rotationally.

But that dream rotation is on hold for at least year, maybe longer. Which is why I have my doubts on the Mets pitchers this year.

One guy I think the Mets have that is a very, very sneaky good pick in the draft a few years ago and they got very low, was Dillion Gee.

Again I go back to my love-affair of college baseball players. Gee (right) is a University of Texas product, and that is a program that spits out pros and college championships almost regularly. Gee is living up to why I think college players are easier to project than high school kids. Gee does not have great stuff, in fact he has pretty average stuff, but he went through a very competitive college baseball conference and schedule, learned how to pitch and continued that development and is now a #3 starter, though he should probably be higher, in a pitching rich organization.

In my mind, what the Mets need to do, is let Gee and Niese pitch their way through this season, and whoever has the better year, ends up this team's fifth starter when our "fantastic four" (I just came up with that as I was typing, I've never actually used that before) is finally in place.

Now for the bullpen. I'm not big on Bobby Parnell being the long-term closer. Parnell is a strong, up-and-coming closer. The Mets did a great job of developing him, moving out of the starters role and into the bullpen.

But the guy I'm looking at in the future is Jeurys Familia (right). He's an ox who was also once a starter, and will be able to last for an entire season. I thought the Mets should have pulled the trigger and moved Parnell when they were getting offers for good prospects last season, but I can understand why they didn't.

I also like this kid Vic Black, who also projects to be a closer. When I look at the future of the Mets closer role, I don't see a shortage of candidates, and truthfully, any one of the three will be very good.

That's my diatribe on the Mets of 2014. While the best isn't here yet, it's very close. As Mets fans, we should really start to see some of these guys we are hearing all about very soon. For now though, the Mets just need to be better than last place in an up-and-coming National League East.

Easier said than done.