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What Is And What Will Never Be

I believe the Mets should arrest all hope of competing in 2004 and build towards competing in 2005+. However, since this is a blog, it would behoove me to at least entertain the possibility of the Mets making a Royals-esque push towards the 2004 postseason. With that in mind, I believe the Mets can significantly improve their team with the following moves:

Acquire Javier Vazquez, Livan Hernandez, and Orlando Cabrera from Les Expos. It's difficult to say what the Mets would have to pony up in return. Vasquez is obviously a stud, but will likely command something in the $9-$10mill range through arbitration. Cabrera made $3.3mill last year, and I believe is also arbo-eligible. Livan had his $6mill option for 2004 vested when he pitched 650 total innings the past three years AND 217 innings in 2003. So that's nigh $20mill the 'spo's would be able to unload. Provided nobody buys them, MLB would be more than happy to wave bye-bye to that chunk of payroll. Considering that hefty price tag the Mets would be assuming, I can't imagine they would have to give up much. Maybe Aaron Heilman and Grant Roberts.

Okay. We've just added a #1 started and a #3-or-4 starter. We can move Cabrera's gold glove over to 3B, and Wiggie can shift back to his "natural" position of 2B, where his power numbers won't look so underwhelming. Add to that a Piazza/Phillips platoon between 1B and C, and we have a pretty decent infield, defensively and offensively. Okay, the left side would be very good, and the right side not-so-good, defensively anyways. Offensively it would be quite good all-around.

Now, the outfield. Cliff Floyd is good. Pick up Reggie Sanders and his 913 OPS for $2mill. His OBP was only 345, but even if his SLG drops 100 points, he'd still be a huge upgrade over Cedeno/Timo/Gonzalez/Sack-O-Bones who played there this year. In center we have a couple of options. Mike Cameron is a free agent, but I'm not such a big fan. Particularly because he's not much with the stick, and will likely demand 2+ years, leaving us holding our junk when Carlos Beltran hits the free agent pool next year. A better bet would be another 1-year FA offer to someone like Kenny Lofton. He actually posted a respectable 801 OPS with 30 SB.

With the additions of Vazquez and Hernandez, we would be left with a surplus of starting pitching. One of Hernandez, Steve Trachsel, or Jae Seo could be dealt, or we could just hang on to them all and maybe move Seo to the pen for a while. Either way, our line-up and starting rotation shape up like this, with actual/projected salaries in parentheses ($1 = $1,000,000):

Lineup

SS - Jose Reyes (<$1)
3B - Orlando Cabrera ($3.5)
LF - Cliff Floyd ($6.5)
C  - Mike Piazza ($15)
RF - Reggie Sanders ($2)
1B - Jason Phillips (<$1)
CF - Kenny Lofton ($1.5)
2B - Ty Wigginton (<$1)

Total salary: $30 million

Rotation

Javier Vazquez ($9.5)
Tom Glavine ($10.5)
Al Leiter ($8)
Livan Hernandez ($6)
Steve Trachsel/Jae Seo ($5)/(<$1)

Total salary: $39 million

Bullpen

David Weathers ($3.6)
Mike Stanton ($3)
Jason Anderson (<$1)
Dan Wheeler (<$1)
Prospects/Spare Parts ($2-$3)

Total salary: $10.6 million

Bench: Tony Clark, Matt Stairs, Johnny Non-Tender... ($3-$4)

Grand Total: $83.6 million


This scenario would also give us first crack at signing Vazquez long-term.