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Joel's avatar

"The club’s starting pitching reclamation project largely worked in spades last year, but is that an approach that can work year-after-year when that end of the talent pool (and pitching in general) can be so volatile?" That is quite right and I haven't seen any convincing explanation of why Mets leadership was willing to splurge hugely on Soto but then got real sober when it came to pursuing elite starting pitching. How much of a contributor do they expect Soto to be when he's 36-41? But they signed him anyway. It's not much of an explanation to say, "Stearns doesn't like to give long term contracts to 30 year old pitchers". If he's the astute person we're led to believe, he'd adapt to the reality of the pitching market despite his practices from his Brewers days.

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Dan Vega's avatar

I think there’s 2 things at play. First, if Stearns is going to go external, he’s going to wait until the market price is to his liking. Whether it be a trade or a FA, he’s got them ranked and prioritized and won’t flinch until he feels good about the value. Second, he’s made it very clear he wants to leave roster flexibility for the prospects to come up and flourish. Technically, Madrigal was blocking Acuña or Baty, but that’s what the depth chart is for. They are the next man up…unless Stearns can find someone much better at the value he wants.

That being said, it’s no secret the Mets underspent on SP this winter. Flaherty would’ve been the perfect signing, either instead of Montas or in addition to him. We know Stearns won’t give a long term deal to anyone over 30 so Burnes and Fried were out, but there were other options. And still are.

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