The Mets had a surprisingly quiet off-season, signing OF Michael Cuddyer in early November, inking John Mayberry Jr. to a one-year deal and acquiring Sean Gilmartin during the winter meetings, and a handful of players to minor league contracts to fill their rosters on the farm.
They only recently filled a gaping hole on the left side of their bullpen, acquiring Alex Torres and Jerry Blevins earlier this week, turning that aspect of the club into a potential strength.
It’s these kinds of moves which has David Wright both encouraged and pleased with the Mets moves ahead of the 2015 season.
“We needed some lefthanded help in the bullpen and we went out and got two of them,” Wright told Marc Carig of Newsday. “We needed a righthanded hitter off the bench and we signed Mayberry. We needed a guy you could stick in the corner outfield who could hit and we signed Cuddyer.”
These acquisitions for the bullpen serve as another example to Wright the front office is willing to do what they can to put a winning club back on the field.
“It’s not the big-ticket, headline-grabbing, Boston Red Sox type moves,” “But when we’ve had needs, it seems like we’re addressing them.”
The moves are certainly suggestive of a shift in thinking and overall operation of the franchise, and it’s refreshing. In previous years, the Mets entered the regular season with weaknesses and a simple lack of quality options up and down the roster.
But, as Wright told Carig, they’ve addressed most of the glaring problems they had coming into this season, despite some coming at the last second. Better late than never, I suppose.
I’m really interested in seeing what Mayberry’s impact is, as this could end up being a very underrated move for the Mets. They weren’t very productive against left-handed pitching last year, and they were terrible against them off the bench in particular. With the emphasis of the game so much on bullpens and playing match-ups, it’s important for the Mets to have a piece on the chess board to counter a big move with. Mayberry gives them a powerful weapon in those situations and a guy they can slot into the lineup against left-handers at a couple of positions.
Just Mets 