What The New York Mets Should Do This Offseason

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Sign OF Denard Span

With the Mets just over their 2014 cap, there’s one more hole to fill: an outfield bat. Denard Span is coming off of an injury-plagued season in Washington, but that should make it easier for the Mets to land him. When healthy, Span has been outstanding. He posted a stat line of .302/.355/.416 in 172 games in 2014, and hasn’t had an OBP under .327 his entire career. In fact, the 31-year-old has career numbers of .287/.352/.747 with an OPS+ of 104, which are numbers that should induce the highly-analytic GM Sandy Alderson. Span would fill a needed hole in center field for the Mets, where the jury is still out on Juan Lagares. Span also brings much-needed speed to the top of the Mets’ lineup, which means they could shift Curtis Granderson to the middle of the order, where his power would be worth even more. Let’s say Span gets three years, $36 million dollars; this brings the Mets’ payroll to $116.5 million, without counting minor moves such as bench additions.

These moves would improve this Mets’ roster a ton, and gives them the best chance to make it back to the World Series without giving up any of its prized starters in Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Steven Matz. It also raises the 2014 payroll by only about $13 million, a number that can be argued it should be even larger for a ‘win now’ New York team. Thus, from these moves, here is what the Mets’ opening day lineup would look like: