Marcus Stroman Addition Won’t Improve Mets
The Marcus Stroman trade might seem like a big deal to Mets fans, but let’s face the facts: The Mets won’t get any better. Do they have great pitching now? Yes. Hitting? A resounding no. The Mets’ strategy of acquiring offensive players past their prime (remember Mo Vaughn?) is puzzling to say the least. Stroman is one of the best pitchers in baseball, one wouldn’t argue otherwise, but pitching alone doesn’t win championships.
Hitting Wins Championships
You need great hitting to make it to the World Series, which is why it was stunning when the Mets made it there somehow in 2015. The Mets’ have two legitimate sluggers: Pete Alonso and Michael Conforto. Other than that, their starting line-up looks about as powerful as Pee Wee Reese. The Toddfather (Todd Frazier) is solid, but acquiring Robinson Cano at this point in his career was textbook Mets. A team with Juan Lagares as a starting center fielder just doesn’t make the cut. Every truly great baseball team needs, at the very least, a significant run producer in the center field position. Lagares might have been great in the minors, which makes him better at baseball than 99.99 percent of people, but he’s not built for the major leagues.
Three Aces?
Stroman’s enthusiasm about joining the Mets is questionable. Who can blame him? Even his father admitted Stroman was hoping to join the Yankees. The Mets’ pitching will now look great on paper. A Jacob deGrom–Noah Syndegaard-Stroman trio sounds like a Greg Maddux–John Smoltz–Tom Glavine combination, but that’s in the alternate universe where the Mets also have an Andruw Jones in center. It’s just not going to work out. Is there a chance they make a crazy end-of-year run like they did in 2015? It’s not outside the realm of possibility. Neither is Crosby Stills Nash and Young reuniting. Chances are neither event will occur, and the Mets will continue to be perennial cellar dwellers, despite having three aces in the pitching rotation.
You Don’t Need Amazing Pitching to be Legendary
Not sure what the Mets are thinking by focusing all that energy on pitching. All one has to do is look at the 1996-2000 Yankees dynasty to see you don’t need amazing pitching from every starter to be legendary. Sorry, Stroman, but you just joined the wrong New York team. At least the food and nightlife is great in New York, so he does have that to look forward to.
