00:00The one variable that I'm looking at is it's two teams here basically betting on the other aging a little bit more quickly.
00:09And you may say, well, obviously, Simeon's going to age more quickly.
00:11He's 35 years old.
00:13I don't know, because we were just talking about it, you and I, not like a handful of episodes ago.
00:19And I was saying, I think that Brandon Nimmo contract is going to be really hard to move because you look at, I think, in the Nimmo case,
00:25like Simeon's always been an outperform the peripherals guy.
00:30He's going to pull the ball in the air.
00:32He's going to make good swing decisions.
00:33His EVs are never going to be great.
00:35Nimmo, you can kind of see a slight decline in not only the just athleticism, where you've seen it kind of affect the defense,
00:44just the explosiveness, some of the offensive, you know, quality, Sam.
00:49And he's had a lot of nagging issues that seem somewhat concerning.
00:54Like, I think the plantar fasciitis was a pretty big problem.
00:57You could see so many times during the year, Nimmo, who likes to sprint to first base when he walks, you know,
01:02was kind of struggling to get down the line just in general.
01:05That said, he still hit 25 home runs and put up a 114 WRC+.
01:08So it's a guy that you, you know, love to add to your team here, but he's not a guy that you can even throw out in center much anymore.
01:14So he's going more to a corner.
01:15And I think that was probably a big part of when you're looking at the roster construction for the Mets,
01:19they're saying, you know, we, we need kind of, even though second base is in a premium position,
01:24we need key defenders at spots.
01:27And I think Semien's a guy that can, you know, play really good defense at second base and give you the value up the middle.
01:32Whereas, you know, Nimmo at this stage is just a fine defensive corner outfielder.
01:36And I feel like that's an area where they at least imagine that they can replace that production a little bit more easily than trying to find more defensive value.
01:45And yeah, I'm not saying it's right or wrong.
01:47It's just, I think that's the thought process.
01:49And for the Ranger side, go get an established bat.
01:53It was very good chance to give you 15% above average production.
01:57And, and it's just steady as can be.
01:59They don't care about the defense as much.
02:00They've got some other good defenders in the outfield and just plug them into a corner and, and get production there.
02:06Yeah, Nimmo has done a good job in his career of scrapping the fragility aspect of it.
02:12I remember at the beginning of this show's existence in 2021, 22, we were talking about Brandon Nimmo being a fragile baseball player and not being overwhelmingly available.
02:21And that came from 69 games in 2017, 69 games in 2019, 92 games in 2021.
02:28Those were three consecutive full seasons outside of 2018 when he played 140.
02:33But in his last four, 151, 152, 151, 155.
02:38So he's on the field.
02:39But the Mets do have 600 plate appearances, 650 at bats coming their way in Simeon.
02:46But you're harping on the point of defense.
02:48And that is the most important one, because that was team identity wise.
02:53What did the New York Mets in last year?
02:55You can point at a lot of individuals who, by the way, are no longer on the team.
02:58Like Ryan Helsley, not being the deadline pickup they forecasted, that was a huge piece of them not making the postseason.
03:05Cedric Mullins, not being the deadline acquisition they forecasted, that was a huge piece of them not making the postseason.
03:11But if you look at the one overarching thing as a team, you're either looking at the starting rotation or you're looking at the defense.
03:19And I feel like it's easier to put a Band-Aid on the defense.
03:23It's a hell of a lot cheaper to put a Band-Aid on the defense than it is a Band-Aid on the starting rotation.
03:28You need to overhaul the rotation.
03:30And it seems like the Mets are committed to doing that with Kodai Senga being extremely available.
03:37But defense, like there was a way to maneuver and swap this.
03:41And if it means taking on $7 million in 2026, I really don't think Steve Cohen cares that much.
03:48And you have that middle infield tandem now.
03:50And assuming a fully healthy Francisco Alvarez, that's an up-the-middle infield trio of the catcher Alvarez, the shortstop Lindor, and the second baseman Simeon being all-world.
04:01And then you've got Tyrone Taylor in center as the stopgap for probably Benj.
04:06This is a very, very good up-the-middle quartet.
04:09We were talking about the Cubs like this a couple of years ago when they had Bellinger.
04:13The Mets absolutely fill that right there.
04:16They need help elsewhere.
04:17Like, are Beatty or Vientos all-world defenders at third base?
04:21Heck no.
04:22Was Alonzo really bad at first base?
04:24Heck yeah.
04:25Is Alonzo going to be a Met?
04:26Heck, I don't know.
04:28There are other pieces that need to go into the defense and the team identity as a whole, but they did get a heck of a lot better there.
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