00:00Hi, this is Joel Sherman for three things. Obviously, if you could see this, you see the
00:05Mets over my shoulder here. I've been at Met Camp for three or four days now. Today is Wednesday.
00:10It's the first real full day of camp. All the pitchers and catchers will be out on the field
00:15for the first time. But on Tuesday, David Stearns made a little news. Why don't we go through the
00:21two pieces of news and add a third thing for three things today. Number one, first piece of news,
00:26Juan Soto is moving from right field to left field for the Mets. It just tactically made sense
00:31for player and team. He's been training in left field all offseason because he's part of the World
00:37Baseball Classic Dominican Republic team. Fernando Tatis Jr., a Gold Glove level right fielder,
00:43is playing right field in the tournament. Julio Rodriguez is going to be in center field.
00:48So Soto is going to play left field for that team. He's been training for it. He'll be off doing
00:53that.
00:53And it just made sense to the Mets and the player. If you're going to be doing this all
00:57offseason, if you're going to leave camp and play that position, why not just do it for the team?
01:03This is, to me, probably low impact. This isn't like Bo Bichette moving to third base where he's
01:10never played in the major leagues. This isn't like Jorge Polanco, who's never played in a full inning
01:15at first base in the major leagues, and it's new. Juan Soto was the regular left fielder,
01:21for example, of the 2019 Championship Nationals. And in 2023, he was Tatis Jr.'s teammate for a full
01:28season, and he played left field in San Diego, and Tatis Jr. played right. What I'm more interested
01:35in is last year, Soto really committed himself to base running and nearly became a 40-40 man. He has
01:41told the Mets over and over he wants to be a better defender. He'll be doing it in a new
01:46position. Let's
01:46see if the impact is the same as last year when his speed became a factor, or at least his
01:51base
01:51ceiling became a factor for the Mets. The second piece of news that David Stearns dropped was
01:56bigger. There is a stress reaction in the left hamate bone for Francisco Lindor. Lindor, this is
02:07Wednesday I'm talking to you, is supposed to go for further testing today. The worst outcome,
02:12and maybe a probable outcome because this has been bothering him for several seasons,
02:17is he'll need surgery for, I think they removed the hamate bone. It is not a high-impact surgery.
02:24Lots of baseball players have it. It's a pressure area. Players fracture it, break it, have the stress
02:29reaction with some regularity. It's generally about six weeks from day of procedure to you can play full
02:37time in an actual major league game. So it's like two weeks of rest, then you begin to ramp up,
02:42probably have like three to five games at the end of spring training, and you go if everything stays
02:47perfectly on schedule. And David Stearns didn't really even want to deal with the possibility of
02:53Lindor not being the shortstop on opening day when he was talking. The one downside is you can go and
03:01find through the history of this injury, some players come back and lose some power for a while,
03:07or even a season until it comes fully back, but with full healing. And, you know, in a year where
03:13the Mets saw their all-time home run hitter Pete Alonzo walk out the door, I think it's, you know,
03:19would be some issue if Lindor, who's been a consistent 30-homer guy, suddenly lost some power.
03:25He's also on that time frame of six weeks. The Mets in camp, you know, one of the brags by
03:33David Stearns when they've moved all these guys around is they have four shortstops playing the
03:38infield. But I can't imagine that they'd want to upset the routine of Bo Bichette to move him to
03:44shortstop for a short period of time if that was needed. I don't think they want to move Marcus
03:48Simeon, who hasn't played shortstop in several seasons, back to shortstop for a short period.
03:53And Jorge Polanco hasn't played shortstop in forever, and he's had some lower leg injuries,
03:57and no one would think of him as a shortstop, even probably in a complete emergency situation.
04:03So, you know, it's really about backup players for the Mets. Vidal Brahun is here. You know,
04:08is that him, Great Kessinger? Somebody is going to be the short-term shortstop, and or the Mets are
04:14going to be, you know, one of the things that begins in earnest in about 10 days or so when
04:18spring
04:18training begins is scouts begin to populate around the games. They're watching people on prep list who
04:26are out of options, who are borderline to make a team. I would bet the Mets have eyes on somebody
04:32who could be a capable backup infielder. We can remember that Luis Angel Acuna was traded for
04:38Luis Robert. Acuna, they knew, could definitely handle the defense and bring some speed. So he's
04:44not here to be the obvious bridge guy. If, for example, Lindor needed another week, 10 days,
04:50whatever, at the beginning, or had any kind of setback whatsoever with an injury in that situation.
04:56So those were the two big pieces of news. Why don't we go to number three, which is just big
05:00picture. I believe that without a, without fans, David Stearns probably would have taken over this
05:09team before the 2024 season and done a real big overhaul. You know, you want to guess what that
05:15means? Trade Alonzo, trade Diaz, maybe trade Lindor, trade Nimmo, et cetera. But he's a New Yorker.
05:22He's smart. He knows he can't come in and do that. He's coming from Milwaukee. Nobody wants
05:27to see the guy from Milwaukee come in and tear down the team of likable players. And that team
05:32then makes this, they don't make the playoffs until the final day of the season, but then they
05:36make a surprising, terrific run to game six of the NLCS. So you can't tear down the team after the
05:422024 season. But certainly last year, when I think there's a pretty easy argument that the Mets were the
05:47most disappointing team in the sport, you can tear down that team. And Stearns was determined not to
05:54bring back the same group. And this is as big a facelift as you're going to see. Out were the
06:00four
06:01guys who have the most seniority on the team, Nimmo, Alonzo Diaz, and McNeil. Obviously a couple of those
06:08players, Alonzo Diaz in particular, were beloved by the fan base. And he's bringing in a lot of players.
06:15He's bringing in some players who are going to be playing new positions. He's taking Brett Beatty,
06:19who had a good second half off a third base to move around a lot. He wants young players to
06:25play.
06:25I think that Carson Bench has a great chance to make this team with a good spring training.
06:29And once again, David Stearns did not want to give long-term money to anyone this offseason,
06:37unless they were going to be young players. Remember, he was willing to go long with Yamamoto
06:41after the 2024 season. But the only ones he has for long still is, and it's interesting,
06:46they were the two guys he did, had news about yesterday, were Soto and Lindor. That's what
06:52he's building around. And this is a, you know, it's a bit of a Frankenstein's monster. It's a lot
06:56of new parts. It's a lot of new parts in mismatched places. And more than ever, this is a David
07:02Stearns
07:02team. He wanted better defense. He wanted better versatility. He wanted better pitching depth.
07:08And he got out of some guys who he probably would have done so 24 months earlier, again,
07:14without fans, without being questioned about it. So I think there's not a hard case to be made
07:19that David Stearns is under more pressure, perhaps, than any other person, certainly baseball
07:26executive this year. This met team after what happened last year, like one good year with mainly
07:32not his team, one horrible year last year with a little more his team. And now the third year,
07:38this is David Stearns team. And so, you know, it's not like he's on the hot seat. Steve Cohn waited
07:45a long time and has paid a lot of money for David Stearns to come in. But you're talking about
07:50faith
07:51in the fan base, et cetera, in what you're doing. And some of that, or a lot of that was
07:56lost last
07:57year when things didn't go well with the players brought in both in the off season and then at the
08:02trade deadline. So to me, David Stearns is kind of on the line a little bit more this year. And
08:09look,
08:10he's historically a brilliant front office executive. And I would think given time,
08:16his plans and policies will work, but they really need to work this year in 2026. David Stearns is on
08:23the line.
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