The best baseball managers of the Mets have arrived in Florida, and many of them have been quarantined in preparation for pitchers and catchers to showcase and launch what numbers are an undesirably unique campaign.
However, this does not mean the end of Mets’ participation in the Hot Stove League.
“No, we’re not done yet,” said Zack Scott, acting general manager of the Mets, at a Zoom press conference Friday. “We want to do some other things. Will everything line up and those things happen? Maybe maybe not.
“I said [Mets president] Sandy [Alderson] I’m happy with the team as it is, but if we make improvements, we will make improvements. We are certainly not done with improving the team. “
Accordingly, the Mets will remain in touch with Lefty Relever Justin Wilson, an industry source said. Wilson, 33, enjoyed playing for the Mets for the past two seasons and is interested in returning. He could make his decision this weekend.
The Mets are facing clear depth issues in their starting rotation, with a handful of intriguing free agents, such as Jake Odorizzi, James Paxton and Taijuan Walker still unsigned. Scott acknowledged that team defense is not a recent force, which explains why the Mets are seriously pursuing free-agent center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. (waiting for better offers).
Then there’s third base, which has caused a snowstorm of speculation.
“We really like JD Davis,” said Scott of the current third-place leader. “He’s someone who can really hit, and it’s clear we can control him for a while. He is truly a valuable player for our organization. So … I know there are a lot of rumors. We will always look for ways to improve the team in every possible way. But we feel very comfortable going into the season with JD Davis playing an important role in our club. “
In his first formal media appearance since Alderson promoted him in the wake of Jared Porter’s resignation, Scott discussed a number of team issues, including:
• The team has not yet held discussions with ongoing All-Stars Michael Conforto and Francisco Lindor regarding possible expansions.
“I’ve always looked at it, the best time to do that is in spring training, and I think we’ll have those conversations,” said Scott. “We have had internal discussions [about extensions]… That’s important for us to at least talk to players about the potential of those kinds of deals. “
Lindor would likely need an extension of more than $ 300 million, and Conforto more than $ 100 million, to bypass free agency, and both have stated that they would rather not negotiate during the regular season. Scott said, “There has to be enough time to go through this before the season starts to find out if there is anything to do or not.”
• The club still hopes that Noah Syndergaard, rehabilitation from Tommy John surgery, will be back by June.
• Uncertainty about the National League adding the designated hitter this season will not stop the Mets from making another significant commitment to a position player despite possible blockage.
“I think we have a lot of flexibility here,” said Scott.
• New coach Tony Tarasco will play an important role in improving the club’s defense in the outfield, with midfielder (for now) Brandon Nimmo and leftfield (for now) Dom Smith both key cogs.
• The acquisition of Khalil Lee from the Royals last week, in a three-team trade that sent outfielder Andrew Benintendi from Boston to Kansas City, presented itself as a byproduct of Scott’s relationship with his former colleagues.
“We don’t have any direct talks with Kansas City about that,” he said. “With my connections to Boston, they honestly know I liked Khalil Lee. They reached out and asked if there would be any interest. We were thrilled. Our professional scouts here really liked the player. Lots of tools and athletic ability. We also liked his performance a lot. “
Scott saved his best tap dances for a pair of polarizing players, Trevor Bauer and Tim Tebow. When asked if Tebow, the oft-injured, perennially famous minor league outfielder of the Mets, would be invited to the big league camp, as he has been for the past three years, Scott said, “We’re still working on it. finalizing these things, so I hesitate to discuss specific players. ”Major League Baseball limits teams to a maximum of 75 players in the big league camp, for health and safety reasons.
As for the controversial Bauer, who offered the Mets $ 105 million in three years, before signing with the Dodgers for $ 3 million less, Scott was asked how seriously the Mets took the pitcher’s history of social media bullying.
“I hesitate to talk about a player who has just signed with another club, but I will speak more broadly: those things are important to talk through when you sign a free agent,” said Scott. ‘It’s not even so much about the investment of dollars in a person. You put that aside. You just want to know what kind of person you are bringing into the organization, so you have to look into that a lot. In some cases you have to talk directly to the player about some things and ask good questions and see how they do those things. I think that’s a process we do with everyone. “
• Finally, Scott shed some light on his unusual path to his current position: he interviewed for the GM opening of the Mets, finished second behind Porter, joined the Mets in December as an assistant GM anyway, then climbed on when the Mets learned of Porter’s 2016 harassment from a female journalist.
“It has certainly had its ups and downs,” said Scott. “I don’t get [the GM job] was a disappointment, but I was still very excited to join the organization. … One of the reasons I joined the Mets is, of course, that I had a long professional relationship with Jared [from working together at the Red Sox]He’s a good friend of mine. It’s a shame what happened there. … I am here to go the extra mile and do whatever it takes to help the organization. I now have a slightly different role. “