While the NL East hot stove heats up, the Mets haven not turned on the oven

It’s not even the start of the new year and yet somehow I almost feel like the New York Mets may be letting the 2012 parade pass on by.  The Miami Marlins are linked to names such as C.J. Wilson, Mark Buehrle, Yoenis Cespedes, and may have already made a contract offer to Jose Reyes.

The Philadelphia Phillies (fresh off acquiring Hunter Pence from the Astros late last year) are looking at resigning Jimmy Rollins, on the verge of locking up Ryan Madson (4-year/$44 million contract), and are making a strong push to bring in former Twins outfielder Michael Cuddyer.

The Washington Nationals, a team that already boasts a youthful roster and talented minor league system, are now also said to be making a major push to sign former Phillie Roy Oswalt and are rumored to be in the Cespedes mix.

As for the Atlanta Braves, well a year after watching two potential rookie of the year candidates  (Freddie Freeman and Craig Kimbrel) nearly lead them to the playoffs, they are actually looking to unload guys like Martin Prado and Jair Jurrjens because their farm system is overflowing with talent.  Imagine having that problem to deal with?

Photo by Michael G. Baron

Then, after all of that, you have the New York Mets…..a team that seems content with riding things out on the bench.  The problem is this……while the NL East hot stove reaches Mercury like temperatures, the Mets are counting their pennies in the frigid cold Sea of Tranquility.  Talk of letting Reyes walk and potentially trading Wright are concerning enough, but to see it happen while your division rivals stock up at your expense has a lot of fans understandably ready to push the panic button.

I’ve heard the notion that the Phillies are getting old in 2 years the Mets may be in a better situation than the reigning division champs.  While there may be some merit to that argument, coming in third while the Phillies come in fourth in 2014 should not be the goal.

Photo by Michael G. Baron

It could be that the spin of the rumor mill just has me  hypnotized, or maybe it’s just time for the front office to reevaluate their plan.  Maybe I don’t want to wait for them to realize that they’ve made some grave mistakes that they can’t correct by resigning thrifty holdovers such as Tim Byrdak while filling gaps with reclamation projects and dollar bin bargains.  I see a philosophy being put in place (at least for the next season or so) that will, on a good day, piece together a team on a quest for a .500 season…..if everything goes right.

Along the way we will realize that for every Jason Isringhausen their is a Blaine Boyer and Taylor Buchholz.  For every Chris Capuano there is a Chris Young.  For every Pedro Beato there is a Brad Emaus.  I guess that I am just worried that the type of team we will end up with is one that will only win when the coin ends up on heads 7 out of 10 times.  The odds of that happening aren’t good, unless you have some players that, for the sake of the analogy, come up heads on both sides.  Unfortunately, those double-sided coins are usually All-Stars, the exact players the Mets are talking about trading or allowing to leave via free agency.

Photo by Michael G. Baron

Something has gotta give in this equation, because whether the Mets front office wants to win now or win later, they need to make sure they carefully examine the window of opportunity they choose.  That requires keeping up with all the teams around them and with the way the rest of the NL East has turned up the heat on the hot stove, that’s not going to be an easy task.

Original Story: http://www.metszilla.com/2011/11/09/w...