David Stearns' Offensive Acquisitions Have Become Mets Liabilities

When asked what the New York Mets needed to improve upon this past offseason, president of baseball operations David Stearns said the same two words over and over again: run prevention. Little did he know that the moves he made prevented runs scored for his own team. 

Stearns' first move of the offseason came out of left field. as franchise favorite Brandon Nimmo was traded to the Texas Rangers for veteran Marcus Semien. The Mets saw second base as more of a need than the outfield and with hindsight, Carson Benge is proving them right. However, that does not mean Semien has been good. The veteran infielder was brought over for his Gold Glove defense, but Semien is currently the second worst defensive second basemen per outs above average. Combined with a measly 13th percentile defensive run value, he is certainly not what the Mets envisioned him to be.

And, really, that move was a precursor to the entire offseason. You say that Stearns uses the Mets payroll in a rather unorthodox way; certain signings have made even the most diehard fans very spectacle to say the least. The Mets first major signing after losing franchise legends Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Diaz and Pete Alonso in consecutive days was the signing of Jorge Polanco.

Polanco, who turns 33 this year, is a career second basemen and with mostly every other first base option available to the Mets -- including Munetaka Murakami, Cody Bellinger, Josh Naylor, Luis Arraez, Ryan O’Hearn and Willson Contreras -- the signing was a head-scratcher. The Mets also had prospect Ryan Clifford available for a potential call up. Nonetheless, the Mets committed 40 million dollars to Polanco over two years, and so far it has not panned out the way Stearns hoped.

The 13-year veteran has had troubles staying on the field in the past and this season is no different. Polanco has only appeared in 14 games so far due to left Achilles bursitis and a right wrist contusion. In those games, he slashed .179/.246/.286. The best ability is availability, and Polanco has not shown that yet this season, especially since his long awaited rehab assignment was shut down due to ankle soreness.

So far in his tenure with the Mets, Stearns has not been deterred by injury history and most of the time it does not go his way. That has been the story of Luis Robert Jr.'s season as well. Like Polanco, Robert has struggled staying on the field in his career with lower body injuries, only managing one fully healthy season.

With Carson Benge making the roster on opening day and A.J. Ewing called up shortly after, it can be asked why the trade for Robert needed to happen in the first place. If Robert returns from his lumbar spine disc herniation injury in July, its hard to nail down who he would replace. The Mets are not sitting Juan Soto or Benge, while Ewing has proven to be a quality major leaguer (MJ Melendez has been good as well this season).

The real move that deserves our consternation, though, was the big splash: A three-year, $126 million deal with Bo Bichette. Bichette was moved to third base to form a star duo with Francisco Lindor on the left side of the infield, and the deal was Stearns’ dream scenario with the short-term. high-AAV setup that he loves. There’s no way it would not work out right? Wrong.

Through 65 games, the Mets have yet to see the Bo Bichette who hits around .300. He's hitting just .227 with a 72 wRC+ so far this season. Although the underlying stats show that Bichette might be getting unlucky, a player can only use that excuse for so long. Juan Soto started off last season getting very unlucky and had a scorching hot June to end the discussions. Bichette has yet to show Mets fans there is light on the end of the tunnel and if there isn’t, we could be seeing one of the worst contracts in Mets history being played out in front of our eyes.

There is no question that if David Stearns wants to remain with the Mets, he needs to be better at evaluating players at the major-league level. If the Mets want to be second in payroll to the Dodgers year after year, fans expect a team that looks like the Dodgers, not a team that is firmly in last place in the NL East.