The New York Mets experienced a disappointing downfall this season, falling from a World Series contender to missing the playoffs. Now, they must determine what steps to take to prevent this from happening again.
One of the main reasons they imploded so badly was due to their pitching not being able to dole out quality starts in the second half. Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller believes the Mets can fix this by acquiring San Diego Padres ace Dylan Cease, who he believes fits New York the best out of all his options.
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“If both Pete Alonso (opting out) and Edwin Díaz (who can opt out) are gone while both Frankie Montas and A.J. Minter exercise their player options, the Mets will enter the offseason with a "before arbitration figures are exchanged" payroll of a bit less than $200 million. And, well, they've been a bit north of $320 million on Opening Day in each of the past three seasons, so there is theoretically an absurd amount of room in Steve Cohen's budget to go get someone like Cease to cement atop the rotation,” Miller wrote.
This season, Cease was a little off his game, but that can also be attributed to bad luck and defensive mistakes. He posted a 4.45 ERA, but the year before, he had an ERA of 3.47. He’s also good at posting long starts and has gotten 200+ Ks in the past two seasons.
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Hopefully, the Mets pounce on Cease this offseason, just so their rotation doesn’t need to rely on one or two people.
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