Mets' Next 1B Ty France? Teruaki Sato? | Straight Outta Flushing

Welcome back, everybody, to another edition of Straight Outta Flushing. Dexter Henry, my guy, Tyler Ward, here with me. Wardy, what's going on, man? Dex, how we doing? Feeling pretty good right now. Listen, Mets playoffs are not happening, but playoffs have been entertaining. I've been enjoying them. Steve Cohen's been enjoying them as well, which we'll probably talk about on a later date. Found that interesting, what he was doing this past night. But I had a nice weekend, Dex. How about you? My weekend was good. I was telling you before. I was like, this Sunday I had some time to just relax. I got to just watch some football. You know, do a little bit of stuff for work. But I just got to watch football. I didn't do anything on Sunday. That was nice. That was really nice. I mean, it would be nicer if you were watching the Mets in the playoffs. But, you know. A little bit. You can't have everything. You know what I'm saying? You can't have everything. So, Wardy and I, you and I have talked. We have a lot of things to get to this offseason. But what we want to do for the fans is we're going to try to do this each week through the offseason. We're going to go through a position and evaluate the position. Like, how is the position for the Mets this year? Are they good at that position? Do they need to upgrade that position? So we're going to do it. And I said to Wardy, I said, hey, where do you want to start? What position do you want to start with? And my guy, Wardy, I won't say he chose violence, but he chose what he knew the fan base would be very interested in hearing. And that is a fun position. We're going to start off with the position of first base. Might be a guy that people miss at first base. Just might be saying There might be a guy that people miss at first base I thought this was an interesting choice by you my friend We know that the Mets decided to move on From Pete Alonso And transition to your boy Jorge Polanco Okay We're not even five minutes in Dex We're not even five minutes in Dex Look man If you think there's a time limit on me Assigning somebody as your boy There is not People here at this job They get people assigned to them They don't want to be their boy at all whatsoever this is fair this is fair equal opportunity with your boy i'm equal opportunity opportunity i'm equal i love the word play but after the move right i'm going from alonzo to Jorge Polanco i won't rehash this too much because we both i won't say that either of us felt that it wouldn't work we had questions about it for sure. Particularly banking on Jorge Polanco when he had a limited track record of actually playing the position. So that was a red flag there. But after seeing everything that we saw, or I should say, what we didn't see in 2026, was the bigger mistake letting Alonso walk or actually not finding a legitimate replacement for him? How do you view this when you look back at it? It's hard to pick one over the other because I think one goes in your hand with the other so much. But at the end of the day i would say that allowing pete to walk given his connection with the fan base and it was obvious you know how much he meant to so many people here as a homegrown talent i do think that in general not running it back with pete when you especially didn't have a really viable replacement option was the wrong move to make so if i had to pick this exactly between the two I would say letting Pete walk in general was the wrong move for the organization yes yeah it Yes. It's going to be yes and yes for me, right? Absolutely the wrong move. Right. The answer is yes and yes, right? It's absolutely the wrong move, but at the same time, if you're going to let someone walk at the stature of Pete, and I'm going to say what I said on the record, I was fine with that happening. All right, well, then I'm going to take your favorite word of the show, not your favorite phrase, which is your boy, but your favorite word, which is proactive. Be proactive. you were not proactive in getting someone who could adequately replace him and I think that was a massive failure now I think you and I both we both were looking at Jorge Polanco and it's like can you hold it down are we really trusting you as the guy to hold it down I think we both would have said no when it came to Jorge Polanco so right the failure of letting Alonso walk to me was only more magnified because there was not an adequate replacement for him and we didn't see much from Jorge Polanco when we saw it it wasn't good and there were some bright spots you can say with Jared Young we'll get to Jared Young a little bit later but the fact that there didn't seem to be a plan or it's not just a plan didn't work you did not go it's not it's not even the fact that they didn't have a plan they had months on this Alonso signed you know at a reasonable time they had months on this to figure out what to do and this is what they settled on, you know so So I think that's something to bear in mind. You know, this is something that they settled on. And this was David Stearns having his mitts on the club in more ways than he's ever had. And this was the outcome. You know, this wasn't like, oh, he just rolled out of bed one day. It was like, you know who I need right now at first base? Jorge Polanco has no major league reps at first base in his entire career. Like, it happened in an organic and strategic way in player evaluation in the offseason. Where he failed was on actually properly evaluating these players for these rightful positions, banking too much again on someone coming from a smaller market that's been injury-prone that has a clear offensive upside but needs to be able to stay on the field, especially to be at a position that he usually doesn't play. Just from that logic alone, it never made sense, and that's why we talked about it, how his bat plays. His bat makes a lot of sense if he platooned between first base and DH and had more DH reps than first base. I said this verbatim after the Mets initially acquired him, and they didn't even get a chance to do that because the guy was hurt from as soon as he got here and then the Mets really thought to themselves you know what guys we got Mark Vientos okay it can be worse let's have him as our platoon option which you're young and we're fine so it was just honestly what it was more than anything, Dex take the Pedralanza factor out of this because I think the DH position should be emphasized and lumped with first base here because they go hand in hand with one another a lot of times now the Mets have operated and since the Mets have had the universal DH they've done nothing to take advantage of it outside of maybe trying to maximize roster flexibility it's not like that's moved the needle for them to have continued success and Pete Alonso the debate there was he's going to need to be more of a DH as time goes on and he will likely be more of that as time goes on but for the Mets here it's a two-fold problem not only did they not properly address first base but they also still have taken zero advantage of literally a guaranteed position where you should have a guy slugging and raking there every single day like that's the one spot that every single contending team should have a big bopper in or a rotation of like two guys maybe between like DH and outfield or if they're playing for space that actually are like feasible like guys are going to be able to give you like 30 plus home run seasons you know the Mets were looking at Polanco and his success in 2025 and And we're looking at that as pretty much a certainty by throwing him 20 plus mil a year across multiple years, which is just an albatross of a contract in its own right at the time of us talking right now, as is the case with a lot of other moves. So when we just look at how they've operated, one, this was thoroughly thought out. Two, it was so poorly executed. And three, this is something that the Mets have to make sure that they don't do again. And David was the first to tell us this at the end of season presser and trying to write the wrongs. and clearly having way too much emphasis and players that lack the most important factor, which is availability. Availability. And that's the thing, and I'm glad you brought that up, Wardy, because he acknowledged it, and to me it was kind of crazy when he's like, yeah, we didn't get enough production out of first base when we had the lowest fWAR position in the league. And he's like, yeah, we all knew this. Thanks for acknowledging this. But I hope that he takes responsibility and learns the lesson that you said about availability going forward. That's the thing for me. What's the lesson going to be learned here into building this team going forward, right? Like, that's the thing for me. Is he going to actually learn from that and say, hey, we can't bank on a guy where there was data, there was numbers, that he's generally not that available. He's actually not played enough at this position. and let's not bank on that that's a big question for me, is he going to learn from this because it's fine we all make mistakes and i'm not going to be here to just drop the hammer on David Stearns repeatedly but for me it's is he going to learn from this that's the biggest thing for me when i when i look at this so let's move on to this part and i think the big question about this here is is the answer for first base already on this roster because Jared Young and i mentioned him early he was one of the bright spots in 2024 did he show you enough to make you think that he deserves a starting job next season or do you look at him as a guy who's better better suited as a platoon option how do you how do you view it he's definitely best suited as a platoon option but if we're talking the hypothetical world where you had Young with the Mets next season where they did not address anything at first base again like let's just say that David Stearns looked at what happened this year and said let's go ahead and make things even worse and does even nothing okay in the hypothetical world they're only banking on solely in-house options Jared Young is absolutely number one on my list no hesitation there is not there is Jared Young there's a gap and then there's a second closest player as to who deserves continued reps at first is that second closest player i'm just curious that second closest player after him i would probably say would be like Brett Beatty i wouldn't even put yeah we'll get conversation okay no oh No, no, no, no, no, no, no. He should not be in the conversation. Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack you, but go ahead. I was just curious. And that's also with Beatty not being a good defensively sound first baseman. You know what I mean? Like, the bar is very low here. So I'm looking at it from an athleticism standpoint of someone who, if they do get on base, can they be impactful on the base path at all? Are they someone that could actually move the needle a bit besides solely what they're bringing with their bat? And for as good as Vientos, again, was against left-hand pitching this year, look how small of a sample size they needed to really have the kind of success that he did for Young I think he too falls in the category of someone who is best suited in a limited sample because I think him kind of in a guaranteed role where he knows exactly what is asked of him each year we're like think of the guy that we hyped up so much entering the year and Mike Tauchman who never played a single game in the major league season this year with the Mets or anyone from an injury he sustained back in spring what's relevant about that is that Mike Tauchman truly embodied the role as a veteran who knew exactly what it took to be a platoon and having the veteran mentorship aspect as well as someone who knows who can step up in clutch positions when called upon to do so that's why he's his numbers have been so good when healthy the past number of years regardless of the teams he's been on Young reminds me a bit of Tauchman as someone who again if he's getting around say you know three to four hundred plate appearances in a season absolutely can be an impactful positive player for you but not a guy that you want all the way getting to 600 plus plate appearances you don't want him playing every single day and every single matchup because for as good as Jared Young is even him at his best is still likely going to be a guy sitting .265 .270 average at north of 800 OPS but not someone that's going to i think move the needle enough for you and your lineup if you don't properly bolster elsewhere and why i say elsewhere i really just mean either adding a true DH or someone that could flip flop with Soto throughout the year from DH to corner outfield that provides the power that this team has been wanting since losing a guy like Pilar yeah no i i'd agree with that too i think Jared Young was nice i i'll say this bluntly i think it'll be a problem if the Mets go into next season saying he's our first baseman you do nothing to address it like i'm with you on that like none of that would be good at all whatsoever that can't be the thing you also brought up Brett Baty and i agree i because somebody might say hey Dex and Wardy in this conversation are you not going to bring up Vientos and the answer for me is no like why why why would we why would we do this we've Vientos you you and i've talked about this and we had him he was on our list of total three Mets we think should be gone you've seen enough for him right we we know what he is um he hasn't got it down to the plate he doesn't bring you anything else defensively so what are we doing so when we talk about Beatty um look we can go to the signs that he showed late in the season offensively but this is the second season in a row where he had that little bit of a hitting surge towards the end but the overall product was mid basically what I would say with him it was just it was what it was um is he do you think he's even a realistic option long term or should the Mets be looking at him particularly is he a guy who gives us defensive versatility we can play him in a bunch of different places and that might just be his future in his role with this Mets ball club I'm going to say this not just in regards to Beatty but in regards to every single current player profile in the Mets organization that can play the first base position i don't think that there's a single player actively in the organization that can be viewed as a long-term option there that's a problem it is a problem and that's why the mets need to address it yeah absolutely right because some people are going to be like oh what about Ryan Clifford and i know he's young and we've talked about him as a prospect but the strikeout rate is way too high for me so that's and Billy Amick for as great of a year as he had he still needs to work on that obviously and defensively is he someone that profiles better as first baseman, more of a DH profile The best out of this group might even be a guy like Corey Collins, who was awesome in AA this year But again, another player where, for as good as he's looked, there's far from any guarantees that these guys will A, perform at the major league level, and B, be able to be a consistent player at the major league level that is warranted to be here long term I think when we look at the landscape of the New York Mets and their positions right now and having longevity there, you can make those rightful arguments to the Carson Benjes who's a finalist for Gold Glove this year which is awesome congratulations to Carson AJ Ewing to a lesser extent in center I say lesser because AJ has more growing to do but he's just turned 22 he's going to get a lot of ample runway and for great reason as long as he's performing okay and working on his game still when you look at the Mets infield there's really not anyone there that you could say is a launch from commitments besides what you have contractually to Lindor but you and I both know that Lindor will not finish his contract in the Mets uniform unless he really ages like a fine wine and handles a less strenuous infield position in his final years so all in all the Mets have a problem in multiple areas not just for first base but it's a big problem and something that they haven't even thought about needing to address for the past seven years because Alonso was such a mainstay of that position because again bringing us back to our point Dex availability yeah something that is i'm glad you even brought that word up in the Alonso conversation because that's something that is i don't think by us but maybe some maybe some people took it for granted maybe it was a little underrated in terms of how you talked about Alonso did he have his shortcomings particularly defensively of how he might age the position sure but he was there every day and i do think that matters to some degree however you look at So it sounds like you and I are, we feel the Mets need to address this position very, very, very seriously. In a serious way, right, Wardy? And Jared Young and Brett Baty is not going to get it done. We're in agreement on that. That's not going to get it done for the Mets in 2027 and beyond. So let's try to explore the first base market out here. Throw some names. Ty France, coming off a good season, maybe the best all-around season of his career that we can say. Do you think he's the kind of established first baseman that the Mets should try to prioritize? Or do you look at that as a risk of bringing in a guy that's kind of riding in high off of a career year? Where are you on Ty France? I think with Ty, there's definitely a risk factor, no doubt. I don't think he puts up these numbers if he was with the New York Mets this season. And I think it's not because the Mets having a really bad lineup, but more so on playing in Citi Field for half a season versus Citizens Bank Park, which for that fan base and the way that they had this summer of what was a tremendous run, it is just such a great environment for players to buy into in ways that's very contrasting from what we have here on the East Coast for the Mets. These are factors that are very important to weigh and understand because some players you may see have consistent success no matter where they are. Other players, you may see drastic differences. And for Ty, I think he's someone who definitely thrived by loving the market that he was in. And I also think that he's someone, though, that would be beneficial to the Mets. I think that he's a hybrid here. He's not enough of a guarantee, I think, into what exactly the Mets need at all after a space when we think long-term. But when we're talking placeholders, when we're talking to contend and have success in 2027, when we're looking at what's available out there, again, it is slim pickings. This free agent class is garbage, decks. We don't need to sugarcoat it. It's the worst one I've ever seen since covering baseball. It's the worst one I think I've ever seen as a baseball fan, transparently. And while that's not great, listen, and you have to deal with the cards that are dealt to you. So while, yes, they can, of course, explore things in the trade market that we may discuss later, what is out there in the free agent market, Ty France has definitely done himself big favors with the run that he had this year for the Padres. With the 21 home runs, 72 RBIs, roughly .300 batting average, a 5.02 slug with a 3.63 on base, 41% of ballpark average as a batter, the most valuable season he's ever had in his career out of 3.6 fWAR. I mean, he was nailed. He was unbelievably clutch, should have had that home run in playoffs that hit the ceiling that we saw in Milwaukee. I mean, this is a guy who I think would be awesome, and who does have things to be happy about from a defensive standpoint. He's not a massive liability there. He was fantastic defensively at first base last year, too, when he was splitting time with the Minnesota Twins and the Blue Jays down the stretch of their playoff run. Now, one little thing that can benefit the Mets, even if it's not a big thing to benefit them in their pursuit, is always connections, right? when we think on how David Stearns has operated right what is something that we notice connections connections connections whether it's connections with previous organizations that he's worked for or people that he knows from these organizations or players in the market that he's had recent rapport with there's obviously an aspect of familiarity that they like whether or not it equates to success is a different conversation because it really hasn't but it's something that they favor should that continue Derek Foley who was just hired in the Mets front office who's to be part of every key decision that they make was the key factor behind Ty France becoming a Minnesota Twin a year ago so one does have to wonder what does Derek have to say on Ty France who put up solid numbers when he was with the Twins but again has just fluctuated you know the main thing that I like about Ty France besides him coming off of a very good year with the Padres like very impressive year against both the right-handed and left-handed pitching is that he has availability on his side right he's played at least basically 500 play appearances every year since 2021 yep and i think that's really important when we're looking at what can the Mets get as a certainty next year so throw it back to you Dex i like Ty France but i think ty france should he happen would be a scenario where the mets platoon him and jared young or maybe ty gets two games out of three in a series and jared gets a game and for the game that he doesn't maybe Ty's at DH you know what i mean it's not going to be exactly how you want it because Ty France for even though that he can play every day, the Mets would probably look at it and say, we could actually use this as a perfect tandem with Young based on matchups, especially if, say, Ty comes down to earth a bit with the bat going from sunny San Diego to frigid City Field to begin whenever next season's going to start So here's my thing with Ty France. He's 32. All the numbers you mentioned, solid last year 21 homers, 865 OPS. And very clutch hitter, too. Yeah, very clutch. very much so the profile is good i mentioned age for a reason the reason i mentioned the age here Wardy is okay what kind of contract is David Stearns going to offer him right is this is so you're thinking it's going to be a short-term deal you know Stearns is not going to want to go above three and if you're going maybe you not even want to go above two to be honest with you guys but if that's the case and you talked about placeholders is he a guy you trust to hold it down at first for you for the next two years the answer would probably be no if you're platooning him with Jared Young and you have the situation you have where you're playing him two out of every three games i don't love that situation but the problem is like you said the market stinks this free agent class is trash right like it's just your options he is the best of the bunch that is already playing in the majors we'll get to another part second that is playing in the majors right now he's the best of the bunch so if you're looking for a sexy name no and i get that there's some Mets fans are going to come out and say yeah you know what we got Ty France now could have been could have been Alonso i understand where you're coming from i do this is gonna happen every year as long as until they get the position right until they get it right that's that's what it's gonna be now that you can say that's fair or unfair and that's fine um would would the platoon excite me no could they do worse than that yes well we we saw they can do worse than that um yeah it's you're replacing Mark Vientos with Ty France and having ty play a lot more that's really what it comes down to if you view it in that in that lens yeah it's a lot more palatable right and if it's a short-term deal which we have been led to believe David Stearns would like for him i'd be fine, but I don't know if he's going to want a short-term deal when he is the best domestic first baseman free agent on the market and is probably looking for something a little bit longer, I would think. Now, what's that market going to look like, especially with the potential lockout and all that? I don't know, but I would think he's probably going to want to cash in more than two. Would you pay him, give him a high AV for the two years, maybe overpay him a little bit in the short term to get him in the door yeah but then i i think the question i would ask then wordy is if you're going to do that what's your plan coming up in the farm system who's that young guy you have coming and developing there hopefully two years from now to come in because if it's not a Ryan Clifford or others right that we're not and it seems like the Mets organization themselves are not really in love with right now or feel like it's ready to come up to the show you gotta i kind to like to know what the plan is on that do i think that this could be fine in the short term sure but do i think the fan base is going to be excited about this not at all whatsoever i don't i don't think this is a move that's going to excite the fan base they're not going to be excited about that now if we look internationally and we do we take things out you know in this in this market we've got before we get to international decks if you don't mind i just want to answer what you were saying there because i don't disagree with you in the sense that if you bring in someone like Thai France on say like high AAV which is what it would take because realistically what do the Mets have to do in order to land for agents as a not desirable location for the most part it's to make themselves desirable and there's no better way to make themselves desirable than to flex the hospitality and the dollars that Steve Cohen can flex especially knowing that this is potentially the last time that steve is able to spend exactly the way that he has knowing that the pending CBA could cause a lot of changes a year from now for next offseason so that's something to bear in mind and how teams are operating throughout multiple facets of what will be a flurry of moves before we get to the inevitable lockout so for Ty France and for the Mets here i agree it's it's in a lot of ways it would be very similar to when the Mets landed Jorge Polanco we're separate from the fact that Polanco you know didn't have the first base reps the fan reaction And Pete Alonso's side was, not a bad player, not a bad pickup, but you got to do more here. You obviously got to do more here. And that's what would be the case if you brought in Ty France. So then you say, okay, what does that mean for the farm? Well, big opportunity for a guy like Bailey Amick to prove himself next year, piggybacking off of what was a dominant year with the bat in 2026. You also look at Corey Collins. Can he build upon that? Can Ryan Clipper dig himself out of his rut? Or is that about that? It may very well be about that. can the Mets find someone else internally this year the way that we have prospects blossom every year i'm sure that there will be but the good news Dex is that you know how we've been raving about the Malian Petries the Gary Gill Hills the Aidan Smiths i mean the Sammy Saperas Jefferson Rojas is all these all these guys what do they have in common their prospects that the Mets acquired via trade yep and the Mets can always position themselves in a trade to acquire a young uprising first baseman you know there was a guy that they were actually in the market for to a degree, it just didn't materialize past offseason, and Bryce Eldridge who had a very good rookie year for the San Francisco Giants this year, that would have been a viable option to at least get some potential stability of a new young homegrown, not homegrown but new young rookie for first baseman to kind of be the heir apparent to Pete, even if he's not going to fill the shoes to Pete Alonso to that same magnitude I think that they will go down a route like that without Now, with the expectation that they're not going to land a long-term first-base option this offseason? I would be fine with that, honestly. Like, get me a younger guy in here with some upside, if you can explore that through the trade market. Even if you want to say, hey, I want to get a Ty France in here and, you know, have a bridge. There's ways you can do both. I would love to see some creativity with an eye towards somebody with a real shot to hold down that position for the future. We'll see. Now, maybe you want to still look at the free agent market. There's the Japanese slugger, Shugo Sato, who's out there. He's got intriguing power combination, offensive upside. But there's always the uncertainty of transitioning to Major League Baseball and then learning the position here. So I ask you this, Wardy, with dipping into the international market and going and getting a Sato, would that be worth the gamble here? Is that a risk you'd be willing to take? Given this free agent class, I think that there should be no one that's prioritized more than Sato from a position player perspective for the New York Mets. He is the creme de la creme. He is the guy that everyone's going to want. And the reason why everyone's going to want him is for the following reasons. A, he's entering his age 27 season. It's always appetizing to bring in an international talent before they hit the age of 30. You know, this is a guy that's still very much at the peak prime of his career. It's not like he's on the downward, kind of like Murakami, who's a couple years younger, getting a guy at 25 26 and look at what he did and their first run was he striking out like crazy yes but when he wasn't he was helping carry the White Sox slugging away into the postseason you look at Kosma and Okamoto even a veteran who signed around the age of 30 with the Blue Jays 30 home run season or the 90 RBIs like again two guys that were big sluggers for their respective clubs while having great track record of the NPB Sato is right in the conversation with both of him when it comes to great track record that NPB has been more impressive than either of those players depending on the year and this season especially he had another dominant year back to back years now with Sato is essentially 40 home runs and 100 RBIs and he's batted from .277 pretty consistently throughout his career .260 to high .270s to this season turning up a notch a .306 average .383 on base .609 slug he batted roughly 100 better than the average hitter in the NPB for context that's really good uh triple crown type player where he's essentially their MVP there that we see in the NPB and he's found the power in his swing now he's striking out at a rate that is between 26 and 27 so he's going to be striking out at 30 at the major league level there's pretty much no doubt about that but can he do that and still have success and Murakami and Okamoto prove that you can and you can be impactful players to your team now the big question when Sato is transitioning to first base. We talk about Polanco not being a true first baseman, nor is Sato. He's played more of the hot corner and around the infield. But his expectation and the projections for him is that he will be best suited at first base at the major league level. So the Mets want to take a little bit of a gamble, but someone who has a significantly high ceiling and a bat who could come in and be quite the weapon as a 25 to 35 home run guy in the major leagues right away, that's what you would be getting in someone like him and there's a belief that Sato very well could be the best out of the bunch in recent years of position players that have come out of the NPB with the exception of one Shohei Otani so yeah a lot of teams are going to want him a lot of teams are going to have their hands on him the Mets are going to have to separate themselves from the rest of the pack they would have to overpay and yes this is a player that you would likely have to give I'd imagine a four or five-year contract to barring changes because of how much he's separated from the rest of the pack in the market and how much a team could utilize someone like him given his age. It's going to be an interesting one to see how this all unfolds this offseason, but in the way that the Mets fell short on Murakami and Nakamoto is a way that they simply should not be falling short in this pursuit of a fellow Japanese talent a year later. Yeah, I think the thing for me, Wardy, is with the Mets this offseason, and I'm sure we'll get to this when we get to pitching, but as we talked a little bit about before, but when it comes to free agency, are they going to be willing to spend more in pitching or will it be to fill this this very dire position of need in first base right um i won't i because there's something i wanted to ask you about like which way you'd want to go with this i will say this if you're going to go the free agent route i would much rather go sato than go France much much rather do that i i understand there's some uncertainty and i'm saying this with the caveat of saying you believe you being the Mets if you believe that this guy's skills in hitting can translate to the major league level and you believe that he's got the tools as many scouts have said to play the position of first base then go and do this you don't have to give any any prospects still you can still give yourself a little bit more time to develop I agree what he's gonna look for a four or five year deal for sure this is what he's going to want um the Mets at a time looked like they did have some a good international signing in Kodai Senga uh for the last couple of years but it did look good when it started I I don't believe you should always look at those things and have them deter you from signing this guy now look it could cost you nothing but money I understand it's not my money but if I was the Mets this is an area I would try to plug up one of these holes with in spending this way go get yourself a guy that can be more of a game changer there's still this that's not guaranteed there's no guarantees with this just want to be very clear but we are all looking at France as more of a placeholder i don't think any of us think he's a game changer Sato has more of a potential to be a game changer for the lineup at that position exactly so that's why i would go with that but with all that being said you you talked about how this field market is trash right and sadly it's it's it's just it's not ideal it's so not fun to look at the phrasing list and be like i'm good you know like looking at the majority of each each category not not a personal slight any any player but it's like just you know you got your diamond and then you got basically a whole lot of a whole lot of nothing that's about it with that being said do you think Stern should look at this and maybe say ah let me maybe let me prioritize a trade over free agency even if even if that means which you're not gonna just get something for nothing right even if that means you have to surrender some valuable prospects what do you think Stearns should do I I would say look if there's a guy you believe in too and you trade go get him but what do you say oh yeah I think I think this offseason is a perfect time for the Mets to try to continue to do what they did last year again on paper the trade for Freddy Peralta wasn't a bad one you know for as much as Stearns fell short this year on where maybe player evaluation and bringing in small market players is where we're continuing to shoot ourselves in the foot or what you know the approach and deals has not been a bad thing for a lot of trades that Stearns has made both in acquiring players and selling off on players so i do have a level of optimism there that if the mets are going to go out and trade for a starter they can be able to go out and get one because there's a laundry list of them you know especially if they're going for a trade or if they're going to do something you know in the in the class for a first baseman there aren't many first basemen to necessarily trade for on paper but there also are some teams willing to shed some payroll some teams that are willing to get a bit creative to shake up their rosters as well after maybe falling short the last couple of years so there's just a lot of possibilities with trades and the mets bolstering their farm the way that they did the deadline helps position them to actually have these conversations instead of it being brushed aside right away because they had like one of the worst farms of baseball after all the promotions that they had in the first half of the year so yes i think trades are inevitable i expect trades to happen and i i honestly think that we will see the mets do more trades with small market teams whether we like it or not and in hopes that it's a different type of response or, pardon me, a different type of turnout than what they had with Peralta and one of others. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. No, I know what you mean. This is what makes this offseason fascinating. I don't know how you feel about this, but I think, particularly for this position, I will reiterate this, I think for this position of first base, this is, if you can go get Sato, just to be very clear, him in particular, this is one if you can go get him, you might have to overspend a little that you go fill because of how bad it was last year you got to go fill this via free agency in my opinion this is but if you can do it via trade if i had to rank and this guy was gonna ask you are you more would you be more inclined to go trade free agency i i think we're both no on this i don't even want to ask this or platoon players already in the organization i think we're both like yeah i mean if we if we have to go in if we have to go in order if it's like if you're signing the player that i i want the most to get if they sign sato i think that's number one on the list okay because you're not giving up any assets and that can be you know a really viable option for you for the next number of years as long as that goes as hoped planned expected right okay then it's trades and then it's platoon because platoon is i just hate that term because something that i bought into so much initially when the mets did this at dh like when we saw a platoon of like Tom Smith and guys in a short 2020 season it worked really well the offensive numbers were sick and then we didn't have the universal DH for 2021 that we officially get in in 2022 we got Daniel Vogel back we got Tyler Naquin we got Darren Ruff out here all these players would exit the league in the next year or so mind you after the Mets acquired them um and they would just continue this seesaw of these platoons whether it's at third base whether it's at DH or now at first base i'm just i'm sick and tired of it Dex because it hasn't worked out the way that they wanted it to you know like if we had a kick-ass platoon part of my french where you literally had a perfect balance of your guy that's just raking against lefties and a guy that's raking against righties and it's working so brilliantly throughout the year then okay but even like Jesse Winker when the Mets acquired him in 2022 like that was one of the few exceptions where a platoon did kind of work at the time and it wasn't even the sexiest thing it just it did what it needed to do and helping the bats continued their run down that stretch so miss me with the platoon nonsense Dex i'm sick i'm tired of it i want nothing to do with it i'm with you because i'll put it simply as this if you have to platoon you know that tells me you don't have your guy that's all it tells me it's not you don't have your guy it's not it's nothing more than that if you have to platoon that means you don't have a guy that you trust to be there every day and to me in my book that means you have a problem you have not identified and solved that problem so i'm out on platoon i do agree with you on the rankings if you can get Sato and that's very clear Sato number one free agency then i go the trade route i won't even talk about platoons it's not even on the list like platoon to me is not even an option it's it's somewhere over there is actually it's not an option there is only one position that i am content with having the platoon label catcher because i know that it would make sense separate from catcher because you know we inevitably have that that's a that's fair point though no it's it's left field with Juan Soto just because we know Juan is going to need more DH reps you know what i mean you right him staying healthy is far more important than him trying to steal 40 bags ever again in his career as much as i want him to right bobblehead beside me is going to be worth so much more money in the next number of years because he's likely not going to do it again. So bearing that in mind, knowing your $765 million man needs to stay healthy and available, expect more DH reps, which is why if you have a platoon outfielder that also rakes, that maybe is mediocre defensively or around league average, it's fine as long as the bat is playing the way that you want. That's why as we're talking about Soto as we close here, one bat that I see some similarity in is another player who I'm not opposed to the Mets pursuing that we'll talk in a separate video, and that's Seiya Suzuki. Seiya Suzuki is someone who can handle the corner outfield just fine, has clearly shown ability to have a quality bat at the major league level coming over from overseas, and would be able to balance in the corner outfield as well as at DH with someone like Soto. So that is my exception to platoon. Other than that, get it away from me. The other thing I'll add to that is you can't have like you can't have multiple platoons in a lineup and think they're really going to contend for a world series like it's just not going to happen like that's just not going to work for most not most any major league team no good major league team has multiple platoons in their lineup because again you know what that would mean granted i do think the exception you brought about soto just to give you credit i do think that's a fair and notable exception that is talking about managing his load in the field and also keeping him healthy for your mega superstar that's different right or where the Mets are right now a catcher with Luis Torrens and Francisco Alvarez that I look at a little bit differently but like let's say let's say you got a platoon for Soto you got a platoon a catcher and you have a platoon at first base nah come on that's that's you can't that's just that's not you're not even being a serious baseball club at that time like that's not well this question is about the mets being a serious baseball club but that's a whole nother story um last thing before i get out of here we get out of here so i said sir listen you got you got to be honest not the people not fans know you if you're a Mets fan you know they know you know they know um question for you wardy i'm gonna give my grade on this too we're gonna put our professor's cap if you have to give a grade for the mets first base production in 2026 i'm curious if you have the same grade as me um what would you give them and then looking ahead how confident are you that the position will be significantly better in 2027 so two-part two-part professor question for you professor wardy what what are you going with so i'm going to answer the first question in two parts if we're talking on how the approach to first base was, bad-ass. No, no, you got to give a grade. What's your grade? What's the grade you're giving for the production at first base? Yeah. The grade for the production at first base, I'm going to give it a D. Oh, that's the grade. Oh, that's higher than me. Yeah. I have it at his, at a D because Jared Young was a lot better that people are making him out to be here this year. That's why if, if Jared Young was not a thing, it would be an easy out, but Jared Young brought it from being the absolute worst to not the absolute worst. so that's that's a little more that's fair still that's where i stand, jared deserves his credit he was not a problem for the mets this season all things considered that is, so that is fair i i will say production okay i'll go d with you on production process is an absolute f there's no doubt about that that was my process to get there yeah absolutely an f like no doubt about it right now i think some people can't get past the process being an f so they're just like everything is an And I understand where they're coming from But Jared Young, you're right Jared Young was a blip of a bright spot For the Mets at first base Not enough to make me confident that I want to start him Yeah, blip of a bright spot Is what I'll call him D is fine I'm going, you know what, D minus I'm giving him a D minus Just above an F I'm giving you a D minus And what was the second? The second part was, are you confident How confident are you that things will get significantly better at the position in 2027? Oh, I'm not confident. No, they have to go out and prove it. This is not about me having blind optimism, Dex. That ship has sailed. I was hoping for a blip of optimism from you. No, blind optimism is two years removed. We're so far past that now. There are a few things I might be having blind optimism for still with the club as we enter the offseason, sure. But at the end of the day, they failed so bad this year. you'd like to say that they're going to learn their lesson but until we actually see them learn their lesson and we can see the results and the players that they bring in I feel the way that I do so I hope that they bring in someone along the lines as we discussed today if they don't we should be the last bit surprised should the turnout be what it would be next season you know oh you mean turnout by fans in Citi Field no I don't mean turnout by fans production production oh well yeah well yes i would not be surprised by the production i would be surprised if they did nothing just considering that David Stearns said how terrible the production was and like you said the position had the worst f4 in the entire sport at first base yeah it's crazy right like yeah it's ridiculous it was that's why we might be even being nice by giving them a d minus we might be nice giving them a d minus on production i am being nice yeah i am being nice you know what i'm switching my grade give them an f it's an f f for process that's fine stick to your guns next you want enough to begin with anyways yeah let's you know it's okay yes what we if they do nothing to your point we can't be surprised if the production is just straight garbage right like we can't be surprised at that at all um yeah am i confident they'll be i gotta ask myself my own question am i confident they'll be better in 2027 slightly because sometimes like if we have was 2026 rock bottom at first base because you can't get worse than the F like there's nobody out here giving F minuses you're already at the F you failed like you can't get worse than the F so i'd like to think there's no way nowhere to go but up however fans of some other teams know this you just went and watched the Jets the other day sometimes you just stay in the same place sometimes it's just i'm not saying i hope that happens just i don't know i'll give slight optimism that's that's what i thought like this this much slight optimism slight optimism let me put this it's gonna be very telling once we get into the first two weeks of the offseason how this team responds how quick they act because one thing that we notice about David Stearns is he does make moves early and he will make them early there might be a gap like maybe I shouldn't put any stock into how he's operating previous off seasons by having Derek Fawley here but i'd imagine the Mets are going to be aggressive as soon as the floodgates open once the playoffs are done and should that be the case I'm going to really look at how they're viewing first base what's initially being rumored and reported out there what we're hearing throughout the industry and around the club and then come to the conclusion as to if I'm feeling confident or not about the team you know we've seen David be very proactive at specific player pursuits and you know wasn't for a lack of effort whether we landed them or not if he wants a guy he's definitely going to put forth that effort but will he show that willingness to go above and beyond and actually finally recognize that this is not a market that is nearly on the same level as LA with the Dodgers or some other contenders that have a more storied franchise or just have more consistent winning even teams that don't spend as much but might be more inclined to now after falling short like the Atlanta Braves or to a degree the Philadelphia Phillies, right? Like, the Mets don't have anything to flex besides their financial muscle and their exciting young talent. But a lot of people are not just going to buy into the exciting young talent part. So if the Dodgers need to carry the weight, let that carry the weight, okay? Because you can't allow yourself to be going tit for tat with a guy like Andrew Freeman and the LA Dodgers and expect to win that battle. It's not going to happen. It's not. Because it's things that are out of your control. What's in your control is separating yourself from the rest, the best of your ability. And if they still go ahead and do everything to top you, then at some point, you got to make a decision if you're going to concede or if you're going to even make it more of an exaggerated deal than what you otherwise wanted, right? Like, do we want the Kyle Tucker contract right now? God, no. Carson Bench does laps around that guy as far as I'm concerned. You know, Edwin Diaz. Would we have loved Edwin if he was healthy this year? Yes. But here's the thing. even if Edwin was here and healthy, the Mets still probably don't do jack this year. The Mets bullpen was not the problem this year, okay? And then they would have had that tie down of another albatross of a contract, okay? So thankfully, these falling short of player pursuits haven't necessarily hurt the Mets in various ways. But you can't look at those situations and view them all as the same. In the case of Tarik Skubal, in the case of Sato, these are guys that are worthy of exceptions of going above and beyond what your otherwise comfort zone might be if you're David Stearns. Yeah, we'll see what happens. It's going to be interesting. We'll see what happens at first base. I think it's a very fascinating position. We're going to do more of these. We'll have another position next week that Wardy and I will talk about that we're going to break down and see what we think about this. This was a good discussion, a good position to discuss. But I'll tell you what, the Mets better do something at first base because we didn't even mention his name. You know who I don't want to see out there? Jorge Polanco. I already told y'all. Can't have Wardy's boy back out there. Sorry, Wardy. Can't have your boy back out there. It just is what it is. You know what? It just is what it is. As much as that pains me, Dex, I'll give in. I'll give in on that. I had a feeling you would. I had a feeling that you would. Let us know in the comments who you think the Mets should bring in at first base. Or maybe you actually want to see Jorge Polanco back. Let us know, too. And we'll dislike that comment for sure. That is the great Tyler Ward. I am Dexter Henry. We'll catch you next time. another edition of Straight Outta Flushing. Peace.