Kuzul

The New York Mets are clearly within arm’s reach of a World Series title, and many fans are patiently awaiting news of a major offensive transaction that they believe is necessary to bring a championship back to Queens for the first time in 30 years.

The Mets 2015 season did not begin to turn around until the team acquired Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers and Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson from the Atlanta Braves.

Prior to acquiring Cespedes the Mets were quite literally the worst offensive team in the league, averaging just 3.5 runs per game and hitting .234 as a team.

After the Mets traded for Cespedes on July 31st, they almost immediately transformed into the best offensive team in the National League, hitting .275 and averaging 6.5 runs per game.

Now one certainly does not need to be a sabermetrics expert to conclude that the only thing the Mets’ lineup had been missing during the first half of the 2015 season was an offensive punch. The pitching was there, as was the defense. As soon as the Mets added some power to their lineup, all of the pieces began to fall into place.

So far this offseason the Mets have watched Cespedes and NLCS hero Daniel Murphy walk out the door along with their combined 49 home runs and 178 RBIs (although only half of that production from Cespedes came after he was traded to the Mets midseason).

The biggest transactions the Mets have made to date have been trading Jonathon Niese to the Pittsburgh Pirates for second basemen Neil Walker and signing free agent shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to a two-year contract.

While Walker and Cabrera should improve the Mets’ defense up the middle, these players bring with them a combined 31 home runs and 129 RBIs from last season.

That essentially means that losing Murphy and Cespedes while bringing in only Walker and Cabrera will result in around 30 percent less offensive production.

Clearly New York has some ground to make up in the middle of their lineup if they are to mount another run at a World Series title in 2016.

But the problem with the Mets right now is that they are in no position to shell out huge money for a big-time free agent when they have far too many internal questions that need to be answered.

First and foremost, the Mets don’t really know what they have offensively heading into the 2016 season.

David Wright missed nearly the entire 2015 season due to a back injury, and Michael Conforto has played only 56 regular season games in the big leagues.

If Wright remains healthy and Conforto develops into a major offensive threat while becoming the Mets’ everyday left fielder, then these two players, combined with Walker and Cabrera, could make up for the offensive production the team will lose in Cespedes and Murphy.

Travis d’Arnaud has been plagued by a number of injuries throughout his young career and played just 67 games for the Mets last season. But the 26-year-old catcher has also shown the potential to develop into a stronger offensive threat. If d’Arnaud can manage to remain healthy for most of the 2016 season, he could add some additional offensive power that the team lacked at the catcher position for most of 2015.

The Mets would like to resolve these issues before shelling out a boatload of money for a big-bat free agent that they may not even need right now.

Of course free agency is not the only way to acquire another middle-of-the-lineup bat. The Mets could also make a trade that will bring a Cespedes–caliber player to New York for the start of the 2016 season. But they are also in no position to pull off a major trade right now due to the value of some of their key trading options.

If the Mets were to pull off a deal for a big-time bat, the trade would almost certainly involve at least one of the following three players: Conforto, Zack Wheeler or Matt Harvey.

Conforto is a hot young prospect that would be attractive to any team in the trade market. But if he continues to develop in a manner that most expect him to, he will have not even reached a fraction of the value the Mets could extract from him six months to one year down the line.

Harvey also has to be considered a trade option for the Mets. The right-hander begins arbitration this season and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2018. If this year’s market for strong starting pitching is anything to go by, Harvey will be looking at a massive payday during the 2018 offseason.

So the Mets can either maximize Harvey’s value in a trade sooner rather than later, or they can watch him head out of town in the free-agency market without getting anything in return.

The problem with Harvey is that he, too, has not yet reached his maximum trade value. He is coming off of his first year following Tommy John surgery, and any prospective taker would likely want to evaluate how Harvey emerges in 2016 after throwing the most pitches ever recorded by a player in the year immediately following such surgery.

If Harvey starts strong in 2016, he will likely hit his maximum trade value by the middle of the season, which is when the Mets may be able to utilize him to acquire a big bat.

Wheeler is another trade option for the Mets, but his value is almost nonexistent right now, as he has not yet returned from the Tommy John surgery that had him sidelined for the entire 2015 season. If Wheeler comes back strong in 2016, his trade value could increase dramatically.

Wheeler is also a player that could be expendable for the Mets if the team decides to hold onto Harvey. But the other side of that coin is that the Mets will not really know if they can afford to trade Harvey until they have had sufficient time to evaluate Wheeler’s return from Tommy John.

So the Mets certainly have the ability to acquire the offensive power they need through either a trade or free agency. But signing an expensive free agent to a long-term deal before knowing if he is truly needed— or unloading young players in trades before they have reached their maximum trade value—is not the right way to go about building a team that can be a World Series contender in coming years.

The Mets have been treading lightly this offseason, which may not be exactly what the New York fans were hoping for.

But many questions must be addressed before the Mets can intelligently proceed toward acquiring the bats they need.

And much to the chagrin of Mets fans, these questions will more than likely not be answered until at least the middle of the 2016 season.

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When it comes to the New York Mets, two things are very clear:

1. They have the best starting pitching staff in baseball.
2. They have absolutely no chance of being able to retain all of their young pitching talent as they start to hit the free-agent market.

Matt Harvey, who will likely see a significant pay raise this year through arbitration, will be the first Mets young gun to hit the free-agent market in 2018, which is precisely why the trade chatter has already begun circulating around the 26-year-old right-hander. 

Trading Harvey at some point prior to 2018 may very well be a prudent move for the Mets, but that time is not now. There are far too many questions that the Mets need to answer prior to unloading arguably their best starting pitcher.

Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard have established themselves as dominant starters, and neither is going anywhere anytime soon. DeGrom will not become an unrestricted free agent until 2020, and Syndergaard will not hit the open market until 2021.

But the Mets need time to further evaluate Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler.

Matz has started only six regular-season games for the Mets and has been susceptible to injuries throughout the early stages of his career.

Wheeler has shown the talent to be a solid major league starter, but he is just 18-16 in 49 career starts. Wheeler also missed the entire 2015 season due to Tommy John surgery.

Before making any moves with Harvey, the Mets will need to determine whether or not they can depend on Matz and Wheeler to fill out their starting pitching rotation on a long-term basis.

If the Mets do decide to trade Harvey, it will undoubtedly be for an All-Star-quality bat.

But are the Mets truly in need of another big-time bat in their lineup?

This is another question that must be answered before making any decisions with regard to Harvey’s future with the ballclub.

During the 2015 season, the tide clearly began to turn for the Mets after they acquired Yoenis Cespedes from the Tigers, along with Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson from the Braves.

Prior to acquiring Cespedes, the Mets were the worst offensive team in the league. They were last in runs scored (3.5 runs per game) and hitting just .234 as a team.

After the Mets acquired Cespedes on July 31st, they incredibly transformed into the best offensive team in the National League, hitting .275 as a team and averaging 6.5 runs per game.

During that same period of time, the Mets were able to steamroll over a strong Washington Nationals team that had been leading them in the division for the first half of the season.

This was a clear indication that the only thing the Mets had been missing during the first half of the 2015 season was an offensive punch in their lineup. The pitching was there, as was the defense. As soon as the Mets added some power to their lineup, all of the pieces began to fall into place.

It is unlikely that the Mets will be able to re-sign Cespedes, who is now a free agent.

NLCS hero Daniel Murphy, who just turned down the Mets’ one-year $15.8 million qualifying offer, will also more than likely not be wearing a Mets uniform come Opening Day in 2016.

The loss of Cespedes and Murphy will, of course, leave a large hole in the lineup, but do the Mets really need to fill that hole by trading Harvey for an All-Star-caliber bat, or can they fit enough pieces together to fill that offensive void?

Seven-time All-Star David Wright should be back in the lineup from Opening Day in 2016 after missing 124 games this past season due to a back injury. If healthy, Wright is still one of the better-hitting third basemen in the league.

2015 rookie Michael Conforto has also demonstrated that he has the potential to be an above-average, if not All-Star-quality, bat in the lineup as an everyday left fielder. Conforto batted .270 with nine home runs and 26 RBI in just 56 games last season.

The loss of Cespedes and Murphy also frees up enough money for the Mets to go out and sign another decent bat on the free-agent market.

Ben Zobrist and Howie Kendrick are two potential options for the Mets.

Kendrick batted .295 with a .336 OBP last season while playing second base for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Zobrist, a member of the world-champion Kansas City Royals, batted .284 last season with a .364 OBP while playing multiple positions, including second base.

Either player would be a step up from Murphy defensively at second base while providing a bat at least somewhat comparable to Murphy’s in the lineup.

If Wright comes back strong in 2016, Conforto continues to develop and the team adds another decent bat to the lineup through free agency; it may be enough to fill the gap left by Cespedes and Murphy.

However, these are all big “ifs,” which is precisely why now is not the right time to trade Harvey.

If the Mets were to trade Harvey for a big bat this offseason, Matz goes on the DL again early next season and Wheeler is simply not the same pitcher coming off Tommy John surgery, the team will be left with a depleted pitching staff, which makes winning a World Series extremely difficult.

And if all of the pieces fall into place on the offensive side, the Mets may not even need to bring in some additional offensive power at the expense of arguably their best starting pitcher in order to make another World Series run in 2016.

Harvey will almost certainly be traded before he hits free agency in 2018. It may even occur prior to the 2016 trade deadline.

But the Mets have far too many questions that need to be answered before sending the Dark Knight out of Gotham.

Unless otherwise specified, all statistics for this article came from baseball-reference.com or mlb.com.

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During his 16 years in the major leagues, Mike Piazza compiled a career batting average of .308 with 427 homes runs.

Piazza, who was the 1,390th overall draft pick for the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 1988, batted .300 or better for nine consecutive years between 1993 and 2001. He also had nine seasons with 30 or more home runs, and his 1997 season, where he batted .362 with 40 home runs and 124 RBI, was arguably the greatest single offensive season by any catcher in history.

Piazza’s best years came with the Dodgers between 1992 and 1997 although he did hit 30 or more home runs in each of his first four seasons with the Mets and also provided New York fans with arguably their most memorable post-September 11 baseball moment.

While Piazza was never known for his defense behind the plate, he is, statistically speaking, the best hitting catcher of all time and by no small margin.

But despite Piazza’s otherworldly offensive production from the catcher position, he has not yet been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Piazza received 57.8 percent of the votes cast by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America during his first year of eligibility and improved to 62.2 percent this past year, both well short of the 75 percent needed to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

So how is it even remotely possible that the doors of Cooperstown have not yet swung wide open for a player who put up the type of offensive numbers that Piazza did throughout his career?

Well, the answer to that question is quite simple: Rumors have taken over the BBWAA, and cold, hard facts—and even logic—evidently cease to exist when it comes to the Hall of Fame’s induction process.

Piazza was never implicated in any formal steroid investigation, including the Mitchell Report, which was put together by former United States Senator George J. Mitchell at the direct request of Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.

Aside from some shadowy whispers, which have circulated around the world of baseball for virtually every single player who managed to find success during the steroid era, the only real allegations of steroid use by Piazza came from columnist Murray Chass, formerly of The New York Times, who essentially accused Piazza of steroid use due to acne he had seen on Piazza’s back.

While other worthy players, such as Jeff Bagwell, have been kept out of Cooperstown due to nothing more than rumors, Piazza’s situation is slightly different in that we are talking about the greatest hitting catcher of all-time and a player who should have been a sure-thing, first-ballot selection to the Hall of Fame.

Piazza’s poor defense behind the plate during his career is nowhere near enough to overshadow his offensive production and keep him out of the Hall of Fame if the BBWAA was looking strictly at on-the-field performance.

What has happened with Piazza is that the BBWAA has taken it upon itself to play judge, jury and executioner when it comes to alleged steroid use and the Hall of Fame.

While baseball might be America’s favorite pastime, the Hall of Fame selection process has become about as un-American as any formal judgment process in this great nation of ours.

Players are no longer innocent until proven guilty; they are simply guilty if a handful of writers believe the rumors that have spawned out of thin air without any real shred of evidence.

It makes no difference that there has never been a spec of true evidence pointing towards Piazza’s use of steroids or any other performance-enhancing drug. All it takes is more than 25 percent of the BBWAA voters to believe these unfounded accusations, such as those made by Chass, to keep worthy individuals such as Piazza out of the Hall of Fame.

And that is simply not right.

If any member of the BBWAA has any hard evidence that Piazza used steroids or any other performance-enhancing drug during his career, he or she should come forward now and present that evidence.

Heck, if any writer is sitting on this kind of evidence, he or she should write a book on the subject. It would almost certainly be a bestseller amongst baseball fans.

But if not, it is time for the BBWAA to get over its newly formed God complex as it relates to the Baseball Hall of Fame and open the doors of Cooperstown to a player who is more than deserving of the honor.

Mike Piazza belongs in the Hall of Fame, and it would be a true tragedy if he is excluded from this elite baseball club due to nothing more than unfounded rumors and accusations.

Unless otherwise specified, all statistics for this article came from Baseball-Reference.com.

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The steroid era seems to be dark cloud that will just not pass over Major League Baseball.  

While this era has somewhat ended in terms of the widespread use of banned substances within the game, it clearly has not been completely eliminated.

And now, the steroid era is beginning to rain one of baseball’s most prized and revered institutions: The Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Baseball Hall of Fame has always been a sacred place, reserved only for those who have achieved at a level head and shoulders above the rest.

A trip to Cooperstown, NY is near the top of every baseball fan’s bucket list and has always been the perfect destination for families who love the game.

But with the dark cloud of the steroid era still hovering over baseball, a big question remains: what will become of the Baseball Hall of Fame?

In 2013, not a single player will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, despite the fact that—statistically speaking—some of the best players of all time were on the ballot.

The Baseball Writers’ Association has made it abundantly clear that they intend to keep everyone and anyone associated with steroids out of the Baseball Hall of Fame in order to keep the integrity of the institution intact, which is in many ways a noble action.

However, this is also the equivalent of swinging blindly in the dark. The baseball writers have not created anything that remotely resembles a formal criterion through which to evaluate players from the steroid era.

As of now, it appears that the writers are literally excluding anyone that is ever been accused of using steroids, no matter how thin or unfounded those accusations may be.

In one group you have guys like Sammy Sosa, who is said to have tested positive for steroids, and Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGuire, who admitted to using steroids during their playing days. Many fans would agree that these red-handed players should never be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

But what about guys like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens?

Based solely on their numbers, they are two of the greatest baseball players of all time. Both have been accused of using steroids, and some argue that there is a compelling amount of evidence that points to their use of PEDs.

But, and this is a big but, these allegations have never been proven.

With Bonds and Clemens, we are still talking about nothing more than accusations and circumstantial evidence.

Then we drop down to players such as Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell. Both players are deserving of a spot in the Hall of Fame based on their career statistics. However, there is some suspicion surrounding each man regarding the possible use of PEDs during their playing days.

The suspicion surrounding players such as Piazza and Bagwell are at best comprised of rumors or so-called witnesses. There is nothing that remotely resembles hard evidence suggesting that either of these men used PEDs during their careers, yet they too seem to have made their way onto the Hall of Fame blacklist.

The underlying question now becomes: When does the blacklisting of players end?

Is every player who has ever been even accused of using PEDs now automatically excluded from the Hall of Fame?

And if so, what constitutes a legitimate accusation?

If a player simply doesn’t like another player and comes out and says he saw player X do steroids back in 1999, is that it? Is player X now permanently excluded from the Hall of Fame?

If a blogger accuses Derek Jeter of using steroids and the story blows up into national headlines, and Jeter is forced to hold a press conference denying these accusations which were made on the back of no evidence whatsoever, then is that it? Is that all it would take to exclude a player like Jeter from the Hall of Fame? An online rumor?

This is the fine line the Hall of Fame voters are treading, a fine line between preserving the integrity of the institution and turning the whole thing into one big joke.

Most baseball fans would agree that players who cheated by using PEDs during their career should not be elected into the Hall of Fame, but most Americans would also agree that players, like citizens, are innocent until proven guilty.

The Hall of Fame voters need to come together and create a legitimate criterion for what actions constitute exclusion from the Hall of Fame, particularly on the subject of PEDs, because they are clearly starting to lose control of the situation. And as a result of not knowing what else to do, they have decided that anyone every accused of involvement with PEDs, no matter how flimsy the evidence may be, is going to be excluded from the Hall of Fame.

Baseball has already marginalized an entire era due to PEDs, and if the Baseball Writers’ Association is not careful, they are going to be responsible for the marginalization of the oldest, purest and most revered institution in the entire game—the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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