The Dodgers continued their unprecedented spending spree on Tuesday, further bolstering their bullpen by signing Kirby Yates after already signing Tanner Scott just days before.
LA’s busy offseason, which comes after winning their second World Series title in five years, also includes signing Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell while retaining Teoscar Hernandez and extending Tommy Edman. Clearly, ownership is deadest on building a dynasty, which hasn’t been seen in baseball since the late 90s Yankees.
Meanwhile, the Mets made the biggest splash of the offseason by signing Juan Soto, but the team still feels far behind the Dodgers in terms of contending for a title, and Sal says Steve Cohen and company need to change that.
“You don’t want to react to what other teams do,” Sal said. “However, in this spot, to get on par with the Dodgers, I do think the Mets need to react and go big. They got Juan Soto, but they still need more.
“There is something to be said about Steve Cohen, who talks about the Dodgers being the model, and him getting the one megastar in Juan Soto and trying to compete with the Dodgers who have 4-6 of them. You look at their rotation...you saw the disparity first hand where, even if everything went right for the Mets in the NLCS, they still weren’t as good as the Dodgers. They got clobbered in that series.”
The Mets certainly improved their lineup with the addition of Soto, but Pete Alonso is likely not coming back, while the starting rotation includes Sean Manaea returning while bringing in Frankie Montas to replace Luis Severino. New York figures to compete for a playoff spot at the very least, but Sal says the offseason plan has to change at least a little when a team directly competing with them for the NL pennant is spending like crazy to fortify an already stacked roster.
“The Mets have a long way to go to close that gap,” Sal said.
“Why couldn’t they go get Tanner Scott in addition? I understand you don’t have to spend $400 billion to form a team. But if the Dodgers can sign all these guys...Tanner Scott could have been had. If the Mets went out and got Minter and Scott, we’d be feeling pretty good about that bullpen.”