Be Patient, Mets Fans: Trevor Bauer Snub May Be Blessing in Disguise

The Trevor Bauer saga came to a conclusion Friday night when the 2020 NL Cy Young Award winner announced he had agreed to a three-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers on his YouTube channel.

Bauer once seemed destined for the bright lights and big stage in New York City, but in the end, it was the allure of his own hometown, the opportunity to be the highest-paid player in the game over the next two years and the opportunity to chase a World Series with the defending champions.

The Mets made a serious push for the prize of the 2020-21 free-agent class to chase that same goal. With previous owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon now gone, new owner Steve Cohen gave the green light to spend money on the kind of high-dollar free agents the Mets typically don't go after. The club made a number of acquisitions over the offseason, signaling an intent to contend for a pennant immediately, so it was only natural that many fans would be disappointed with this turn of events.

The Mets swung and missed on Bauer and outfielder George Springer, and instead of going for free-agent catcher J.T. Realmuto, one of the top position players in baseball, they signed James McCann instead. The first year they have free rein to spend, and they strike out.

But the reactions to losing out on Bauer were mixed. Some fans were disappointed. Some fans thought Bauer was the key to the World Series. Adding him to the rotation certainly would have given the Mets one of the best in baseball.

But others were conflicted.

The Mets have been at the center of two separate sets of sexual harassment allegations in the last two weeks, with former manager Mickey Callaway and short-lived general manager Jared Porter accused of sexually harassing women in the media. Porter's actions took place while he was with the Chicago Cubs front office, and the allegations against Callaway span over five years with three different teams. Team president and former GM Sandy Alderson is facing criticism for having hired both of them.

Bauer has long been a lightning rod for controversy in baseball. He bullied a woman on social media two years ago, and though he did (sort of) apologize, some Mets fans have cited that to express their displeasure with the team's pursuit of the right-hander. Ken Davidoff of the New York Post penned a column urging the Mets to read the room and let Bauer go.

It should be noted that Bauer is represented by a woman, Rachel Luba. She negotiated that $102 million deal, and none of this should take away from her accomplishment, because she broke some major barriers.

But where there is controversy, there is the Mets. The owner might be new, but they're still the same old Mets.

However, they won't be forever.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither were the Dodgers. The Mets will be a good team this year, and maybe they can challenge the Dodgers for the National League crown, but more work is needed both on the field and off in order to set themselves up for success now and in the future.

With Bauer's decision now made, the Mets should focus their attention on outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. and right-hander Jake Odorizzi to address the on-field issues.

Brandon Nimmo gets on base at a high clip, and his wRC+ is up there with some of the elite outfielders in the league. Since 2018, when Nimmo became an everyday starter, he owns a 148 wRC+, according to FanGraphs, which is 11th out of all qualified outfielders.

The Mets have all but ignored defense for the last five years, which has been nothing but a detriment to their stellar pitching staff. It can't be attractive to a free-agent pitcher either. They could platoon Nimmo with Dominic Smith in left field and use Bradley in center to improve their defense. This would also allow part-time left fielder Jeff McNeil to return his natural position at second base.

Odorizzi is not quite the same as Bauer, but if he can stay healthy, he would provide some stability to the rotation. Injuries cost him much of his 2020 season, but he made 28 or more starts in his previous six seasons.

Sure, it would be nice to have another ace, especially with Noah Syndergaard still recovering from Tommy John surgery, but the Mets also need stability.

The front office needs it as well.

The ham-handed Wilpons might be gone, but it's clear that undoing the damage from the previous era will not happen overnight. The Mets need to assess their personnel and their organizational systems. After the report about Callaway came out, Alderson said the club is reviewing the organization's hiring processes. It's a good start, but it takes years to truly change a culture.

While they're revamping the way they hire, they might want to try actually hiring some people in the analytics department. The Mets have always had one of the smaller analytics departments in baseball, with only six full-time employees last season. The Dodgers, New York Yankees and Houston Astros all employ more than 20. The Mets also recently fired the person who headed it up for the last two years, Adam Guttridge, as part of a purge of hires made under the Wilpons.

If the rumors are to be believed, then Cohen will want to bolster this area of deficiency. The Wilpons might have passed on pricey technology but that doesn't seem like something Cohen will do, especially with Alderson calling the baseball operations shots. During Alderson's first tenure with the Mets, he pushed for upgrades in technology.

If they want to take a page from the Dodgers' hiring manual, then maybe they should look to Driveline Baseball. The Dodgers recently hired 24-year-old wunderkind Rob Hill as their pitching coordinator of technical development. Driveline's founder, Kyle Boddy, was hired by the Cincinnati Reds in 2019 to work with pitching coordinator Caleb Cotham, a former Driveline client.

Bauer is a product of Driveline and won his Cy Young as a member of the Reds. Some of their programs might be unconventional to baseball's old guard, but they get results. They employ smart, forward-thinking people for a game that is evolving faster than many would like to admit.

Maybe the Mets should try thinking outside of the box for key hires instead of recycling candidates from the old boys' club. That method sure didn't work out well with Porter.

The Mets appear to be on a better path. They're trying to exorcise the demons of the previous regime and they're making smarter baseball decisions. If losing out on the Bauer sweepstakes is what it takes to finally address these issues, then maybe the Mets are better off without him after all.