What I Want The Mets To Do and What I Think They Should Do

My regular Twitter is back, so just keep the other one in case Twitter hates me again.

Now, about the Mets. What I want them to do and what I think would be best for them this offseason are very different.

My plan:
The Mets say they need a catcher but they have Josh Thole. Let me enjoy some part of the season and let him play.

They need a left fielder who can hit and Xavier Nady is a free agent. Bring back some 2006 magic and sign him.

Jon Garland and Jarrod Washburn are both free agents. Sign them so Mike Pelfrey can be the only pitcher in the starting rotation with a name starting with the letter J. (Johan Santana, Jarrod Washburn, Jon Garland, John Maine)

Trade Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran to the Indians for Joe Smith, Justin Masterson, and Grady Sizemore. Further increasing the percentage of Mets with names starting with the letter J.

Hmm... I guess this means they need a second baseman.

Throw Asdrubal Cabrera in the deal with the Indians and move him to 2nd base.

The more realistic plan:
I don't know specifics because I'm not a general manager and don't pretend to play one on TV.

The Mets need somebody to catch for a year before Josh Thole will really be ready to take over. Yorvit Torrealba is a free agent but I don't see anything working out between him and the Mets after what happened a few years ago. Ramon Hernandez is an intriguing name. The Mets have previously had interest in him and he could be a mentor to Thole later in the season.

My left field suggestion is probably the most reasonable of them all. Xavier Nady is a Scott Boras client but spent the season injured and will be coming off a 2nd Tommy John surgery. He would be much cheaper than Matt Holliday or Jason Bay, leaving the Mets with money to spend elsewhere.

The starting rotation is trickier. The pitchers on the market are expensive because they either have Scott Boras as their agent (Jarrod Washburn) or are a free agent that would require a compensatory draft pick (Randy Wolf). Jon Garland would require a draft pick but not to the same level as Randy Wolf. I have wanted the Mets to sign or trade for Garland in the past and nothing has happened. Despite his success he has never been very expensive for anybody to sign. And I don't necessarily want the Mets trading the farm for Roy Halladay.

I don't want the Mets trading Luis Castillo unless they know they will definitely sign Orlando Hudson. Castillo did everything possible NOT to be traded during the 2009 season. He wasn't on the disabled list despite the fact that it feels like he is always on the DL. Trading Luis Castillo while his value his high would be a good idea but that means being 100% positive there is somebody to play second base.

That's all I have to say for now. Everybody is saying the offseason has to be productive for the Mets. But isn't every offseason supposed to be productive? There is so much room for improvement that a worse year in 2010 would be a failure of all failures.

Let's Go Mets!