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The 2019-20 Amazin’ Avenue Offseason Plan Contest is over, and the community has selected the winners. We had 16 entries this year, which was pruned down to five finalists by a panel of Amazin’ Avenue staff members. A poll for these five were presented on Thursday last week, and voting closed Sunday evening. Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who took the time and effort to submit an AAOP!
First Place (27 votes): If it Ain’t Fixed, Don’t Break It
The Shake Shack line took a modest approach to the offeseason, making a couple small trades and a handful of mid-level free agent signings. More importantly, Shake Shack’s plan kept the Met’s young core in place, extending Michael Conforto and Noah Syndergaard and avoiding any deals that traded away from the young core that played so well in 2019. Even without a big, splashy addition, that all summed up to a nice looking roster and, combined with a couple cringe-worthy paints, a champion AAOP.
Prize: Art of Words Shea Stadium print
Second Place (19 votes): The Core is Here
mattsbrew’s plan was an immediate favorite among the judges thanks to the Naked Gun theme, and it seems that played well with the Amazin’ Avenue voting bloc as well. Leslie Nielsen was Shirley surely serious as he walked us through a plan based around several modest free agent signings that built around the core the Mets have in place. Some weakness in the bullpen and a mostly unchanged group of options at catcher were weaknesses, but mattsbrew still finished in a solid second place.
Prize: Your choice of one Mets-related t-shirt from BreakingT
Third Place (14 votes): Building Flexibility for Today and Tomorrow
irishmets’ plan was definitely the wildest plan of our three winners, but that’s a nice change of pace after first and second went to conservative proposals. Flexibility was the name of the game here, as irishmets found a way for the Mets to ship out Robinson Cano and Wilson Ramos before snagging three top-50 prospects from the Padres in exchange for Noah Syndergaard. It was an ambitions and creative AAOP, one that narrowly eked out a third place finish over our other two finalists.
Prize: A signed copy of Shea Stadium Remembered: The Mets, the Jets, and Beatlemania