There are 5 things that need to happen this year, and they all need to be done in the context of not mortgaging the future . It's tough to have a pipeline when there are no pipes, nor substance to flow through them, so these 5 principles will be done in the best interest of the short and long term. They are as follows:

V: Address the starting rotation

O: Remove square pegs for the round holes while upgrading the major league roster

T: Provide adequate and quality depth

T: Reshape the bullpen

O: Have financial flexibility for the future

Wait, what? Was that supposed to happen? Weird how the bullets worked out like that. Maybe it's a sign from above (AKA Canada) or probably just the portent of another cease and desist letter. I have a collection. Anywho... This team, as currently constructed, has holes in the rotation, has a BP that is getting long in the tooth and close to free agency, like 14 first basemen playing various positions around the diamond, and little in the pipeline ready to hit the bigs. Taking advantage of both the FA market and teams that are rebuilding are the order of the day. So, as Jane's Addiction once said, Coming down a mountain!, err, Here we go!

TEH internal nonsense

QO's for Noah Syndergaard and Michael Conforto. Noah accepts, Michael rejects.

Decline the option on Pillar. He doesn't exercise his player option. And a 1.4 mil thank you for allowing Batman to play at Citi Field.

DFA/Non-tenders are as follows: Drury, Peraza, Sisco, Gsellman, Martinez, Stock, Oswalt. These are all for helping sort out the 40 man issues. No real surprises here.

TEH TRAIDS

Matt Chapman, Luis Trivino, & AJ Puk for Dominic Smith, Ronny Mauricio, and Jose Butto.

The A's are rebuilding, and the Mets should take advantage of this. This makes sense for the Mets in that Chapman is a tremendous upgrade on the defensive side of the ball, while providing pop to the lineup. He's estimated at about 10-ish mil in arbs, and under control for 2 years. So he ain't blocking Baty, which was important to me. Trivino is a soon to be 30 year old BP arm just hitting arbs, so a bit of age, but still competent and has control. he also had some closer experience, which is nice considering I don't trust Diaz at all. Puk was included because I like hockey, he's a lefty, and he's a massive upside/massive injury risk. This is what I want to see, high upside guys for the BP, and he gets included to help snag Mauricio. For the A's Smith can 1B/DH/probably play like C or SS and succeed because it's the A's and is not going to have that luxury with the Mets. Mauricio is the gem of the trade for the A's and Butto helps balance out the inclusion of Puk.

And no, I did not want to trade Mauricio. I did not want to, don't you know. I could have just targeted Seager. Or even had a fall back like Villar. But age, defense and speed, made Chapman the greater need. So no, I did not want to trade Maurico, but I did, so there you go.

Taylor Rogers and Jorge Alcala for JD Davis and Miguel Castro.

Rogers is not Captain America, nor some dude who is into cheese, but he is a guy that is starting to get expensive, has some most excellent numbers out of the pen, and is another lefty. Alcala is a youngerish dude with some promise. The money balance helps the Twins short term, gives them a 1B/DH option in Davis, they eat the last year of Castro and there you go. More than I wanted to give up for the return, but I think it makes sense, and helps really helps to bolster the Mets BP. Plus it's my happy little world. Been watching a bunch of Bob Ross...

TEH Agents de Free

Kevin Gausman - 5 years, 120 million

This was a face off between Gausman vs. Stroman. Why not Stroman? I think the upside of Gausman is higher than Stroman, and that's what I'm targeting. Should deGrom, well, we'll not mention what possibilities may happen with good ol' Jason... Anyway, I wanted to target a higher ceiling type, and Gausman's last two years with a FIP right at 3, along side his high K numbers does it for me.

Starling Marte - 5 years, 80 million.

A true CF(R). Been a while since the team has had one of those. There used to be this guy who rode a falcon. Well, now we've got one that not only rides a starling, he is one. He gets the Grandy type deal, one that doesn't hamstring the team and upgrades both the offense (slightly) and defense (more than slightly). I want to push Nimmo to a corner, so the team doesn't really need to have a defense only type for CF backup, but rather have the ability to slide other legit players to CF, if needed.

Mark Canha - 3 years, 33 million.

This decision to sign Mark Canha corn, err soup, err, whatever. Canha can play all 3 OF positions while also providing 1B depth. I really like his OBP numbers and his approach at the plate. Brings another Nimmo type to the lineup, which I wanted. Also, with no real CF depth in the org (I'm not quite sure I'm ready to count on Lee just yet), I built my CF depth into my starting OF.

Aaron Loup - 2 years, 7 million

Have I mentioned that I like me some lefties pitching out of the pen? It's almost like it's been looped on a tape or a movie about a guy related to time and Bruce Willis was in it and stuff. Loup was most excellent for the team this past year, and I want to keep him around, so he gets a 2 year deal. I actually prefer a 2 year deal here, as there are multiple FA BP people coming off the books the following year, so I needed a bit of stability here.

Jonathan Villar, 1 year 4.5 mil

Wearing the Oculus, VR looks really good. Especially where he's supposed to be what he was supposed to be. Bench depth. Knowing Vientos/Baty could make a push, but not wanting to go skimpy here, I'm dipping back into the Villar well. He does not have starter stats, but he's also not Eric Campbell, Josh Satin (HAIL!) or the like.

Joc Pederson, 1 year 4.5 million, 8 mil mutual option, 2 mil buyout

I was going to sign Daniel Murphy and then trade him for Pederson, but since he is now a free agent, I don't have to do that. I wanted some legit power off the bench, some OF depth, and the fact he can play all 3 OF spots made this a smart signing. With it being a relatively deep market for the corner OF, I didn't figure he would get a ton, but giving him that buyout the following year bumps up his guaranteed money. And again, Another CF option.

TEH Minor League deals and roster cleanup.

I'm looking at bringing back Corey Oswalt, Jose Martinez, Jordan Yamamoto, and Chance Sisco back into the fold on minor league deals. I'm also looking to add Michael Wacha and Jose Quintana on minor league deals because can't have enough pitching. I'm interested in Rich Hill as well, but end of the day, he'll find a spot on a major league club as a starter. Oh, the Johnson Mound...

So, here is the New York IPAs for 2022. And yes, Cano is still on the team. He's sunk cost, but maybe the bat still plays. Hope for the best, maybe have him stand at 2B for a while if there are OF injuries and McNeil needs to slide to the OF. And if he pops a 3rd positive, as morbid as this seems, that'd help the Mets going forward. Don't pop a 3rd time, Robbie. Just put in 2 more Allstar performances and we'll be good to go. Also, I left some money on the table. That's so this team can trade for Kelly Johnson at the trade deadline.

I really like how this team looks defensively, with a lot of fluid parts that can shift around based on who's sitting/injured/dead. Offensively, there should be more ducks on the pond, which is nice if you like faux groix.

I wanted to make sure that both Megill and Peterson where starting the season in AAA, which means if when a SP goes down, there is something better than an Eickoff/Stock stepping into the void.

Lastly, the BP. I've upgraded it. BOOM. There you go.

As this relates to the future roster implications, this is the payroll going forward:

Going forward, I really wanted to make sure that there was financial flexibility going forward. I definitely wanted to EXTENZ Nimmo, but it would mess with my AAV, and honestly, let's see how he does this coming year. I'm all for throwing a big wad of money at him mid season, or just hold that QO, if necessary. The team (again, going forward) will certainly need to address the BP and possibly the rotation, depending on how you want to handle the options on Carracso and Walker. Hopefully Megill and/or Peterson can show they belong there for an internal fix. With Chapman and Cano coming off the books in 2 years, that should allow Baty/Vientos to push their way onto the roster. Definitely not handing them a starting spot, but if they are hitting, they will get playing time and if they ain't, well, bringing Chapman back could be an option. I definitely wanted to fill out the OF as best I could considering there still are limited options coming up the ranks of the minor leagues, but I also wanted to limit the size of the contracts, which is why I didn't go down Bryant/Baez avenue. I still think that Bryant is the best fit for the team in a vacuum, but he's a dude that might get close to 200+ mil, and we already got one of them...

Editor's note: This AAOP should have been allowed to go to 11. Like, 270-290 mil is what this team needed to go to. And if that was an option, I'd have signed Baez as well, pushed McNeil to the bench, and discussed how many precious stones can be lost while playing at Citi. We'll play by the rules, but I did MSPainz a pictures for Baez, so I will not deny the eyeball bleeding request that I know you are waiting for.

PS: There are no longer poll options, so Pizza to you all.