The Mets NEED To Answer This Question...

The Mets need to answer this question. Marcus Simeon has been terrible for the New York Mets. And Jefferson Rojas plays the same position and is the Mets' top prospect. So David Stearns has a bit of a difficult decision to make here. Does he go externally? Does he promote the top prospect immediately? Or does he do yet another unpopular track here and convince the fan base, probably failingly, that the veteran second baseman is the way to go for another year? We'll talk all about that today. What's going on, guys? I'm Josh Byrne. You're tuned into Mets Digest. Guys, thank you so much for all the engagement in the early part of this offseason. Of course, free agency hasn't begun yet. Trades haven't begun yet. But one big trade the Mets made last offseason, just about a year ago, a little under a year ago, was trading fan favorite, longtime Met Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Simeon straight up. And the thinking behind that was that the Mets would save money on the back end of that contract while also getting a guy in Simeon that while his offensive numbers had been in a decline would provide Gold Glove defense unfortunately the only thing that stayed constant with that analysis is that his offense continued to diminish however his defense got even worse so what value does he provide and with the Mets selling off at the deadline they got a lot better in their upper minor league system specifically in the middle infield and Jefferson Rojas now the Mets top prospect, who they acquired in the Clay Holmes trade, has become the Mets number one prospect. And he was sensational with the New York Mets. And so when you look at Marcus Simeon, this is a guy who's making over $20 million in each of the next two seasons, it's going to be a tough pill to swallow to release him outright. You figure he has no value on the trade market, so that is not really an option for the Metropolitans. And so because of that, David Stearns is left with a decision. Does he move forward with trusting the veteran right-handed bat in Marcus Simeon, or does he believe that, like many of us do, the best path forward for the New York Mets is to trust their young prospect in Jefferson Rojas. Rojas officially reached AAA in the New York Mets organization. He started this season in AA in the Cubs organization, but he was absolutely dominating. He was playing well with the Cubs, and then he got even better once he was traded to the Mets and performed well for Binghamton in the Mets organization. Now, when you look at his player profile, he has 28 doubles over this past season, 27 home runs, and 20 stolen bases between the Mets and Cubs. And taking a look at the timeline here of Jefferson's climb, of course, he started at double-A reached triple-A in September, and a key indicator of his ascent with his offensive profile is, according to MLB Pipeline's prospect report, Rojas has been trading many of the grounders that he initially had been hitting consistently for line drives the past season, which is a very promising sign. So, what triple-A must answer is, can he keep driving the ball against better pitching does his pitch recognition hold up and can he make enough consistent contact to force a 2024 decision well given how well he played in the albeit short sample size that he had in Triple-A i believe there is very much reason to believe that he can continue to deliver those numbers at Triple-A and thereby approach the major leagues as a viable option for the New York Mets at second base now this was a comment that came on a recent video and you know this is from serving I can't say the whole name but you cannot the guy says you cannot ignore Ronnie Mauricio has been a 20-20 guy multiple times despite injury and can we all and we get all hyped up over Rojas makes no sense complete botch up indeed look I'll be the first to tell you that the Mets have mishandled their use of Ronnie Mauricio, and Ronnie Mauricio has no options left. So when you look at this situation regarding Marcus Simeon, to me, Jefferson Rojas is the favorite to ultimately replace Marcus Simeon, but he is not the only option. The Mets have other guys. As he pointed out, Ronnie Mauricio has a very realistic chance of being a viable Major League player. The problem is given his situation, given the lack of opportunities he's gotten with the Mets, I find it sort of, you know, a long way off that all of the sudden next season the Mets are going to give Mauricio an opportunity to surpass Simeon. I think Jefferson Rojas would get that opportunity over Mauricio, and I think there's a high likelihood that Mauricio's not even in the Mets organization come spring training. Do I agree with that? I don't know, but I do know that I do believe they've mishandled him this past, really, two years with him coming back from the injury and the fact that they wouldn't call him up. But again, this situation that's presenting itself, Jefferson Rojas, the Mets' top prospect, is the number one option, in my view, to replace Marcus Simeon. Now, when we look at Simeon and the quotes surrounding his season, Tommy Nelson of Sports Illustrated said Simeon has had nothing short of a disastrous season in his first year in New York, and when we look at why that is, I mean, it's pretty clear his indicators are just terrible. 39th, you know, percentile in batting average, 25th in OPS, 16th in average exit velocity, and 26th in hard hit percentage. Long story short, the guy was well below average in every offensive metric and unfortunately his defense which was supposed to be this strong suit completely disappeared significantly declined to the point where he didn't just go from being a guy who was top of the league in second base defense he went from there to among the worst defenders at the position obviously Jefferson Rojas still has a readiness uh you know question mark but But again, if we look at the checklist here, if he can keep this pitch recognition edge, he didn't strike out all too much. He's not a guy who draws a ton of walks, but he's been driving the ball more than ever. If he shows that that line drive trend lasts and keeps that up, then I believe this is a legitimate possibility. Now, avoid rushing the promotion. Look, Carson Bench to some was rushed, and it worked out. He performed two unlucky metrics, albeit worse stats than the rest of his season in April and May, but he climbed up very fast, and he is arguably the Mets' best all-around player. I'm not saying he's their best player, but best cumulatively position player when you factor in the defense offense, you know, and the arm he has. Not saying Jefferson Rojas will necessarily be that, but again there there is very much reason to believe that he can step in now in 2025 he played a split of shortstop and second base last year was mostly at third base but when you look at his defensive tools this is a guy that can seamlessly transition to second base according to MLB pipeline he's an average defender with quick hands and a solid arm capable of making throws from a variety of angles. That is very encouraging. It shows me that he will not have a tough time, not even transitioning because he's played second base before, but moving back to that position. Now, I believe the Mets should absolutely make second base a competition. I don't believe this should be just given to Jefferson Rojas. I think he's going to have to earn it for sure. I mean, again, going back to the Carson bench and how the Mets handled him, he earned it. He batted around 400 in spring training. And this is a big money versus performance thing. The biggest factor that could keep Simeon on the roster is his contract. I agree, and I think he will be. However, Simeon was terrible. And so he's going to have to prove something early on in order for him to get at bats. And while, according to Pipeline, while Rojas' pitch recognition and bat-to-ball skills didn't diminish after he got to AA, he stopped hitting the ball with authority, that was an early scouting report. That has developed since then. And he has ascended offensively. Meanwhile, Simeon has not. and so to me this is a situation in which you're looking at two players going in opposite directions and whether it be at the beginning of next season or a little later than that Jefferson Rojas is the future in the infield and Marcus Simeon is not but let me know what you guys think down in the comments below who should start at second in 2027 Simeon gets the first chance Rojas wins it if he is ready or there's an open competition for me it's a combination of B and C because I do believe there should be an open competition, but I also believe in Jefferson Rojas' skill set, I believe his line drive percentage trend ascension will continue, and I believe he will ultimately be a factor in 2027 as the Mets' primary second baseman. Comment below, let me know what you guys think, and as always, guys, let's go Mets.