On Friday, Mets’ acting general manager, Zack Scott, spoke to a group of reporters from Port St. Lucie. The issues varied from the pitch to the current and future list, the franchise’s feeling about third base, his new role as general manager and the contract status of Francisco Lindor and Michael Conforto, to name a few.
Scott speaks rather nervously, answering questions in short spurts, rarely elaborating on the topic at hand. He spoke with a twinge of levity as he reminded us of the times in which we live. Due to the pandemic, Scott has not yet met Sandy Alderson or Steve Cohen in person. This should be remedied as soon as Scott arrived in Port St. Lucie on Thursday night and will await the arrival of the rest of the Mets hierarchy.
Here are five things we learned from the pusher:
Mets are “Çuncomfortable ”with JD Davis
“We really like JD Davis,” said Scott when asked about third base. He added: “He (Davis) can beat”, “he is very valuable” and that they have long-term control over him. Although he added that Mets is always looking to improve his squad, third base was not chosen for any urgent needs that Mets currently have.
At the conclusion of his response, Scott said, “We are totally comfortable with entering the season with JD Davis playing an important role.”
Davis will start his third season as Met. He has seen action in third position and on the left field, but he is mainly a field player. In his first full season in New York, he hit 0.307 with 22 home runs. Davis, 27, is one of the Mets’ best hitter and can be seen as a better alternative than a player like Justin Turner, 36, who can apply for a three or four year contract.
It looks like Davis is losing third base.
“Never can have much pitching”
A cliché? Right. But it has been true since the first pitcher hit the mound in a professional game in 1869. Scott was more focused on depth when pondering the issue and realizing that injuries are part of the game. He is happy with the matches that the Mets have now, but he will still try to add more, be it a top or bottom match of the rotation type. It is likely that the Mets will add an initial pitcher soon, as Scott later mentioned in the press.
In the case of Noah Syndergaard, the timetable is yet to return in June. Scott will speak to the training team over the weekend, but does not expect any change in his return.
The current list and off-season moves
Scott was the most moving here. Emphatically, he noted: “We are not done yet. We want to do other things. ”When pressed in detail, he gave none, but later referred to the start of the launch as a definite necessity. The off-season has been good for the Mets, and although the new administration is not accepting edges, the feeling around baseball is that the Mets has improved a lot.
Lindor and Comfort
Scott was more evasive here, giving a brief answer to an urgent need. He said that talks to extend Francisco Lindor and Michael Conforto are best done in spring training, although internal conversations have already taken place within the organization. He noted that he and Sandy Alderson did not bring Lindor to the Mets for only a year, and that adding him would create better depth and quality for the 2021 list.
Scott then changed the subject abruptly, saying that his main focus was to build a better team overall. The inference, of course, is that Comfort and Lindor make Mets better, but it was a topic that the interim GM was clearly uncomfortable with. The wish here was that he could have a little more openness on this subject.
Scott’s New Role
Finally, Scott was asked about his new role as interim general manager and how his daily activities have changed. Scott noted: “I was called primarily to oversee the research and development and development of the player … now it is obviously much broader.” By broader, he meant that the scope and type of conversations he has almost daily with other teams or agents are more expansive, especially when dealing with potential negotiations or acquisitions of free agents.
Scott met with many more people in the Mets organization than he would have as an assistant GM, seeking to shift a “narrower focus” from his initial work to a broader one in his new one.
Not being the best conversationalist, Scott, however, seems to have the skill set needed to be an effective general manager. Only time (and performance) will tell if the word ‘performance’ has been removed from his title and he has become Mets’ 15th general manager in the franchise’s history.
