Mets still have mountains to climb to top Dodgers

There was a lot of talk during the World Series about the stable of players who couldn’t play for the Dodgers.

It’s a group that included Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone and Clayton Kershaw. And let’s not forget the other half Shohei Ohtani — the pitcher recovering from elbow surgery who was a Cy Young-caliber arm before this season.

That the Dodgers still won the World Series (and somewhat easily) should send a few shockwaves through the sport, especially for teams with legitimate plans to win it all.

This partly refers to the Mets, who have made a splash this season and will likely be viewed as a championship contender (at least by a large portion of their fan base) heading into 2025. But to use a football analogy, you have to wonder or these Dodgers are where the Chiefs, with Patrick Mahomes in charge, were a few years ago and poised to become a dynasty of sorts. If basketball is more your speed, consider the Warriors with Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.

Maybe we’re only talking this way because, for a change, the team with the most regular season wins — and a star-studded one at that — actually won the World Series. That hadn’t happened in a full season since 2018 (Red Sox), and before that only four times in the 21st century.

In other words, these Dodgers weren’t exactly the gritty team that rose to prominence in the second half of the season and carried it to a World Series title. The Dodgers were a powerhouse when the season started and World Series champions when it ended.

The Mets, just as they played the last four months of the regular season and through October, need to figure out how to bridge that gap. It won’t be as simple as returning much of the same team, signing a few free agents and hoping for the best.

The Dodgers are organizational masters — the parade of relievers that carried them through the postseason is Exhibit A — but also have the resources to attract the biggest stars.

This brings us to Juan Sotothe best offensive player available on the free agent market. I’d say that as much as the Mets need Soto for their own improvement, they risk taking a step back if they don’t get him and he signs with the Dodgers.

Just the idea of ​​Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Soto in the same lineup is mind-blowing. Not to mention the professional cast behind the top Dodgers stars, including players like Will Smith and Max Muncy.

Adding Soto to Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos (and possibly Pete Alonso?) would potentially be as good or better a lineup core as the Mets have had in their history. The Alonso question, of course, will revolve around how far the Mets are willing to go on a contract, with the team already locked into Lindor and Brandon Nimmo long-term and Soto almost certainly getting 10 years on his next deal. .

The Dodgers, even before strengthening this offseason, could add Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Glasnow, Ohtani and Stone into their rotation. Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty are among the free agents and it will be interesting to see if either is re-signed or if the Dodgers pursue Corbin Burnes or Max Fried.

Let’s just say the Dodgers have far fewer pitching questions than the Mets, who will have to be aggressive in filling out a rotation around Kodai Senga and David Peterson this winter. Perhaps they will pick up one or more contracts from Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana. But even then, there will be a need for reinforcements, and whether the farm system can provide enough weapons — for the rotation and the bullpen — to carry the Mets through a season.

The nature of baseball is such that the postseason often turns into a crapshoot, but this season there was no rolling of the dice: the best team won.

And there’s no reason to doubt (even at this early stage of the offseason) that the Dodgers will be the best team heading into next season.

It makes you wonder if the Mets can avoid becoming baseball’s Buffalo Bills – a team that always emerges formidable but lives in the shadow of a dynasty.