Gio: Mets only 'marginally better' after all this week's moves

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The Mets have re-upped Brandon Nimmo and Edwin Diaz, replaced Jacob deGrom with Justin Verlander, made a few minor trades and waiver claims, and added Jose Quintana and David Robertson so far this winter.

And as the Winter Meetings conclude, the Mets have blown past the “Cohen Tax” level of the Competitive Balance Tax guidelines, which Gio noted Boomer has been saying all along – and man, that number is a doozy.

“He’s going to have a total payroll, when you take into account all of the tax he’ll have to pay, that is north of $340 million,” Boomer said. “If you’re a Mets fan, you can’t say the guy isn’t trying to win and he’s not spending money, so don’t bitch and complain about that.”

“There’s no way the Mets fan can complain about that,” Gio fired back. “They can complain about where they’re spending the money, but here’s the thing: they didn’t have a shot at Jacob deGrom, so forget about that. So they went out and got Verlander, and retaining Brandon Nimmo was important – but unfortunately, you had to give him a massive contract to do that.”

But with all that said…Gio thinks the Mets are only “marginally” better

“They haven’t gotten any worse, that’s for sure,” Gio said.

“I think they’ve gotten better with Verlander, assuming he makes his 25 to 30 starts,” Boomer shot back.

Gio acknowledged that’s not likely to have happened with deGrom, but when Boomer also said Jose Quintana was a good addition, Gregg wasn’t sold.

“Yeah, but you lost Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker; if they end up signing Kodai Senga, maybe you can say that’s an upgrade, but I think it’s debatable,” Gio said. “I think Robertson is better than Seth Lugo, and they made the trade for (Brooks Raley) because they needed a lefty in the bullpen – so I’d say that marginally, they got better, but I think they’re still lacking something in the lineup.”

There may still be some room to make an upgrade or two there – perhaps a surprise signing f Carlos Correa or Dansby Swanson that pushes Jeff McNeil to the outfield, or someone like J.D. Martinez or Andrew Benintendi to rotate in the outfield and DH spots – but the Mets as they were in 2021 won 101 games, so if they’re only marginally better?

Well, 101 plus one is 102, which is what the Braves won the Division Title with, after all.

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