The Mets outfield and short term solutions.

        I hate to be blunt, but the Mets outfield in 2012 was God awful. Andres Torres proved to be an incompetent center fielder offensively, Lucas Duda struggled to keep his job in right field and was eventually demoted, and don't get me started on Jason Bay and his albatross of a contract. Kirk Nieuwenhuis came up and started off well, but soon looked loss at the plate with an alarming amount of strikeouts. This turned the outfield into a spot where platoon players such as Mike Baxter, Scott Hairston and Jordany Valdespin regularly patrolled. The Mets outfield is by far their most glaring weakness and there are numerous short term options that should be considered.

        As we all know the Mets have little money to spend on players not named David Wright, R.A Dickey and possibly Kelly Shoppach, so Sandy Alderson needs to pick up cost efficient players that can produce at a decent level. This means guys like Josh Hamilton, Michael Bourn,  Melky Cabrera, BJ Upton, Nick Swisher, and Shane Victorino will not don the orange and blue come next year. The Mets need a right handed bat with speed and power to play center field well. Upton fits the position, but again, he will command more money than the Mets can dish out. I would have liked the Mets to trade for Diamondbacks center Fielder Chris Young who also fits this need, but Billy Beane of the A's already pulled the trigger and picked up Young for Oakland. Some names who I feel can fit short term for the Mets are Cody Ross, a trade for Shin Soo Choo, or taking a chance with the oft injured center fielder Grady Sizemore. Barring a trade, Nieuwenhuis will most likely start for the Mets in center field, Lucas Duda in right field, and a big fat question mark in left, and don't say Jason Bay, he's run his course in Flushing.

        For the Mets, outfield options are far and few between, and unless Sandy Alderson can shell a little bit of money or trade for a competent outfielder, the outfield will remain a glaring problem that will only hurt the Mets chances of being a contender. This vulnerability must be addressed in some way, and yet again it falls on Sandy Alderson to make a smart decision for the franchise to bring some respectability back to this "Snake bitten" franchise.