Welcome back to the Mets Beat newsletter! Anthony DiComo has covered the Mets for MLB.com since 2007, including the past 14 seasons full time on the beat. 

The logic goes a little something like this: Shohei Ohtani is baseball’s best player. Steve Cohen is the game’s richest owner. So why, exactly, isn’t Ohtani a Met?

The reality is that the Mets, by all accounts, never talked seriously with Ohtani, which makes sense for two reasons. First, the industry consensus for years has been that Ohtani prefers to play on the West Coast, which is partially why he signed with the Angels in the first place. If geography truly was a deal-breaker for Ohtani, there’s not much the Mets could have done to combat it. Citi Field doesn’t even sit on the western portion of Flushing Bay.

Then there’s the matter of roster construction. Had the Mets signed Ohtani to a $700 million contract, as the Dodgers did, they would still need to add two more starting pitchers plus multiple relievers. Ohtani alone couldn’t have transformed the Mets from a fourth-place team into an immediate contender; that sort of leap would have required the Mets to spend hundreds of millions more, potentially making this offseason more expensive than the last one. Even for an owner worth billions, that’s no easy check to write.

(The news of massive deferrals in Ohtani’s contract does diminish that last point a bit, but no guarantees exist that he would have been willing to accept a similar deal from the Mets. As Cohen told The Athletic over the weekend, “The agent never reached out to me personally, and I think that’s pretty telling.”)

Those willing to take a step back understand that Cohen has been honest and consistent in calling 2024 a “bridge” year as the franchise looks toward 2025 and beyond. It’s why Ohtani, a 29-year-old who won’t be able to pitch next season while he recovers from right elbow surgery, was never a perfect fit. It’s also why the Mets weren’t an obvious suitor for Juan Soto, a potential one-year rental who would have cost significant pieces from a maturing farm system.

Put together, this mindset is what makes the Mets’ current pursuit of Yoshinobu Yamamoto feel so crucial. Unlike fellow free agents Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, Yamamoto is young enough -- just 25 -- that he’ll conceivably be just as good in five years as he is now. Signing him wouldn’t run counter to Cohen’s goals. He’s the lone top-market free agent who’s a perfect fit in Queens.

To that end, the Mets should have clarity on Yamamoto before Christmas, as previously reported in this space. In some ways, Yamamoto’s free agency carries even more intrigue than Ohtani’s, given that essentially every big-market behemoth -- Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Giants, Red Sox -- has demonstrated interest in him. That wasn’t the case for Ohtani, despite his obvious greatness. If the Mets can land Yamamoto amidst such competition, their offseason can still be a notable success.

Outside of pitching, the Mets’ most significant need is in the outfield. Currently, the Mets have just three full-time Major League outfielders on their 40-man roster. One of them, Brandon Nimmo, is entrenched as an everyday player. The second, Starling Marte, will carry significant health questions into 2024, after he missed the final two months of this past season due to a groin injury. The third, DJ Stewart, profiles more as a bench player.

“We could stand to add an outfielder there, no question,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said last week at the Winter Meetings. “That can take a variety of different paths. It could be more defense oriented. It could be someone we view as a bat-first player. I do think there are options on free agency that we’re working through, and we’ll continue to evaluate that.”

Two names that stand out in the bat-first department are Teoscar Hernández and Jorge Soler, because they theoretically would come much cheaper than market-setter Cody Bellinger. The Mets have not shown any interest in Hernández so far this offseason, according to a source. Their interest in Soler isn’t clear, but as a soon-to-be 32-year-old who figures to spend most of his time at designated hitter, Soler doesn’t profile as the type of player the Mets would eagerly sign to a multi-year deal.

That opens the door for the Mets to pursue a more athletic center-field type such as Michael A. Taylor or Jung Hoo Lee. Taylor is a bit older at age 32, but he was still an elite defensive center fielder in 2023. If the Mets acquired him or the 25-year-old Lee, they could move Nimmo to a corner on at least a part-time basis while also giving regular outfield reps to Jeff McNeil. The willingness of those two to move around the diamond gives Stearns options as he delves into the free-agent and trade markets.

Dec. 12: Want to remember a guy? The Mets signed infielder José Valentín on this date in 2005, hoping he could add some veteran punch to their bench. By late May, Valentín had become the team’s everyday second baseman, slugging 18 home runs with an .820 OPS over 137 games. Valentín also knocked home five runs during the National League Championship Series. He returned the next year at age 37 but didn’t enjoy the same level of success, prompting him to retire after the season.

• Here’s the full story on Ohtani’s $700 million contract with the Dodgers, from Sarah Wexler.

• Sarah Langs has all sorts of other goodies on the historical context of Ohtani’s contract.

• Over the weekend, Francisco Lindor joined Javier Báez, José Berríos and a host of volunteers to clean up a beach in his native Puerto Rico.

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