The Mets could use an ace for their rotation, but for now president of baseball operations David Stearns is just trying to size up the inventory.

“We’re going to need our current group of players to play better defense,” Stearns said in Las Vegas this week at the MLB General Manager meetings. “The brand of baseball — the brand of defense — that we played over the last two months of the season wasn’t close to good enough. It has to get better.”

The Mets have thrust themselves into the conversation as major players in the free-agent outfield market after trading Brandon Nimmo to the Texas Rangers for Marcus Semien on Sunday. That means significant interest in two of the top talents in Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger,

David Stearns said the Mets would love to have the two free agents back, but stressed that it's too early to handicap the free-agent market.

In a November 10 article, SNY's Mets insider Andy Martino conveyed the most likely scenario where slugger Pete Alonso will return to the New York Mets next seas

In addressing the Mets' decision to trade Brandon Nimmo for Marcus Semien, GM David Stearns said "last year wasn't good enough and running it back with the exact same group wasn't the right thing to do.

It appears that David Stearns realizes that his New York Mets cannot win the World Series with some of their current, prominent core members. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that starting pitcher Kodai Senga,