The 2012 Mets

Lineup:
SS   Jose Reyes
CF   Angel Pagan
3B   David Wright
1B   Ike Davis
LF   Jason Bay
RF   Someone?
C     Josh Thole
2B   Ruben Tejada

Rotation:
LHP   Johan Santana
RHP   Mike Pelfrey
LHP   Jon Niese
RHP   Jenrry Mejia
RHP   R.A. Dickey

Is there a problem with this team? If so, what is it? Yes, saying this team would be good is dependent on these players' continuing to look like they're all pretty good, like Reyes showing he can get back to being his old self and Pagan/Davis/Thole/Tejada/Pelfrey/Niese/Mejia/Dickey continuing to develop well. Whether that seems to be happening will develop this year. But I don't think this is a team that would be second-division status. The problem with this year's team is, basically, that essentially no one on the team is devoid of question-marks: they're all either developing young players or coming off of injuries, or both. Also, we still have Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo on the payroll, and we don't yet really have a fourth starter for Opening Day. But if the question-marks turn out to be false alarms, this team could could easily contend in 2012.

Why, then, would we trade the lynchpin of the team for prospects/rebuilding? We don't need to rebuild. We need to heal. This Mets team will heal rather naturally: we have a lot of big names and big talents on the team, and we have several more who will be developing better and better over the next few years.

And of course, if Beltran is still good and we get a few surprises in the rotation, we just might contend (for the wild card, at least!) in 2011.