The Mets Roar Back

Come Opening Day, four of the top five slots in their lineup will be populated with Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, David Wright and now Jason Bay. How many teams in the majors have four guys whose offense is better than that of this quartet?

Not many. Even in baseball's version of the Grand Canyon, Citi Field, the Mets' offense will scare a lot of teams. This looks to be a good move by the Mets, even though in recent years on the pitching side they've made questionable signings (giving too many years to Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine and Billy Wagner and well as signing Oliver Perez to what looks to be a disastrous three-year deal last year, and, they have to be worried, at least privately, about the durability of Johan Santana).

Few expected the Mets to stay put. They need to keep pace with the Phillies and the Braves, and they have to knock the Yankees out of the headlines every now and then. With the Bay signing, they did just that.

Before last season, Baseball Prospectus and others posited that the Mets were in a good position to win the World Series. I'm not sure whether their pitching will be strong enough to make that deep a run, but make no mistake about it, the race to win the NL East just got a lot more interesting.

Ruben Amaro -- it's your move.