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1/4/13

Omar Quintanilla, Cleveland DFAs my Mets Target - Thomas Neal, Rubin's Prosposed OF




Seattle has signed 1B Mike Jacobs to a minor league deal.


C Rene Rivera has signed with San Diego.


Ken Rosenthal-✔ - @Ken_Rosenthal
Still can't get consensus on which OFer DBacks will trade. Some in industry say preference is Kubel. Others still convinced it's Upton.


Mets resign SS Omar Quintanilla to a minor league deal.

                Well, at least it’s someone I know something about.

                Quintanilla is a natural shortstop; however, Baltimore played him last year exclusively at second base. All were in the majors (36-G, 99-AB) and produced only four errors in 119 attempts. Forget the .232 batting average… the Mets now have another legitimate utility alternative for the infield.

Look at it this way… Justin Turner can be your backup on 1B and 3B and Quintanilla cover 2B and SS.

Second base in the minors looks like:  AAA – Reese Havens, AA – Danny Muno, A+ - Rylan Sandoval, A – J.C. Gamboa, Y. De La Cruz – Extended – Yeixon Ruiz, Chad Zurcher.


Okay, here comes the DFAs…

Cleveland DFA’d OF Thomas Neal for assignment, making room for Nick Swisher.

Let’s go back to my ‘In Search of…’ series on Cleveland:

We now move on to the Cleveland Indians, who currently had five (5) outfielders on their 40-man before they announced their deal Sunday with Nick Swisher. Now, they have six (6):

                Nick Swisher - 4-yrs, $56mil, with additional option
                Michael Brantley – lefty -   pre-ARB – MLB/552-AB, .288
                Ezequiel Carrera – lefty –  pre-ARB -  MLB/147-AB, .272
                Tim Fedroff – lefty –
                Thomas Neal – bats right –  pre-ARB -
                Drew Stubbs – bats right -  ARB-1  -

This is normally a very conservative team that builds from within so the Swisher deal caught me by surprise. Stubbs comes over from Cincinnati and will start along with Brantley. These three are obviously your starters.

2B Jason Kipnis (14-HR, 76-RBI) also serves as a backup outfielder.

This leaves one righty that really has no place to play on this team:

Mets target:  Thomas Neal - played AA in 2012 - 405-AB, .314/.400/.467/.867, 12-Hr, 51-RBI and was rewarded with promotion to parent team in September (23-AB, .217)... plays AAA in 2011 for the Giants (.295)... career (7-yrs) .299 minor league hitter... .840 OPS... primarily left field... will play 2013 as a 25-year old.

Think there’s any chance anyone reads this?

Ex-Miami Marlin Pitching Coach Randy St. Claire will join the Mets’ organization as their pitching coach at Triple-A Las Vegas


Adam Rubin speculated that the Mets might be done signing new outfielders.

           According to his usual reliable sources, Lucas Duda will play LF, Kirk Nieuwenhius will be the LHHCF, Mike Baxter the LHHRF, and Collin Cowgll and Justin Turner (told ya…) will platoon as the RHHOF’s. This would leave Brandon Hicks and Omar Quintanilla and the two IF-UTs. Other RHHOF possibilities would be Andrew Brown and/or Brian Bixler.

           Since all of this would be done with team controlled contracts, we’re still waiting to see where the extra $10-15mil will be spent.
on

7 comments:

  1. Justin M.January 4, 2013 at 8:18 AM

    I don't see that money getting spent. Hairston and Brian Wilson makes sense. I just get the sense that this is the team.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CharlesJanuary 4, 2013 at 9:39 AM

    Me too, unless there's a trade.

    But I think they'll pick up at least one starter. Maybe Chris Young, however I'd rather Mejia get that job.

    I wouldn't be surprised if they plan on using every last penny of their draft allotment money and with their extra second rounder, really go overalot this time on there first three picks. Last year it was obvious they didn't have the cash to spend. Maybe this year they're purposely keeping money available for the draft and IFA season.

    Since the team is at least a year off to contention, maybe more, I'd accept that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mack AdeJanuary 4, 2013 at 10:28 AM

    I disagree but we'll see.

    The public statement about not signing anymore outfielders may be nothing more than a shot off the bow to the agents still out there representing OFers that want multiple year contracts.

    The refinancing done last week now gives Sandy all the money he needs to fill in the cracks.

    The problem is there isn't much left out there to sign.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Justin M.January 4, 2013 at 10:36 AM

    If they don't spend the money you'd have to think Wright would be pissed off. $8M deferred from 2012 to have that money pocketed by ownership.

    I like the internal options better than what is left on the SP market. Let Mejia, McHugh, Familia battle it out in spring training. If there is any money spend it on Hairston and a RP.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mack AdeJanuary 4, 2013 at 11:55 AM

    I'm not going to comment on whether or not Wright cares who's in the outfield.

    The team is already far better than it was in 2012... the problem is the talent received in the Dickey deal won't max out until 2014-2015.

    I truly honestly believe that the Mets are not done in both the free agent and trade market.

    I look for a good two intermediate prospect (Gorski, Pill) or one top prospect (Flores) trade for a true CFer.

    I can't believe they haven't signed this Neal kid. He's done nothing wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mack AdeJanuary 4, 2013 at 11:58 AM

    The Mets bullpen needs ONE MORE STABLE pitcher a la Feliciano that can anchor the kids.

    I think you'll be very impressed with the back end this year (Parnell - Francisco).

    Add Edgin and Heffner to that and and you've got the nucleus of a decent pen.

    ReplyDelete
  7. CharlesJanuary 4, 2013 at 12:23 PM

    They are just so slow and deliberate in every decision that it makes the off season boring.

    ReplyDelete