According to an article in the New York Post by Kevin Davidoff, The Mets team brass extremely like free agent SS Johnny Peralta. It was announced on Monday that the Detroit Tigers were not going to extend a Qualifying Offer to Peralta due to their trade for the younger upper level SS prospect Jose Iglesias at this year's trade deadline. This should come as no surprise to Mets fans as Sandy Alderson would be extremely happy to upgrade a position without having to give up a draft pick.
In 107 games played last season (Due to a 50 game suspension for his involvement in Biogenesis), Peralta hit .303 with 11 HR, 55 RBI, and 30 doubles. He only committed 4 errors all season at SS and has been rated highly by FanGraphs UZR. Over the past 3 years he has been worth on average about 3.7 Wins Above Replacement with a peak of 4.9 in 2011. Mind you that he was on pace for a 5.4 WAR season had he not been suspended. For comparison's sake, the combination of Omar Quintanilla and Ruben Tejada were worth a combined NEGATIVE 1.7 WAR. That's a 5 win improvement just by upgrade the SS position.
(In my opinion, he is a must have this off-season. That said, because he was not offered a QO, multiple teams will be in on trying to sign Peralta so there will be plenty of competition. That said, questions about his Biogenesis involvement should keep his value enough that he could be had for around the $8M to $10M per season mark.)
The team is also said to be interested in 1B/OF Corey Hart according to Mike Puma via Twitter. Despite Hart's desire to stay in Milwaukee, and even willing to take a pay cut to stay, the Brewers have expressed no interest in bringing Hart back after he missed the entire 2013 season with knee surgeries. Before his injury troubles, Hart was a consistent .275 AVG, 25+ HR hitter, albeit with 140+ K's per year, and even received MVP votes in 2010. Hart has never been a defensive whiz during his time in Milwaukee. As a RF, fangraphs graded him out as a slightly below average defender with an low end arm. However since his full time move to 1B in 2012, Fangraphs has been extremely down on his defensive play with a UZR of -6.5 due mostly to his severe lack of range. (Probably due to his bad knees)
(While I understand the need for an upgrade at 1B, I personally am not a fan of a low range 1B when we already have a low range 2B on the same side of the diamond in Daniel Murphy. This is where I believe Ike Davis still has some value to the team with his natural ability to scoop balls out of the dirt and generally good defensive positioning.)
8 comments:
Let me get this straight, the brewers don't want Hart back even at a big discount because he missed all of 2013 with bad knees and had knee surgery's but we want him because he will cost a lot less than other FA's? That's Sandy's way low risk high rewards only this time 8-10 million for 2014 and a another season ending injury would really hurt the mets and if Hart was our
big FA signing (next to the SS) then they are really screwed!! Did Sandy
learn nothing from signing Marcum off an injury?
Again I personally would not be for a Corey Hart signing unless it was for 1 yr/$3M or less.
Plus I wouldn't even consider him until the other holes in our line-up are filled and there's still room in the budget.
Corey Hart is a solid hitter but knee injuries are tricky as you need your legs for leverage to generate power. His high K totals bother me as well. I'd actually like to see them give Wilmer Flores a shot to play 1B though you'd have a rather porous right side of the infield with Murphy flanking him. However, you'd get some good run production and save $7.5 million...not as many HRs but possibly as many RBIs.
What the team needs is outfielders and a SS upgrade.
If we're fishing for undervalued free agents, I think Peralta is the guy. He would instantly upgrade both the offense and the defense, and fill a need. Hart would be a laterally-challenged lateral move at 1B, and a risky one at that. I'm absolutely willing to go with an in-house option at 1B at the moment, while we concentrate on SS and the OF.
Agreed....especially when our in-house option (Ike Davis) has enough power to hit 40 HR's if he can ever figure out his swing.
Couldn't we just sign Hart and put him right on the DL?
Nope. The prospective Grady Sizemore signing would give him dibs for the top of the DL.
Yeah, the Brew Crew passed on Marcum last year and we all know how that worked out. No thanks on Hart unless he signs on for a bench spot and is paid accordingly.
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