Mack’s Morning Report – 2-4-16 – Achilles’ Heel, Alejandro De Aza, Astrubel Cabrera, Raywilly Gomez

Good morning.

 Patrick Brewer writes about what he feels could be the Mets achilles’ heel in 2016 –

Despite all the goodwill flowing out of New York, and the fan support of the front office, the Mets still have a glaring Achilles’ heel that has gone unaddressed, and really, blatantly ignored so far this offseason.

For all the talk of the Mets great young pitchers, and their improved bullpen and the impact Yoenis Cespedes will once again have on the team’s offense, there is still one glaring area of concern.

In 2015, the Mets team defense wasn’t great.

Mack – Gee… who was that guy that kept saying that the Mets needed to improve their defense, especially down the middle of the field where most plays are made? What was his name? Mack somebody…

There’s one factor here that is hard to translate into stats.

Having a 5-man rotation that will either strike out batters, or create routine grounders or fly balls, will make this team look a lot better on paper.

 Skyler Steckler writes about the Mets outfield, in general, and Alejandro de Aza, in particular –

That leaves the final option: trading Alejandro De Aza before he even puts on a Mets uniform. It seems clear that the Mets didn’t think they’d end up re-signing Cespedes, or they likely wouldn’t have much such an effort to sign De Aza. To be fair, De Aza is a lot better than some of their options last year, so the signing isn’t inherently bad; he’s a career .267 hitter with a career .736 OPS and has a little bit of speed. The Mets simply aren’t a team that one would expect to be paying their 5th outfielder almost $6 million.

Mack – I don’t think many Mets fans reacted badly when the Mets signed de Aza. He seemed like a ‘diet-Cespedes’, especially if Yo wasn’t coming back.

Now, $6mil is a lot for someone that is going into spring training as the 5^th outfield

As I’ve said on a previous comment, I’m happy with the current roster, but I would have no problem with trading de Aja for a future chip and then resigning Darrell Ceciliani if he’s still out there.

Jonathan Webb wrote a specific piece on Astrubel Cabrera and middle infield defense in general -

It will be interesting to see how Cabrera and Walker play the middle, how their double plays look, the range they bring to balls hit up the middle. We have some high strikeout pitchers, which should help lessen the number of opportunities for sure, but the middle infield still needs to make plays on a consistent basis. How many innings last year were extended because a double play was not turned? How many extra pitches were thrown because of an error? That is all certainly part of the game but if the Mets can end innings with lower pitch counts for their pitchers, it only extends their starts and keeps the bullpen fresh and healthy.

Michael Baron ‏@michaelgbaron  - Official: #Mets sign C Raywilly Gomez to a minors deal. Raywilly will be invited to big league camp.

Mack – Remember… you can’t have a successful pre-spring training unless you have a ton of catchers in your clubhouse to eventually work with all the pitchers you have invited to camp.

The Mets, like all the other teams, gather up as many catchers as they can find before ‘pitchers and catchers’ report, and Gomez will be one of them.

Normally they go away as quick as they arrive, but Gomez may stick somewhere. He’s only 25 and he did hit .291 in AA ball last season.