2/10/17

Casey Wentworth – On Reese Kaplan on Jay Bruce



Good article on Jay Bruce by Reese Kaplan.   However, he overlooks one very obvious thing despite touching on it for a moment in this article. Lucas Duda's contract (not unlike Granderson's) is up at the end of the 2017 season. So Mr. Kaplan, then knowing the outfield clutter currently on hand here, why not trade Lucas Duda now and get something decent back solving the outfield clutter situation entirely? Is this sir not a common sense approach?

The problem with Duda? A: Bad back, injury prone. Is one of many such situations literally crippling this present NY Mets team's chances again. 

Unfortunately, some might say that this has not been adequately addressed by this NY Mets management team. 

Let's do so now.

Other chronic injury patients on this team are in my own opinion:

1. Travis d'arnaud (28 years old this year and with how many at bats under his belt?) And yet, the NY Mets brass feels confident in having him be their number one catcher again in 2017.

2. Matt Harvey. How old is Matt this season? 27? Something like that, and how many losses to how many wins does he have on his career? May have another 2016 type of season, unsure.  Maybe another operation on this same arm situation. Then what?

3. Zachary Wheeler. How old? How many MLB starts? Is he going to be one of those unlucky hard throwing starters that never gets back 100%? Good question. We will see. I hope not.

4. Jacob deGrom. He lost his 2015 extra mph fastball and had arm achiness ending his 2016 season early. I believe he can get back whole, but it is not 100% guaranteed right now. 5. Neil Walker. I don't care what anyone says, some injuries are more serious than others going forward. Some change a player's ability to either stay healthy and on the field, or their success ratio while playing.

Then 2017 NY Mets starting field lineup is an older one now. The only homegrown NY Mets are Duda and Wright (if David can play at all.)  It is to me, a sort of NY Yankees team when George Steinbrenner was running it awhile back. It does not take into affect any minor league newer players really at all, unless there are injuries happening to the starting eight. There is no risk taking on the better AAA Mets from 2016, like Cecchini and Nimmo. To me, it is almost too set an older team. No one is even trying out for a position from AAA. Where is the motivation in that?

I believe that the reasoning is simple here with this, this is a "go for it all" season to this team's manager, general manager, and perhaps ownership. They want to win the World Series this year. I can understand that. However, the 2017 NY Mets starting pitchers are all basically young. There are no Chris Young's, or Joe Blanton's on this rotation. It is a relatively young NY Mets pitching staff. So then, why not have a couple of younger players in the field at least? Players that can be here more than one or two more seasons to compliment this team's younger pitching staff? That to me is precisely where other MLB franchises have a leg up on these NY Mets. And it is obvious to some of us.

Conclusion:

I'd probably investigate trading Duda and D'arnaud somewhat, still. Add in a younger catcher who can maybe be around healthy for a more considerable amount of time and possibly using these two players as attractive bait for that. The Kaplan article is point-on with Dominic Smith being the heir apparent at first base in 2018, Granderson walking and maybe retiring at this season's end. The NY Mets will get nothing for either player back., although salary will come off their salary budget or 2018. At first base 2017...I'd try Jay Bruce or Michael Conforto out there. Maybe even bring in Smith this spring for a get aclimated type thing. At catcher 2017, I'd look at someone like a Tom Murphy on Colorado, or an Alfaro from Cincy, the cannot miss young catcher. Why not really? You know that Duda's back has been an issue for sometime, and Travis (although a decent enough catcher) just cannot for the life of himself, stay healthy and on the field. Tomas Niddo is not ready yet, Plawecki has not been able to drive the ball. Why should we expect anything different here in 2017 from any of these players really?

By adding in a new catcher, finding a home for Bruce and either Comforto or Nimmo in the starting outfield, suddenly the 2017 NY Mets would be able to add-in the youth that they need to be adding in here the players that compliment a young 2017 NY Mets rotation.

11 comments:

Mack Ade said...

Boy, this site is getting better every day...

Better writers... better articles...

Who owns this site?

Wait...

Jeff said...

If Duda has a bad back and is injury prone, how would the Mets get something decent in return?

Mack Ade said...

Jeff -

I honestly do not think that Duda has any trade value right now. He is going to have to prove he can both stay healthy and consistently hit for power again. Then, maybe at the all-star break, the Mets could deal him off for a mid-range prospect, nothing more.

eraff said...

I'm a fan of trading Duda...probably not much of a Market. I guess it solves the OF Jam by opening 1b to Bruce...??? ...I'm a fan of That.

Pitcher Health is a Big Concern---- Matz is a constant Medical Consult... Wheeler, Harvey, deGrom have Faced a Live Surgeon more recently than a Live Batter.

As for Home Grown---the Met's have a pretty solid assortment of Home Grown Guys who will be active/waiting in the Wings.... The Conforto situation is a bit frustrating, But GOOD TEAMS do not Hand Out starting positions to young players---young players kick down doors to get spots on a Good Team---that's how it is, now....and THAT is GREAT!!!! So, Conforto, Nimmo, Cheech, Smith, Rosario, ETC....Keep Kicking that door!!!

Reese Kaplan said...

Maybe I should flip flop my scheduled articles. I have one specifically about trading Lucas Duda set for next Wednesday and one about trading Neil Walker set for tomorrow. :)

Eddie from Corona said...

Mack Your right... Better writers better site... Great Job Casey... Man I have to step up my game... Looking forward to reading more of your work...

Zozo said...

Who would want Duda right now? He would have to prove himself first. The free agent market has given away better players than Duda at below market costs.

Sign Weiters for a 1 year deal and see if you can give D'arnaud away.

Anonymous said...

The Mets have a good team on paper. But as you pointed out, it all depends on health. If Wright and Duda get hurt, we know that Reyes can step into 3B and Flores into 1B so is nice to have that option.

But if the rotation falters, is going to be a long long year. Harvey is an unknown at this point. (I wonder if he made a lamp out of his rib).

Matz, when healthy, is a great pitcher but he gets hurt as much as d'Arnaud.

Wheeler is nice to have but the expectations have to be very low. Something like an SP5 or BP arm.

The only pitchers the Mets can count on are Syndergaard and deGrom who proved he can pitch with less in 2016. If he comes back totally healthy in 2017, the Mets will have at least 2 aces back to back.

I also agree in that the Mets need to have youngsters playing everyday but Nets do a great job in playing veterans and sitting the up and coming players. Collins cannot learn new tricks at this point and Sandy isn't helping much.

Players in the minor leagues need to see that their efforts will be rewarded with a promotion to the majors and a starting job. These Mets seem to give up on players after half a season. Lagares, Flores and Conforto are prime examples of this. They should be part of the new core instead they are the bench players.

It will be interesting to see what is more important if any player from Wright, Granderson, Walker and Bruce struggle. Will the Imbecile in the dugout play them according to present skills or based on pay scale. And if pay scale wins, is winning above all more important to these Mets or is it justifying play time for passed their prime players more important?

The goal should be to win it all every year regardless of who sits. If veterans can no longer carry their weight, they should sit.

Viper

Reese Kaplan said...

Flores could have stepped in at 1B last year but we got Loney and more Loney even when he was flailing helplessly after a hot 4-6 weeks to start his Mets career. We have to figure out how to get Wilmer out of the Skipper's doghouse. How is he going to learn to hit righthanders if he doesn't play against them?

Mack Ade said...

Trade Duda for Ynoa

Anonymous said...

Reese,
The worst thing that Flores has going against him is Collins. Flores going 6 for 6 and then sitting the next day or two was a classic.

Ohhhhh...he can't hit RH pitchers Collins says but if Flores gets no exposure, how does he get better? Didn't he get better towards the end of last season when exposed to right handed pitching? sure he did.

But then, the Genius gifted Walker who was coming off surgery, a 5M raise. I can't help but to think that if you give Flores 500 at bats, he will put up a 25hrs, 80 rbi's and hit at least 270. All that for 15M less that can be used to extend deGrom this year.

Viper