Back in the days of Keith Hernandez, John Olerud and Carlos
Delgado the Mets had first basemen who hit with authority and consistency. The sight of them in the batter’s box gave
the opposing pitchers consternation, anxiety and fear. How things have changed.
Under the current administration the club has endured the
likes of now-pitcher Ike Davis, Lucas Duda, James Loney, Adrian Gonzalez and
occasionally Kevin Plawecki and Jay Bruce.
Now that they have someone consistently hitting the ball in Wilmer
Flores, the Mets once again see fit to relegate him to the bench where as
recently as Monday blew a bubble as he once againt flexed his walk-off
heroics.
Going into 2019 the Mets have a great many decisions to make
but none looms as large as how they choose to handle the first base
position. There are a great many
internal options but given the club’s track record of poor decision making and
even poorer player development, one can assume they will choose the least
sensible route.
Dominic Smith has had a rocky road since being drafted as
the Mets number one choice. His most
impressive year was his 2017 campaign at Las Vegas where he managed to hit .330
with 16 home runs and 76 RBIs in 500 ABs.
Unfortunately, when he ascended to the big leagues he seemed nothing
like what was promised. Gone was the
effective eye and gone was the potential Gold Glove defense. Instead fans saw an overweight, clumsy guy
who summoned never before seen power with 9 HRs and 26 RBIs in just 183 ABs,
but he straddled the Mendoza line and struck out 49 times. He did play pretty much every day for the
final 8 weeks of the season but it was not an impressive display.
2018 got off to an even worse start. First came the real-life Seinfeld episode in
which Smith overslept and missed his starting opportunity to impress his new
manager. That was followed quickly by an
injury which kept him out of the picture while they went with scrap heap pickup
Adrian Gonzalez. By the time Smith was
ready to play again he was merely an afterthought, buried on Terry II’s
bench. The only way he was able to get
into the lineup was as an outfielder. He’s
now among those failing to hit his weight and many have advocated demoting him
all the way to AA to give him the opportunity to regain his mojo.
What can be written about Pete Alonso that is new? He smashed his way into many scouting reports
when he finally had a healthy season to show what he is capable of doing. He recently got promoted to Las Vegas from
Binghamton, but has hit something of a wall there. In the hitter-friendly PCL his power is down
from 1 HR per 14.66 ABs to 1 per 19 ABs.
He’s only hitting .171 after going .314 in AA. All of the sudden the first baseman of the
future is looking a whole lot less certain.
There are a few out-of-position candidates that could
warrant consideration as well. They have
both Todd Frazier and Jay Bruce under contract for 2019 (and beyond in Bruce’s
case). With Brandon Nimmo’s
breakthrough, the outfield appears crowded right now with places needed for
Yoenis Cespdes and Michael Conforto as well.
Inserting Bruce at 1B would allow these three outfielders to play. Similarly,
Todd Frazier could move across the diamond in the event that they deem 3B
better served by the likes of Jeff McNeil or the pipe dream of David
Wright.
Finally, there’s the man without a position, Wilmer Flores,
who the current regime feels is best used as super utility player, yet he keeps
improving year after year. Call me
stupid, but isn’t the objective to put the best players onto the field as often
as possible? In his current month he’s
flirting with .300 and is driving in runs at a pace on par with soon to be
ex-Met Asdrubal Cabrera.
The free agent pickings are mighty slim. The best of the lot would appear to be the
Nationals’ Matt Adams who is hitting .291 with 13 HRs and 36 RBIs in under 200
ABs. He’s likely to get a huge increase
over the $4 million 2018 payday.
So, given the choices here, it would seem that even a blind
man would recognize Wilmer Flores is the best choice, likely slated to earn
around $4 million, still just 26 years old, and proven to be able to play in
New York. Instead, they’re talking about
trying to parlay him into a middle reliever or such before the July
deadline. As I said, they typically take the road less traveled by the savvy and sane.
2 comments:
Morning Reese -
My 2018 plan is simple here: Let Flores play first while Alonso gets his bat straight in Vegas. Bring him up in September and let's see what we have.
As for 2019, the jury is still out. How many players over the years have we said are 'can't miss'? This is why people like Sandy and company sign established players that have already had success at the MLB level. Sure, you risk health but you at least have the knowledge that they can hack it at this level.
As for who wins in 2019, that's up to Flores and Alonso come spring training.
If it's Alonso, I would move Flores for a chip. He's starting to cost me and I don't have that kind of money for UT infielders. I need 2 guys that cost the minimum and offer me ++ defense. Right now, that would be Rivera and Guillorme.
The idea of Cespedes playing 1B is interesting, but I am not sure the China Doll's fragility will work there either.
Flores is fine at 1B. Smith still has 1 RBI.
McNeil (.349, 19 homers in 80 games) and Tebow (.276 and 28 for 75 since mid-June) were both 3 for 5 with a homer. They may be the best high minors IF and OF prospects the Mets have now. Call them up, send Smith and hitless Dekker down.
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