Reese Kaplan -- BVW Faces 40-Man Roster Deadline

Tomorrow one of the first big tests of Brodie Van Wagenen’s short tenure as the GM of the Mets will take place as teams must provide to MLB their 40-man roster list prior to the Winter Meetings that take place next month.  It is the final opportunity to protect minor leaguers from the Rule V draft that takes place after the winter meetings.

As it stands today, the Mets have 38 players on their 40-man roster, including the infirmed David Wright and Yoenis Cespedes who are occupying places.  Of course, once the season begins they can be shifted to the 60-day DL and thus free up their 40-man roster spots, but that doesn’t help the club in November.

There has been some coverage in the media about the Mets needing to work out an insurance company buyout of David Wright in order to remove him from the roster in permanent retirement, much as the Rangers did with Prince Fielder.  That is a test of both BVW’s ability to get things done and his talent for convincing his golf buddy Jeffy to spend now for the benefit of closing the chapter and opening up a roster space.

A few names immediately jump out at you for possible consideration for protection, including catchers Patrick Mazeika (career .290 hitter in the minors) or more defensive-oriented Ali Sanchez who has hit but 10 HRs and driven in 108 in over 1000 minor league ABs. 

David Thompson was once a great hope to be a David Wright replacement, but his minor league numbers don’t wow you and he missed nearly all of 2018 with an injury.  Personally, I would risk losing him.  Ditto shortstop Luis Carpio. 

There are, however, some other names eligible for protection worth considering, including relief pitchers Matt Blackham, David Roseboom and Joshua Torres.  Blackham is 13-7 and owns a 2.30 ERA for his minor league career.  He’s ascended as high as AA and posts some gaudy strikeout numbers, well over 1 per inning pitched.

Roseboom had the misfortune of having a foot injury happen as he made it to pitching hell in Las Vegas.  Those two factors derailed an otherwise dominant minor league career.  The lefty is now 26 and hasn’t yet had a taste of the majors, but he owns an 8-8 record for his minor league career with a 3.00 ERA (including a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio).  If you throw out his AAA numbers, it’s a 2.26 ERA.  Being left handed and healthy might mean they want to take one more look at him.  In 40 AA games this year he had a 2.72 ERA.  Protecting him would let them stash him in Syracuse until they were sure he could handle the next level of competition.

Joshua Torres is a 24 year old skinny right handed reliever who had an up and down (mostly down) minor league career until this past season when something seemingly clicked.  He appeared in 35 games for Binghamton and provided a 1.59 ERA, 6 saves and 11.5 Ks per 9 IP.  A brief 5-game trial in Las Vegas was ugly, so you can’t be sure if he’d reverted to previous form or was a victim of the PCL.  Certainly the pitching was dominant enough that you’d have to consider protecting him. 

On the flip side, there are some folks on the 40-man roster whose security is tenuous.  This group would include Paul Sewald, Corey Oswalt, Tim Peterson, Jacob Rhame, Bobby Wahl, Chris Flexen, and Drew Gagnon.  Franklyn Kilome is on the shelf for the full year but must be protected.

Two players are at risk of being non-tendered to create roster space (and to save money) – oft-injured underperformer Travis d’Arnaud and DH-type with arthritic knees, Wilmer Flores. 

Personally I’d keep the latter two, but certainly consider cutting loose (or outrighting) Gagnon, Sewald and Flexen.  That would open up five slots (six if David Wright’s situation is resolved).  With those six slots I’d protect the two catchers and these three pitchers, leaving one more slot open for a possible Rule V selection or a multi-player trade. 

Who would you keep?  Who would you set free?