Mike Freire - Blast From The Past....With a Twist

You may or may not remember that I put together a series of articles earlier this year that were titled "Blast From The Past".  They were basically a review of a series of former Mets' players that included their statistics so the reader could properly appreciate what the specific player contributed to baseball when they were active players.

Past installments in this series included players like Hubie Brooks, Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry.  Some of the players were "stars" while others were valuable role players.  The passage of time tends to distort one's view of what the past was really like, so it is interesting to take a look back once in a while.

Since we are knee deep in the Mets' off season, our focus has turned to the roster and how things will potentially change for the 2019 season and beyond.  It was a similar situation during the early stages of the 1998 season when the Mets turbo charged their roster with the acquisition of catcher Mike Piazza (more on that in a minute).

Piazza was born on 09/04/68 in Morristown, PA and had a pretty normal upbringing by all accounts.  Where things got interesting from a baseball perspective was his now "well known draft story" (62nd round pick in the 1988 draft) which was rumored to be more of a favor by the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Piazza family.  Safe to say that it turned out pretty well.  We should all be so lucky, right?

Mike steadily rose through the Dodgers farm system before making a token appearance late during the 1992 season.  However, the following year was the beginning of an incredible, Hall of Fame run for the big guy (see his statistics below).  For a variety of reasons, the Dodgers exercised some questionable decision making skills and traded "in his prime" MP (along with future Met Todd Zeile) to the Marlins for a collection of players, of whom Gary Sheffield was the biggest name on May 14, 1998.

Eight days later, the Marlins flipped MP to the Mets for Goeff Goetz, Preston Wilson and Ed Yarnall in what could only be described as a salary dump.  As we now know, MP when on to play seven and a half years for the orange and blue, establishing himself as one of the best offensive catchers in the history of the game.  Despite finishing up his career with the Padres and the A's, Mike felt strongly enough about the Mets that he wore "our cap" into Cooperstown, which is pretty cool.

So, what type of offense did vintage Piazza provide?  In addition to his Hall of Fame resume, let's take a look at an “average” season for Mike.

.308/.377/.545  (.942 OPS)

36 HR/113 RBI/1 SB and 89 RS

4.8 WAR (neutral dWAR)

Those are insane numbers for any player, let alone a guy who has play the most physically demanding position on the field.  Granted, he was primarily a "bat first" type of player, but his defense wasn't completely horrible (.990 Fielding Percentage, 23% Caught Stealing).  Oh and he was pretty durable for his career, routinely playing in 125+ games per season which is "iron man" territory for his position.

I think Mike is one of those guys that you don't fully appreciate until his playing days are over.  In a weird way, he is almost underrated despite his accolades and his rightful place in the Hall of Fame.

So, where's the twist I promised?

Well, it is 2018 going on 2019 and the Mets find themselves in need of an upgrade behind the plate.  Could the Marlins be our salvation, once again, in the form of catcher JT Realmuto?

JTR is a bit younger then Mike was at the time of the last big trade (27 versus 29) and he isn't quite the offensive force in the batter's box (see below).  But, he is much better defensively and he has several years of team control, whereas Mike was a pending free agent after the season in which he was traded. What this means is that despite a shorter track record of success, JTR will very likely demand MORE in a trade then Mike did in 1998, which is crazy but true.

Here is an "average" JTR's statistical season, for comparison purposes;

.279/.327/.442  (.768 OPS)

18 HR/73 RBI/9 SB and 77 RS

3.2 WAR (0.6 dWAR)

.993 Fielding Percentage and 28% Caught Stealing

I am not a fan of emptying the farm system under any circumstances unless it is for a generational talent in his prime (nowadays, think of someone like Mike Trout).

I like JTR and he would be an upgrade, but is he worth mortgaging the farm system?  He is currently the best offensive catcher in the game (like Mike was at the time), but he is simply not the same caliber of player behind the plate.  But, then again, who is right?

In closing, I still think the prudent course of action is to invest in an available free agent catcher in 2019 like Wilson Ramos and hold onto the assets that a JTR trade would require for the future of the organization.