Love him or hate him, you have to admit when it comes to an
eye for talent, BVW’s predecessor may have been far more interested in the
bottom line and in long ago past performance than he was in finding people who
would help win now.
As I peruse the list of available free agents still out
there, I’m not at all surprised to see a number of names with a connective
thread in the last Mets front office:
- Jose Bautista
- Jerry Blevins
- Blaine Boyer
- Asdrubal Cabrera
- Tyler Clippard
- Bartolo Colon
- Lucas Duda
- Wilmer Flores
- Curtis Granderson
- Austin Jackson
- AJ Ramos
- Jose Reyes
- Rene Rivera
- Fernando Salas
- Neil Walker
- Eric Young, Jr.
Then, of course, there are two more names. Daniel Murphy was allowed to walk away and he
had no trouble finding a new employer.
Ditto Jeurys Familia who was traded away and then reunited with his
former ballclub.
What this little exercise tells me is that the previous
regime did not exactly have an eye for desirable talent as evidenced by the 16
people formerly selected to be part of this team who have yet to find new
employers into the 2nd week of January.
Granted, they are far from alone in this
regard. Why the two top free agents on
the market – Bryce Harper and Manny Machado – have also yet to find new homes,
but in those two cases it is the total financial commitment and not the
perceived abilities of the players that are likely the stumbling block.
Now consider the additions made by BVW:
- Robinson Cano
- Jeurys Familia
- Jed Lowrie
- Wilson Ramos
- J.D. Davis
- Keon Broxton
- Luis Avilan (I’m including him here as he’s virtually a lock to come north once a 40-man roster spot opens up)
Leave out the last three if you’d like but Mssrs. Cano,
Familia, Lowrie and Ramos are all a significant cut above that much longer list
of 16 unemployed former Mets, no?
The best part is that we’re still likely far from done with
the roster roller coaster as there appears to be a surplus of infielders, a
quality improvement needed in the starting rotation, another veteran lefty arm
needed in the pen and preferably a quality bat to take over for the presumed
starting centerfield duo of Juan Lagares and Keon Broxton.
How would you resolve the logjam? It’s easy to say trade Todd Frazier, but
other than Sandy Alderson, who out there would take him unless you’re willing
to pay down the salary? Other than the
rare exception of Neil Walker who, when dispatched to the Milwaukee Brewers,
got some of his salary paid in order to land the immortal Eric Hanhold, the
Mets were never enamored of the idea that kicking in some money towards a sunk
cost might up the return in a trade.
It would be much easier to sell high on Jeff McNeil who,
coming off his .329 rookie campaign, already would be an attractive get to
pretty much any club. Throw in the fact
he’s pre-arb and minimum wage for 3 more years and you’d likely need a deli
counter take-a-number machine if you let it be known he was available.
Maybe there’s a club out there that could be enticed to take
a desirable piece like McNeil if you also insisted they take a less desirable
one like Jason Vargas or Juan Lagares. Suppose,
for the sake of argument, that you could land Whit Merrifield from KC with the
idea of having him lead off and play CF, wouldn’t you have to consider sending
Jeff McNeil as part of a package to get a guy who hit .304 with 45 SBs?
Or maybe it’s Amed Rosario you see on the move with Lowrie
serving as a two year stop gap to Andres Gimenez. Again, teams seeing his hot finish, his
excellent road numbers with the bat and his low cost would likely find him a
very attractive target (unlike the underperforming and expensive Todd
Frazier).
So what do you do with the current surfeit of infielders?
15 comments:
Good Morning Reese,
I don't get the Jed Lowrie signing and I think they overpaid for the Cano trade. Players like McNeil should be given a change in the organization because all he did was perform at a higher level than expected.
Right now with all these infielders, and you are not even factoring in Alonso, I can't see McNeil getting a lot of at bats and he will just be wasted on the bench. One of the true enjoyable players to watch is now a reserve.
I hope the Mets don't trade him.
Merrifield might be an attractive trade target for a straight-up for Jeff McNeil. Interestingly, he started his major league career when he was 27 years, 4 months old, and like McNeil, has made the most of it, albeit for a longer period (2 1/2 years).
KC might well consider it as a way to save $$. Merrifield's price tag will soon start getting serious, as he is arb-elible next year.
He has outstanding since his late debut, and I am not sure if KCR would trade him straight up for an only 60 games in majors Squirrel - Whit is a more proven commodity. Maybe KC would want a lefty prospect pitcher too.
Whit has been a righty clone of the lefty McNeil defensively, playing a lot of 2B as well as a fair chunk of OF.
I think McNeil will be a strong OF - I would imagine he was moved exclusively to the IF by the Mets due to what projected as a low power bat, but he did great defensively in the IF in 2018, and as a former OF collegian, probably would open eyes in the outfield too.
Merrifield's 162 game average in Baseball Ref projects to be .293/.342/.437 and 37 of 46 in steals. That would look real good in CF for the Mets.
All told, I'd do the trade - would KC, though?
For what you outlined above, Tom, it would take more than McNeil straight up given Merrifield's longer track record. Even with arbitration eligibility he wouldn't get expensive for a few more years.
He was just an example, but no one should be untouchable in the right deal.
Reese, what if you did Merrifield for McNeil, and also gave KC one of Peterson, Kay, or Szapucki too? Worth it?
I would
IMO Frazier will be the odd man out, either traded before ST or relegated to a backup role at the corners. McNeil would hardly be hurt if he follows in the footsteps of Ben Zobrist.
Having too many blue chip infielders is fine with me.
I root for Clemson football. We have 9... count them... 9 4-star and 5-star wide receivers playing 3 positions. We call it WRU...wide receiver university... Coach Dabo rotates themm in all game to keep them fresh
We can do the same thing here game to game with our inter-changable infielders
Nice use of the word "surfeit", by the way.
The roster seems to be a bit unbalanced OR still a work in progress as we steamroll towards February.
I would love to cut some dead weight (Frazier, Vargas, Lagares), but it won't return anything of value unless we piggy back a good player, as you say.
McNeil would seem to be the most logical "prospect" to include in a deal, even though I would prefer to keep him.
Mike:
Frazier seems like dead wood to me. Hitting .213 two straight years, and turning 33, I see low chances of a resurgence.
Vargas? Who knows - maybe is good for one more season.
Lagares? A true wild card, but GEICO would put him in the high risk pool.
And make him wear three sets of floaties just to be on the safe side
Um, I cranked a perfect game thru 8 frames, then guttered at ol' Leemark Lanes in Brooklyn, but enough on bowling. On to chess.
The Great Aaron Nimzowitsch put forth the concept of Prophylaxis, a redundancy of force covering each position of every piece in the overall array. With such a construct, one does not worry so much about beating the opponent but safeguarding every moment of the long game or season, as it were, until dynamic play can be found, or until the opponent falters.
While I'm not suggesting the BMW speeds through hypermodern chess theory, I think our current team's nimiety of talent at each position, with their ability to cover at multiple positions does bode well, and Brodie is to be commended, even if the finishing moves aren't quite applied yet.
Despite what Mike said in his compliment earlier, MetMonkey gets the Scrabble prize for the day in his use of nimiety. :)
Ha, I've known many a chess and scrabble board to fly high as a Jose Bautista bat flip. Maybe, mobile barricades with flashing lights for Juan Lagares.
Met Monkey Leemark lanes I went there in 1960 when it opened lots of memories. Grew up on Shore road and 99th street back in the good old days...where are you?
Off 86th street up in Dyker Park.
You must remember Cobblestone's and all that topography of the Welcome Back Kotter opening, Saturday Night Fever, and that amazing chase scene with Gene Hackman under the el in the French Connection.
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