What would a Mets team be without a plethora of injuries
befalling them? This year is off to a
roaring start in that regard, just a week into spring training and we have both
newcomer Jed Lowrie and holdover Todd Frazier down for the count. Travis d’Arnaud has yet to make an
appearance, so the feeling is his surgically repaired arm is not quite ready
for prime time. So what do these issues
do the projected roster coming north?
Third Base
It was pretty much assumed that should Jed Lowrie need a day
off or succumb to injury then Todd Frazier would take his customary place at
the hot corner. In a situation somewhat
reminiscent to the Mets losing their starting and backup catchers in rapid
succession last year, they’re now down two veteran third basemen.
Perhaps the most encouraging news coming out of this
situation is the word that Jeff McNeil is NOT going to be shuttled back to the
infield right now, but will instead use most of spring training to hone his skills as an
outfielder. He's played over 1300 innings at 3B in the minors, so that makes so much sense it
makes me wonder how long it will last.
Picture -- Ernest Dove
So who is now in the mix for this position? One would have to assume J.D. Davis whose
natural spot is third base would be the front runner. He is coming off a PCL batting title, BVW
gave up a lot to get him, and he’s on the 40-man roster.
The second option would be long forgotten TJ Rivera. He can most definitely hit, he won’t
embarrass you in the field, but the question lingers about long throws across
the diamond on his surgically repaired arm.
Still, should Lowrie and/or Frazier begin the year on the Injured List,
then don’t be surprised to see Rivera come north with the team as a starter or
on the bench.
Behind him you have a number of non-roster options including
Gavin Cecchini, Luis Guillorme, Adeiny Hechavarria and David Thompson. Thompson is the only natural third baseman of
this crew and probably has the most potent bat as well. Showcasing Gavin Cecchini might be in the
team’s interest if they could flip him for someone else’s disappointing
prospect. Guillorme and Hechavarria will
likely field the best but not provide much with the bat.
Picture -- Ed Delaney
Catcher
This one is pretty easy, though it will take some roster shuffling. Devin Mesoraco was resigned specifically
because he worked so well with the major league staff last year. Obviously Wilson Ramos will get the lion’s
share of the work, but Mesoraco who is here on a minor league deal will likely
get the nod to come north thereby allowing Tomas Nido to work on the offensive
side of his game. We’ve already
speculated about others who might get dropped from the 40-man roster to create
space, including Jacob Rhame, Drew Gagnon, Tim Peterson and Paul Sewald.
Picture -- Ernest Dove
Further Roster Impact
The man everyone is drooling about, Pete Alonso, becomes
more likely to start the season with the big club if the Mets are indeed in
search of a right-handed power bat to replace Frazier who was slated to play 1st
base. Still, if it’s only for a few
weeks they could muddle through with Dom Smith taking 1st base and
preserving that precious year of financial control by holding Alonso in the NY
state capitol until the end of April.
What is your ideal roster scenario if indeed your start the
year minus Lowrie and Frazier?
21 comments:
Great pics.
My first line up adjustment is called the McNeil 162 Plan. If Lowri e and Todd are out, Jeff must play all 162 games. Next, I think TH Rivera is fine. Get him a lot of action at 3rd. Amp up JD Davis' at bats, too.
NY moved the Capitol to Syracuse? I’m way behind.
It should move from Albany, now that the Mets are putting Syracuse on the map again.
My bad. It was a late night erroneous thought.
Maybe he'll live in Albany and commit to 'Cuse. 🤔
We can give Reese some slack, because he's been an expatriate for such a long time. 😏
But that's no excuse for repeating the myth that we need to cut someone from the 40. Kilome and Yo will open the season on the 60-day DL, er, IL, so there will automatically open 2 slots.
In any case, it's still much too soon to predict that both Todd and Jed will be out of action far past OD, if at all.
I wonder about their medical procedures, though. Jed was sent to NY for an MRI, then returned to the team for rehab. Todd got his MRI in FL, and flew to NY for a cortisone shot. Why the "reversal" ?
Morning guys -
Call me crazy... I like playing players at their natural position (even though that doesn't seem to be working out for us so far this month).
1B - Dom Smith until mid-April
C - Meseraco under any condition
3B - Davis
Agree with Mack......not sure what TDA's status may be, but I like Mesoraco as the #2 now and for the rest of the year.
Alonso making the opening day roster would be interesting, despite the service time issue. It would also minimize the loss of Frazier, a bit.
Lowrie's loss is a bigger issue, since Davis is still an unknown.
I am not liking the start to this season......can we catch a break for a change?
I can help get Pete a place here in Albany but it would be a long commute each day. But hey we have the NY Penn league champions here, the Tri-City Valley Cats.
Mike -
If this team wants to win a game this spring they might want to concentrate on what they are doing in the field.
I can not find any intelligent reason to lose a year of control on a franchise player. What if we could have done this with deGrom or Conforto?
Word I am getting is that d'Arnaud is 'day to day' with an 'unspecified' injury... and the Mets are very pissed over this.
Bill, Reese lives in El Paso...he is also El Loco
I resemble that remark!
Really on d'Arnaud? NY Post wrote this just optimistic picture on him yesterday:
Travis d’Arnaud isn’t going to speculate on when he might get behind the plate in the Grapefruit League. Callaway recently said the veteran catcher needs to “sync up” his footwork with his throwing in his return from Tommy John surgery.
“Basically it means there are a few more boxes to check before I can get in the game,” d’Arnaud said.
On Monday, he worked on throwing out base runners after receiving a pitch. He also participated in bunt drills in which he had to throw to third and second.
“It feels really good, I am really excited,” d’Arnaud said. “I am not going to guess on a [return] date, but it’s soon.”
Reese, keeping McNeil in the OF makes so much sense, you wonder when they'll stop doing it? That reminds me of a GK Chesterton quote,"The rabble are so consistently wrong, it makes me wonder what would be the upside of nuclear Armageddon?" Haaaaaaa.
Hopefully, the only nukes this season will be launched off the bat of Pete.
And maybe for JD Davis to deploy a little tactical nuke for us here and there.
It makes no sense what so ever to lose a year of control by not sending Alonso down a couple of weeks.
1B. Smith
3B. McNeil
LF. TJ Rivera (didn't TJ play LF on emergencies before he got hurt?)
He can be part of the OF backup and Conforto, Lagares, Nimmo man the OF until the others return from the DL.
Is not optimal but it gives the Mets a chance to showcase Smith, Lagares and TJ for possible future trades.
How does an OF of TJ, Nimmo and 4to allow us to showcase Lag? I'd put Broxton ahead of TJ if we want any showcasing.
Rivera is ailing according to MC. Don't pencil him in as anything other than DH.
And Rivera couldn't throw from third BEFORE his arm was surgically repaired. Not even as good as Wilmer. Like Wilmer, he was way better at second or first, but a big liability at third.
Davis's bomb today was comforting. Cecchini seems to be fielding himself out of any consideration for the job.
Viper: Will you be saying that about Alonso at the end of the year if the Mets finish a game or two out of the division title (or the Wild Card, for that matter)? I would love to see the Mets get an extra year of control too, but I think Brodie has said that his presence could matter, even in the first couple of weeks. Brodie has a three year contract and wants/needs to win now. He's probably less worried about that year than about winning this year. I still think Alonso could be kept off the roster, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he isn't.
We want Pete to hit 40. Play him!
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