The
Mets are continuing to weed out the pipeline.
They
announced on Thursday that they have released RHP Gabriel
Llanes.
The 15th pick in the 2014 draft had a rough season last year for St. Lucie: 124.1-IP, 4.27, 1.48.
Llanes
was the Mets 15th round pick in 2014. He had a 4.27 ERA and 1.48 WHIP last
season in 124.1 innings for the St. Lucie Mets.
There also was a cryptic message on Twitter
-
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| PC - Ed Delany |
Matt Pobereyko -
@mpobereyko42 -
I’ve
been successful everywhere i have ever played. From the minor leagues, to the
fall league, to the Dominican winter league. All as a player who was never
drafted. I’ve been released, twice as of now. This isn’t the end to a career.
It’s just on to the next one.
Matt threw 48 innings (55-K) for St.
Lucie last season and posted a stat line of 3.19/1.13.
I thought he was a lock for the
B-Mets bullpen next month, but what do I know?
The
Mets began this past Sunday shielding their premier rotation pitchers from the
rest of their divisional rivals. You will need to go to the minor league
portion of the stadium… earlier in the day… to see the likes of Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Zack Wheeler.
This
will give the Mets a longer look at ‘other’ starters that will open the season
in Syracuse. Guys like Hector Santiago, Kyle Dowdy,
and possibly Chris Flexen and Corey Oswalt
Couldn’t
hurt to get another look-see at them.
The
Mets signed 23-year old RHSP Alec Kisena.
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| PC - Ed Delany |
Kisena
was a 16th round pick in the 2015 draft by the Detroit Tigers, out
of Edmonds (WA) Community College.
He
did start nine games for the 2015 GCL Tigers and posted a 1-1, 2.25. 1.28,
40-IP, 44-K stat line… but he had to sit out the entire 2016 season with a torn
ACL.
The
Tigers cut him and he latched on to the Gateway Grizzlies in the Frontier
League.
By
June 2018, he was leading the league in strikeouts, and signed on with the St. Louis Cardinals, who first put him on the DL and then invalidated the deal with
the Grizzlies.
Kisena
returned to the Grizzlies and waited for turn three, which has come this past
week with the Mets.
I’m
not sending him to the GCL League again. We have openings on the Kingsport
starter board and I’m placing him there.
In
my opinion, the 25-man is just about fully developed.
Regarding
first base… if our trusted new General Manager is a man of his words, the best
player will come north to play first base… and that is Pete
Alonso. I know Dominic Smith has had a great off season, but Pete has
won this job. Done.
Second
base is the future Hall Of Famer Robinson Cano.
Yes, he’s playing 2019 as a 36-year old, but he’s hitting close to .500 this
spring and the deal to bring him here never had a contingent for subbing.
Amed Roasrio is
our starting shortstop. I don’t know how many seasons he will keep this job,
but he too is having an excellent spring and there is no one in camp close to
taking his 2019 job away from him.
Brandon Nimmo is
our starting center fielder. He earned that position last season and, IMO, will
continue this excellence in 2019.
Michael Conforto is
developing into becoming a super star in this game. He will switch from left to
right until the other superstar outfielder returns from his injuries (Yoenis
Cespedes).
We
now have someone which MLB.com has said Is the best catcher in baseball if he had
remained uninjured. Well, guess what? His name is Wilson
Ramos and he is 100% healthy. Beware baseball.
Our
rotation is set… Jake deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zack
Wheeler, Steven Matz, and Jason Vargas.
Our
closer, Edwin Diaz, is the best in the business.
Our
ex-closer, Jeurys Familia, will do just fine as
the 8th inning setup guy.
Seth Lugo and
Robert Gsellman are mainstays here.
Our
next best relievers in this spring have been Drew Smith (now injured) and Corey
Oswalt (sent packing to Syracuse). This leaves Luis
Avilan as our next best pen piece.
This
adds up to 16 ‘locks’ with 9 more to go.
This
leaves to fill in:
One starting third baseman
Two utility infielders
One starting leftfielders
Two utility outfielders
One utility catcher
Two more relief pitches.
Things
I need to accomplish during the rest of spring training:
1. Fill in the 11 spots available
2. Determine who my starting third baseman
is. We are running out of healing time for the walking wounded so, right now,
it would be Jeff McNeil (if the season was
starting right now, I would have McNeil on third).
3. Keep playing both McNeil and Dominic Smith in the outfield. Both are hitting too
well to keep out of the lineup. If the season was starting right now and McNeil
was on third, I would have Smith playing in the outfield.
4. Determine my two utility infielders
and two utility outfielders (Smith could have a jump on these since he can play
both positions).
5. Determine if Travis
d’Arnaud or Devin Mesoraco is going to be
my backup catcher.
6. And lastly, fill in the two relief
pitchers needed to fill the pen.
We
will continue with the roster fill next week.
With Hechavarria exercising his upward mobility clause and Guillorme having a monster spring with the bat, what are the odds the bat catcher comes north?
ReplyDeleteMatt Pobereyko was probably part of the Russian conspiracy and thus out he goes. Kidding aside, his departure surprised me too, but when there are no published pitching results due to him not getting in real spring training games, it is hard to know why he would have gotten axed.
ReplyDeleteHe did pitch well, but when promoted for a game last year to Vegas, he gave up 6 hits and runs and 2 walks in 3 innings while fanning no one. Maybe that really hurt him.
It is interesting to see them sign a guy like Alex Kisena while jettisoning Gabe Llanes - Llanes was not a hard thrower, and perhaps the new Mets regime is less tolerant of guys like that staying around if they are not excelling.
d'Arnaud is coming north
ReplyDeleteI know I sound broken record-ish, but I cannot put Pete on the Opening Day roster........you would be squandering millions of dollars by not gaining an extra year of control (if he pans out and he certainly looks the part). Dom can fill in for a few weeks and then Pete takes over for good.
ReplyDelete10-12 games missed or an extra year of the second coming of Jeff Bagwell?
I also like your roster breakdown......I think the team will be very competitive this year (more so then the experts think).
Mike, Alonso can open in Queens, but at first slump go to Syracuse “to work things out”. It’s the same thing...
DeleteMike, hard to leave Pete off - for my article tomorrow, I looked at "qualifying hitters" this spring - not a huge number with sufficient plate appearances to qualify as, for instance, Robbie Cano did not have enough, but Pete was 5th in average for all MLB qualifiers and 3rd in slug %.
ReplyDeleteNo errors too - he has made it almost impossible to send him down.
Mack, think you are right on TDA - the only way he doesn't come north is if he gets hurt when he starts today's and tomorrow's games at catcher.
ReplyDeleteIf he and Meso are healthy, TDA should be the clearly better hitter, and roughly a toss up defensively - I go with the better hitter. This team has missed the playoffs so many times in large part due to sub-par hitting. We now have super-analysts - I'd have to imagine they are abundantly aware of that.
The Mets passed last night on the Mesoraco option.
ReplyDeleteHe will be DFA'd and left open for other teams.
True, but that other team needs to put him on their 40. If someone exercises and option then the Mets can still do the same and keep him.
ReplyDeleteConforto will stay in right when Cespedes comes back...and hopefully for years to come. There's nothing temporary about his move there. And if Alonso turns out to be all that, maybe he gets extended BEFORE his seventh season (as seems to be the current paradigm in MLB), rendering the team option irrelevant. And if he DOESN'T turn out to be all that, maybe signing him cheap for that year is irrelevant, because they won't be signing him at all for that year. There are plenty of ways this can go six years from now.
ReplyDeleteLast night cuts were made.
ReplyDeleteOF Jeremy Burnitz was cut for the fifteenth dam time. It's not fair I tell ya'! And what does Benny Ayala have to actually do to make this ball club?
Actually...
Devon was DFA'd. Some team will probably pick him up as a backup catcher. Probably the Devil Rays.
What did I think here?
No doubt that Devon has above average catcher and defensive skills, but to me he never really approached hitting to a consistent and maintainable level, but probably could have if only he could have accepted basehits over the homerun stroke. Evidently it was not in his own vocabulary. He did have one All Star season in his career, and he can hit homeruns. But to go up there (that often) looking for a homer may have unfortunately been his own MLB demise.
I wish him the very best. Like I said, some team may just pick him up.
If me, I might just go with Tomas Nido as the backup catcher to start the 2019 season. Wilson Ramos should be fine starting, but Travis d'Arnaud probably could use two more solid weeks of extended Spring Training. This would easily allow for this to happen with Nido.
Others cut:
Relievers: O'Rourke, Bashlor, T. Peterson, Zamora Starter: Oswalt Inf: Hererra, Hechavaria OF: R. Davis, Gomez, and a few others.
However, all these players (just mentioned above) could and probably will see time on the Mets at sometime over this very long season. They will get another shot then.
Big time kudos to the younger crop of NY Mets:
Luis Guillorme, JD Davis, and Pete Alonso, the class of 2019. The planting has been done. Now it's all up to them, and their inspiring harvest.
Let the "season of content" begin! I think this will be most enjoyable!