Reese Kaplan -- I Feel His Pain -- Very Personally

A few years ago the Mets were in need of a centerfielder and a gentleman by the name of Lorenzo Cain was available on the free agency market.  He was coming off a very strong career in Kansas City, contributed stellar defense, baserunning and moderate power.  He seemed a perfect fit but as per the usual Sandy Alderson approach, the Mets never went after the top free agent at any position and then the results suffered accordingly.  I won’t even bother quoting stats.  Suffice to say it was a major swing and miss by the Queens brain trust. 

Fast forward a year later and there was again the possible need for a centerfielder.  This time the player in question was A.J. Pollock who had regularly turned in defensive gems to go along with terrific baserunning speed and moderate pop.  In Pollock’s case, however, there was a long injury history that pretty much rivaled Juan Lagares for the inability to stay on the playing field.  To make matters worse, Pollock was determined to cash in big time during his initial foray into free agency.  He and his agent go the Dodgers to bite to the tune of $55 million over 4 years.  At $13.75 million per year, the boys in blue were rolling the dice given Pollock’s injury history, but when he regularly delivers about 3 WAR per year, that’s not a bad price at all. 

By now everyone has heard about the unfortunate turn of events that has landed the oft-hurt Pollock on the Injured List once again.  He had suffered a fractured elbow in 2016 which required the installation of a metal plate and screws to hold the bones together.  I know this situation well having undergone a surgical procedure personally in December on my big toe which similarly required this type of hardware being installed in my body.

Word has come out that the hardware in Pollock’s elbow has become infected as the body has rejected its presence and now must be surgically removed.  Again, paralleling his experience, I underwent three more surgeries between December and March until finally due to infection they had to remove mine completely as well.  Unlike Pollock, I had my wound left open to heal from the inside using a device called wound vacuum for just over 3 months before they determined that although the wound closed up, the infection was not eradicated and hence it required that 4^th surgery. 

Right now the Dodgers are saying all the right things about expecting Pollock back before the end of the year, but many who were hesitant to sign the talented by brittle outfielder are shouting, “I told you so!” from the rooftops.  Obviously this development is going to force the NL Champion Dodgers to have to scramble while absorbing this sunk cost.  L.A. will work with some combination of Cody Bellinger, Enrique Hernandez, Joc Pederson, Chris Taylor and Alex Verdugo to man the outfield.

Now the Mets did their own version of dice rolling by signing oft-injured catcher Wilson Ramos to a perhaps somewhat discounted contract due to his inability to stay on the field.  Then they caught many by surprise when they inked the solid and healthy Jed Lowrie who played over 150 games each of the past two years.  He’s yet to play a game.  The relatively healthy Justin Wilson and Jeurys Familia are both already on the IL.  You never know.  However, you can use negative history as a predictor and perhaps for that reason (or perhaps because between Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto and an eventually recovering Yoenis Cespedes) it was determined a poor long-term investment in Pollock when they outfield appeared to be full.  That situation occurred even before the quizzical decision to convert Jeff McNeil to left fielder. 

I feel for Pollock.  I know his pain all too well and hope he recovers to continue his baseball career.  However, I reserve empathy for the Dodgers organization who could surmise the risks they were undertaking and now are suffering accordingly.  While Mets fans have been brow beaten into accepting secondary and tertiary pieces in the free agent marketplace while small market teams like Milwaukee and San Diego land the big fish, I do applaud the team for being hesitant to put their arbitrarily limited payroll dollars into high risk propositions.