Everyone likes a good bargain. Personally, when I negotiate (or stumble
upon) a great deal, I wear it proudly like a badge of honor. That’s fine for picking up household items,
motor vehicles and perhaps even real estate, but is it a good way to build a
ballclub?
Lately the injury list has made it necessary for the Mets to
dig deep into their farm system for additional resources to address all the
temporarily walking wounded. They tried
it early on with a few younger ballplayers like Chris Flexen, Luis Guillorme
and Corey Oswalt, but lately the trend has changed, and the approach now is to
go with established veterans in the twilight of their careers. There have also been some flyers on players
under 30 who have flamed out in other organizations. How have their fared?
The Good
Channeling his World Series heroics, speedster Rajai Davis
walloped a home run in his first Mets at-bat and in his brief 7 AB trial had 2
hits to bat .286. However, his
reputation as a one-trick pony – baserunning speed plus his age (38) made him an
unfortunate casualty when Michael Conforto returned. However, you can’t deny he did well while wearing
a Mets uniform.
Former All-Star starter Hector Santiago was recently
promoted and thus far sports a perfect 0.00 ERA working out of the beleaguered
bullpen. How long he’ll be on the big
club is debatable, but until left Justin Wilson is deemed available to pitch his
spot is probably secure.
The Bad
Although he’s had a few surprising home runs lately, you can’t
sugarcoat the fact that Adeiny Hechavarria is hitting a buck eighty-nine. He’s never been much of a hitter but that’s
poor even by his modest standards. Many
are betting he gets cut the second Jeff McNeil returns from the IL.
The Ugly
Despite having had one eye popping partial season in
Philadelphia in 2017, German-born Aaron Altherr has been cut twice already this
year based upon his 2-36 on the entire season.
Granted, he did slam an impressively Kingmanesque home run in his first
Mets at-bat, but wow, that’s an incredibly ugly stat line by any measure.
The once, almost future and eventually once again Met,
Carlos Gomez has shown the club in his early big league trial at age 33 that he
may not have much left in the tank. He’s
hitting just .143 thus far though he does have a homer and 4 RBIs. With Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil still out,
there’s no immediate risk of him departing, though the addition of fellow struggler
Aaron Altherr puts pressure on Gomez to ramp up his game.
The Great Unknown
Former three-time All-Star slugger Matt Kemp signed a deal
with the Mets and is going to spend some time in the minors before they decide
what, if any, future he has in Queens.
The news coming out about Brandon Nimmo’s injury perhaps being worse
than originally thought means that the veteran might get another shot after
being picked up from the Cincinnati scrap heap.
As recently as last year with the Dodgers he hit .290/21/85 so it’s
conceivable he could still have some productive hits in his bat at age 34.
Many people are frustrated that when needs arise the Mets
are not going after the still-unsigned free agents or attempting to make trades
for in-their-prime ballplayers, but at .500 the club is treading water while waiting
for folks to heal. Could they be more aggressive
in their approach? Obviously yes. Is it all bad news? Not yet.
7 comments:
While the signing of so many veterans to minor league contracts didn't make sense to many, it is proving to be useful in keeping the team above water when injuries inevitably occur. One game last week they started Gomez, Lagaras, and Rajah Davis, which is less than ideal yet they won and won the last 7 of 8 sporting lineups such as these. We all know this success with backups playing major roles is not sustainable and, yes, they were playing poor teams, but they did contribute to wins. If they end up winning the division by a game long after Altherr, Hechavarria, and Davis have been released, were their signings, and the games the Mets won because of them this past week, worth it?
I like the Vets signings - Gomez has been up little, and was 1 for 3 and a great diving catch yesterday - and he is an energizer in the dugout. Hecchavaria has made his hits count, but was tearing it up in AAA and average-wise is better. Altherr's first homer as a Met went almost as far as Broxton's first as an Oriole, 472 feet, but both bear striking (out) similarities.
Why we never seem to get a Gio Urshela (.336, 20 RBIs) is beyond me.
I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these veterans ends up taking a job from Juan Lagares - especially once Nimmo returns.
Juan rhymes with GONE - and if he continues his paltry play, he will be gone soon. Including spring training, he is 29 for 151 (.192) with OBP and Slug % under .300...clearly awful.
Sadly, Aaron Altherr is hitting .165 in nearly 300 at bats in 2018 and 2019. So the choices seem pretty awful. We need a healthy Nimmo.
Paging Matt Kemp...
Spoke to a scout on Sunday - he said that Altherr is a much better player to have on the roster and to not only read into his being released twice this season- he didn't have enough at bats with the Phils to get going and was a victim of over-crowding - and only had ONE at-bat with the Giants who had faced a major 40-man roster crunch (although their outfield makes the 2000 Mets seem like a bunch of HOFers). He's a good glove, throws reasonably well and has a lot of power AND is about 8 years younger then any of the other guys. I don't want to give up on the guy just yet, and hopefully Rajai isn't claimed and has another chance with us later this season.
David, good point
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