Reese Kaplan -- Pawn Stars, Mets Edition

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.