Reese Kaplan -- The Mets Doing Sharknado Part 8

One of the things that always puzzled me was the human inclination to gloss over reality in order to let clouded memories and fantasies suggest reunions will forever be as sweet as they mistakenly recall.  It happens in romance all too frequently, but lately its incarnation among baseball fans (and front offices) is nearly completely a case of failures waiting to happen.  Of course, the Mets are as guilty of this affront as any other ballclub, but rarely has it ever turned into anything even remotely positive.

 

Take a look at the current roster and you have to scratch your head wondering what was going on in the head of Brodie Van Wagenen when he needed reinforcements.  First was the reincarnation of Jeurys Familia who had been an All Star closer when the Mets peddled him away in his walk year.  He was not good in non-save situations, but seemed ultra reliable when asked to close out a game.

 

If the plan was to resurrect him as the answer to winning ballgames when holding the lead in the 9th inning, perhaps it made sense to consider him.  At today's rates, $10 million per year for a closer isn't all that bad, but a $30 million commitment to a middle reliever seemed a bit excessive, particularly if you factored in his lackluster performance in his career when the game was not on the line.  

 

Of course, he was fattened up by that sizable increase in pay.  Last year it seemed as if it played a major toll on his setup innings.  For the year 2019 he finished with a 5.70 ERA, was walking over 6 men per 9 IP and held a horrific WHIP of over 1.700.  Wow, it looked like one of the worst moves the club had ever made.

 

This year has been a considerable improvement with an ERA under 4.00 and a WHIP under 1.500.  Unfortunately the situation with walks is just as dismal and the strikeout rate has gone the way of his abdomen -- it's shrunk dramatically.  It's a case of a reunion not working out as hoped.

 

Of course, the reunions did not stop with the bullpen.  During the season the front office reached out to acquire formerly dispatched scrub Juan Lagares whose return was even worse than his first tenure with the ballclub.  Yes, he could still field and was capable of running the bases on the rare occasions when he actually landed on base, but his anemic hitting had gotten even weaker.  

 

Did that stop BVW from taking this route?  After all, when you realize there's no point in keeping someone not getting the job done, why would the person in question all of the sudden hold the key to improving the second time around? 

 

Still, with the Texas Rangers apparently fed up with the lackluster Todd Frazier, it was much easier for BVW to reach out and throw away more prospects from the brittle farm system to get what exactly?  For his career Frazier is a below replacement .242 hitter and was below that threshold when acquired.  For the Mets he's delivered a .207 AVG which means he's not even hitting his 220 pound weight.  It's not been all bad.  As a first-time relief pitcher he hurled a shutout inning with extremely slow pitching in a wasted game the Mets had no chance of winning.  Maybe, like Rick Ankiel, he was miscast, but in the opposite direction.

 

The list of returnees to the Mets is a long and checkered one.  Earlier this year we saw a Rene Rivera reunion (since shelved by injury).  In the recent past there was even Ruben Tejada making a return engagement.  I won't despoil what's in your stomach by reciting the whole long list of losers deludedly extended contracts, but hopefully under the new regime in the future they will make better value selections of players in the first place and not have to revive folks who couldn't cut it the first time around.  It's not a pretty sight and like movies, the sequels are usually far worse than the originals.