Reese Kaplan -- Kicking the Tires on 2nd & 3rd Tier Free Agents

 

With Spring Training due to start in a few weeks, everyone is well aware of the number of vacancies on the roster (either actual or desired).  The big-ticket free agents mostly have settled elsewhere which leaves second tier (or third tier) choices or the seldom-used trade gambit.  Right now people are having some Sandy Alderson flashbacks as he’s attempting to provide B-level quality for what people were hoping was an A-level team. 

While dreams of Trevor Bauer or Jackie Bradley, Jr. or even Marcell Ozuna had remained on life support for most Mets fans, there are quite a few other credible players on the unemployment line who might be worth considering.  Let’s have a brief look at a few promising names that were not on anyone’s top-of-radar must-haves prior to the off-season drawing towards a close.

Somewhat surprising at this juncture is the fact that second baseman Jonathan Schoop remains unclaimed by any of the 30 major league teams.  Some of his numbers are pretty gaudy, including seven full seasons of double digit home runs (including a high of 32 during a 2017 campaign with the Orioles).  

He’s a solid fielder and should deliver about 21 HRs and 61 RBIs with a mediocre AVG of .246 according to BaseballReference.com.  His last season in Detroit paid him $6.1 million.  He’s likely to sign for somewhere in that vicinity again given how late into the off season it is already.  Having him at 2B with Jeff Innis manning third is not the worst idea I’ve ever seen. 

Two players come to mind for the hot corner or a bench role.  One is quite familiar to Mets fans – Asdrubal Cabrera.  He was not a Gold Glover at SS, but could handle one of the two infield positions without embarrassing himself. He earned $3.5 million for the Rangers in 2019 and $2.5 million for the Nationals last year.  Going into his age 35 season he’s a stopgap type of player who could start or be a solid option off the bench for relatively little money.

A name people may not know is the young right handed hitting Renato Nunez, formerly of the Baltimore Orioles who inexplicably released him into free agency after he slugged 31 HRs for them in 2019.  He followed that up with 12 dingers in the short 2020 season.  He’s not a high-average hitter, landing in the high .240s for a batting average and like most sluggers he fans quite a bit.  He’s not a great fielder and profiles somewhat similar to J.D. Davis.  However, at no salary now, his former minimum wage is likely going to be satisfactory.  It also opens up the prospect of dealing away J.D. Davis if they feel he has more appeal to other teams. 

Phillies reject Maikel Franco appeared as if he was headed into a bigger star stature than what has evolved.  He last earned $2.95 million for one year and likely won’t get higher than that this time around due to his inconsistency and poor defense.  

The right handed hitter has posted six straight full seasons of double digit home runs with a high water mark of 25 with 88 RBIs back in 2016.  As a .252 career hitter, I think of him as a younger Todd Frazier who also, at this stage of his career, is pretty much relegated to being a spare part. 

None of the prospective backup catchers is going to ignite fireworks, but the top three seem to be Matt Wieters, Tyler Flowers and Jeff Mathis.  None is capable of doing the starting job, but none would embarrass you on the days James McCann needs a break.  More importantly, none will cost much more than $2.5 million.  That’s chump change these days in major league baseball, though incumbent option-less Tomas Nido would cost nearly $1.9 million less. 

Most of the pitchers have already been discussed as prospective signings.  Some the Mets did obtain like Sam McWilliams, Joey Lucchesi and Jordan Yamamoto were regarded as perhaps better than their numbers indicated.  Some of the available pitchers fall into that category as well. 

I’ve mentioned former short-term Met Collin McHugh as a possibility in the past.  His career mark of 58-43 with a 3.95 ERA acting as both a starter and reliever is not really far off the mark from Trevor Bauer.  I’m not suggesting there should be room on his mantle for a Cy Young Award, but the right hander last played for Boston on a $600K contract.  Offer him a $1 million deal and you have someone who could slot into the rotation now and later into the pen.  He seems a natural fit. 

Former New York Met prospect Yusmeiro Petit has carved out a solid career as a middle reliever.  At age 36 this season his best days are likely behind him, but consecutive seasons with ERAs of 1.76, 2.71, 3.00 and 2.76 it doesn’t appear his skills have eroded much.  For Oakland he earned an average pay of about $4.7 million per season for three years.  He should be obtainable for about $5.5 million per year.

Another former Met who brings out horrendous retching and shakes is lefty Oliver Perez who reinvented himself as a reliever.  During his last three years in Cleveland he has managed to put together a 4-6 record out of the pen with an aggregate 2.67 ERA and a surprisingly low WHIP of just over 1.000.  He is striking people out over 10 per 9 IP and keeping the walks down.  

He earned a pro-rated $2.75 million with the Indians last year and probably could be had on a one-year deal for that amount or less.

Finally, a huge roll of the dice on former star closer Trevor Rosenthal who went through injury woes to come back last season to appear in 23 games across two teams with a 1.90 ERA, 11 Saves and 14.5 strikeouts per 9 IP.  He was only earning $1 million last year so expect a significant jump but not into the Brad Hand range.  He’s certainly worth kicking the tires to see what he wants.