Yesterday we offered surprising tolerance for one of deposed Brodie Van Wagenen's decisions to make that Seattle Mariners trade. It seems that other personnel decisions the Mets have made about their roster composition calls their expertise into question.
I'm not going to go back and dig into old horror stories like the trading of Nolan Ryan or the ponderous decision to acquire Joe Foy for Amos Otis. No, we're going to concentrate on the Citifield era and just focus on a few choices the Mets made which made you shake your head so vigorously that you risked neck injury.
Everyone remembers the infielder with a great enthusiasm for the game and his pie-in-the-face antics to celebrate Mets wins. He had always been an effective singles hitter in the minors. After roughly the equivalent of four full seasons he was good for a career .307 average but the run production was just not there. He was good for only about 9 HRs and 60 RBIs per season. He rarely struck out, but unless you could run like Mookie Wilson it would seem that being a singles hitter wasn't a ticket to success in the majors.
Turner bounced around from the Cincinnati Reds to the Baltimore Orioles until finally landing as a Mets minor leaguer in 2010. The next year he spent most of it in the majors for the first time and played respectably, hitting .260 with 4 HRs and 51 RBIs over nearly 500 ABs. While it's not All Star material, it was a decent first attempt at performing against the best competition in the world.
In 2012 it wasn't much of an improvement as he finished with far fewer ABs with a .269 batting average. However, in 2013 he got the average up to .280 and was productive at the plate. His smile was lighting up the room of these bad Terry Collins teams and his pie-in-the-face antics after rare wins were greeted by most recipients with a good-natured laugh.
Apparently Sandy Alderson was not a fan of Turner's personality and he was inexplicably cut from the team when they were making their roster decisions going into the 2014 season. He was only due to make $800,000 but Alderson had seen enough and kicked the .280 hitter to the curb. I'm not going to make you nauseous by reciting what Turner has done for the Dodgers, but suffice to say it was one of Alderson's worst moments.
While Terry Collins wasn't ready to commit to Flores as a regular player at any single position on the field, he was always a fan favorite whose late inning long balls gave the Mets a great many unexpected victories.
No one can forget the tearful mid-season trade deadline deal that wasn't in which Flores was theoretically traded to the Milwaukee Brewers as part of a package to bring outfielder Carlos Gomez to New York. The Mets were most definitely in the need of an offensive jolt but issues arose with Gomez's physical that nullified the deal and Flores remained a Met.
As a Met Flores wasn't going to win a Gold Glove no matter where you tried to hide him on the field, but as a hitter he's averaged .270 with 20 HRs and 70 RBIs over each 162 game period. As a point of comparison, current free agent Michael Conforto hit .232 with 14 HRs and 55 RBIs while looking to earn north of $20 million per year. In Flores' case, Brodie Van Wagenen decided that his value to the club was insignificant and his salary of $3.4 million was too steep for the club to absorb.
Since leaving the Mets for the Diamondbacks and Giants he has hit .281 and upped his power output. He's still put into games much more for his bat than his glove, but at the mid $3 million salary level he certainly contributes great values. While Van Wagenen may get a pass on the Seattle trade of veterans and prospects to bring Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano to New York, there's no excuse for this highly questionable roster paring decision.
Wilmer Flores exhibited plenty of power in AAA when he was rising up the organization, averaging an RBI a game over a long stretch of games. It seems they dumped him and went cheaper with JD Davis. Who has done well enough when healthy, both being defensively challenged.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe Flores is now 31, considering we followed him from the time he was 16.
Turner? Basically all of his Mets at bats were in 2011 thru 2013, during the time when Citifield was deeper. He no doubt adapted a hitting style to not just hit long fly outs. He was also hurt by the presence of Wright, Reyes, and Murphy sucking up many infield ABs. He is a perfect example of why I would not give up on McNeil.
I never look back and only look a little further
ReplyDeleteTurner was cut because “he was a lazy player”, an unnamed source told a beat reporter. That unnamed source many times has accused of being Jeff Wilpon, but we will never know. Turner and Flores share one trait: they both put bat on ball consistently and that’s why they are RBI guys, and part of smart, winning teams.
ReplyDeleteI’ve said many times since Duda was there: I’m sick and tired of the Mets windmills.
Agreed Gus. Dave Kingman is now the analytics dream.
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