Reese Kaplan -- Outfield Emergency Replacements Not Exactly All Stars

Without trying to get political here, the fact is that the COVID pandemic is not yet over.  Mets fans are well aware of the situation with a coach, Brandon Nimmo and Mark Canha all struck by the disease at the same time.  While there has certainly been some great progress made towards treatment and the reduction of death from the virus, it appears that taking things a bit too casually may cause some ripple recurrences.  Fortunately the latest developments among those folks hit by the problem don't seem to be nearly as bad as the ones who were hit back in 2020.  

For the Mets, while obviously everyone wishes a speedy recovery to everyone impacted by the disease, the unforeseen development rapidly pointed out how thin the Mets outfield really is.  Starling Marte is certainly capable of manning any of the three outfield positions professionally.  Then it starts to get a bit wonky.  

Jeff McNeil won't embarrass you out there defensively, but he appears more adept at playing second base.  Travis Jankowski seems to have the tools with a glove on his hand, but there's a reason that at age 30 he's still only logged the rough equivalent of two major league seasons.  We've seen some strange handling of the bat and he's made one boneheaded baserunning gaffe as well.

What alternatives does the club have?  Well, Dom Smith has logged parts of 183 games as an outfielder, but when he does play there you kind of wish he had on a first baseman's glove instead.  J.D. Davis has played only half as much outfield as Dom Smith and makes him look like Roberto Clemente defensively by comparison.  Neither have really heated up yet with the bats either, so it's tough to justify wanting to use them out of position if they're not contributing offensively at a level that makes up for the lackluster play in the field.

The club did bring back utilityman Matt Reynolds out of necessity to fill one of the two voids created by Nimmo and Canha.  This guy has logged a grand total of 10 games in the outfield, so the thinking is probably that having him around frees up McNeil or Smith or Davis to try their best in the outfield.  Reynolds is just a career .212 hitter in the majors, so his presence likely other than spare glove or pinch runner isn't going to contribute much towards securing Mets victories.  

The other replacement player brought to Queens was Nick Plummer who was acquired from the Cardinals organization where he was plagued with injuries throughout his minor league career.  He's still young enough and unproven enough to make people a little more anxious to see him in a game than Reynolds.  He put together a nice 2021 campaign hitting .280 with a combined 15 HRs and 13 SBs which begins to confirm his original high draft pick position.  He finally got his first major league at-bat yesterday but started off 0 for 1.  Still, he's not likely going to replace the productivity of Nimmo nor Canha, but at age 25 he has more potential than his former Syracuse teammate who will hit age 32 by year's end.

While it's premature to think about rapid advancement of future prospects who are learning to transition from the infield to the outfield, about the only other alternative in-house is Khalil Lee who looked lost at the big league level last season.  He was just 1-18 in his brief Mets debut in 2021, but he did finish in Syracuse with a .274 average while hitting 14 HRs.  He has stolen as many as 53 bases in a minor league season, so it was a little surprising he was not chosen to come to Citifield.

Assuming neither Nimmo nor Canha are in long term health trouble as a result of COVID, there's likely not much GM Billy Eppler will be expected to do except juggle until they return.  However, the club really does need to start thinking about fortifying their outfield options in the event they do experience a prolonged absence of someone who was part of the starting lineup game plan.