Reese Kaplan -- The Mets Found a Good One in Luis Guillorme

Some ballplayers simply don't look as if they will fit the part of major league regulars.  They are too short, too slow, too heavy or unable to drive the ball with power.  Often they exhibit one special skill that got them to ascend the ladder up to AAA but they haven't quite put it all together to make the next leap a permanent one.

During the recent discussion about who to cut loose from the team as the rosters were reduced to the normal capacity of 26.  Without rehashing all of the possibilities today we will simply focus on one name -- Luis Guillorme.  

If you look up Guillorme's record in the minors he started off flashing fancy glovework -- so good, in fact, that many felt at a very young age he was playing his position at a major league level.  The problem with his potential was always wrapped around his inability to contribute offensively to justify him being promoted to the next level.

In a lot of ways Guillorme's best season in the minors was all the way back in 2015 with Savannah when he managed to hit a very thin .318 with no home runs and 55 RBIs.  He stole 18 bases and people started getting excited that although he had now power, he seemed to indicate an ability to contribute offensively after being a glove-only player.

As he continued his movement through the minors that speed totally disappeared, removing an important element of his game.  He occasionally hit a few home runs with a high water mark of 7 in Syracuse in 2019.  As you examined his record he was establishing a pattern of taking awhile to adjust to the next level of pitching.

When Guillorme made it to the majors he did the very same thing.  He was originally hovering around the Mendoza line as a hitter and often looked highly over matched.  However, that same behavior repeated itself and during the shortened 2020 season he hit .333.  Now people wrote it off as a hot streak and not sustainable, but you began to see him working the pitchers more effectively and not looking like the automatic out when he came to bat.

Go back into his minor league record and you will see this pattern turning him from a Rey Ordonez type of fielder into someone who was also capable offensively.  He finished his minor league apprenticeship hitting .289.  Now he's allowed himself to gain weight which likely tied into speed no longer being a part of his productivity.  He hit a home run this week to show that every now and then he can register some power.  What it means to Buck Showalter and the team, however, is that he's a valuable spare part on this club and deserves to be part of the 26 roster members.

Personally, I had held a little bit of a grudge against the man based upon an incident while he was playing for the Las Vegas 51s here in El Paso against the San Diego Padres AAA Chihuahuas affiliate.  I was standing outside the locker room to catch some time with players for quick interviews and when I approached him he dismissed me with, "No hablo ingles!" (meaning I don't speak English.  I said, Luis, you may have been born in Venezuela but you graduated high school in Florida.  He smiled and shrugged at me...but didn't grant the interview (something Dom Smith, Pete Alonso, Gavin Cecchini, Wally Backman and others willingly did).  

I'm big enough to realize it must be a bit of a nuisance always being hounded for a few words to print and in retrospect I can't blame him for trying to duck out of the time with a reporter.  Also I could have said, "Yo hablo español!" (I speak Spanish) and then he would have been royally screwed with his excuse.  The important thing, however, is not that I was denied an interview but that he made it to the big club and he's performing well enough that he shouldn't fear demotion to the minors ever again.