Reese Kaplan -- Luis Guillorme Gets It Done...Now What?

While many ponder the fates of future prospects like Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio, the great Luis Guillorme question comes up again and again as he continues to perform defensive wizardry that shows up seemingly night after night on the highlight reels.  

Right now he's getting the opportunity to play regularly while Jeff McNeil has an opportunity to heal.  Of course, once McNeil is back among the starting lineup members, that leaves Guillorme back in his familiar ultra-utility role off the bench.

Or does it?

Now no one is expecting Guillorme to morph into a modern day version offensively of Robin Ventura, but he hasn't exactly been chopped liver when it comes to swinging the bat despite a recent slide in his output.  You don't have to think back that far to see he finished hitting .333 during the strike shortened 2020 season.  

He followed that up with a longer stretch in 2021 when in the course of obtaining 132 at-bats he hit a respectable .265.  Now in 2022 under the tutelage of a new manager and new hitting coach he is hitting north of .300 over 150 at-bats.

Look back a little further and you will see that he was a decent minor league hitter despite his "no-bat" reputation.  For his career he hit .289 over the course of 2272 at-bats.  That output is not exactly chicken feed for someone who fields like a Gold Glover.  The only legitimate beef anyone can raise with the man is his lack of power.  He routinely tallies a single home run each year, but working the count while often getting singles and doubles is quite worthwhile, too. 

No one is suggesting Luis Guillorme is going to replace Jeff McNeil at second base nor Francisco Lindor at shortstop.  They are veteran solid major league hitters who can provide power and run production at a greater level while fielding their positions competently.  No, if that result is what Luis Guillorme is after, then he's a bit delusional.  

However, if there was a slumping player unable to earn his sizable paycheck then Guillorme might have a better road to regular playing time.  Naturally everyone will immediately shout out the name of Eduardo Escobar who, despite earning over ten times the salary to play is not exactly delivering value for his compensation.  

Escobar is currently hitting just .225 with 6 HRs and 30 RBIs with more than a 100 at-bat advantage over Guillorme.    

Now under the old Mets way of doing things you wouldn't even enter this line of thinking because paycheck always dictated playing time.  That philosophical approach is not just about what happens in baseball but in corporate offices all over the world.  It is rare when a lower level line worker is respected enough to replace one of the movers and shakers of the organization even when he falters.  

So perhaps the better approach for the Mets to take is to examine what's working and what's not working with these two individuals.  It seems that the switch hitting Escobar is struggling mightily when right handed pitchers face him and his OPS is worthy of hiding.

Similarly despite the .307 batting average produced this year by Guillorme, he's facing the same kind of struggle against southpaws.  In fact, he's even worse on the OPS front.

The logical compromise position to take would be to platoon at third base until one of these two gentlemen either heats up sufficiently or cools down sufficiently to render the other one's fate.  

Platoons are not popular because people groan about not getting a fair amount of playing time and the left handed hitting half getting far more chances than the right handed one, but it's just a matter of the metric of human beings that the vast majority of pitchers will in fact be right handed.

Now is this solution ideal?  No, of course not.  When Guillorme is in the game he will balance out his low run production with a higher level of defense (though Escobar has been surprisingly good with the glove this year).  

Let us also not forget what this platoon would do to the man without a position named J.D. Davis.  He would have to fight through not just one but two player roadblocks to make it onto the field.  With Dom Smith back on the roster his limited opportunities to play first base are also gone.  

However, the interesting twist is if Escobar does not recover significantly, the Mets do have an option to pay him a $500K buyout at year's end and relieve themselves of a $9 million salary obligation in 2023.  While it's not an ideal scenario to have happen, there is a business strategy here that can yield a net positive if Guillorme continues to swing the bat effectively.  

It would also open up J.D. Davis for a bigger role next season as well.

Is it worth a try?