In baseball today, having minor league options sucks for the player who’s got those remaining options.
Nido has none, Alvarez has 3. If it was the other way around, Alvarez would undoubtedly be a major leaguer from now until he retires.
Pham has none, Vogelbach has none, Escobar has none, Canha has none. Trade em, release em, or they stay.
Guillorme got sent down instead of them because he had options.
Baty still has 3 options, Vientos 2, so they better produce or else.
Megill has 3 left, Brigham and Smith have 2. Pitch well, or enjoy central NYS in the summer.
A few guys have options, but no concerns.
Alonso and McNeil each have 3 options left. Going nowhere.
In Injury Land, Ridings and Montes de Oca each have 3 options left, and Coonrod, Elieser, and Uceta have 1 each. No worries about options being used against them until they pitch again.
Chubby Checker and I hope they pitch again, like they did last summer.
So do they.
I’ve run out of options here.
Having a great day is not optional, so have one.
BUT BEFORE I GO…
HOW ABOUT THAT ELI ANKENEY:
Eli was the 599th overall selection in the 2022 draft.
Pitching, though, like a first rounder since.
He picked up his first win on Sunday, and since turning pro, he’s thrown 12.1 innings, fanned 20, allowed just 4 very lonely four runners and has an ERA below 0.01.
I have a simple suggestion for St Lucie lefty Eli…
PITCH MORE!
ALVAREZ AN ALL STAR?
About 10 days ago, the Mets hierarchy was burning brain cells trying to figure out how to send options-rich Francisco Alvarez so they could keep underperforming catchers instead, who were out of options.
Now there should be a campaign to get him on the All Star team.
And why not? Despite drastically fewer at bats than the top 2 catchers in HRs, he already has 8 rockets to his credit, and has the second highest slugging % among catchers, trailing the leader by a mere 9 points.
And my guess as I write this is he will be chosen Player of the Week.
Last 7 games, .423/.483/.962, 4 HRs, 10 RBIs.
I was right all along…he isn’t human.
AGE ISN'T RELATIVE IN BASEBALL
Oh, and one more point to keep in mind.
The Mets drafted catcher Kevin Parada in the first round in 2022. You immediately think, "just drafted, young guy. NICE!”
Except Alvarez is currently 100 days younger than Parada. Parada, you see, turns 22 in 2 months, Alvarez turns 22 in 5 months.
And, as Alvarez tears apart MLB pitching at that age, Parada is in High A (probably considered a "challenging assignment for a guy in his first full season"). He had just 55 pro plate appearances in lower levels in 2022.
Parada has 3 HRs, 14 RBIs in 143 ABs and a slash line of .238/.345/.406, which actually is not bad at all (actually good) when you play in Brooklyn, land of the hitter-neutering wind. Even Alvarez found hitting in Brooklyn tougher than the road in 2021, also, when he was 19.
Smartly, Parada has 13 doubles in 38 games, likely clearly understanding that trying to hit in Brooklyn with HR power is self-defeating. After all, in 2022 and 2023, Brooklyn batters have hit 64 HRs on the road, but just 44 at home in the same number of games. How telling.
So, I cannot wait for Parada to get to AA to a more hitter-neutral park.
But...his age, and Parada is still very young (and I think he will be MLB-ready by late 2024 or OD 2025, when he will be just 23), is older than the catcher who right now is tearing apart MLB pitching - Francisco Alvarez - which shows how incredible what Alvarez is doing is.
Another way to look at it is, Francisco, right now, is 3 full years younger than Pete Alonso was when Pete made his Mets debut. In fact, Francisco is almost exactly the same age (year & months) as Pete was when he made his minor league debut in low A ball. Right now, the “veteran starting catcher” Alvarez is 100 days younger than David Wright was when he made his MLB debut.
That really early (and so far successful) MLB career start is a reason I think Alvarez has better HOF chances than Pete. Logic tells you it is harder for a hitter who debuts at 24.3 years to compile sufficient stats to make the Hall of Fame. Alvarez has more than a 3 year head start on Pete.
I am not projecting Alvarez for the Hall of Fame, of course. For one, Doc Gooden was being virtually inducted into the Hall by many after his age 20 brilliant Cy Young season.
I'm just saying that Alvarez's early MLB start gives him a greater Cooperstown shot if all goes right. And after 62 seasons, it would be nice to have a home-grown Mets player make the Hall of Fame.
WHERE ARE WE?
5 games out of first, one game out of the Wild Card. LGM.
13 comments:
Using options to send MLB ready youngsters down is an easy way to not make the hard decision. The kids that have come up have earned their stay. With this underperforming team mired at .500 with a stretch of tough teams ahead, the only positive progress we can make is to mature the young stars. Don't miss the opportunity to do that.
Paul, I agree. The Mets are paying a lot of dough for what a banker would refer to as non-performing assets. Narvaez won’t play much, skip the rehab, call him up, and DFA the .120 hitting One RBI guy. The Mets had 10 RBIs Sunday, while the One RBI Guy, all season? One RBI, guy.
Mets fans have only two options
Seaver was home grown.
As far as Nido goes there's not a dry eye in the house and why are we even still talking about him? Alvy could out hit any catcher we've had since Mike with 1 hand tied behind his back. We're talking about having our own Soto, Acuna or Trout and yes I'm getting ahead of myself but I love it. Tom son of a pitch "Eli's Coming" I hear because ANYTHING would be an improvement over the disaster that passes as pitching for us. Maybe our new moto should be "Old Don't Hold" a very tough lesson for Stevie.
Actually the only catcher issue going forward should be what the future home should be for Parada and what return could be
Part One:
Mi Amigos, the NY Mets are in floating sideways.
I'm not a doomsday theorist by any means, but this 2023 NY Mets team is sadly struggling to stay at a .500% clip, and there appears to be no real help anywhere in the immediate sight to throw this all into resolve mode.
To begin the 2023 season, after a well executed offseason of key player personnel acquisitions by this team, the Mets looked ready to go. Then the "Edwin at the WBC" happened, and as always here early on the injuries began to pile up.
But it does get somewhat worse even.
The Syracuse Mets are currently in last place within their division, a not good 20 wins to 32 losses record. Player talent there is slim. Only ex-NYM players Luis Guillorme (.324 BA), Joey Lucchesi (3-0/25 K's in 27 innings/1.12 WHIP), and Josh Walker (2-1/22K's in 16 innings)/1.32 WHIP standout there really. The only non-ex Met player doing consistently well is outfielder Lorenzo Cedrola (.285BA/15 stolen bases). So Syracuse may not help the NYM team get better, at least not right away.
At Binghamton, only outfielder Matt Rudick (age 24) and infielder Jose Peroza (age 22) are playing to notice. A more recent entry there is outfielder Joe Suozzi (age 25).
On the pitching side, only Carlos Carrasco over just 7 innings of work looks solid, with a 1.29 ERA and 10 K's in 7 innings pitched.
Part Two:
So what I am saying from the above Part One, is that obviously what needs to happen here is Maxwell Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Cookie Carrasco attain and maintain their full strength health again, and Omar Narvaez keeps getting ready for his return to these NY Mets.
The NY Mets don't really have very many options within their own farm system to utilize a total resolve. Meaning that the NYM will have to explore carefully trades from other teams, until down the road from now and in the years to come they have built a much stronger minor league organization that "can be utilized" for resolve.
So...
1B Alonzo 2B Mauricio SS Lindor 3b Baty LF McNeil CF Cedrola RF Nimmo C Alvarez / Backups C: Narvaez, Inf: Rudick and Escobar, with the possibility of a Luis Guillorme return as well OF: To be decided after the trades are completed.
May need to send Mark Vientos back down to AAA Syracuse to keep him playing more and staying sharp for a return later on.
SP Scherzer, Verlander, a new young-ish acuisition via trade, Senga, Megill
RP D. Smith, Brigham, Raley, Ottavino, J. Walker (when ready), Robertson and one more reliever (preferably a lefty if possible) via a trade.
Summation:
To compete, the NY Mets will need one more really good starter, and one more later-inning really good set-up man.
I don't see any glaring problems or difficulties with the hitting and fielding side of this Mets equation. And this should only improve as the season goes on.
The Mets need to gel and come together in a consistent format and as a team. Like they did so well in 2022. The same players that lead that gel, are all still here now.
So Let's Go Mets!
The Guy To Watch
Mike Vasil.
This young man looks like the real thing. Yes, it's early on with him, but something about him tells me this after a long, long time of watching the kid players progress.
Mack is dealing Parada for pitching? It better be some deal. I see no reason Parada couldn’t hit like Alonso or at least Conforto. I’d like to keep our best hitting prospects and muddle thru. If you have ferocious line up 1 thru 9, you win 60% or more with our pitching.
We still have the mighty Joey, and I believe several AAA starts will restore David Peterson.Quintana back soon. So let’s Get by. Let’s muddle and slug. Hamel and Vasil will be with the Mets next year, maybe Tyler Stuart, too.
I will continue to be Ray, the Optimist for the time being . I see brighter days ahead .
Ray, tougher competition, but rising offense and stabilizing pitching. Interesting month ahead.
As frustrating as the season has been th Mets are right there.a five game winning streak and we’ll all be happy again. Sherzer and Verlander are the keys,if they’re good it’s a 90 win team.
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