Over the weekend word came out that the bitter rival Atlanta Braves gave a very modest contract for former longtime New York Met Luis Guillorme in free agency. When the current front office declined his contract and DFA'd him people assumed he'd catch on somewhere else though his new chapter starting in the land of Luisangel Acuna's big brother.
Now when the decision was made to let go of the formerly sharp gloved and mediocre bat Guillorme, no one shed a lot of tears. He is what he is and lately had become even less of that. When the new deal came in for about half of what he'd earned as a Met it seemed to confirm the decision made by this front office. Still, it got you to wondering a bit about other former Mets and how they've done in free agency.
Thus far the answer is not very well. Yes former Padre Seth Lugo has signed on with the Kansas City Royals as has not-very-memorable Met Michael Wacha. Starting pitcher Chris Flexen and reliever Trevor Gott has also hooked up with new teams for 2024, but that trio is pretty much the end of the ex-Mets seeking new employment.
At first base, former star hopeful Dominic Smith is still out there. Apparently cutting him loose was not a bad choice by the front office who did so. Work around the infield a bit and you find Amed Rosario and Danny Mendick available for the taking as well. At third base Eduardo Escobar has not found a new employer and neither has elder statesman Justin Turner.
Go to the outfield and there's a plethora of former Mets still available for teams in need of starters or support players. In no particular order you find Tommy Pham, Travis Jankowski, Tyler Naquin, Billy Hamilton, Jake Marisnick and Kevin Pillar as well.
Then there are the DH options who include the former pair embraced in Queens, Daniel Vogelbach and Darin Ruf. It appears that no one is breaking their dialing fingers nor necks to make them a part of their 2024 teams either.
For catchers there's a pair still seeking new employers in former Padre Gary Sanchez and Syracuse/New York Uber rider Michael Perez.
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In the starting pitcher market quite a few are still available. At the top you have Marcus Stroman whose movement may be linked to the ones above him who have not yet found new gigs. After that it would be a list that includes Rich Hill, Carlos Carrasco, Noah Syndergaard and Tommy Milone.
For the pen it's a crowd of ex-Mets as well. You have, of course, David Robertson and Adam Ottavino available to the highest bidder. After them you must include Colin McHugh, Aaron Loup, Michael Fulmer, Justin Wilson, Mychal Givens, Thomas Szapucki, Dominic Leone, Jeurys Familia, Jeff Brigham, Tommy Hunter, Chasen Shreve and Brad Hand.
So say what you will about the lack of big talent acquired by the current front office, but it appears that the folks employed by his predecessors are not exactly setting the baseball world on fire either. Yup, the roster choices made to help the Mets have not exactly been top choices of the 29 other teams either. Here's hoping some of them are able to get major league deals and not MiLB contracts with offers to try out for the big leagues once again.
9 comments:
Tyler's agent is also a physician, and he tells clubs to "take TWO Naquin and call me in the morning." Taking Naquin can have side effects like losing weight or...just losing.
My brother has often told me that it seems an awful lot of the fringier Mets on the roster end up released and no one else signs them...but they were somehow good enough to play for the Mets.
Perhaps Robertson and Otttavino, two of the good ones, see enough after the signings of Bader and Manaea to want to the Mets for a reunion. That, assuming age-related deterioration holds off for a year for both, would give the Mets a wild card contender.
The Mamas and Papas tell us how some of the retreads in your list feel about today (Monday):
Monday, Monday, can't trust that day
Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way
Oh Monday mornin' you gave me no warnin' of what was to be
Oh Monday, Monday, how could you leave and not take me
Every other day, every other day
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes
A-you can find me cryin' all of the time
The Dodgers get Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow and Hernandez.
The Mets get Severino, Houser, Manaea,Taylor and Bader.
Is it just me, or is one of these things not like the other?
That's a hell of a meh group of nobodies
Seems the gamble is on a healthy Sevy, a solid Manaea, a pray-the-ball-stays-in-the-park Hauser, and that Bader stays out of sick bay. If you get average MLB output from them, the Mets stars (Pete, Lindor, Nimmo, Edwin) will have to be stars to left this team towards 90 wins. Seems the team's range is 75-90, as constructed and assuming a few pen adds.
I meanwhile wonder if the Dodgers' win range is now 102-112. Or 105 to 115.
Unless Stearns is trying to get us under the Luxury Tax threshold by years end, and resets us as first time offenders in 2025 so we can go on a FA shopping spree, these weak FA additions make no sense. If we don’t and become a 3rd time offender of the Luxury Tax it made no sense to be cheap this FA Offseason. You’d think with his knowledge and experience this is the method to his madness and frugalness.
I agree with Paul, and had the same thoughts after Bader was signed - what will the outfield look like? My hope is that Nimmo is not yanked around a lot.
My guess is that Nimmo will be the 'starting centerfielder' and will be there for the first six or seven innings against all right handed starters. Along with that, I'd guess that Bader will start in center against all lefties, moving Nimmo to left. Nimmo hits lefties rather well for a left handed hitter, so he will not lose at-bats to Bader. There will be a lot of late-inning defensive jockeying around. If Marte actually sees any pitches from centerfield, things have gone very poorly for the team with injuries. My wager would be that Drew Gilbert will play centerfield for the Mets before Starling Marte, unless Marte is the last guy in the dugout that can play the #8 position for any given game.
Bader's career WAR per hundred at bats (12 in 2100 PAs) is not much different than Nimmo's (21 in 3050 plate appearances), or McNeil's 19 WAR in 2700 PAs.
The combination of offense and defense determines a player's incremental value.
I assume most of us like Nimmo and McNeil. So, why not like Bader too? And Bader's contract has far less time risk (1 year vs. Nimmo's remaining 7 and Jeff's remaining 4).
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