Many folks who think of how to improve the team's roster often succumb to a chronic infliction of reunion fever. It is the familiarity with the former Mets players which replaces the fear of the unknown because you never know how a newcomer will react to the crowd sizes, media pressure and other aspects of being a part of the biggest baseball city in the country. Towards that end whenever the Mets have a personnel need on the field you will immediately start hearing things like "What about Michael Conforto?" or "Why not sign Aaron Loup?" or "You can't get any better choice than (fill in the blank)!" You get the idea.
Of course, the flip side to this approach is looking at many players who did not exactly set Citifield on fire with offense, defense, baserunning or pitching. Many of those folks who have failed cement the belief that outside talent is a losing proposition. Exhibit A would be Daniel Vogelbach. Exhibit B would be Carlos Carrasco. Exhibit C would be Darrin Ruf (or Tyler Naquin or, well, once again you get the idea.)
The very same people who criticize the team's desire to bring in some fresh faces get somewhat hypocritical when the acquisition via trade or free agency turns into a Francisco Lindor, an Edwin Diaz, a Brooks Raley, a Chris Bassitt or even a 2022 non-injured Starling Marte. Somehow they seem to purport that these never-before-Mets couldn't possibly succeed but when they do they often don't give the recognition they deserve.
So all of this discussion came to mind when this week news floated down that former Met Amed Rosario signed an inexpensive deal with the Rays. In fact, he's getting paid considerably less than Mets' reserve infielder Joey Wendle while offering up the ability to play both middle infield and the outfield. He's shown the talent to hit for average and to steal bases. Yet oddly the reunion revelers made nary a peep about bringing him back to the Mets. Is it because his stay in New York was relatively short lived? Is it because they don't believe he would be a good fit when the somewhat lopsided trade fell in the Mets favor.
Yes, I've heard all of the other cacophony regarding former Mets. How many wanted a Part II with David Robertson? What about Seth Lugo? How about checking on securing a new deal for Justin Turner? Yes, this less-than-original thinking, flawed though it might be, does indeed have some merit.
What is much harder to understand is why the lukewarm reaction to other newcomers like Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, Jake Diekman, Tyrone Taylor and Harrison Bader. (Well, in the case of Bader, nearly no one this side of Pete Alonso understands nor appreciates that deal, but that's another rant for another day.)
The Mets did do a reunion with Adam Ottavino and no one on the pro reunion nor anti reunion side seemed to have an issue with that transaction. The Mets bullpen was indeed not as strong as it could be and Ottavino was a reliable arm for the two years he already spent here.
It does make you wonder how the fans would have reacted if the Mets did indeed acquire some top notch talent that had never before played for the New York National League franchise. Would they be happy to see proven entities joining the path back towards contention or would they damn with feint praise assuming that a newcomer couldn't possibly be as good (and certainly not better) than folks they've seen player in orange and blue already.
Personally, I'm not against reunions any more that I'm strictly in favor of new talents. What I am steadfastly yearning is a desire for the club to put together a winning team even during the 2024 transition season. Whether or not the young and unproven players slated for full time roles or the newcomers and familiar faces recovering from injury are 100% healthy will conspire to make a 2023 losing team into a 2024 winning one is still fodder for debate. It's kind of like building weapons out of balsa wood.
Games start soon enough -- even in the preseason -- so we shall soon see how this bizarre off season prognosticates what will commence when Opening Day is not just taking place in Port St. Lucie.
8 comments:
Senga may go from hero to zero this year due to his shoulder injury. May he heal quickly. Or the absence of the man with the Ghost Pitch may turn Citifield into a Ghost Town.
I think Joey and Megill now have a chance to shine, with Peterson and Senga out for a period of time.
Amed gets $1.5 million, Bader $10.5 million. I looked and realized how few games Rosario has played in the outfield. He has speed, arm, agility...had he played a lot of outfield, he might have been a better choice and a lot cheaper than Harry Bader
Amed career is .272/.308/.400
Bader career is .243/.310/.396.
Bader is a year and a half older, too.
I wonder if Stearns wonders if he picked the right guy. If you saved $9 million on Bader with Rosario, that could have been $9 million available towards JD Martinez on a one year deal.
I've asked several times here a question no one has answered-- if JD were added, who would be subtracted? The only one I can think of is Vientos, whose only spot is the same as JD's.
Yes, JD might help us this year, or he could be the next Cuddyer or Jason Bay. But Mark could be a long-term asset, and giving him up without a full shot could have Mets officials and fans kicking themselves for many years.
As for the "pro- or anti- reunion" argument, it's no secret that some players can do fine in smaller cities without 50,000 booing fans when they struggle, but fall flat on their faces in New York. Remember zJavier Baez? Jim Fregosi? George Foster?
If everything else seems relatively equal, I give "extra credit" to players who have been successful in New York, on either side of the bridge. Reunion for its own sake is as foolish as the "grass is greener" attitude that says someone else's good player is better than what we've got.
As for Amed Rosario, what has he accomplished in SBs, either here or in Ohio? And would saving some $$$ to sign him instead of Bader give us a backup IFer instead of a GG CFer? I don't think so.
Javier Baez hit .299 as a Met but apparently you didn't notice.
Losing Senga,a lot of inninings,is big. A 65-70 win season. The lWilpons are sitting somewhere and shaking their heads.
You're right, zi did miss that.
Bill, it is the Mets’ fault, when they had Rosario, that they did not teach him the OF. I used to think he could be another Willie Davis.
Uh, Rosario was the SS and there was no one behind him.
Did not realize that Baez performed that well.
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