Alex Cora (34): .162/.262/.243
Fernando Tatis (35): .212/.257/.364
Henry Blanco (38): .227/.296/.318
Gary Matthews (35): .139/.244/1.94
Frank Catalanotto (36): .143/.182/.190
Blanco gets a pass, because he's a defensive catcher and is nearly out-hitting Rod Barajas anyway. The other four guys are a dismal combination of age and incompetence; if any of the four were released today, I find it hard to believe that any other team would pick them up.
Catalanotto is the easiest to replace - just release him and call up Chris Carter from Buffalo right now. Cats never gets in the field anyway; he's been a pinch-hitter in 19 of the 20 games he's appeared in this season. If the Mets are that worried about Carter's defense, just give him the Rusty Staub role and let him pinch-hit.
Matthews is signed for next year at a cost of $1 million; his production could easily be replaced by a Rule V-caliber defensive outfielder/pinch-runner. Otherwise, there's no need to send Daniel Murphy to the minors; let him replace Matthews on the roster. With Jason Bay-Angel Pagan-Jeff Francouer locked in as the starting outfield for the foreseeable future, the Mets probably aren't much interested in defensive replacements anyway.
Cora has a vesting option that just about everyone in the Mets organization is hoping will not be exercised. Release him now, before Jose Reyes or Luis Castillo gets injured and Cora plays his way onto the 2011 team. I'm not a big fan of limiting a 20-year-old to utility infield duty, so Ruben Tejada should spend the year in Buffalo and figure out which part of the infield his future lies on. Did anyone really think (except maybe Omar Minaya!) that Alex Cora at $2 million a year would give the Mets five times the production as Russ Adams or Alex Cintron would have done making the league minimum?
2 comments:
Jack:
I fully understand the versatility of Tatis, but it seems to me sometimes that it's more important to win a pennant this year... in Buffalo.
How would the addition of Carter, Hessman, Jacobs, Tejada, and Andy Green hurt the 2010 Mets?
Mack
Let's see.
I could replace Cats with Carter.
I could replace Tatis with Hessman.
I could replace Cora with Tejada.
My bench - and my team - would immediately be better. Maybe I'll swap Cora for Green or Russ Adams and let Tejada play the whole season in Triple-A. I still need an outfielder to replace Matthews, and Jacobs or Green can't do that, but the point remains the same.
Oh, and now that the Mets are suddenly cost-conscious, making the three moves I mentioned would have saved over $2 million.
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