Musings
While the New York Yankees were introducing their newest player Giancarlo Stanton and basking in the afterglow of their reemergence as the Evil Empire, the Mets were contemplating an exit strategy for Matt Harvey. According to reports, this includes potentially trading him to the Texas Rangers for Jurickson Profar.
The Mets even contemplating such a move is a dangerous situation for the franchise, and it is a move that can blow up in their faces.
Look, there is no doubt, Harvey is no longer Harvey. Over the past two seasons, he has dealt with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, atrophied muscles in his throwing shoulder, and an ensuing stress reaction. His combined stats are a 9-17 record with a 5.78 ERA and a 1.581 WHIP.
Looking over that, there is every doubt Harvey could get back to being a good Major League pitcher let alone the Dark Knight.
You know what is even more doubtful? Profar will ever live up to the billing of being Baseball America‘s top prospect after the 2012 season.
After receiving the top billing, Profar missed consecutive seasons due to shoulder injuries. Since returning from those injuries, Profar has played in 112 games over the past two seasons hitting .227/.316/.315. That’s good for a 67 OPS+ and a 71 wRC+.
Defensively, he’s played everywhere because when you hit as poorly as Profar, you’re nothing more than a utility player. Albeit in limited sample sizes, he’s capably handled first, second, third, short, and left field. The key phrase here is capably, not well. In the end if you are not outstanding defensively, you cannot afford to have offensive stats as low as Profar.
With how poorly Profar has performed, it begs the question why anyone would have interest in him, let alone a Mets team who already have middling and much better second base and platoon options. Really, the Mets should be hesitant to trade Rafael Montero for Profar let alone Harvey.
With Harvey, you at least have some hope. That’s not just hope in the clubhouse, but also with the fanbase.
The team brought on Mickey Callaway and Dave Eiland. The team appears to be bringing in a new person to oversee the training program. All of these things indicate Harvey could very well rebound. Quite possibly he doesn’t, but at the very least, there are the tools in place needed for Harvey to be Harvey.
Even if he fails in the rotation, Mets fans can talk themselves into being a dominant reliever. We need not look any further than Brandon Morrow or what Eiland, himself, did with Mike Minor, who coincidentally signed a free agent deal with the Rangers.
That comes to the next point. Harvey brings more than hope. He’s a lightning rod for the Mets. Every fifth day, he demands attention. He’s an interesting and polarizing figure. Put another way, he’s a star.
As Sandy Alderson reminded us when the Mets re-signed Yoenis Cespedes, Major League Baseball is in the entertainment business. Teams need to not only be good. They need to be entertaining. They need to give people a reason to watch.
Harvey does that. Profar never has and never will. Really, any player the Mets would move for Harvey would do that.
At a time when the Yankees are the most interesting they have been since 2009 or even during their last dynasty, the Mets can ill afford to be both bad and boring. With the team plugging holes with players like Profar, they promise to be bad. With the Mets moving players like Harvey, they promise to be boring.
When you’re both bad and boring, no one wants to come to the ballpark. More than anyone else, the Mets should know that with Grant’s Tomb and the Madoff Scandal.
Fortunately for the moment, the Mets do not appear to believe Profar is enough for Harvey. Make no mistake, the trade discussions with the Rangers is but the first step in what may be Harvey’s last day as a member of the Mets organization as the team seems intent to move him.
Overall, the Mets can ill afford to trade Harvey because they can’t replace him or the hope he presents the team. With him goes what fleeting relevancy the Mets have in New York. Love him or hate him, the Mets need him.
With the Giancarlo Stanton trade saga and Shohei Ohtani looking for a team, the hot stove has been rather lukewarm this time of the year. With that said, we have seen some movement on the reliever market both be fore and after Stanton and Ohtani selected their ultimate destinations:
- Luke Gregerson 2 years $11 million
- Brandon Morrow 2 years $21 million
- Miles Mikolas 2 years $15.5 million
- Mike Minor 3 years $28 million
Now, based upon Sandy Alderson’s previous comments and behavior, you would think this would leave the Mets GM emboldened. The only reliever that got a deal more than two years was Minor, who was actually signed to pitch in the Rangers starting rotation.
Instead, Sandy Alderson spoke with reporters and crushed what little hope Mets fans had this offseason.
On the reliever market, which has already seen quality relievers sign to reasonable deals, Alderson said, “And to the extent that the market gets overheated, I wouldn’t think that we’ll jump into the inferno.” (Newsday).
Just wait, it gets better.
Alderson also admitted what Mets fans suspected to be true – the Mets didn’t even try to acquire Stanton. Hopefully, because he thinks we’re all stupid, Alderson didn’t cite that big contract as a reason. No, Alderson actually cited the fact the team had Brandon Nimmo as the reason why.
This is the same Nimmo the team never gave a real shot to start, at least before the fire sale and injuries, and the team won’t give a starting spot in next year’s outfield. Apparently to the amazement of everyone, the Mets don’t need the reigning MVP because Nimmo has gotten dramatically better in the roughly two months since the season ended. He’s now an MVP caliber player.
That’s awesome because as we all know Alderson’s drafts have been spotty at best. His drafts have produced only two All Stars. The first, Michael Conforto, is rehabbing from a significant shoulder injury, and we don’t know if he will ever be the same (NOTE: don’t get a Mets fan started on team injuries). The second, Michael Fulmer, is a Tiger because back in 2014, the Mets thought Michael Cuddyer was the answer to their need for a productive hitter. As we know he wasn’t, and by extension, the Mets lost two first round picks.
But wait, after an offseason that began with the Mets leaking they have soured on Dominic Smith, the team is high on him again saying, “We’re still very high on Dominic — some of my comments earlier in the offseason notwithstanding.”
Apparently, the team is no longer interested in players like Carlos Santana not because of the cost, but rather, because Smith has been on the same postseason regiment as Nimmo where disappointing first round draft picks suddenly transform into MVP caliber players overnight.
Not discussed during the discussion with reporters was the Mets latest bombshell. They are now dangling Matt Harvey this offseason in exchange for a reliever.
As we have learned the past two seasons, the one thing the Mets can well afford to do is to be reckless with pitching depth. No, we can’t count on Harvey to be anything. However, the same can be said for Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz.
Considering the Mets heavily invested in their pitching staff by hiring Mickey Callaway as manager and Dave Eiland as pitching coach, why not see if they can get Harvey back to being the Dark Knight, or at the very least a reliable starting pitcher?
Do you really need to trade him for a sixth inning reliever? And if that is the case, why not let Harvey move to the bullpen? With Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman, you already have seven starters for five spots. Someone is going to have to go to Triple-A or the bullpen. If Harvey can’t withstand the rotation, why not find out if he can the bullpen?
And there we have it. The Mets not only have no faith in their coaching staff, but they are already backing off players on the eve of the Winter Meetings.
It was almost yesterday the Mets were discussing Santana, Ohtani, Lorenzo Cain, and Jason Kipnis. Now? Well, we are talking trading Harvey to help fix the bullpen, and Nimmo and Smith as being a significant part of the future when just a month earlier they were not a legitimate starting option.
This is what happens when the Mets aren’t trying to generate hype to get fans to purchase individual game tickets. It’s what happens when the Mets are entering a Winter Meetings when their initial hype and hope are about to get exposed.
Some teams have the Curse of the Bambino. Others have the Billy Goat Curse. Because they’re the Mets, they have the Santa Curse. It was alive and well last year, and it seems like the Mets chose some pretty low hanging fruit this year.
Can you name all the Mets who have played Santa Claus? Good luck!
If you’re a Mets fan, you have become well aware of the Santa Curse. The origin of the curse is not known, although some may suspect it is related to the miserly Jacob Marley or Ebeneezer Scrooge ways of the Wilpon Family.
If you are one who does not believe in curses or other such things we cannot possibly being to understand, here are those who have played Santa and their fate:
2004 – Mike Cameron
In the 2005 season, Cameron would be limited by injuries. The worst of those came on August 11th as he and Carlos Beltran both dove for the same ball and had a violent collision. He was hospitalized with a broken nose, multiple facial fractures, and a concussion. He would never play another game for the Mets again.
2005 – Kris Benson
Benson’s turn as Santa was highlighted not by Santa but by Mrs. Claus. To many, Mrs. Claus would be the reason Benson would be moved to the Orioles. For his efforts, Benson was personally slighted, and he watched on from Baltimore as the Mets won their first division crown in 18 years. In the ensuing offseason, Benson discovered he had a rotator cuff tear that would all but end his career.
2006 – David Wright
Yes, by WAR, Wright probably had the single greatest season by any Met not named Tom Seaver. Still, do you really want to argue the curse was broken when Wright was one of the player who watched on as the Mets seven game lead with 17 to play evaporated?
2007 – John Maine
After successive pleasantly surprising seasons, it was Maine’s turn to don the Santa suit. What ensued was an injury plagued season, where doctors were able to notice the rotator cuff strain, but they completely missed what was described as the largest bone spur ever removed from a shoulder. That wasn’t discovered until his season ending surgery. Maine was never the same after that.
2008 – Mike Pelfrey
After looking like the pitcher the Mets drafted in the first round in 2005, he would get the first ever start in Citi Field history, and he allowed Jody Gerut to homer in the first official at-bat. It was just the start of a tough year for Pelfrey where he would lead the majors in balks, and he would tie an all-time Mets record for three balks in a game. As is that wasn’t bad enough, he finished the year as the first qualifying Mets pitcher to have an ERA over 5.00.
2009 – Jeff Francoeur
After struggling most of the 2010 season, he would eventually be relegated to the bench in favor of Angel Pagan once Beltran came off the Disabled List.
2010 – David Wright
After being a healthy and extremely productive player for his entire career, Wright would be limited to just 102 games after suffering a stress fracture in his lower back. Sadly, Mets fans know what has happened to him since.
2011 – Daniel Murphy
So far, Murphy’s 2012 season probably ranks as the only season where a player made it through relatively unscathed even if his numbers took a big drop from the ones he put up in 2011. Also, this was the season where Sandy Alderson first began to publicly mull the idea of trading Murphy, which was something that would follow the second baseman for the rest of his Mets tenure.
2012 – R.A. Dickey
Coming off a magical year with the Mets where he won his first Cy Young Award, Dickey was traded away to the Toronto Blue Jays. With the Blue Jays, he would win his first Gold Glove Award, but he would also come crashing back to earth going 14-13 with a 4.21 ERA.
2013 – Daniel Murphy
Murphy apparently learned his lessons from the first go-round as Santa, and he would become an All Star for the first time in his career. Still, none of that would shield him from the hysteria and criticism that would be levied his way by people like Boomer Esiason for having the audacity to be there for his wife when she gave birth to their first child.
2014 – Jenrry Mejia
After playing Santa, Mejia would test positive for PEDs not once, not twice, but three times. Only the Mets could have Santa permanently banned from baseball.
2015 – Steven Matz
With the Mets fresh off a pennant, Matz was a frontrunner for the Rookie of the Year. His dreams of winning that award or pitching in the postseason again were shelved when he had to have season ending surgery to remove what was described as a massive bone spur.
2016 – Noah Syndergaard
The invincible Thor refused to have an MRI, and he would have to leave an April 30th game against the Nationals with a torn lat. For all intents and purposes, it was a season ending injury.
2017 – Kevin Plawecki
With the exception of Murphy, no one has really gotten through the Santa Curse unscathed. Seeing what happened to the aforementioned Mets, it almost seems cruel to bestow this “honor” on a catcher who finally seemed to figure things out after struggling for over two years.
With the Mets cutting payroll and having holes and question marks across the 25 and 40 man roster, it is finally time for Juan Lagares to sink or swim.
With respect to Lagares, he was never supposed to have been a question mark. Certainly, the Mets didn’t feel this way when they gave him a four year $23 million contract extension on the eve of the 2015 season.
When giving Lagares the extension, the expectation was Lagares would continue being a Gold Glover out there, and he would eventually learn to hit a little. While hindsight may be 20/20, this was about as good a bet as there could have been with Lagares hitting .281/.321/.382 with a 102 OPS+ and a 101 wRC+ in 2014. His ability to be a league average hitter and otherworldly in center made him a 5.4 bWAR and 3.9 fWAR player that year. That made him the best player on the Mets.
Since that season, things have fallen apart for him. In 2015, he regressed at the plate, which would have been palatable if he didn’t regress even more in the field. In the subsequent two seasons, Lagares seems to have been getting back to the player he was in 2014, but he has suffered significant thumb injuries in successive seasons.
This could be a cause for pessimism, but we saw the 2014 Lagares in the field again last year. That Lagares wasn’t just a Gold Glover, he was the guy you expected to catch everything. He was the guy who was head and shoulders above even the best defensive center fielders in the game.
Among center fielders with at least 550 innings last year, Lagares was third overall and tops in the National League with a 15 DRS. He was also the Major League leader with a 24.7 UZR/150. You could chalk these up to small sample sizes all the like, but consider the numbers he put up in 2013 and 2014:
- 2013: 26 DRS, 33.1 UZR/150
- 2014: 26 DRS, 25.3 UZR/150
At his core this is who Lagares is. And with all of Major League Baseball prioritizing hitting the ball in the air, having Lagares patrolling center field is an imperative.
As we saw, the Mets pitching staff all regressed last year. Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman weren’t the hot shot rookies they were in 2016. Even when “healthy,” Matt Harvey, Steven Matz, and Zack Wheeler weren’t who we expected them to be. Even Jacob deGrom, who had a resurgent year a year after having ulnar nerve transposition surgery, wasn’t the same pitcher posting career worsts in ERA, ERA+, FIP, and HR/9.
So far, the Mets have done a lot to help address these issues. They’ve hired Mickey Callaway and Dave Eiland. They’ve discussed not allowing their pitchers go a third time through the lineup. While both could help, it is indisputable having Lagares in center will be an enormous benefit as well.
Now, if you can get Lagares to hit even a little, then you have the player you thought you had in 2014. You have the player you thought would have a collection of Gold Gloves at this point in his career. You have the player the Mets once thought was worth $23 million. You have an answer to one of the biggest question marks on a Mets roster that has more holes in it that a piece of Swiss cheese attacked with a hole puncher.
Overall, the best bet for the Mets in 2018 is a healthy and productive Lagares. He helps the pitching staff return to form, and he allows the Mets to allocate money to other areas of the team that are in more desperate need of addressing. And if that doesn’t work, you at least have a platoon partner for Brandon Nimmo out there . . . .
Unless you walked by a newstand on your way to work or you saw their Tweet, chances are you missed the front page of the New York Daily News:
STAGE FRIGHT: Shohei Otani too scared to play for the @Yankees…
An early look at Monday's front page https://t.co/BFmiNlWlSh pic.twitter.com/3BqOTFTf6j
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) December 4, 2017
Judging from their steep decline in circulation, you probably did.
Make no mistake about it, the front page was an unnecessary shot at Shohei Ohtanti, and it was for the “crime” of spurning the Yankees.
As is typical with the New York Daily News, facts have not relevance here. The front page claims he “fears big city,” which is completely absurd when you consider his final list includes Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Arlington, with is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. But sure, he’s really afraid of the big city or big market teams.
Speaking of fear, are we really sure a 23 year who is eschewing tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars just to compete at the highest level is afraid? Do we really want to say someone who wants to do the unprecedented in both pitching and being a position player is scared of anything? Seems like Ohtani loves a challenge.
That’s actually backed up by the seven contenders he has selected. In a few of these locations, he’s going to have the follow in the footsteps of some terrific Japanese players:
- Mariners – Ichiro Suzuki
- Dodgers – Hideo Nomo
- Rangers – Yu Darvish
As we have seen with the Mariners and the Dodgers, the list goes well beyond those two legends. Throw in the Giants, who had Masanori Murakami (first ever Japanese MLB player) and Tsuyoshi Shinjo (first Japanese player to play in a World Series), and you have someone who is not intimidated by anything.
Still, none of these facts prevented the New York Daily News from publishing something just plain wrong.
Really, it should come as no surprise. The New York Daily News has been known by push beyond the lines of common decency for its front pages, including but not limited to, showing a blow-by-blow of how a woman was murdered.
It’s also a newspaper that once had the gall to publish an Andy Martino gem saying one of the reasons Mets fans hated Luis Castillo was because he was Hispanic. Put another way, he was calling Mets fans racist for not liking a player who turned in this gem:
Overall, the New York Daily News published yet something salacious, incendiary, and just plain wrong for reasons they only know. Only this time, they did it because someone had the temerity to select the baseball destination that was best for him. If we followed their standards, we could go as far to call them racist.
However, I won’t. I have actually standards.
Since my son’s first birthday, my wife has made it a point to go out there and get number t-shirts for our son for each of his birthdays. While not being initially enthusiastic about it for my son’s first birthday, looking back on it the photos, I am truly happy she made that decision:
The first birthday one was the one that jumped off the page at me the most when going back at them.
Not only did it make for some cute photos of him for his first birthday, but it also reminded me of how much he loved The Very Hungry Caterpillar. But it wasn’t just the book, it was the collection of stories and the videos you could see on Netflix.
It brought me back to his first birthday party when we made sure to have one apple, two pears, three plums, four strawberries, and five oranges all out on display which we used as props when reading the story to my son that day. Also served at his first birthday party was chocolate cake, ice cream cones, swiss cheese, salami, lollipops, cherry pie, sausage, cupcakes, water melon, and a nice green leaf (salad).
The overriding point here is with that one photograph, I was taken back to not just the day my son turned one but to all the things he loved and enjoyed around that time period. I honestly don’t believe one of the generic first birthday shirts would have done the same thing.
And yes, I did the same when I looked back at my son’s shirts for his second (Elmo) and third (Thomas) birthdays:
In some ways, these shirts are time capsules that take you back to certain memories and time periods. It reminds you of who your child was as a person at that specific moment in time. Also, for what it’s worth, they make for some great photos (whether you do it yourself or go to a photographer).
Now, you may hold back a bit because of the expense, which is understandable. Etsy isn’t always the cheapest place on the planet. Still, there are cheaper ways to do it. You can always get a pack of colored or plain white t-shirts cheap from Target, and while you are there you can pick up Iron On print pages to make your own design.
So in the end, there is definitely a way to make the exact shirt you and/or your child wants for their birthday. It will look great in photos, and the memories will last a lifetime.
With the non-tender deadline having passed, the MLB free agent pool has been expanded. These non-tendered players are free agents for a multitude of reasons, but that does not mean they can’t help anyone. In fact, here are six players who could help the Mets in 2018:
2017 Stats: 131 G, 367 PA, 339 AB, 46 R, 93 H, 22 2B, 3B, 20 HR, 65 RBI, .274/.319/.522
After struggling to start the year in St. Louis, the Braves took a flyer on him after the Freddie Freeman injury. He played well enough that the Braves dabbled with Freeman at third base.
Adams is a good defensive first baseman, and he appeared in 19 games in left playing poorly.
If the Mets want a cheap insurance option for Dominic Smith, Adams would be a good choice as with his splits against left and right handed pitchers, he’d be an excellent platoon partner with Wilmer Flores.
2017 Stats 1-1, 12.00 ERA, 9 G, 3.0 IP, 3.667 WHIP, 12.0 BB/9, 0.0 K/9
While it was a poor injury plagued year for Cedeno, the left-handed reliever has limited left-handed batters to a .226/.286/.299 batting line in his career. If he’s healthy, he could be the second lefty in the pen, which would allow the Mets to ease Jerry Blevins workload.
2017 Stats: 8-10, 5.22 ERA, 29 G, 28 GS, 153.1 IP, 1.428 WHIP, 3.6 BB/9, 8.6 K/9
Fiers was not the same pitcher in Houston he was in Milwaukee, which is interesting because he has not lost his stuff. There may still be hope for him to be the middle to back end of the rotation starter he was in Milwaukee. In an 11 start stretch this season, he was 6-3 with a 2.63 ERA and a 1.108 WHIP. If he can find a way to get back to that, he will be a real find for his new team.
2017 Stats: 5-3, 3.02 ERA, 67 G, SV, 59.2 IP, 1.223 WHIP, 3.6 BB/9, 7.2 K/9
Hughes is a bit of a surprise non-tender as he’s coming off a career best year, which was largely driven by an increase in his fastball velocity. The caution with him is he’s a ROOGY as left-handed batters hit .282/.363/.549 off him this year.
2017 Stats: 1-3, 10.91 ERA, 21 G, SV, 15.2 IP, 1.979 WHIP, 5.7 BB/9, 12.6 K/9
The Tigers finally gave up on a pitcher who had tons of potential but questionable work ethic. If a team can reach through to him, like a Mets team who have a couple of pitching gurus, they may find themselves with a shut down reliever.
2017 Stats: 4-1, 4.24 ERA, 61 G, 57.1 IP, 1.221 WHIP, 3.1 BB/9, 10.8 K/9
Rondon has a big arm, and he’s posted big strikeout numbers in his career. He’s coming off a down year which was largely fueled by a big jump in his walk rate. Likely, his being non-tendered had as much to do with his down year as the Cubs not wanting to pay over $6 million for a set-up guy. The Cubs loss is going to be another team’s gain.
Like many Giants fans, I was completely outraged at the decision of the franchise to callously bench Eli Manning in favor of Geno Smith. Like many New York sports fans, in that moment, I instinctively turned the dial to WFAN to listen to Mike Francesca to get his take on the situation. He didn’t disappoint:
This was like watching a great pitcher past his prime reach back and find that fastball for a huge postseason start. He may not be able to go the well that often, but when he needed it, it was there.
With the Eli Manning story, we probably have the last big moment of Mike Francesca’s tenure with WFAN.
Francesca will sign off on Friday, December 15th, and he will be somehow replaced with a three person booth. For the record, here were the takes of Francesca’s replacements:
In processing the Eli fiasco, I'm left with this: Pin it on McAdoo or Reese, but #Giants ownership greenlighted this. Disrespecting a pillar of the franchise by benching him for Geno Smith, an also-ran at best, because he "gives you the best chance to win?" That's incompetence.
— Chris Carlin (@ChrisCarlin) November 29, 2017
I'm just blown away that a coach & GM so clearly on their way out have been allowed to treat a two-time SB MVP this way. The #Giants have always been a Top 10 franchise in professional sports. Today, by their actions, they became another average-to-below-average team.
— Chris Carlin (@ChrisCarlin) November 29, 2017
Dominoes: Giants fire McAdoo/Reese, Eli leaves for Jacksonville, Giants draft a QB with top 5 pick. Giants just got a lot more interesting.
— Maggie Gray (@MaggieGray) November 28, 2017
Who says Geno starts the next 5 games? Could easily see Webb starting vs Dallas in Week 14
— Maggie Gray (@MaggieGray) November 28, 2017
Yes, it is a different medium, but those takes certainly aren’t the type that have you running to your radio like most New Yorkers did with Francesca when the news broke. For what it’s worth, Carlin had more passion when it came to Greg Schiano-Tennessee fiasco. This wasn’t exactly awe inspiring, and that’s before you take into account Bart Scott, the third member of this three team booth, had no takes on the situation. By the way, he’s actually paid to cover the NFL.
This doesn’t mean Carlin-Gray-Scott can’t work. It also doesn’t mean that they won’t be a show capable of handling news like this.
What it really means is that this really is an end of an era. You’re not tuning into anyone else like you’d turn in to Francesca when this news happens. The only one who would come close is his old time partner Mad Dog, but he’s unreachable for many because he’s on Sirius XM.
And no, you’re not tuning into any other show like you are Francesca. Sure, Begningo & Roberts have the requisite passion. Hardcore sports radio fans can’t wait for the Steve Sommers monologue on the topic. After that?
Boomer is still working out the kinks without Craig Carton. DiPietro & Canty lost something when they switched Rothenberg and Hahn’s roles. And no, you’re not having serious sports radio with The Michael Kay Show as long as Peter Rosenberg is on that show.
And yes, you may very well like anyone of the aforementioned shows. You may be one of the many who have sworn off Francesca pointing out his many faults. But be honest. You cared what he had to say, and many of you turned in to hear him go off on the Giants decision.
In a few weeks, he’s gone, and that same need to turn on the radio will be gone with him.
Francesca will soon be gone and with him goes a void that is unlikely to be filled by anyone who is or will soon be on the New York airwaves. We were reminded of that on Tuesday. We will be reminded of that again on Monday, December 18th. We will be reminded of it most when the next huge New York sports story hits and Francesa isn’t there to cover it live on WFAN.