The New York Mets surprised everyone when they announced Darin Ruf was going to be designated for assignment. On the merits, the Mets should have made this decision, but organizations do not usually accept poor trades this early. Instead, they try to extract some value thereby making the deal all the more worse.

Now, while the Mets deserve an immense amount of credit for admitting their mistakes and eating most if not all of Ruf’s $3 million salary. However, the Ruf decision reinforced another mistake the Mets made.

Ruf was supposed to be the Mets platoon DH with Daniel Vogelbach. Now, he will not. Presumably, that job is now going to be handed to Tommy Pham, who had a 115 wRC_+ against left-handed pitching last season and has a 132 mark for his career.

In a one-for-one swap, this makes sense. However, we also need to point out here Eduardo Escobar had a 133 wRC+ against left-handed pitching last year with a 109 mark for his career. Based on more recent seasons, Escobar would be the more preferred platoon DH option.

That goes further when you consider he has more versatility. While his -6 OAA last season indicates he should not play third on an everyday basis, he does have the ability to play there for a game or two. He has the ability to play a good second base. In fact, he had a 3 OAA at the position in 2021.

Moreover, Escobar had some exposure to left field this spring. Overall, Escobar is a very versatile player who could be a semi-regular player. That would be of far more use to the Mets than Pham who has had a negative OAA as an outfielder in each of the past three seasons.

Of course, Escobar can’t be that versatile bench player and platoon DH option because the Mets optioned Brett Baty to Triple-A Syracuse to begin the season. That was despite his strong spring when he showed himself a superior defender than Escobar with a far higher offensive ceiling.

When the Mets were keeping Ruf, you almost understood the decision. The Mets were going to give Ruf one last opportunity to see what he could do when healthy. It’s not that you agreed with it, but you could understand the decision making.

Now, you really have to wonder what the Mets are thinking. The team wanted to give Baty the third base job last year, and it was a torn UCL in Baty’s thumb which stopped the transition. Now, when they can do it when Baty is clearly far ahead of Escobar, they are going to hold Baty back.

What the Mets are doing here is really puzzling, and it may cost them games in what should be a very tight National League East this season. Ruf is gone, but the ensuing decisions which should have been made in light of that decision didn’t happen. Hopefully, Baty will be up soon and helping the Mets make it back to the postseason.