Dilson Herrera
After last night’s rainout, the Mets are scheduled for double header today. This could be tricky for a team that has a number of banged up players but still wants to fight for homefield advantage.
At the same time, the Mets also need to figure out their postseason roster. There are easy decisions to make like Travis d’Arnaud catches one game and Kevin Plawecki catches the other. There are more difficult decisions to be made especially if the field is sloppy. Ultimately, while making these decisions, the Mets to keep in mind the priority is not homefield but winning the World Series. Here’s how I would handle it:
- David Wright does not step in the field unless they pull Pete Flynn out of retirement and get his go-ahead;
- Jon Niese pitches today [and tomorrow];
- If Dilson Herrera has a chance to make the playoff roster, he needs to play in both games, and preferably, he plays a position other than 2B;
- Anyone who is on the playoff roster bubble must start one game and at least pinch hit in the other game; and
- At bats shouldn’t be wasted on players who can’t make the roster.
The Mets must keep in mind the goal is to win a World Series. The best way to help that is to make sure the team is healthy and primed to win. I don’t care if the Mets lose both games so long as they do what is needed to get ready for the NLDS.
I’m not calling this 2.0. To me that would indicate that I will make a number of changes, but I wanted to show you my work product. There’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s not my intention when I share my projections.
However, there has been another major development with Steven Matz‘s back. As I said yesterday, I was not going to trust he was going to pitch until he actually pitches.
Catchers
1. Travis d’Arnaud
2. Kevin Plawecki
Infielders
3. Lucas Duda
4. Daniel Murphy
5. Kelly Johnson
6. David Wright
7. Ruben Tejada
8. Wilmer Flores
Outfielders
9. Michael Conforto
10. Michael Cuddyer
11. Yoenis Cespedes
12. Juan Lagares
13. Curtis Granderson
Pinch Runner
14. Eric Young, Jr.
Starting Pitchers
15. Jacob deGrom
16. Noah Syndergaard
17. Matt Harvey
18. Bartolo Colon
Relief Pitchers
19. Jeurys Familia
20. Addison Reed
21. Tyler Clippard
22. Hansel Robles
23. Jon Niese
24. Sean Gilmartin
25. Erik Goeddel
As you can see, the only change I made between the projections was exchanging Matz for Goeddel. I chose Goeddel because he’s been pretty good lately, and he can generate strikeouts with his splitter.
I still think there are two other players under consideration: Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Dilson Herrera. Kirk has been good lately, has some power, can run, and can play all three OF positions. However, since he’s a left handed bat going into a series with a lot of LHP, I don’t think the Mets will put him on the roster.
I think Dilson is getting consideration because he’s a right handed bat and definitively the team’s best defensive second baseman. With Flores’ back injury, Herrera is a definite possibility. What hurts him most is he only plays 2B. As I said in another post, the presence of Murphy and Johnson could alleviate those concerns.
However, for right now, I think the Mets give EY the edge, especially because he’s a Terry Collins favorite. If anything else happens, I’ll put out another revised projection.
Quick question for everyone: what is the Mets goal for the rest of the season? Wrong. It’s not getting Homefield advantage. It’s getting the team ready for the playoffs.
In order for that to happen, here’s what needs to get done:
- Steven Matz needs to get five innings on Saturday or Sunday meaning a short start for either Jacob deGrom or Matt Harvey;
- You don’t risk David Wright‘s back playing on a sloppy or wet field;
- Yoenis Cespedes needs to be in Germany or anywhere that can aggressively treat a bruise;
- Jon Niese needs to pitch in two games this weekend;
- Play Dilson Herrera at multiple positions to see if he can make the playoff roster;
- No wasted at bats to Eric Campbell, Anthony Recker, Johnny Monell, or anyone that the Mets are not considering putting on the playoff roster;
- Same goes for the relievers even if there is a blowout. They need to stay fresh;
- Get Travis d’Arnaud back on track;
- Allow Michael Conforto to hit against some lefties because he’s eventually going to have to face one in October; and
- Get out of the weekend healthy.
If the Mets accomplish the above, they will be in a strong position entering the playoffs. Homefield advantage is secondary to this. If the Mets get it, great. If they don’t, it may inure to their benefit. Overall, I’m absolutely convinced the Mets do not need homefield advantage in the NLDS to win.
The Mets have already begun the process of putting together the NLDS roster. The Mets are now starting to address Eric Young, Jr.:
Terry said Eric Young is "heavily" in the mix for a postseason spot, but pointed out it's much easier for AL teams to bring specific PR.
— Matt Ehalt (@MattEhalt) September 30, 2015
Essentially, the Mets would like to add him and what he brings, but they are afraid to put him on the roster. The reason is right now he is viewed as a nothing more than a pinch runner. On an NL roster that is limiting with the need to pinch hit for a pitcher and/or double switch to help get multiple innings from a reliever. EY is no longer a good hitter (if he ever was one), but he can play the OF and 2B.
Before Juan Uribe‘s back injury, I assumed he would be on the roster leaving no room for EY. However, Uribe is hurt, so choices need to be made.
The first option is Kirk Nieuwenhuis. He doesn’t have EY’s speed, but he can run. He can play all three defensive outfield positions well, which is important with Yoenis Cespedes‘ recent injury. He has some if homeruns, but overall he has not hit well this year. The Dodgers lefty pitchers presents a problem for Nieuwenhuis, who is hitting lefties .000/.100/.000. That’s right. He has no hits against a lefty this year.
The next option option would be Eric Campbell. Campbell plays each infield position, which could be important with Wilmer Flores‘ recent back troubles. He can also play both corner OF spots, and he can be an emergency catcher. For all the versatility he has around the field defensively, he is very limited offensively. Campbell is hitting .210/.318/.302. There’s no way to spin this even with him hitting the ball hard.
So, if the Mets are looking for offense, they could look at Dilson Herrera. He’s still only 21 years old, but he shows a lot of promise at the plate. Unfortunately, his .218/.320/.379 triple slash line makes him a better offensive weapon than EY, Kirk, and Campbell. He hadn’t played much since his call-up, but he did have quite the game in Cincinnati last week going 3-4 with a walk, two runs, two RBIs, and a homerun.
The problem with Herrera is versatility. He’s only played 2B. If you’re on the bench, you may be needed to play somewhere other than where you’re most comfortable. However, that issue may be assuaged with Daniel Murphy‘s and Kelly Johnson‘s versatility.
I’m not sure which direction the Mets are going on now. Each choice has problems of its own. I don’t dven know which way I would go right now. What I do know is that this may be the biggest decision the Mets had since getting Cespedes.
I hope this choice will work out just as well.
Look, this is Sandy Alderson’s team. He decided to keep the players he kept and trade the players he traded. He pulled off the trades and signed the free agents. However, he was able to do a lot of what he did because he was left with good players after Omar Minaya was terminated.
Here are the players in the 40 man roster who have a link to Omar Minaya (asterisked players are players obtained with players combined by Minaya and Alderson):
Jerry Blevins – obtained for 2010 draft pick Matt den Dekker.
Eric Campbell – 2008 draft pick.
Darrell Ceciliani – 2009 draft pick.
Travis d’Arnaud – part of the R.A. Dickey trade. Dickey was a free agent signing. Josh Thole was a 2005 draft pick. Mike Nickeas was initially obtained by trade in 2006.
Jacob deGrom – 2010 draft pick.
Lucas Duda – 2007 draft pick.
Jeurys Familia – 2007 amateur free agent signing.
Wilmer Flores – 2007 amateur free agent signing.
Erik Goeddel – 2010 draft pick.
Matt Harvey – 2010 draft pick
Dilson Herrera* – part of Marlon Byrd/John Buck trade. Buck was part of the Dickey trade (see d’Arnaud).
Juan Lagares – 2006 amateur free agent signing.
Steven Matz – 2009 draft pick.
Jenrry Mejia – 2007 amateur free agent signing.
Akeel Morris -2010 draft pick.
Daniel Murphy – 2006 draft pick.
Bobby Parnell – 2005 draft pick.
Addison Reed* – obtained in exchange for Matt Koch and Miller Diaz (signed by Mets in 2009).
Hansel Robles – 2008 amateur free agent.
Noah Syndergaard – part of Dickey trade (see d’Arnaud).
Ruben Tejada – 2006 amateur free agent.
Again, these players are in the roster because Alderson kept them. The decision of who to keep and trade is important. That is what makes them Alderson’s players and team. Additionally, while It was Alderson that hired Terry Collins, it was Minaya who brought him into the Mets organization.
However, it is important to truly acknowledge Minaya’s role, especially when he has been unfairlyand wrongly marginalized.
You see I was on the same Jet Blue flight as Omar Minaya. The photo with this post was Minaya and me in the terminal before the flight. He was accessible to Mets fans who wanted to shake his hand and take a picture. No one, and I mean no one, had the “courage” to mock him on the flight.
Additionally, this should dispel the notion that Minaya left the Mets with a depleted farm system. On the contrary, he built a strong farm system that helped make up this team. Minaya had his faults, and he probably deserved to be fired when he was. That doesn’t mean we should ignore his work.
It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t extend our gratitude to him for what he left behind.
After clinching the NL East, the Mets celebrated and partied. They deserved it. However, there are nine guys that are going to have to play today, including starter Jacob deGrom.
I remember when the Mets clinched in 2096, the next day’s lineup was a mess. It’s going to be worse with a day game. I’m assuming some players will be arriving at the ballpark straight from the club. With that in mind, here’s my guess on who’s in the starting lineup today:
- Eric Young, Jr. CF
- Ruben Tejada SS
- Michael Conforto LF
- Kelly Johnson 1B
- Kevin Plawecki C
- Kirk Nieuwenhuis RF
- Eric Campbell 3B
- Dilson Herrera 2B
- Jacob deGrom P
The lineup may be different, and I could see some changes. This looks like a lineup from the aggravating first half. The difference is this time this lineup stays in Cincinnati as opposed to traveling with them.
It should be fun. Lets Go Mets!
Today, the Mets presumably made their last round of call-ups. The players getting called up are Johnny Monell, Logan Verrett, and Dilson Herrera. Monell is just a warm body. Verrett seems to be joining the rotation. What’s Herrera’s role?
Honestly, I have no idea. The second base options right now are Daniel Murphy, Kelly Johnson, Wilmer Flores [standing ovation], and to a lesser extent, Juan Uribe. There’s no room there. Eric Young, Jr. is the speed guy, and frankly he’s got more versatility. In fact, he’s also a 2B option. So again, why is Herrera here?
There are a few plausible options. The first is rewarding his season in the minors where he hit .331/.384/.515. Maybe the Mets are concerned about Murphy’s quad, and they want Herrera to stay active in case he’s needed. Maybe he’s just a pinch hitter in case the Mets have the need in an extra inning game.
My thought is that he’s here because he’s the second baseman of the future. The Mets want to expose him to a pennant race. The aforementioned 2B options? None of them have a contract beyond this year, except Flores, who’s also a SS. If he gets ABs, great. If not, that’s fine as well. The idea is to let him soak it all in from the atmosphere to the advice from the veterans.
After a brief tenure with the Mets last year and earlier this year, it appears the future may finally be now for Herrera.
After leaving Wednesday’s game with a quad injury, Daniel Murphy traveled with the team to Miami. Unlike Lucas Duda, Murphy was actually examined, and it was determined he has a mild quad strain.
This is the type of injury that lingers and gets worse if you push it. Murphy injured the same quad in June requiring a stay on the DL. There’s nothing to suggest the two injuries are related unless you are suggesting that Murphy is prone to minor leg injuries.
As of right now, the Mets have a six game lead. They’re playing a terrible Marlins team. They have a viable first base option with Michael Cuddyer, who has been hitting .327/.383./.509 over the past four weeks. At second, they’ve been playing Kelly Johnson against RHP. Once he returns from Venezuela, Wilmer Flores [standing ovation] can play second.
If Flores isn’t ready to play Saturday or Sunday, Terry Collins has shown the willingness to play Juan Uribe there. If Collins wants to give David Wright a day off before a big Nationals series coming up, and Flores still isn’t ready to play, Collins can send Uribe and Eric Campbell out there. If the Mets become desperate, there’s always the possibility of a Dilson Herrera promotion.
Whatever the scenario, the Mets need to keep Murphy, his bat, and his versatility healthy for October. We don’t know if Duda is coming back. Let’s not thrust Murphy’s availability into question over a relatively meaningless series against the Marlins.
As of today, the Mets 40 man roster is full with Erik Goeddel and David Wright on the 60 day DL. Since players on the 60 day DL do not count towards the 40 man roster, two players will have to be removed from the 40 man before Goeddel and Wright can be added.
The first decision could potentially come on August 11th, when Goeddel is first eligible to come off the DL. The Mets can send down Hansel Robles, who has options, but that only solves the 25 man roster issue. As of today, here are the people who are on the 40 man roster, who are also not on the 25 man roster:
- Dario Alvarez
- Vic Black
- Jack Leathersich
- Steven Matz
- Akeel Morris
- Logan Verrett
- Gabriel Ynoa
- Johnny Monell
- Anthony Recker
- Dilson Herrera
- Danny Muno
- Wilfredo Tovar
- Darrell Ceciliani
- Michael Cuddyer
- Kirk Nieuwenhuis
In deciding who to remove, there are a couple of important factors to take into account:
- This player will be exposed on waivers allowing any team to claim that player, and
- A player must be on the 40 man roster as of August 31st to be eligible for the postseason roster (there are loopholes however).
Immediately, you can rule out the pitchers. They’re young, under control, and will be snatched up by another team . . . even Vic Black. That leaves eight players for two spots.
Next, we can eliminate Michael Cuddyer and Kirk Nieuwenhuis from consideration. Cuddyer is set to come off the DL soon. Nieuwenhuis is a possibility, albeit remote right now for the postseason roster. We’re done to six players.
I would next eliminate Dilson Herrera, who is seen as the second baseman of the future. This is especially important with Daniel Murphy, Kelly Johnson, and Juan Uribe set to be free agents. We’re down to five players: Monell, Recker, Muno, Tovar, and Ceciliani. Here’s where things get tricky. You can make cases for all of these players to stay or go.
I’ll start with the catchers, who have been awful this year . . . absolutely terrible. I’m expecting the Mets to move on from both of these players in the offseason. However, we need to remember Travis d’Arnaud has been injury prone. You don’t want to him to go down and have no playoff replacement. At a a minimum, one catcher must stay on the roster. Possibly both.
Up next are the young middle infielders. Admittedly, they have both been pretty bad in very limited major league experience. Accordingly, you can’t use that experience as the sole reason to outright that player. It should be noted neither player is a top prospect in the Mets organization. I think both are candidates, specifically Tovar, who is behind Matt Reynolds, Gavin Cecchini, and Amed Rosario on the organization’s SS depth chart.
Finally, we have Ceciliani, who played decently with the Mets this year (even if he was a little exposed). It should be noted he was passed over in the last two Rule Five Drafts. I don’t imagine his limited playing time changed the minds of the other 29 teams. Furthermore, with Nieuwenhuis being on the bubble for the postseason roster, there’s no chance he would even see the field. In my opinion, this makes him the most vulnerable.
Now, I have no connections whatsoever, but I would believe Ceciliani and Monell are the two players who will be moved to make room for Goeddel and Wright. You could easily interchange that for Recker and Ceciliani or one of the middle infielders. However, I think Ceciliani and Monell are the two least regarded players on this list.
Further complicating matters is Rafael Montero, who is also on the 60 day DL. Terry Collins recently went to talk to Montero to encourage him to ramp up his rehab so he can help the team. If Montero is coming back, the Mets are going to have to make yet another roster move. I believe at this time, the middle infielders would definitively be in danger of being removed from the 40 man roster. My guess would be Tovar, but then again, I could be wrong.
The only way to avoid removing anyone, and risking losing a player, is to make a trade with another team. The problem there is if these players had value to other teams, they would have been moved already. Specifically to Ceciliani, we’ve seen teams pass on him a number of times. There is also the possibility that the player to be named later in the Eric O’Flaherty deal is one of the aforementioned 15 players making part of this post moot. However, I think that is unlikely.
Overall, the Mets have a lot of important decisions to make with an eye towards who they want on the postseason roster. It’s fun to be a Mets fan again.
The Mets offense is officially offensive. As I tweeted last night, their runs per game is as follows:
April 4.35 runs per game
May 3.54 runs per game
June 2.96 runs per game
July 2.87 runs per game.
This is unsustainable and had led to a -16 run differential. Things need to be fixed quickly to reverse these trends or the Mets run the risk of letting the season get away. For the purposes of this post, I’ll take the front office at face value and assume a trade can’t be competed just yet. Also, I’m not going to waste my breath here about bringing Conforto up to the majors (that’s for another time). The front office has made it clear he’s not getting called up. However, that does not mean something can’t be done now.
First: Transfer Wright to the 60 day disabled list. He’s been gone for 60 days already. Not putting him on the 60 day DL is roster mismanagement. Once Wright is put on the 60 day DL, the Mets can call up someone not in the 40 man roster.
Second: Call up Matt Reynolds (he’s not on the 40 man roster) and install him as the everyday SS. Let’s face it – since the day the Mets refused to resign Reyes, Tejada had been given several chances to become the everyday SS and failed. In this latest attempt, he had a triple slash line of .255/.322/.360 and a UZR of 0.8, i.e. he is bad at the plate and average in the field. CORRECTION: after posting this I learned Matt Reynolds is on the 7 day DL.
Reynolds had a triple slash line of .270/.327/.410. I wasn’t able to find his UZR information, but scouts seem optimistic on his defense. If Reynolds minor league stats carry over, the Mets improve the SS position and the bench. If they don’t translate (the PCL is a hitter’s league after all), he had a cup of coffee. It’s not like his production would be so bad as to justify carrying Eric Campbell on the roster (side note: I’m sorry because Campbell works hard and really tries to help the team). I know Reynolds isn’t on the 40 man roster, but so what? Are you really afraid of losing
Third: Outright Alex Torres and recall Logan Verrett. This would leave the Mets with only one lefty in the pen, Sean Gilmartin, who is not a LOOGY. However, Torres isn’t effective against lefties. Lately, he hadn’t been effective at all. In a small sample size, Verrett has been largely effective for the Mets.
Fourth: Recall Dilson Herrera, bench Wilmer Flores, and release John Mayberry, Jr. In his last 10 games, Herrera is hitting .359 with a .390 OBP. He’s hot. Flores has been bad defensively and at the plate. However, he does have some pop in his bat and could be an effective PH. To make room for Herrera, Mayberry should be released. He just hasn’t hit. He’s taking up a valuable roster spot right now.
Fifth: Call up Travis Taijeron and send down Danny Muno. I know I joked yesterday about Taijeron and the Mets need for more minor leaguers. However, this post is seeking drastic measures to help this team, which is best done by eliminating most of the bench. This season Taijeron’s triple slash is an eye opening .271/.395/.523. Why hasn’t he been called up? Well he is not a highly thought of prospect having been drafted in the 11th round in 2011. Why send down Muno? He’s bad at baseball. Travis Taijeron is not in the 40 man roster, but I am comfortable exposing Wilfredo Tovar to waivers.
With all the machinations, the Mets have mostly retooled their bench (except Nieuwenhuis and Recker) and they find out what they have in Reynolds and Taijeron. Also, it creates a spot for with Nimmo or Conforto in AAA and possibly Gavin Cecchini as well. Maybe I’m wrong, but at least this is something.