Tommy Pham

Luis Guillorme Needs To Play Everyday

The New York Mets made a series of puzzling decisions when forming their 2023 Opening Day roster. Brett Baty was sent down to Triple-A Syracuse. Tommy Pham was given a spot on the team as a fourth outfielder. All of this despite Darin Ruf being designated for assignment.

With Pham, you see the Mets are going to rely on its older veterans to start the year. Mark Canha is guaranteed a spot in left, and Eduardo Escobar is going play third in some capacity.

Putting aside any questions or disbelief, what really needs to be analyzed at this point is how the Mets should best utilize their roster. Looking at the roster as it stands right now, the only conclusion is Luis Guillorme needs to be an everyday player whether that be at second or third base.

If you look at the rule changes being implemented for the 2023 season, they almost beg for the Mets to play Guillorme regularly. That is from a defensive and na offensive standpoint.

The defensive point was obvious. Guillorme is an outstanding defender. He is a more natural second baseman, but he has made the adjustment to be excellent at third. That was part of the reason he was able to force himself into a platoon at the position last season.

Keep in mind, with no shift, infield defense will be at a premium. Remember, Escobar was a -6 OAA last year when you could fully shift. Without the shift, the Mets will need more from here, and it is highly doubtful he can give it to them.

There is also the matter of left field. Last season, Canha had a -1 OAA in left. We also saw his sprint speed dip every so slightly from 27.8 ft/sec to 27.5 ft/sec. That’s not earth shattering, but he is now 34 and will be more likely to lose another step than to gain it back.

There’s also the matter of his bat. His barrels and launch angles cratered last season. We also saw him limp to the finish line last season hitting .249/.349/.383 over his final 37 games of the season. He carried that into the Wild Card Series going 0-for10 at the plate.

This all isn’t to say Canha and Escobar don’t have value. In a limited or semi-regular role, they can stay fresher and do what they do well in shorter spurts. In the event of injury, they can step up into a starting role over a stretch.

In the meantime, we can see Guillorme playing excellent defense at second or third while Jeff McNeil moving between second and left. We can also see Guillorme’s contact oriented approach thrive all the more with the institution of the pitch clock and the ban on the shift.

Overall, Guillorme promises to be much better defensively than what Canha or Escobar can provide. He may also have the chance to outperform them offensively. All told, he is just a better and more valuable player than either of them necessitating he be in the everday lineup.

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Darin Ruf DFA Makes Brett Baty Decision Worse

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.

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Tommy Pham Bad Move For Mets

Tommy Pham is one of those moves that sounds good. After all, people can remember him being a good player at one time, so certainly, it must be a coup to get him on this New York Mets team as a fourth outfielder. However, you have to ask yourself how were the Mets even able to get him as a fourth outfielder.

The answer is simple – Pham is not a good baseball player anymore. Moreover, it is difficult to imagine how the outfielder who will be 35 on Opening Day will suddenly regain his ability to play baseball.

Last year, between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox, two places great for right-handed hitters, Pham hit .236./.312/.374 with 23 doubles, one triple, 17 homers, and 63 RBI. That season wasn’t an anomaly; it is who Pham is now. Over the past three seasons, Pham is hitting .231/.324/.372.

Looking at the advanced numbers, Pham had an 89 wRC+, and over the past three, Pham has a 94 wRC+. When looking at Baseball Savant., you get a clearer picture of what has happened with Pham.

Simply put, Pham is a dead red hitter. He hits the fastball well. However, he can no longer hit a breaking or off-speed pitch. He still hits the fastball quite hard, and he can truly do damage to those pitchers. That said, he really can’t hit anything else. In reality, that makes him an easy out, which is indicated by his declining numbers over the past three years.

It should come as no surprise Pham does have decent numbers against left-handed pitching. In 2022, he had a 115 wRC+ against left-handed pitching, and over the past three seasons, he has a 111 wRC+ against left-handed pitching. Certainly, this could make him part of the platoon equation at DH for Daniel Vogelbach.

Here, it should be noted Darin Ruf had a 116 wRC+ against left-handed pitching last year, and he has a 137 over the past three seasons. While the counter-argument is Pham could better serve as a fourth outfielder, that is not entirely correct as Pham had a -6 OAA in left as opposed to Ruf’s -5. Put another way, they are both bad outfielders who are best suited to DH.

On Ruf, he can at least play first base to spell Pete Alonso. Another note here is Ruf should serve as a warning for Pham. Ruf was a semi-regular player who struggled in a pure reserve role for the Mets. Now, the Mets are looking to do the same with Pham.

Really, at the end of the day, it is difficult to ascertain what purpose Pham fills for this team. He’s not an upgrade in any sense, and if you want to make out that fantasy football fight with Joc Pederson to be part of a larger picture, he could serve as a detriment in the clubhouse, but that may be a bit of a stretch as he has not seemed to have an in-season issue with a teammate. However, we also can’t ignore it.

However, that feud with Pederson should not matter. The Mets didn’t need Pham. In reality, they needed to move Mark Canha to a fourth outfielder role, and that could’ve been accomplished by signing an outfielder, or as they tried with Carlos Correa, by signing an infielder. Whatever the case, the Mets signed Pham for one year meaning he should not stand as an impediment should he struggle or the team is ready to turn to Brett Baty at third or left.

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