The offseason for the New York Mets was just puttering along until the blizzard hit – in more ways than one – this past weekend.
For the most part the moves Sandy Alderson and his staff had made were defensible and reasonable despite their not being particularly exciting. The trade of Jon Niese for Neil Walker was a decent revenue-neutral move and replaced Daniel Murphy at second with a pretty much comparable player at a lower price than it would have cost to keep Murphy. Asdrubal Cabrera, signed to be the number one shortstop, should be a bit of an upgrade to Wilmer Flores on defense and certainly an improvement on Ruben Tejada offensively. Bringing back Jerry Blevins seemed like a good idea while the signing of Antonio Bastardo was even better. And then the band was almost complete when Bartolo Colon was inked. Colon gives the team the flexibility of a starter who can relieve plus his at-bats have always been great for comic relief.
The one move that seemed to infuriate Mets Nation was the signing of veteran Alejandro De Aza to be the long half of a platoon in center field. With most fans hoping for Denard Span, Gerardo Parra, or even Dexter Fowler the De Aza signing (one year, $5.5 million guaranteed with a chance to make an addition $1.5 million in incentives) was a significant letdown. Some even held out hope that somehow the team would make a push for Yoenis Cespedes. Silly people. That couldn’t happen, right?
Even before the momentous Cespedes signing it seemed that De Aza was a square peg headed for a round hole. While he is clearly a solid major league ballplayer it is in question whether he can play an adequate center field defensively. After all it was 2013 when he last played as many as 15 games at the position. And while his offense against right handed pitching figured to be better than Juan Lagares’ he was not going to be the feared offensive force the team was in much need of.
But now with Cespedes aboard De Aza goes from platoon center fielder to fifth outfielder status. Lagares will get his reps against some of the tougher lefty starters and figures to head to center late in games when the Mets are ahead. My guess is that Cespedes slides over to left and Michael Conforto will come out.
Do the Mets really want to pay $5.5 mill for a fifth outfielder/pinch-hitter? Probably not. And the player himself must be disappointed with his new unexpected lot. Hitting his incentive points, presumably plate appearance related, will be all but impossible unless one of the top three outfielders goes down with a prolonged injury.
Major league baseball rules may bar the Mets from trading De Aza until June. It is possible that they can swap him out with the player’s permission which likely would be forthcoming. The question is which teams might have use for a player with his skill set.
Since De Aza has a career OPS against lefties in the 650s and since he is more suited to a team that needs help in the outfield corners I looked at the depth charts for all major league teams. What is needed is a team that has right handed hitters playing in both right and left and no significant lefty outfielder on the bench. Also as you will see some teams have those righties but they are too good to be platooned and therefore would not be good landing spots for De Aza.
You will also see that none of the five teams I will name are ideal spots for De Aza which makes one wonder where he would go and what kind of deal he would get if he were currently a free agent. My suspicions are that he would not even get the $5.5 million the Mets will pay him at minimum.
These teams are listed from best to worst fits but none of the fits seem to be particularly good.
#1 Tampa Bay Rays – They have righties Steven Souza and Desmond Jennings in the outfield corners. They have no lefty outfielders on their bench. Souza batted just .230 against righties and Jennings .250. Would they be willing to take on De Aza at his salary? Perhaps.
#2 Milwaukee Brewers – This is a team that seems to be in a rebuilding mode and might not be looking for a veteran like De Aza. They have Ryan Braun and Khris Davis in the corners but neither of these players really needs a platoon partner. Their bench lefty is Shane Peterson whose Steamer projection barely noses over 700.
#3 Boston Red Sox – With Mookie Betts in right and Rusney Castillo in left one wouldn’t expect them to be in need of a platoon partner. The bench lefty is Brock Holt whose projections aren’t even as high as Shane Peterson’s.
#4 St. Louis Cardinals – Their corners are Matt Holliday in left and Stephen Piscotty in right. Neither needs platoon help plus their first base competition is between lefties Matt Adams and Brandon Moss. If Adams gets the gig then Moss is free to backup the corners. Holliday is getting on in years. Were he to go down with a long term injury then perhaps the Cards would have interest in De Aza. Not real likely though.
#5 Detroit Tigers – They have thumper righties Justin Upton and J.D. Martinez in the corners. Their bench lefty is Kevin Romine. Except for depth it is hard to imagine the Tigers pursuing De Aza.
So it looks right now like De Aza will be with the Mets for at least part of if not all of the 2016 season.
Sending him to Atlanta would be a charitable thing to do, at least for the fans. They are planning on going with Hector Olivera, Ender Inciarte and maybe Nick Markakis; it has a chance on being even worse than some of the outfields the Mets have run out there in years past. Inciarte is the star, I suppose, and he is a good fielder; in two years in the majors his Road offensive numbers resemble those of Ruben Tejada.
Yes, the Braves are rebuilding, but do they want their fans to forget all about them in the meanwhile? If the Mets kicked in a few million I imagine the Braves would be happy to give De Aza a place of refuge.
What value does this guy really have? Just because Alderson paid $5.5MM for him, would another team? This guy was on two teams two years ago and three teams last year. He was even put on waivers last year. His numbers are pedestrian and he was traded for nobodies every time. Just keep him for bench strength at this point and understand that every year Alderson throws away money, for some reason.
He is the only left handed bat they have on the bench and he has just said he’s
ok with being on the bench so they should keep him unless they plan on adding
another left handed bat?
The money is part of it. Also: With so many left-handed starters, the Mets don’t really need a left-handed bat on the bench — it would only give TC too many things to think about, and that’s never good.
I think you have to view him as insurance, say all the right things, hope he has a good ST, and see what opportunities come up along the way.
A guy like Pearce who signed w/ Rays would have been more useful to this particular Mets team.
If those are the five best, the Mets are stuck with him until someone gets hurt on another team.
Sandy took De Aza as the least contract of the 4 > Fowler, Parra, Span the others. In case, just in case, he could get Cespedes and then the commitment to De Aza was lesser rather than greater (others). Now that Cespy is in the house, time to get rid of De Aza. No need for him and his $5.5m contract…send him to the White Sox (M.Albers ?) or to the Rays for BP help and if Mets have to eat a million or two, so what ? Get a need vs keep an overabundant luxury. D. Ceciliani or T.Tajeron, or another AAA guy can help be the 5th OF on this team. Key being that they are cheap. If the Mets payroll stays at $135m (without De Aza), they could be in position by the All Star Break to maybe add a piece if needed like they did last year. The De Aza signing may have helped the Cespedes signing. How ? By us enraged Mets fans spewing our collective ire and perhaps, just perhaps, helping to nudge management toward “doing the right thing” and keeping this WS team in line to repeat. By bye De Aza, nice knowing ya.
He’s tradeable…no rush
I also think you want to do right by the player here, be honorable, and try to work out a desirable location for him — rather than, say, best possible offer (within reason).
He’s a little bit screwed right now, and I think it’s a good long-term policy to try to be kind and generous with the players in your employ.
There’s time.
James, you are right. I agree.
No need for Mets to “screw” him, looks bad on Mets as well.
And yet I think $5.5m is a good reason not to feel too “screwed”.
D’Aza is a Valuable player if an OF is Hurt—on the Mets or Elsewhere. He might get more ab’s than Lego if a Met OF’er is hert…and he might attract more calls if an OF’er on another team is hurt.
No Rush—he’s a good solid Journeyman…he’s not underpaid…they’re not ruining his career. They might even need him!
We’re overthinking this. 1- don’t feel bad for anyone who makes $5.5 million to wear cleats to work. 2- depth is a nice problem to have. If everyone stays healthy (never happens) we may have to trade him, Tejada and a few relievers by midseason. Remember, upon injury, a 5th OF becomes a 4th OF. We released Ceciliani and Nieuwenhuis and Nimmo isn’t ready yet (will we still he saying that in 2020?) so we don’t have an inhouse option 3- it’s not your money and there is no salary cap in baseball. 5.5 million is nothing compared to the hasbeen players out there getting 20 milion and up – Sabathia, Howard, Kemp, etc 4- makes sense to have one lefty on the bench.
Unless someone wants to take his whole contract, we will hang onto De Aza until June and likely bring up Nimmo if he’s ready. Knowing Terri he’ll get his at bats he likes to play all of his position players.
I hear no one mentioning the Angels as a potential landing spot for dependable outfielder DeArza. I think they could use such an outfielder for a straight up swap of right handed power hitting first baseman CJ Cron. Anyone think this works for both teams?
Ira,
Your idea has some merit but I doubt it could come off. The depth charts page I look at shows Cron as the Angels’ full time 1bman. I doubt they would want to swap him for a platoon LFer (they have Calhoun in RF). Meanwhile the Mets would leave themselves without a fifth OFer since Cron is strictly a 1bman meaning he’d be a pinch-hitter who could occasionally give Duda a day off.
Better would be the Mets trading De Aza to the Angels or elsewhere for a B-grade prospect to save money and then sign a guy like Ryan Raburn who could act as fifth outfielder, part-time 1bman, and pinch-hitter.