David Wright is on fire right now. After a four hit effort last night he’s hitting .402, which is tops in the National League by almost 30 points. All eyes are on Wright right now, which if you’re Andres Torres, that might be a good thing.
Torres has played in 11 games since returning from the DL and he’s been nothing short of terrific. He’s reached base in every game he’s played this season and has failed to get a hit in a game only three times. He’s had three multiple-hit games and seven games with an RBI. He’s also only struck out five times (three coming in one game) in 53 plate appearances.
Torres has looked like the player he was back in 2010 when he help the San Francisco Giants win a World Series. After Torres went down in the beginning of the year and Angel Pagan was off to a good start, fans were ripping this trade apart. When the Mets called up Kirk Nieuwenhuis as Torres’ replacement, some people were saying that Torres is just a fifth outfielder and when he comes back he’ll only be a back-up. Now Torres is making those people look pretty stupid.
The credit in bringing Torres aboard goes to Sandy Alderson, who pulled off what I thought was a great deal; Pagan for Torres and Ramon Ramirez. So far it’s looking like if the Mets traded Pagan for Torres straight up the would have gotten the better end of the deal.
So far this season here are the lines for both players:
Torres: 12 G, 42 AB, 9 R, 13 H, 1 HR, 10 RBI, 10 BB, 5 K, 1 SB, .310/.442/.452
Pagan: 31 G, 132 AB, 15 R, 36 H, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 6 BB, 14 K, 6 SB, .273/.304/.447
So Pagan has played in more than twice the number of games that Torres has played, yet Torres has more RBIs, almost twice the number of walks and even if you double his number of strike outs it’s still less than Pagan.
What also is very telling of a player’s fielding ability is UZR and UZR/150:
Torres: 0.5 UZR, 9.8 UZR/150
Pagan: -4.3 UZR, -21.1 UZR/150
So… yeah obviously Torres is a better fielder than Pagan, which is something that was to be expected.
The one compliant you can make about Torres is that he isn’t stealing enough bases right now. The Mets are dead last in the National League right now with only 12 total stolen bases. Torres, who is suppose to be the Mets biggest stolen base threat, has only attempted three times and was only successful once. Now some of this probably has to do with his Achilles injury and him not wanting to push it too far, but eventually Torres needs to get back on track.
I’m a big Torres fan so watching him out perform Pagan makes me happy. Torres just needs to keep doing what he’s doing at the top of that batting order and eventually people will start to take larger notice.
I, too, like Torres and think Alderson made a good deal. The best part of this is that Torres is taking more pitches and his OBP has skyrocketed!
As a giants fan this trade is working out great . U forgot to mention pagan 20 game hit streak 😉 btw wait till torres rips his hammy again because he is a hard nosed player and plays to hard. Dude is 35 not 25. I love andres but any time u can trade a 35 year old for a 30 year old you do it’s. Both clubs win with this one as long as Torres keeps hitting for mets and pagan stays consistent like he has been .