Cuban sensation Jose Abreu has defected from his home land, according to the media, and Abreu’s friend and Baltimore Orioles rookie outfielder Henry Urrutia. The 26 year old phenom is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players to defect from the island, with good reason. In the five Serie Nacional de Beisbol Abreu has played in, he has not once failed to hit below .345, to go along with 68 home runs over a 494 at bat stretch over two years. Abreu is being called the next Yasiel Puig or Yoenis Cespedes, and it sure look like he could live up to that potential. In the 2013 World Baseball
Classic, Abreu was tied for the lead in home runs with his teammate Alfredo Despaigne and his RBI totals were second to that of your very own, Captain America, David Wright. Abreu, like Puig, is a free swinger, leading Cuba in strikeouts and not once taking a base on balls. Did we mention Abreu is a first baseman? He has played twice as many games in his career as Ike Davis and his fielding percentage is only 10 points lower. So if you average that out, you wouldn’t be getting much of an upgrade defensively which is okay for the time being. And hey if it counts for anything, Abreu has turned a triple play before which Davis can’t say he has but who’s counting!
Now the question is, would Abreu be a good fit with the Mets? I think that answer is yes. The Mets are ready to spend money, or at least Sandy Alderson has said they are. Abreu would require an expensive, long term contract but it could only work out in the end. The only real problem it creates is that it leaves Lucas Duda (not the biggest disappointment), Josh Satin (he’s slowed down anyways), and unfortunately Wilmer Flores with no place to play.If the Mets plan to call up Dominic Smith within the next four to five years, why not give him at least some experience in right field, a position he’s comfortable with, just in case the problem presents itself.
I believe the Mets should make a push for Jose Dariel Abreu. Look at what that push did for the Oakland Athletics and the Los Angeles Dodgers. It has given those teams building blocks to mold into a contender. If the Mets hope to get back to October, they have to start thinking about the players who will make a difference.
I think Ike’s next 2 months will determine how aggressive the Mets are with Abreu. I’m not sure the when exactly the bidding war will start up though
His numbers look great on paper, but there’s all sorts of questions and qualifiers, especially for the dollar signs surrounding him. Sure he can mash, but was it MLB-caliber pitching? He’s not athletic; will that leave him more of a DH than 1B? Wright can uncork a wild throw on routine plays from time to time; will Abreu be able to handle them? The Mets needs to be more than a station to station team; how will a slow, heavy baserunner affect the other eight baserunners?
If Abreu can be a monster power bat with a high OBP, at least passable on defense that won’t break down two years into a six-year contract, then spend the big bucks. If he’s going to be a strikeout machine, major defensive liability or injury-plagued, I’ll pass.
The Mets can not afford to make a mistake with a big contract. This guy could be Puig, or he could be the next Kaz Matsui. At the end of this season the Mets will have cleared all the poorly spent money off the books. They need a more proven commodity from MLB if they are going to spend big bucks.
Everybody is going to be in on Cuban defectors now because of Puig. Just like everyone went big on Japanese players after Matsui and Ichiro. What are the odds he would even come close to Puig?
I’m not a fan of unathletic bat only first baseman that have ryan howard type bodies
The question is the level of competition in Cuba. The WBC is a start, but, do the Mets have someone watching those games? My feeling is we need a difference maker; he may be a difference maker. Will there be a try-out? If not, no one will just throw money at him. But, the Mets need to get a try-out.
Although he hasn’t watched him play, Jim Bowden has assessed scouting reports and gets the sense that Abreu lies somewhere between Puig and Cespedes. Will hit for power and high average. Decent defensive skills. Big problem is speed as he has none. Rumor is that Red Sox are going to press hard to get him.
While I think a risk should be taken here, the team won’t do it. They have all this money coming off of the books and are looking to build a contender next year, they aren’t looking to take a chance and give this guy a big contract that they will be stuck with for 5-6 years.
[…] a chorus of opinions on the above, here’s Jacob Resnick at Mets360, Joe D at Metsmerized, and Matt Cerrone at Metsblog. In contradiction to Cerrone’s numbers, […]