Two pitchers from the Netherlands who should be on the Mets radar

The offseason is officially on its way now that the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series.  For the New York Mets, it has been a month since they last played and it’s getting to the point where the roster construction moves to the forefront.  In the coming days, teams will be making their qualifying offers to their free agent players; if they turn the offers down they are free to sign with any other team.  The Mets will keep a close eye on the players available, as well as the trade market; but will they be expanding the scope of their search even further?  I would hope to some extent they are.

In past years, Mets have gone outside the US to sign some free agents, particularly Kazuo Matsui and Tsuyoshi Shinjo.  These signings unfortunately did not fulfill the expectations of the Mets front office and fans; the strategy in pursuing these players, ambitious as it was, turned out to be failure. That’s not to say Japanese players cannot make the transition to Major League Baseball successfully, there have been plenty. For instance in this year’s World Series when Koji Uehara and Junichi Tazawa downright dominated.  This coming offseason, Japanese baseball’s prized pitcher will be Masahiro Tanaka, currently with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan.  Projected to be a frontline starter, Tanaka will stoke a bidding war for his services, most likely from the Dodgers and Yankees; two teams who don’t shy away from ludicrous contracts.  The Mets have been a different kind of entity the past few years, shying away from big money contracts in favor of building a strong foundation from the minor leagues up through the majors. The next few months projects to be slightly more of a spending spree for Sandy Alderson and the Wilpons, but to what extent?  In respect to international signings, while the Chicago White Sox have looked to Cuba in signing Jose Abreu, and the big spenders look to lure Tanaka, maybe the Mets should point their radar towards the Netherlands.  It just so happens there are two pitchers competing there who could help the team immediately.

First, there’s starter Diegomar Markwell.  Many avid baseball fans might recall seeing him in this past spring’s World Baseball Classic.  The 33 year old left hander started three games in the tournament including the semi-final game against the Dominican Republic.  Originally signed as a 16 year old out of Curacao by the Toronto Blue Jays, Markwell has modeled himself into one of the Netherlands top pitchers.  After seven seasons of minor league experience in the Blue Jays organization with moderate success, Markwell has hit his stride the past seven seasons albeit in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse, Netherlands highest level of professional baseball.  Much of his early struggles in the minors stemmed from his lack of control which hit rock bottom in 2003 when he had 54 BB in 110 IP.  He transformed his pitching modality into a controlled, change-of-speeds, sinkerball repertoire that led to success the past seven seasons in Holland. Last year in 15 starts with DOOR Neptunis, he was 9-3 with a 1.77 ERA in 101.2 IP.  Recognizing it’s hard to give credibility to performance amongst an inferior level of talent to that of MLB, there are in fact a few statistics that are encouraging regardless. For instance, this season right handed batters batted only .192 against him, and he tallied career lows in H/9 and BB/9 at 6.2 and 1.9 respectively, while his SO/9 was at a career high 8.1.  Basically, he’s come full circle and has honed his craft as a pitcher culminating this past season.  Maybe he’s ready to take the next step and pitch at the highest of levels, even if it’s just as a lefty out of the bullpen.  He’s worth a look.

Then there is the case of 19 year old reliever, Bayron Cornelisse.  In 53 career innings in relief with the Vaseen Pioneers, who play in the same top league as DOOR Neptunis, Cornelisse has given up only 22 H, 16 BB, while racking up 61 SO. He has also yet to give up an earned run in his short career.  He has served as the teams closer too, adding 18 saves in two seasons.  He is young and raw, but it might serve any possible suitors well to get this kid while he still relatively unknown.  The Dodgers certainly didn’t waste any time back in 2004 when they signed 17 year old Curacao native and current closer, Kenley Jansen, originally as a catcher.  Cornelisse like Jensen didn’t start out as a pitcher; he was a third baseman before he made his debut in Netherland’s top level.

Curacao has given MLB some incredible talent the past few years. Along with Jansen, shortstops Andrelton Simmons and Jurickson Profar project to be stars for years to come in the US.  If the Mets are on a limited budget, like many outside the organization are convinced they are, targeting those “under the radar”  talents could pay big dividends in the future.