What do Jacoby Ellsbury, Shin-Soo Choo, Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta, Grant Balfour, and Fernando Rodney all have in common? They were all linked to the Mets at some point this past offseason! Yes, all six players were thought to sign with the club at one point or another, but none of them did. Was this a bad move by the Mets? Well when looking at the totals, the four hitters have a combined number of hits around the 200 mark, and the two pitchers have a combined number of strikeouts around the 60 mark, so the Mets seemed to miss out. Where are these players now? They are scattered around the majors, and they are all making the Mets regret not signing them.
Jacoby Ellsbury
After making a name for himself with the Red Sox for the first six years of his career, center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury was set free by his former club. For a short period of time, Mets fans got their hopes up that Ellsbury was going to sign with the team, but he ended up signing with the crosstown rival Yankees. After getting off to a decent start with the Yankees, Ellsbury seemed to have hit a bump at the plate, and his batting average went down. However, over the past few of games, Ellsbury has seemed to break out of his slump, and is now hitting in the mid .200’s. He also has a WAR under 1.0, and a RAR less than 5.
Shin-Soo Choo
After a great year with the Cincinnati Reds, Choo is off to a hot start with the Texas Rangers. But before signing with the Rangers, his name was linked to the Mets. Choo has been more than amazing when playing at Citi Field, so it would have been a no-brainer for him to sign with the club. Right now, Choo has a batting average above .300, and a career high slugging percentage above .400. Instead of signing Choo, the Mets went out and signed Curtis Granderson, and I think we all know how that turned out.
Nelson Cruz
Perhaps one of the worst moves by the Mets this offseason was not signing Nelson Cruz. Cruz was coming off a PED suspension, but he is still a respectable outfielder with a lot of pop in his bat. However, the Mets decided that they would pass on Cruz, and sign Chris Young instead. Young is being paid more money than Cruz, for the same number of years, and Cruz has four times as many homeruns than Young does this season. Also, unlike Young, Cruz has shown little signs of struggle, and has been able to stay healthy for the most part this season.
Jhonny Peralta
Since Jose Reyes’ departure after the 2011 season, the Mets have struggled to find a shortstop that could replace him. So far, the only answer they have had is Ruben Tejada, and he is doing terrible. There was a chance for the Mets to fill this position this past offseason, as Peralta was set free by the Detroit Tigers. However, just like Cruz, the Mets seemed to hesitate due to his recent PED suspension, and the St. Louis Cardinals signed Peralta to four year, $53 million deal. Now, Peralta may have a low batting average, but his homeruns, RBI’s, and WAR is right on par.
Grant Balfour
Nobody knew that the Mets wanted to sign Balfour until he signed with the Tampa Bay Rays. However, when the world found out, it was befuddling that he did not sign with New York. According to Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, the Mets outbid the Rays for Balfour, but he took the Rays’ two-year, $12 million bid instead. This is most likely do to the fact that the Rays looked more like a winning team in the offseason, and every closer wants to be able to pitch for a team that will end up in the playoffs. Going into Wednesday, Balfour has 9 saves, and an ERA around 5.00, while the Mets are still trying to figure out their bullpen situation.
Fernando Rodney
When Balfour signed with the Rays, the Mets attention shifted to former Ray Fernando Rodney. Rodney was one of the most dominant closers in the game while playing with the Rays in 2012 and 2013, and the Mets wanted to put that dominance into their bullpen. However, Rodney signed a two-year deal with the Mariners, and currently has over 10 saves on the season to go along with over 20 strikeouts.
Clearly, the Mets regret not signing any of these six players, as they are all proving their dominance. Of course, some of the contracts that these players signed were absolutely absurd, but maybe that is what the Mets need to do. Most of these players signed multi-year deals, so it cannot be determined for a while whether or not the Mets should have signed them. But for now, all we can do is sit down and watch the Mets try to get back to .500, and win 90 games.
“Clearly, the Mets regret not signing any of these players”?
Ellsbury? You’d give up $21MM for what he’s produced (not to mention, a long series of years that might look just like this one if not worse)?
Not impressed with Balfour (how is a 5.00+ ERA a solution for the Mets pen?) either.
The only player of these I wish we had signed was Choo. He’d be a difference maker at Citi Field. As for the rest – none of them were ever seriously considered by the Mets except for Balfour – and I’m not spending 12 million on a reliever. The pen we have now will end up being our strength by season’s end for a fraction of the cost. Even your arguments for why we regret not signing the other players are bizarre. You point to Balfour’s 5 era as a positive? An argument can be made for Cruz – but he’s really a DH and he’s hitting all of those homers in a bandbox in baltimore. Meanwhile, Granderson has been hot of late and plays far superior defense, plus by all accounts is an excellent clubhouse guy. The Chris Young signing was the worst mistake of the offseason – I’ll grant you that. I just won’t grant balfour you that.
Agreed on every point.
The worst mistake will turn out to be Granderson. Not even close.
Alderson absolutely needed to win on that one. Too much on the line. Chris Young was cheap, even Colon was cheap in comparison.
But he struck out on all three (so far).
may turn out to be Granderson – but as we sit here today – it’s been Chris Young. Colon at least has eaten up some innings and pitched well in half of his starts. Plus he’s only walked like 6 ot 7 guys all year. He’ll likely be dealt at the trade deadline. Granderson, if nothing else, has contributed in spurts – he probably made the game saving play last night for Meija. CY is already a bust. The biggest difference is track record – we’re basically getting what could have been expected from Granderson, even though his average is lower than you’d hope. There was little reason to expect anything from CY. I would have rather signed Byrd for two more years.
Choo Choo Choo. As an OBP guy, i have no idea why Sandy didn’t even entertain the thought of signing him.
One name you forgot was Bronson Arroyo. He was heavily connected to the Mets, which made no sense to me because of their young pitching. But then Sandy surprised us with signing Colon. For about 3.5 million more, he’s been about the same as Colon. Both were bad signings.
Corey Hart was also somewhat connected to the Mets. He’s done very little for Seattle.
You are going to regret saying that about Colon. In fact, you ought to regret it already.
I’m not concerned even for a second with what we’ve seen of Bartolo already. The bottom line is that he controls the strike zone, pitches quickly, and his pitches still have great movement that batters can’t pick up.
He’ll wind up leading the Mets in Wins, IP, K/BB, BB/9, and he’ll be second or third in both FIP and WHIP among starters. He might finish the year with the best winning percentage among pitchers. Take out two starts, and his numbers get even better.