With the left field in New York still looking to be filled, there is also some spaces to be filled in the 2015 Las Vegas outfield. Last year, Cesar Puello, Andrew Brown, Matt den Dekker, Cory Vaughn, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis all appeared in more than 50 games in the outfield for the 51s. If the Mets acquire a big bat in left field then that would leave the outfield bench role up for grabs between Nieuwenhuis and den Dekker and stashing the other away in Vegas for a rainy day. Brown was recently claimed off of waivers by the A’s, after leading the Triple-A team in home runs with 21. That leaves just Vaughn and Puello as the primary candidates to man the outfield in Vegas.
Vaughn, who the Mets drafted out of San Diego State University in 2010, has put up decent power numbers in his tenure with the Mets, but has trouble putting his bat on the ball struggling to hit over .255 in his four full seasons. He is not the only member of the Vaughn family to be known as a masher being the son of former major league left fielder Greg Vaughn and the relative of former Mets first basemen Mo Vaughn. In 2014, between his time in Binghamton and Vegas, Vaughn struck out in 24.8 percent of his total plate appearances and walked in 9.6 percent of his totals plate appearances. After his promotion to Vegas he did manage to double his home run total from the earlier part of the year in only 29 more plate appearances. In the future, he has a ceiling of being a right-handed power bat off the bench that can play any of the three outfield positions, similar to the role Andrew Brown held for the past two seasons.
According to Baseball America, in the off-season prior to 2011 Puello was ranked as the organization’s third best prospect ahead of 2010 first round pick, Matt Harvey. He was rated as the best athlete in the Mets system at the time and has been known to have a cannon for an arm out in the outfield proven by his 8 outfield assists in 2013 for Binghamton and 9 outfield assists for Las Vegas in 2014. Puello has been slowly making his way through the Mets farm system, since being signed out of the Dominican Republic when he was just 17 years old, in 2008. In his first five seasons with the Mets, he never displayed great batting numbers, but was always on the radar because of his raw talents. Then in 2013, Puello was having a breakout year in Binghamton hitting 16 homers in 91 games, while sporting a .326 average. Many thought that this was the Puello that the Mets have been waiting on for years, but during August of that year it came out that Puello had a connection to the Biogenesis clinic that was also connected to Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, which left him with a 50 game suspension. He served out his suspension the rest of that year and was able to compete Opening Day of 2014 and prove that his season was not a fluke. He started out the year in Vegas and hit .244 in April and hitting no home runs. He did perform slightly better as the year went on, but not to the degree of his 2013 season. Had Puello not been suspended or had he not had a down year in 2014, then he would be in serious talks as a part of the Mets outfield going into this season. He looks to have blown his opportunity with Juan Lagares patrolling center and Curtis Granderson in one of the corner spots for the next few seasons and the rise of top prospects Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto.
The Mets also have a few options in Binghamton who could head to Vegas such as, Dustin Lawley, Kyle Johnson, Darrell Ceciliani, Travis Taijeron, and Brandon Nimmo. Out of those five, Ceciliani is the most likely to start the year in Vegas as he has spent the past two seasons in Binghamton showing that he can hit the ball well and swipe a few bases when needed. He also provided stellar defense for the B-Mets in 2014, by having a perfect fielding percentage when he played in center field, and only had one error the entire season in right field. Ceciliani and Nimmo are the only two going into 2015 under the age of 25, being 24 and 21, respectively. Nimmo will likely start in Double-A, but will definitely see Triple-A before the season is over and has the potential to be a September call-up. With a few open spots on the Vegas roster, the other three outfielders may see time there as well.
Vaughn and Puello will definitely be starting for the team, as it wouldn’t surprise me to see Puello get called up next season. I guess CF is either going to be den Dekker or Kirk, depending on the Mets acquiring a left fielder. It will be interesting to see what happens when Nimmo gets called up as well, because they’ll have to start him as an everyday outfielder.
What could end up happening is that Vaughn goes over to either first base or designated hitter. Since both Allan Dykstra and Brandon Allen are now free agents, the 51s do not have a first basemen. Jayce Boyd could come up from Double-A, but Vaughn may go over there and split time with Plawecki if the Mets keep him through the off-season.
The Mets for the most part know what they have with both den Dekker and Nieuwenhuis, left-handed bats off of the bench that play very well in any of the outfield positions. Also, I think Nieuwenhuis is out of options, so in order for the Mets to guarantee keeping him they would have to keep him on the 25-man roster or risk losing him through waivers. That could lead to den Dekker starting in Vegas or he could be part of the bench and Eric Young’s contract be non-tendered.
you no wat puello didnt have a terrible year he was on the bench most of the season and had less abats and still put up respectable numbers i really hope one day they give this kid a chance
Puello and Kirk are out of options. With Cuddyer ‘ s signing, I expect that Kirk will be in the bigs as he has pop, can play all 3 OF positions and showed proficiency off the bench. MDD has options and will be in CF. Puello is interesting as the Mets don’t really have a roster spot for him, but he might not pass through waivers. Taijeron will be there to start the year and I expect Nimmo yo be there by the end of the year.
Puello having a comeback year would not only prove naysayers wrong, but would give the Mets a huge advantage in dealings come July.