It surprises me that more’s not being made about the return of Jerry Blevins. He was generally effective his first go-round with the club, he’s a lefty and on top of that, he seems to be a likeable guy. Push comes to shove, it would be better to have him make the roster than, say, Robert Gsellman.
Is the lefty reliever cult dying off? Are there just too many relievers in camp and he’s just getting lost in the shuffle? Is everyone just sold on Aaron Loup?
With a 25-man roster and a 13/12 hitter/pitcher split, odds are against a lefty specialist being a smart use of a roster spot. But, with a 26-man roster, if you insist on carrying 14 pitchers, does that change the calculus? The answer doesn’t seem clear to me at this point. While it’s silly to me to carry 14 pitchers, it seems if you’re hell-bent on doing that – then carrying a guy to bring into the game when there are two outs, two runners on base and Freddie Freeman at the plate might not be an awful idea.
Of course, with Blevins on the mound, Freeman has a .480 lifetime AVG with a .760 SLG mark in 26 PA, the third-most of any batter against Blevins.
With the possibility of Lindor being extended, there is talk of Mauricio switching positions. Not long ago there were musings of Rosario in CF. At the time, I thought a Mauricio shift to the OF made more sense if Rosario & Gemenez were still in Queens. Does that make any sense now?
Mauricio has a 40 rating (below avg) in speed so CF is not a good fit. The corner outfielders ahead of him are Conforto, Nimmo, Smith and McNeil. At 3B they have Davis, Vientos and Baty. Assuming they sign Lindor and block him then they should give him reps and 2B and 3B in the minors.
Without a DH the roster should be split 13/13 using the Syracuse Shuttle for the back end of the bullpen. Five bench players are necessary order in to have the flexibility to pinch hit and to double switch. A LOOGY or a lefty pitcher that struggles with RHB isn’t necessary, especially with the new rule. Quality LH pitchers are necessary to gain an advantage but picking an inferior bullpen member just because he is lefthanded is foolish. Loup is a good signing but they should had signed Wilson also.
Top 5
1. I liked Shreve more than Blevins. Yes, we need lefties. Hoping Tarpley works out and Lucchesi… for Freeman, Soto, Harper… just about every game you need a LH to get a big out or two.
2. I’m done with Gsellman… if he is, despite the odds, suddenly going to become a MLB pitcher, let it be for someone else. Not worth a roster spot.
3. I’m high on Mauricio. Hit him fly balls every day to determine if he has the talent. Either way, he is destined for the bigs.
4. I’d rather have Mallex Smith and his speed for a late-inning SB than an extra pitcher that only gets used for mop ups. When you need the extra pitcher, call Syracuse.
5. McNeil seems overmatched at third. Davis/Guillorme seems enough for me. Villar a liability, especially on the left side.
McNeil is way overmatched at 3B. He should never be put there.
It really bothers me how these Mets pitchers are not cooperating. I mean, 17 strikeouts out of 27 outs? The defense sucks and these guys won’t let them practice? What the heck? How is McNeil going to get any better, or even Davis? When I was little we used to stand out there yelling to the pitcher to “let them hit it!” Of course back then the pitcher was walking the whole ballpark…
It was only a spring training game but was very impressive. Just one hit. 17 K’s. deGrom perfect three innings facing 9 batters and 7 of them with a consistent 100 mph fastball, a Alsonso homer and another highlight reel catch (two games a row) by Almora. Almora is having a good spring and is carving a niche as the late inning defensive outfielder.
Some news on former Mets:
As Giménez excels, Rosario tries outfield
“It has been three weeks of Spring Training, but Giménez has given everyone a taste of why he was so high on Cleveland’s wish list. The 22-year-old entered Thursday with a .333 batting average and 1.242 OPS in six Cactus League games. Not only has he been hot at the plate, but Giménez has showcased his arm by throwing a runner out at the plate on a relay from the outfield and has played stellar defense each time he has taken the field.
“He’s solid,” Francona said. “He makes all the routine plays. He’s a solid baseball player. That’s what everybody talks so much about him, even at his age, but he’s a baseball player. And he makes all the plays. That’s a big compliment to a young kid.”
https://www.mlb.com/news/andres-gimenez-tightens-grip-on-shortstop
I like Blevins but he didn’t throw well the other day. If he didn’t get the call on his big sweeping curve he seemed to lose the plate. We can’t possibly think that he is just a developing lefty and we need to be patient. He’ll start the season in Syracuse and we can all root for him to be good enough to get the call. We knew what we had with Gimenez, but in giving him up we picked up someone who is a star and coming into his prime. Happy to see Gimenez succeed. Makes for happy future trade partners.
This is shaping up to be the first spring in a long time that there will be some guys that don’t make the opening day roster that I feel could help the club. Some will leave/be cut and perhaps wind up elsewhere. That’s a good problem to have, but it does add some pressure to make the correct calls on guys the team can’t control beyond March without an MLB job.
I want to relate something here about Rosario. There was one moment when I saw him chasing down a pop fly down the line when I witnessed his extraordinary speed, and I thought then and there that he was an outfielder! Just imagine letting him run down balls into the alleys.
The Mets never truly explored this. He was still so young and had offensive potential, so it made such sense to give him a legit shot. They apparently didn’t. A smarter organization might get themselves a highly-productive OFer.
Personally, I was kinda glad to see him gone because I was not sold on his ability to improve offensively. I mean, no steal attempts in 2020? Does he have a passion to win? I really did not see it. Shortstops can’t be passive players in the bigs. Not to mention I hated his back foot moving on every swing… nobody ever addressed that?
It appeared from afar that Rosario was the golden child that no one wanted to offend. Then, he buddied up with Cano and he wouldn’t even try another position. On another team, he doesn’t have status as a top prospect, he’s just one player and will need to perform in order to see the field. On the Mets, he never had competition until last year and he wasn’t prepared to fight for his job.
Rosario wasn’t a good shortstop. Will he hit well enough to be an OFer? In this era of analytics Power trumps Defense.
If it were my team to orchestrate, Rosario would have learned to hit to all fields (he had great pop to right-center), shortened his swing, learned to bunt (he absolutely couldn’t) and draw more walks. If he could get to a .285 type hitter, raise his OBP, with 20 steals, he would be valuable to any team as utility IF and some OF potential as well.
Instead, he may become a bench player by his mid twenties.
Gimenez, on the other hand, is a stud. Might be an All-Star by his mid twenties… line drive hitter… a man already at 21.
This will make me sound old but here goes. Every year since I was a teen, at this time of year I would run out to buy a baseball bible. Street & Smith and Sporting News put out this great reference magazine that was really robust and informative, way beyond those rag previews put out by Athlon, Lindy’s and SI. Sadly, both Sporting News and S&S have now stopped publishing. I even made a special trip to barnes and noble as I had to the past few years to find it, but alas, all they had were those ghastly ones not worth the price. 🙁
Back in the day I loved the Bill James Abstract.