Even though I’m a bear when it comes to the MLB prospects of Jake Mangum, I’m shocked that the Mets did not add him to the 40-man roster and left him unprotected for the upcoming Rule 5 Draft. You want guys on the 40-man who can give you something and Mangum was hands down the best player in the org to provide CF cover for the club in the majors. And that seems especially important given the free agency status of Brandon Nimmo. Instead of Mangum, the Mets have Khalil Lee, Darin Ruf and a bunch of non-descript relief candidates. My opinion is Lee isn’t worth much but there are people who still believe otherwise despite all evidence to the contrary. There’s no way my 40-man would have Sean Reid-Foley over Mangum.
In other recent Mets news, the club hired Jeff Alpert to be the team’s director of hitting. Alpert comes to the Mets after stints with the Astros and Cardinals. He served as the hitting coach for St. Louis the past three seasons and did not exactly win raves from the fanbase in his role. However, the organization wanted him to return. But Alpert didn’t stick around for more verbal and virtual abuse. This addition comes on the heels of the club hiring Eric Jagers as their director of pitching. Put me down as thinking that these two positions will provide more value to the organization than a PoBO.
Last but certainly not least – congratulations to Buck Showalter for winning Manager of the Year! Having someone in the dugout who knows all of the angles is so, so, so much more important than having a great communicator who can charm the press. May the masses never fall for that form of snake oil ever again.
It is disappointing and surprising that Mangum is not on the 40 man roster. He strikes me as a guy who was not born with all-star talent but makes up for it with baseball IQ, hustle, and heart. Kind of like a McNeil or a Nimmo. He tore up AAA for the last month and it would be a shame to lose him. It would be great to see what he could do in Syracuse for a full year and be ready for a call-up if needed. That Nimmo is likely gone makes this even more important. Add in the fact that they only filled 32 of the 40 slots means that they think they can do better by claiming other teams castoffs in the Rule 5 Draft in a few weeks. Puzzling.
Most, if not all, of the open spots are for eventual free agent signings rather than 8 choices in the Rule 5 Draft.
Mets aren’t claiming guys in the Rule 5 draft! Mangum is 26 and has never been a prospect. Relax.
Sounds like what they said about McNeil.
It was great to see Buck win manager of the year and it was clearly well deserved. I admittedly was one who felt that the manager didn’t make nearly the impact that the players did (although I didn’t think that being able to charm the press was important) and Buck proved me wrong. This makes me think about managers salaries and how much teams invest in them. It’s very hard to quantify the number of wins that a manager brings to his team, but how many did Buck bring to the Mets? 5? More? Less? Buck’s contract is for 3/$11.25M or about $3.75M per year. I’ve seen different values of WAR in terms of salary, but it seems like it ranges from $5 – $8M. If that is the case managers salaries are not valued the same as players in terms of how many wins they can bring. Would a team be better off spending more on a great manager than a good player? For sake of argument, if Buck brought 5 wins to the team because of his managerial prowess, should he be worth $25 – $40M? I have a hard time thinking that Buck was more valuable than Scherzer (who had an fWAR of 4.4), but maybe he was. Either way, is Scherzer worth more than 10x as much? I know that there’s no real measurement for managers, but I’d love to see one someday. It might change the way that front offices look at managers.
Congratulations to Mr. Showalter. Glad he’s coming back for another crack.
Not protecting Mangum may be/seem shortsighted; or….maybe the Mets do think that they’ll be able to sign Nimmo.
How many rule 5 picks are eventually returned because the selecting team decided they needed the roster spot and couldn’t keep the player on the big league roster all season. There must be other team’s Magnums out there that might be worthy to snag. Don’t you feel Buck got us ten wins? There were so many strong fundamental things the Mets did well last year and the coaching staff brought out the talent. Any manager can be second guessed especially when the mistake is obvious. But by and large Buck was spot on and made our players better.
My guess is the majority get offered back.
Wikipedia has the results of the Rule 5 Draft following the 2020 season. There were 18 selections, 8 of them were returned, 2 were claimed off waivers and 2 others were traded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_5_draft_results
I’m a fan of Mangum though clearly in a small minority here. I hope he gets to play on another team and demonstrate his value.
Brian, in an article this past week, you mentioned a Mets site that served as a clearinghouse for all Mets news on other sites. Would you post the link to that site again? Thanks.
https://metsnewsandlinks.blogspot.com/
Much thanks. Hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I think Mangum might be the more useful player to the Mets but understand that Lee is more “valuable” which is ultimately frustrating.
Darin Ruf should be gone. Why isn’t he?
Right now I am wondering how the pitching market shakes out. I’m currently hoping the Mets retain deGrom (I might be the minority here) and bring on Senga and another solid starter. I just read through an absolutely absurd prediction list that suggested the Mets would not be getting deGrom, Verlander, Rodon, Senga or Bassit… which is highly unlikely.
I would like the Mets to talk with Cody Bellinger as Brandon Nimmo looks to be getting a ton of attention and may prove to be too pricey.
1. Starling Marte, RF
2. Jeff McNeil, 2B
3. Francisco Lindor, SS
4. Pete Alonso, 1B
5. Cody Bellinger, CF
6. Francisco Alvarez, C
7. Eduardo Escobar, 3B
8. Daniel Vogelbach/Mark Vientos, DH
9. Mark Canha, LF
I can’t believe that they cut Magnum so soon especially when there was room on the 40 man roster.
If Nimmo doesn’t sign then Bellinger for CF would be my choice too. He is an above average defensive CF and 1B with power and some upside because he’s only 27 and it should be just a 1 year commitment.
Another option is replacing Nimmo with Benintendi a high OPS guy but no power. Another option would be Haniger or Conforto. Marte switch to CF which is not ideal.
I don’t want Ruf either but he has a contract of $3m so the prudent thing to do would be to trade him, if they can, and not cut him yet.