Mets sign Omar Quintanilla
The Mets announced that they signed Omar Quintanilla to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training.
Quintanilla played 11 games for the Texas Rangers last season, where he was 1 for 22. He spent the majority of 2011 with the Rangers’ Triple A affiliate in Rolling Rock, where he hit .298 with five home runs and a .369 on-base percentage.
He has played parts of six seasons, mostly with the Colorado Rockies. Quintanilla is a career .213 hitter in the Major Leagues, having played 104 of his 213 games at second base and 96 at shortstop.
Quintanilla is a former first round draft pick by the Oakland Athletics, going 33rd overall in the 2003 draft.
The Mets have acknowledged that Quintanilla missed the first part of the 2011 season while completing a 50 game suspension after violating the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program in 2010.
My Last Jose Reyes Post
With it becoming more and more likely that Jose Reyes becomes a Miami Marlin (yup…a MIAMI Marlin), I’m seeing Mets fans grow increasingly disgusted with the team. With the deal rumored to be at five years and $95 million, you can be certain that Reyes will be stealing bases in that hideous uniform next year.
The Mets have said early on that they’ll make their offer and let Reyes test the free agent market. Reyes did that, and loved Miami. He’s good friends with current shortstop Hanley Ramirez. Ozzie Guillen likes the kind of player that Jose Reyes is. It seems like a perfect fit for Reyes.
That being said, the Mets are losing the NL batting champion and a player who has been consistently among the league leaders in stolen bases. I can see why people are upset.
If the Marlins have that kind of money, why couldn’t the Mets splurge on Jose Reyes?
Mets insiders say that the Mets are trying to get their payroll down to around the $100-110 million mark. With a good majority of that money going to David Wright, Jason Bay, and Johan Santana, the team has to prioritize their needs.
If/when Reyes leaves, Daniel Murphy will be the starting second baseman. Until Jose Constanza slid into his left knee, Murphy was also among the league leaders in batting average. You also have Ike Davis to consider. The changes to Citi Field’s dimensions should also benefit a number of players on the Mets lineup.
We won’t know how anything goes until the 2012 season. But it looks like Ruben Tejada is your Opening Day shortstop.
Mets Hot Stove: We need pitching
The Hot Stove season is finally here!
The Mets have 8 players who are free agents this season: Jose Reyes, Chris Capuano, Scott Hairston, Chris Young, Miguel Batista, Jason Isringhausen, Dale Thayer, and Ryota Igarashi.
The Mets also have five players who are eligible for arbitration this winter: Mike Pelfrey, Angel Pagan, Manny Acosta, Ronny Paulino, and Taylor Buchholz.
Seeing the list off free agents this offseason, it’s clear to me what our greatest need is: pitching. Sandy Alderson said himself that our next closer is not in the organization. So I guess the Bobby Parnell experiment is over.
Pitching can only do so much. I’m sure the Mets will talk seriously with Jose Reyes about re-signing. A player can say he wants to stay with the Mets forever, but a team could offer him more time, more money and he can immediately jump ship. The Jose Reyes situation could go either way and I wouldn’t be surprised.
But we need pitching, more specifically bullpen help. This past season, I cringed every time we had to go to the bullpen, cringed every time we sent Parnell in to pitch the 9th. Just because he has a 100 MPH fastball, it doesn’t make him a closer. We need a closer. We need a reliable guy to pitch the 8th inning. We need a more reliable bullpen. R.A. Dickey had a great season; his record doesn’t reflect that because of a combination of lack of offense and a crappy bullpen.
I’m cutting the offense some slack because we basically had a team of rookies, and Jason Bay. Plus Ike Davis will be back so that instantly boosts your offense. Also, as long as Daniel Murphy bats third, we’ll be okay. We just need an outfielder with some pop. More pop than Jason Bay.
I’m curious to see what the Mets do this offseason to try and get the players they need, while at the same time cutting down the payroll. Should be interesting to watch.
David Wright to the Phillies? Please God, no!
According to MetsBlog, the Phillies like David Wright. Well, so do the Rockies.
At least if he were on the Rockies, we wouldn’t have to face him 18 times a year.
According to Jayson Stark, the Phillies might be looking for an upgrade at third, but Wright (in the worst season of his career) might not be much of an upgrade over Placido Polanco. Polanco hit .277 with 19 extra base hits and 50 RBI this season in 122 games.
In 102 games, Wright had a .254 average, 38 extra base hits and 61 RBI.
The rumor that’s being discussed in Philadelphia is Wright for Dom Brown and Vance Worley. According to Stark, there’s no way that the talks could be so far down the line.
Wright is owed $15 million in 2012 while Polanco is owed $6.25 million. Wright’s 2013 $16 million option becomes void if he is traded to another team.
The thing is, I see Wright on the 2012 Opening Day roster. If the Mets are still contending at the trade deadline, I don’t see the team swapping him at that time either. If the Mets are playing for dignity, I could see a swap to save money.
But I was going to trade David Wright, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to trade him to a division rival. I’d be okay if he went to any other team in any other division. Ideally for me, he would be in the American League…or on the Rockies.
David Wright is still the face of this team. I think if the Mets are seriously considering slashing their payroll by swapping Wright, then they need to weigh their options and the consequences of each potential swap. I would make a demand and not settle for any less. Because if the Mets are going to swap Wright, they’re gonna have to get a helluva lot to smooth things over with the fans.
Looking Ahead: 2012 Offense
It’s really hard to look ahead on something that could go either way.
If the Mets, by some miracle, re-sign Jose Reyes, then all you really need is another outfielder with some pop. And to bring in the fences at Citi Field.
However, we have to look at the possibility that the Mets don’t get Reyes back. Reyes led the NL in batting average and multi-hit games last season. If you lose Reyes, you’re losing a lot of hits.
I really sincerely believe that the Mets need to find a place for Daniel Murphy on this team. Before Murphy got hurt in August, he was also among the league leaders in hitting. Plus, if you’re like me, you said the same thing when he got hurt: “Well, the season’s over now.”
If you’re like me, the next thing you would have said is, “Well, they still David Wright.”
Wright is coming off the worst season of his career, and he still managed to lead the team in home runs and RBIs. And he missed two months of the season. Before 2009, Wright was never an injury risk, playing in 160 games each year. Then Matt Cain hit a fastball to his head and ended up on my hit list. I blame the 2006 Home Run Derby and the 2009 concussion for D-Dubs not being D-Dubs.
We also have another weapon in our arsenal that we may be overlooking: Ike Davis. Before he collided with David Wright in the strangest collision ever, Davis was among the team leaders in every offensive category. He was seeing the ball wall, he was producing runs, he was doing everything Terry Collins could ever ask for. I really felt 2011 was going to be the year Ike became a superstar. Now, I just blame David.
I also like Lucas Duda, who was Davis’s replacement for a good part of the season. Not only does he have the best hair on the team, Duda has the potential to be a strong number five hitter. Last season, Duda posted a .292 batting average with 10 home runs, 50 RBI, along with a .370 on-base percentage and a .420 SLG. And that was only in 100 games; imagine if Duda was your every day right fielder and he was playing in 60 more games. Plus it’s a fun name to say.
Again, I really think that the Mets can do okay with what we have. We did okay with what we had last season; we’re not the Phillies, but nobody expects us to be the Phillies. Every newspaper picked us to finish dead last and we came in fourth. Yay us! I don’t think 2012 will be a playoff year, but I think it will be a “get the team above .500 year.”
I’d be happy with .500 and no longer being the laughing stock of baseball. Thanks, 2011 Boston Red Sox, for helping me with one goal!
Mets will hire Bob Geren as Bench Coach
According to multiple reports, the Mets will hire Bob Geren to be their next bench coach.
Former Oakland Athletics manager Geren is practically guaranteed the position. However, Adam Rubin of ESPN New York says the team still plans to interview Dave Jauss, who served as Jerry Manuel’s bench coach in 2010.
Geren served as A’s manager from 2007 until he got fired midway through this past season. His record was 334-376.
Cleaning up house can only do so much. The Mets need to hire diversely, people with different backgrounds and different experiences in the game. Hopefully, the Mets hire a first base coach with outfield experience, since new third base coach Tim Teufel has infield experience.
But coaching can only do so much; they don’t have to bat or pitch or field the ball (anymore). The players have to come to the field amped up and ready to win. They should almost do a firesale and bring up AAA Buffalo…wait…that happened already.
Looking Ahead: 2012 without Jose Reyes
There is a very strong possibility that Jose Reyes might not be a Met come 2012. There might be too much of a gap between what the team can give him and what he wants. He might want Carl Crawford money when Carl Crawford isn’t even worth Carl Crawford money.
So Terry Collins has to think under the assumption that Jose Reyes is not a Met.
He has Ruben Tejada, who filled in for Reyes while he was on the disabled list and when Terry decided to give him a day off. Tejada played in 96 games this season (totally did not realize that), 41 of them at shortstop. Tejada only had eight errors compared to Reyes’s 18.
But being 21 years old, Tejada might still benefit from the minors, seeing as pretty much the Mets were pretty much made up of the Buffalo Bisons and Jason Bay.
Another option the Mets have is Justin Turner, who is normally a second baseman by trade, but has been known to moonlight at short. By moving Turner to short, that allows for Daniel Murphy to play second base, a position he was learning to play when he was plagued by injury. Murphy’s bat played a big part of the Mets being in the thick of things as long as they were. Once we lost Murphy’s bat, the season was over. I want Daniel Murphy somewhere on this field. And second base might be his spot.
As for what the Mets should focus on instead, I think they should focus on an outfielder with some pop. Jason Bay, while excellent defensively, has no pop. I’m still waiting for him to pop. And of course, there’s always a need for pitching, unless you’re the stupid Phillies. We need pitching all around in my opinion. Starters, relievers…where’s Billy Beane when you need him?
Why the Mets can’t trade David Wright
If any of you are coming over from the old blog, then you know I have a strong bias towards David Wright. No, really I do.
With the future of Jose Reyes up in the air and an inkling of news that the Rockies might pursue Wright this offseason, the Mets really need to lay all their cards on the table and sort this whole mess out.
The Mets haven’t started contract talks with Reyes yet and have previously said that Wright is unavailable. However, if Jose Reyes re-signs for big money, the situation might change for Wright, who is owed $15 million next season with a $16 million club option for 2013.
If Wright is traded to the Rockies (or any other team), he loses the option and the team basically just rents him for a season.
Wright is coming off the worst season of his career after missing 60 games thanks to a back injury. Wright hit a .254 with 14 home runs and 61 RBI, and sadly, he led the team in both of the latter categories.
However, Wright is still a career .300 hitter who is on track to becoming what I like to call a “legacy Met.”
Plus, Wright is homegrown and can be a positive influence on other young prospects, including Brandon Nimmo. Wright is now that veteran presence in the clubhouse to younger players, even though I think he needs to watch The Dead Poet’s Society and get some inspiration.
No matter what kind of year he’s having, Wright will always have a fan base, namely the female fan base. People will always go to Citi Field or watch the game on SNY because they love him. Trading away Wright might cause a Seaver-esque meltdown amongest not just the female population, but all the fans.
So, bring in the walls. Get David Wright back to the 2007 David Wright and quit your whining! Trading away your one of your star players in the prime of his career is nonsense, especially when you might lose another star player to free agency.
Should the Mets pass on Jose Reyes?
The big question this offseason has been whether or not to re-sign Jose Reyes. Many Mets fans have made many legitimate arguments about why the Mets should sign him:
-Jose Reyes brings fans
-Jose Reyes brings ratings
-Jose Reyes is a catalyst
But even though Jose Reyes might help the team economically or on the field, I’m one of the ones that thinks we should let him go.
Why such blasphemy!
Jose Reyes is injury prone. I don’t know whether the fact that he won the NL batting title is a statement about the rest of the National League or that it’s a statement about what kind of player he is. His hamstring issues have become a problem over the last three seasons and Carl Crawford money is a lot of money to waste on someone who might miss 30 or more games for the next four years.
Sure, he won the NL batting title, but he did it the cheap way. If you really respected your fans, you would play the whole game knowing that it might be your last game in a Mets uniform. You didn’t see Ted Williams sit out when he got to the last day of the regular season with a .400 batting average; he played both games of a double header and raised that number to .406.
We have a guy named Ruben Tejada who also happens to play shortstop! Shocker! Sure, Tejada has to work on his hitting, but defensively, I love watching him play. You can tell Tejada wants to be out there every day. Give the kid a chance.
Signing Jose Reyes might help the Mets economically, but it also might help the Mets if he doesn’t re-sign. If he signs with a top 15 team (i.e. Phillies, Yankees), we get their first round pick plus a pick plus a pick from the compensation round, that lovely round in the draft that gave us David Wright. Of course, I’m assuming Jose Reyes will be classified as a Type A free agent.
Plus, the Mets could really use the money to pay Bobby Bonilla for 24 more years.
Pass on Jose Reyes, let Ruben Tejada play, and for god’s sake…sign a pitcher instead!
Johan Santana will finish throwing on Saturday
Johan Santana will finish his rehab program on Saturday, when the Mets Instructional League ends.
Santana threw 4 innings on September 30 and will play catch and long ball up until Saturday, after which he will go on medically perscribed rest.
The Mets are optimistic that Santana will be ready for 2012, as are the Mets fans.
Santana had shoulder surgery on September 14, 2010 and missed the entire 2011 season because of it. I think the Mets did the right thing by not rushing Santana back, especially considering we weren’t playing for any division title, or even a winning record.
On the other hand, Johan Santana at like 80-85% has got to be better than 100% Mike Pelfrey. With a more consistent 1-2 punch, assuming the 1-2 punch is Santana-Dickey, I think the Mets have a decent shot to at least win 85 games next year. It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen with so many things, but no matter what happens, they should be able to win at least half their games next year.
