Mets trade away Top Infield Prospect Dilson Herrera to the Cincinnati Reds for outfielder Jay Bruce. (Photo by: Gabe Rodriguez/LOD)
On Monday, the New York Mets decided that they needed to make some sort of splash that would help with a playoff run, so they unloaded their future for a outfield that is already loaded, rather than filling their need in the bullpen. That was purely evident on Monday night against the New York Yankees, as the bullpen blew a 5-3 lead en-route to a 6-5, 10 innings loss to the Yankees in game one of the Subway Series at Citi Field.
In July, there were significant injuries to David Wright, Juan Lagares, Matt Harvey and even newly acquired Jose Reyes, so the Mets decided to sign free agent Right fielder Justin Ruggiano. Then on Trade day, it was in their best interest that picking up another power hitting outfielder that is batting .218 in July was the best fit for the team. Initially the trade was to involve top prospect Brandon Nimmo, who is an outfielder, and has seen sometime on the big club within the last few weeks. But supposedly a player, who was not mentioned, was holding up the deal due to some sort of health issues, so since the Mets felt they had to make the deal, they sent their top infield prospect Dilson Herrera to Cincinnati along with left pitcher Max Wotell for outfielder Jay Bruce.
I have strong feelings about the move and I totally understand that the Mets feel that Bruce is a perfect fit, but rather then force the issue and trade away your future, why not stand pat and work with what you already have. I really do not see Bruce being the savior the way Yoenis Cespedes was last season, as he led the team to the post season and then Daniel Murphy led them to the World Series.
Yesterday during the Mets/Yankees game, GM Sandy Alderson was in the SNY booth and he was talking about the trade and why they made the deal. One thing that stood out was his reasoning behind moving Herrera as he stated that they have Jose Reyes under contract and that they could slide him into the position for the 2017 season. So your telling us Mr. Alderson that instead of looking forward, the Mets will be going backwards and hoping to relive the glory days when Reyes was a huge star. Wow that makes so much more sense now.
The main things is that Mets fans want a winner so the front office has to deliver, but when you make a move by shipping away a prospect with so much promise for a player that plays only one position, and now you have to move the outfield around and put guys out of position just to accommodate, then your putting your team in a position to fail.
Manager Terry Collins knows about his team being put in a position to fail as he was quoted back in May as he talked about not asking his players to play small ball or do anything they are not comfortable doing.
“We’ve got guys up there who are swinging the bat and all of a sudden you take that away from them and tell them you got to bunt and other things, you are asking them to fail.” Collins continued, “It’s easy to talk about it. Everybody thinks these guys are robots and they can do anything you want, they can’t. There are certain things they do and they do well.”
So now Bruce will man right field, which pushes Curtis Granderson to center field, and when Cespedes returns from a few days off due to a tight right quad, he will then play left field, and most likely Michael Conforto will compete for playing time with Grandy in center, but wait they are both left handed hitters, so that won’t work, then your not going to have Cespedes share playing time with Conforto in left, so then I guess Conforto goes to the bench. But you already have Alejandro De Aza and Brandon Nimmo on the bench who are also lefty bats, so who gets the call and why so many lefty bats in the outfield. Man that is so confusing, oh but the Mets have it all figured out.
The one shining thing is that newly signed free agent Justin Ruggiano is a right handed batter, oh wait he went down with a mild strain of his left hamstring during Mondays game, so he may be out a few games.
So at the end of the day you didn’t address your bullpen woes, traded away the future for the past and added an outfielder to an already loaded outfield. Yeah makes sense for a great playoff run.
Hopefully Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz, Noah Syndergaard, the ageless Bartolo Colon and Jon Niese, who was brought back in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, will be the reason why the Mets have any chance of competing with the Chicago Cubs or Washington Nationals for the NL crown.
Hey if the moves bring the Mets a World Series title, then GM Alderson is the smartest baseball mind on the planet, and the rest of us are just ranting fans.
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