A footnote to your comment:
“The Benson trade also included Jose Bautista ….”
It also included Anna Benson, a gal who brought unintended consequences but could always be counted on to fill a couple of scandal columns in newspapers. lol

If you can’t handle that then you sure as hell are never going to learn 2B which has a lot more anticipation than Catcher and actually requires you to cove more ground while doing so!

The hard part of catching isn’t catching the ball it is blocking balls in the dirt and calling pitches.

The Blocking can be learned rather quickly and the calling of pitches is largely a DECISION of the pitcher not the Catcher!

It is the calling a game part that takes time but the actualy physical playing of the position is easy, anyone that can catch a ball can pretty much do that part!

We might have to go with one of them in RF and that alone will allow everyone to go first to 3rd and 2nd to home as well as a few other assorted adventures.

It’s going to take a couple of years to get a well rounded, well conceived roster together but we do need to put a ML team out there.

Having a guy with 6 months experience behind the plate catching K-Rod would be funnier than having Hundley in LF.

Passed balls and wild pitches galore.

Even Thole who was drafted as a catcher had 250 games in the minors before he was allowed to catch K-Rod and he was only up here to begin with because we had no one else.

Manuel only gave him the soft throwers like Figgy and Misch and then pinch hit for him before the 9th.

Lots of bat liability with the glove.
If we are keeping Murphy then Duda is expendable, Evans can play any OF position.
You lose a little power in the name of average but I think it is worth the trade off considering how many questions there are regarding Bay and Beltran.

in 6 Months he could be a decent late inning replacement for Thole where guys like K-Rod call their own pitches anyway. Like I said playing catcher is a reactionary position in much the way 3B is. Those traits WILL translate!

The only question is can he call a game. Well as I pointed out with a guy like K-Rod and Dickey who call their own game pretty much that skill is not as important and he could get some of those innings that normally would be done in the Minors while still on the ML roster.

Catcher is not as hard to play as you think. It’s basically catch with some skill at getting in front of the ball in the dirt.

Not a very hard skill to learn actually!
Would I let him call and catch a game with Niese out there? No! but if he is going to fill a utility role it stands to reason that more positions he can play to get his ABs in the better!
Having a 3rd catcher is always a good thing especially when the guy is a utility at two other positions.

Catcher is not a position that any other position skills transfer over to. ML catchers generally catch 1800 – 2400 innings in the minors before coming up and they usually start with having already played there for years.

Yes he would need 6 months to a year in the minors.
His biggest hurdle would be in calling the game.
The physical fielding is easy your pretty much just get in front of the ball and don’t let it by you. Do lots of squats to build up leg strength and then learn the footwork to come up throwing. The skills are actually very similar to a 3B only you don’t need the range! It’s a very reactive position though!

If we were closer to winning something it might be a different story but right now with all the othr question marks it really doesn’t pay to sign a guy like that.

Makes sense for the Yankees though.

I’d hate to see him go but it would probably be best for him and the team.

Look at 2004. Duquette gets the interim GM tag and feels the pressure to make his mark. Well we’re still feeling the pain of his making his mark.

The waste of a year with Reyes at 2B, another blown draft, 21 M and s*** play from Matsui and most of all the trade of Kazmir for a guy who at very best was a not a good pitcher and hurt when we got him anyway.

The Benson trade also included Jose Bautista at the Pirates request so when you boil down 2004 you realize that we absolutely make the playoffs in 2007 and 2008 if we had Kazmir. We could very likely have won the World Series in 2006 with him as well who knows. We also would have had a much better chance with Bautista & Pedroia on the right side than Church/Francouer and Castillo/Emaus and with Pedroia going 2nd round #65 we could have and should have addressed this chronic weakness and not just assumed Reyes would stay there and Matsui would be great.

These owners aren’t going to safeguard the future, if the GM starts to feel the pressure these extremely shortsighted moves can and will be made, and the impact of them can be felt for a decade.

Just imagine we hold onto Kazmir. He has three great seasons and two good seasons from 2005 – 2009. Even if we sign him and he winds up hurt at least we got those great seasons out of him, and no way we sign Ollie and at 27 Kazmir might regain what he has lost.

Personally I believe Kazmir pushes us over St. L, helps us beat Detroit. We win the series.

Pressure’s off Omar, he’s now got room to breathe. Just like Theo did when he got one in HIS 2nd year. Only difference is the Mets really were Omar’s team, Theo inherited almost everyone.

I bet you anything Omar tell everyone, with the age of the staff (40, 40, 40 34, 24) and the age of the position players (35, 35, 37, 24, 24, ? 30, 35) we have to get a younger, a step back may be necessary he can set the team up for the next few years now because there’s no pressure.

The prior two GM’s going for broke caused a lot of problems for Omar. Considering how little extra he needed in 2007 or 2008 anyone of those shortsighted moves by Phillips or Duquette being vetoed would have made all the difference.

The likelihood is that Murphy would be worth more to the team as part of a trade. New talent without the square peg vs. round hole problem would bring a better fit for the team’s needs.

Plenty of ML teams could use a good hitting back up corner infielder, we could too but with so many other needs the chance of bringing in a guy who can really play 2B as well as 3B, 1B and has played SS for many years hits a lot of doubles and a few HR’s would be a better conceived roster spot and who knows, could seize 2B and make it his if Havens/Tejada/Emaus/Turner don’t.

Exchanging Murph who I think would make a very decent 3B for someone (SF?) could get us better and solve a very long term need.

Omar and his field managers really screwed up in the handling of Murphy. Your words nail it. Murphy was a victim of unfounded high expectations, considering his lack of background in the minors (he had a total of 3 games and 11 PO’s as an outfielder in the minors). The Mets management showed that misfeasance is not restricted to politics. The only other guy handled as bad as Murphy was Jenrry Mejia. Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya should have been dismissed for doing what they did to Jenrry. But that’s another story which has yet to play out in terms of what it’s done to Mejia’s career.

Because he’s still very hittable? Give him more time in AAA. Our pen won’t worsen because Parnell goes down. Beato can bring the heat as well. Just because the O’s didn’t bring him up means nothing. Mike O’Connor was great last year in AAA & the Mets never brought him up either.