5
2012
Should Mets Consider Bringing Mike Pelfrey Back?
An article by 
Mike Pelfrey surfaced on the Mets’ radar yesterday when he showed up in St. Louis to participate in the team’s fantasy football draft. Pelfrey was shelved almost immediately and underwent Tommy John surgery, May 1.
Most likely, he’ll be non-tendered in December because he’s arbitration eligible and made $5.6875 million this season. The rules state players must make at least 80 percent of their previous year’s salary, but in reality rarely take a pay cut.
Should the Mets re-sign Pelfrey for a lower salary, Terry Collins said he’d consider him in the bullpen, which is not the first time the Mets have done so. Willie Randolph thought about it during the epic collapse of 2007.
I realize Pelfrey has fallen short of expectations, especially when now compared with Matt Harvey. However, the Mets’ rotation is precariously thin with Johan Santana and Dillon Gee coming off injuries – Harvey unproven, and not knowing what to expect from their minor league system.
Pitching is always at a premium and three years ago Pelfrey looked as if he was making a breakthrough. That potential could still be there. I’d rather that the chance on Pelfrey regaining that previous form than the Mets shopping in the dark in the discount aisle.
Because, after all, who doesn’t expect a rotation breakdown next year?
Thoughts From Joe D.
I’m not that keen on bringing Mike Pelfrey back at all, even at a deeply discounted rate. I’m tired of all the losing, and I’m tired of seeing all the same faces. We really need to give this team a face-lift and I’m not talking about just revamping the bullpen or the bench as we have the last two seasons.
I get the point John is making here, but if you want to add depth to the rotation to protect the team from future breakdowns, why bring back a pitcher who was never more than mediocre at best (50-54, 4.36 ERA, 1.46 WHIP)?
Furthermore, who is to say that Pelfrey himself won’t breakdown after coming off surgery?
Even if he were to comeback healthy, he won’t be 100% until his second season following his return. Why would we need to rely on someone who would be less than what he was next season – less than mediocre, or in other words just plain bad?
Lets move on already…
About the Author: John Delcos
I am an active member of the BBWAA and have covered Major League Baseball in several capacities for over 20 years, including ten in New York working the Mets' and Yankees' beat. I covered the Baltimore Orioles for eight years and the Cleveland Indians before that. I currently serve as an editor and senior staff writer for Mets Merized Online. Follow me on Twitter @jdelcos.
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Should Mets Consider Bringing Mike Pelfrey Back?”
HELL NO!!!!!!!
“We really need to give this team a face-lift and I’m not talking about just revamping the bullpen or the bench as we have the last two seasons”
Joe D, you mean, you’re up for trading wright as well?? I mean, with him on board the mets have won NOTHING as it was said about jose reyes… You ready to also trade the Golden Boy????
Maybe on a Chris Young type deal. See if he can still pitch and use him to spell some guys.
But you can’t really say a guy coming off major arm surgery is an insurance policy for 2 other guys coming off major arm surgery.
In total agreement with you Donal! I wouldn’t mind at a fraction of what he made in the past and HE MUST EARN IT!!! Even if that means he starts the season at AAA then makes it back up later in the year.
Agree, Donal,
Sign him to a minor league contract and see if he earns his way back. If he does well, fine, if he doesn’t, we are not at a loss. And if he signs with another organization, well, good luck.
The only problem with that is if the money is spent on another pitcher and he is comes through in the Sandy Alderson tradition of Capuano, Carasco, Young (injury), Rameriz, etc…, and Pelfrey is pitching great, will Sandy spend extra money to call Pelfrey up and take the place of one he is already commited to contractually wise. As we know, every penny counts with this organization.
“The only problem with that is if the money is spent on another pitcher and he is comes through in the Sandy Alderson tradition of Capuano, Carasco, Young (injury), Rameriz, etc…, ”
Ummm, Young and Capuano actually pitched pretty well for the Mets. I have no idea how you are trying to spin there contributions as something negative.
“will Sandy spend extra money to call Pelfrey up ”
What extra money? The bus ticket? Contracts exist for a reason.
“nd take the place of one he is already commited to contractually wise. ”
You mean like how Santana was shut down early?
Do you know what “Depth” means?
They are negative because they did nothing to fix the team, mere bandaids that did nothing to make the season they played in a winner and did nothing for the long term health and success of the team!
Sure we got them cheap but if they were that cheap we should have doubled or tripled down, signed them to a 2 or 3 year contract so we would be able to keep on saving money while the longer term fixes were made!
And if they did what they did then you would have some good trade chips to go and get something that has a longer lasting impact!
They were hasty short term, short sighted deals that wasted opportunities and did nothing except pay some guy to reclaim his career on our dime!
Essentially we have become a FA Development squad for the rest of the MLB!
And when Young and Hairston sign elsewhere what did we get for that?
ZILCH!
I don’t feel like shuffling through your word soup to try and find a cohesive thought. So, take your lithium and then get back to me.
“I don’t feel like shuffling through your word soup to try and find a cohesive thought.”
Translation: What Metsie said makes too much sense and was posted in english and my limited brain can’t find a way to counter it so I will just insult him as a crazy person and get the hell out of dodge!
LOL
Yes, that is it. It certainly can’t be that your post is a self contradictory mess.
Impress us all with your mastery of the english language and post or illustrate the contradiction!
Comon Smart Ass show us all how good you are!
CoMon provides a monitoring statistics for PlanetLab at both a node level and a slice level. It can be used to see what is affecting the performance of nodes, and to examine the resource profiles of individual experiments.
Doesn’t seem to fit?
Hi Donal,
Despite a record of one game below .500 last season, Capuano also received the seventh highest run support of any starter in the league. His ERA was also close to 2/3 an earned run more than the league average. He also allowed 27 home runs, something to consider when taking into account the old dimensions at Citi Field.
There were so many times he was on the mound that the Mets built a good lead and he gave most, if not all, of them back. He hardly made it through the sixth inning therefore puttng added strain on the bullpen.
if Capuano got just average run support, he would not have sported an 11-12 record. His won-lost record is as much a reflection of his own good performance last season as was the 8-13 sported by R.A. Dickey representative of how bad the knuckleballer was as well.
And speaking of Capuano, where are all the people lamenting his loss now? Where is everyone who were crying he was pitching for the Dodgers?
Guess that stopped being a popular bandwagon.
Maybe they are in the same Bar, drowning in thier sorrows as all those guys who Crowed about Reyes’ slow start but then shut up because he was on fire the second half of the season?
No, I still say Reyes is not worth that deal. And last I checked, Tejada is doing just fine.
I see no reason to chase someone who doesn’t want to be here.
Better up your dose.
I’m sure you DO because your one of those who thinks being stubborn is a good substitution for being smart and correct!
Funny where are all the posts you reyes haters used to post once a week now that he is hitting over .300 with a .500+ SLG?
They went the way of the DODO!
Ever see a DODO?
Want to?
Go to the Bathroom and look in the mirror!
Nooooooooooooo!! I can’t stand him walking off the mound with that blank stare rubbing up the ball, fiddling with his cap, and getting back up on the mound and making a pitch getting the same results, and here we go again. Ugh, Hell I just can’t take it. Didn’t we learn a damn thing with the Ollie experiment? I sure did.
Don’t forget messing around with his mouth piece and licking his hands. I don’t care if he pays the Mets to play I don’t want him.
SaltyGary: You’ve got it friend. Can you tell me why the umps don’t enforce the rule on time between pitches-oh hell these are the umpires, the biggest idiots and incompetents in the game. A stupid question, forgive me.
I would assume we are talking about a minor league deal or a big time incentive based contract at best which would be nothing like Perez.
Why would you even want to see his face around anymore. His face is the face of mediocrity.
Because mediocrity is better than destitute which is what you normally see as a backup starter.
you’re forgetting who Pelf’s agent is…BoreAss isn’t gong to settle for some cheep minor league deal with incentives. I bet once Pelf inks his new deal, we’ll all be shocked at how much Pelf will get…Scot will be selling him as the next Verlander.
Never going to happe as long as there are teams like the Rockies around who need starting pitching more than you need air to breathe!
The problem is that he is not going to be ready when the season starts.
So what? We still have to either offer Arbitration or he goes FA!
Once he gets that far he can sign any deal he wants and will not be coming back to us to match.
Once we let that ship sail he can take a non roster invitee position for a good terms on MLB service and the most desperate for pitching team will give him way more than we will.
We have no room and if we resigned anyone to start the season while Harvey was still in AAA it would more likely be Young than Pelfrey.
Cause you get Young for whatever you might have to pay Pelfrey and he WILL be ready for the start of the season provided nothing happens between now and then.
Pelfrey is as good as gone because while we don’t think much of him others have a far worse staff than we do (hell it’s practically a strength) We will be pushing someone OUT of rotation here by July next year and don’t think Boras doesn’t see that and does anything he can to free Pelfrey and get a better deal from a team that is more desperate than us even for a pitcher who has been inconsistent as opposed to what they have consistently BAD!
We shall see, no reason to argue it out at this point. I don’t think he gets much, maybe a deal like Young last year but I don’t see that either until he can prove he is healthy.
I guess you don’t really get what I’m saying….
Doesn’t matter what he will get h isn’t getting it from us!
If we don’t offer the ARB he will go somewhere else instead of haggling with us!
What he gets from them doesn’t matter we are not going to get a second shot at him after we decline to offer arbitration!
Even if we WOULD match it in the end he makes more money and gets a better deal and a better chance to be in a rotation someplace else than he has with us.
Again, I see no reason to argue about it at this point we shall wait and see what happens.
I’d give him an invitation to spring training. If any other team offers him a guaranteed deal, good bye and good luck.
Oh please no! Nothing says firt round bust more than Pelfrey does. Onward and upward.
According to depodesta, the guy in charge of our draft, if you draft a first rounder and he becomes a #3 or a #4, then you did VERY VERY VERY GOOD…. Kudos to minaya for drafting pelfrey then…
Or kudo’s to the late Larry Chase who also scouted and signed AJ Burnett as a Met scout.
There comes a time when it’s sometimes best to just move on. That time may have come with Pelfrey. Even if he is brought back on a minor league contract which admittedly there is little risk in such a move Pelfrey is just a reminder of unfulfilled potential to many Mets fans. It’s probably best to just “move on already” as Joe D said.
Durn right I would bring him back on a minor league contract. I wouldn’t offer him arbitration but I would bring him back for sure. Some argue about his presence being one of losing but this is kinda silly. His presence means nothing more than pitching depth and not giving in. If he could be converted to the pen he could be of some serious use. If I remember right his FB was considerably better before he began dialing it down to pitch deeper.
Hmmmmm……Lets bring Maine and Heilman back too !
The surgeons can do miracles and hard work to rehab injuries can be done as witnessed by Johann Santana’s first half of 2012. His determination to come back might have pushed him a little too fast but Santana is a warrior and a mentally tough player. Mike Pelfrey, on the other hand has always been somewhat the head case and the injury/rehab/ mentality issues are too much to consider. I would rather see one of the younger arms get the chance to grow that last bit needed at the Major League level.
Send Pelfrey elsewhere or release him! He has had his chances. New York is too tough of an environment for him!