1
2013
Mets Sign Marlon Byrd To Minor League Deal
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The Mets just announced they have signed OF Marlon Byrd to a Minor League contract with an invite to Spring Training.
Byrd, 35, was suspended for 50 games in June after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs last season.
“I made an inexcusable mistake,” Byrd said in a statement . “Several years ago, I had surgery for a condition that was private and unrelated to baseball. Last winter, I suffered a recurrence of that condition and I was provided with a medication that resulted in my positive test. Although that medication is on the banned list, I absolutely did not use it for performance-enhancement reasons.”
“I am mortified by my carelessness and I apologize to everyone who loves this game as I do. I will serve my suspension, continue to work hard and hope that I am given an opportunity to help a club win later this season.”
Byrd batted .210/.243/.245 with two doubles, one home run and nine RBI in 47 games with the Cubs and Red Sox. He is a career .278 hitter with 82 homers and 445 RBIs over 11 seasons with the Phillies, Nationals, Rangers, Cubs and Red Sox.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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CHAMPIONSHIP.
hahaha
Whatever.
love the move, costs nothing with a potential decent return.
Last full season in 2010 he hit .293 with 12 homers, 66 RBI and 39 doubles
Dan Valis, a nother string kid all excited over Fred’s wallet instead of the goal of a baseball team to win. Bad post Dan. you show your true allegiance, and it ain’t to the mets.
Don’t lump Dan into some group automatically.
It is possible to dislike a GM’s overall body of work and not dislike every single move.
He’s 35 going on I need My Centrum Silver.
So we sign a guy that hasnt played a full season in 3 years ?
YES !!!!!!
Atleast its a real OF lol
MEH
Why?
I don’t know Joe, when I step back and look at this signing…i think…You know, he’s gonna want to prove something. I’ll say this, if someone had given me a choice last off season between Byrd and Torres, i’d have taken Marlon 10 out of 10 times. So what does that say about the Pagan trade? …I digress…Byrd with something to prove is better than nothing…Now for the humorous…Mets replace their fallic symbol (Dickey) with a Byrd…
LMAOOOOOOO
what falls faster…
the met attendance…
the met payroll…
the number in the wins column….
or fan expectations ?
YAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another who cares move. He is just another body in camp and in two weeks, we will see what he can do. The bottom line is inviting him to camp hurts nothing.
Just a thought …
Now that Nelson Cruz may be implicated in the steroids scandal…will Sandy Alderson be more inclined to sign him next season ?
Rumor has it that Luis Castillo may sign with the Mets.
His last full season was 2010
and he has something to prove
It’s funny how every single scrub that Alderson signs his disciples either say:
1) Nothing special every team does it
2) no biggie, low risk/high reward
3) Just fodder for the minors but maybe can help the big club too
4) no news it’s a non – issue
5) etc. Just fill in anything positive or of an accepting nature here.
I don’t want to ever hear these second guessing sabermetric band of penny pinching tightwads look back and criticize the likes of Anderson Hernandez, Alex Cora, Fernando Tatis, David Newhan, Jeff Conine, Ruben Gotay, Marlon Anderson, Argenis Reyes, Omir Santos, Jeremy Reed, etc., again.
Switch the eras, put those names now and the same crew of MoneyGooners say the same things they say about the current last 3 years of dismal, largely anemic, faceless bunch of alleged “low risk/high reward” characters. Yay they got something out of Baxter and he actually turned into a decent 4th outfielder for a year but as most SMART baseball people know players like this can come and go at anytime. And Ronnie Cedeno to me worked out very well and should have been brought back.
I’d take Omar’s choices for backups and low risk high reward players anytime.
There’s a more than a subtle difference betwen bringing in guys on minor league deals and bringing guys in on major league guaranteed deals. Maybe the players and their abilities can be interchanged, but their compensation can’t.
no…Omar was getting killed for signing guys like Dickey ( remember all those jokes )
No. Omar was getting killed for overpaying fringe players.
people went ape-sh*t over Fernando Tatis and Alex Cora.
the difference between those guys and some of sandy’s signings isnt much..
That’s exactly my point. Cora an Tatis made roughly $7 million combined from the Mets on guaranteed contracts. Think about what you just wrote. There’s not much difference between the guys Omar guaranteed $7 million to and the guys Sandy is bringing in on minor league deals. That’s what Omar was killed for.
Pure out and out lies. Fernando Tatis didn’t come close to makiiuing what you lie about? your are outed as not only a fraud but a biger liar than Liarson. Check baseball reference . Xtrremicon is really xtreemiliar. Is every Alderson liar required to lie to be in his cult?
Nope he’s a little off, but they made a combined $6.4 million with the Mets. Check Baseball-Reference
Connor, don’t forget Tatis’s 2008 salary of 560k. Brings the total to $6.96 mil, or roughly $7 mil. So looks like Padilla got caught lying again.
Well cora sucked but tatis won the NL comeback player of the year. Omar was much better at bringing in fringe guys than alderson. Just about everyone sandy has brought in has been a complete bust save Capuano and Hairston the second time around. I mean DJ Carrasco (major league deal), Willie Harris, Bard Emaus, Hu, and Fransisco (major league deal) and the rest all sucked big time. Omar might have overpaid major league free agents like Schoenweiss but at least he came up with Chavez, Dickey, Bradford, Valentin, Nady, and Tatis. Plus he made some great trades dunping a lot of the crap he inherited for guys like John maine and duaner sanchez.
I mean he gets killed and rightly so for Perez contract, signing Bay (although most everyone bashing him didn’t think it would be this bad) and extending Castillo but he had lots of winners and inherited a crappy team. Alderson has gotten back some nice pieces for major league stars but he had stars to trade
When you’re talking about 6.4 million in baseball money and all the players that i listed it really doesn’t matter. Omar STILL was better at bringing in fringe players than Alderson, much better.
So I reject the compensation part of the argument because it’s so little and the most important thing is not a few million dollars it’s winning ballgames and Omar’s fringe players can help a pennant contending team for the most part – not the crap Alderson has been feeding this team for the last 3 off seasons.
Instead of using calculations he should just give Omar a call. Even the wording is different, in Omar’s case they are called “fringe players” but in Alderson’s case it’s looking for value or under-the-radar, or low risk, high reward. Amazing.
Is it a minor league deal? Bring him in.
I liked this guy quite a bit in 2010. Maybe he has something left in the tank. The Mets needed another possible CF option in camp. Capt. Kirk is known for getting dinged and missing chunks of time because of his warrior playing style.
Sandy is shrewd…. NOW, I get the PLAN……We pay homage to the 1962 Met, by inviting to spring training, players well past their prime. This crew does not have the name recognition ot the ’62 crew but hey, that would cost money.
Byrd had 695 hits from 2007 – 2011 (170 in 2010), he can hit a little. He’s 35, not ancient, and he’s a pro. He’s insurance nothing more, as such, not a bad signing — esp. if he’s healthy & in shape. He had an 800 + OPS from 2007 – 2009, hits both lefties and righties (career .283 vs left, .276 vs right).
Sad thing is…he’s the best outfielder in the Mets’ organization.
Probably has nothing left but extra spring training fodder never hurts.
there are going to be a whole slew of old and crappy guys getting released along the way in ST.
some of they will actually make the Vegas team, but not all that many of them. So mostly this just gives them a place to go to work out and “audition” themselves.
so, hopefully the mets find a legit body or 2 for the big club, a few guys with something left to stash as depth at AAA, and the rest will just wander off to the next stop on their march toward retirement.
but, the more ping pong balls you have in the mixer, the better shot you have at hitting the jackpot.
Is Gary Mathews Jr. healthy?
Don´t think Byrd has anything left.
That said, here are Byrd´s platoon splits vs. LHP over the past 3 seasons (2010-2012, i.e. including his terrible last season):
325 AB, .308 BA, .345 OBP, 462 SLG, .807 OPS
His OPS vs. RH is .685 over that same period of time
So, he becomes a 3rd potential RHH platoon partner for the current RF / CF LHH candidates and will probably battle with Cowgill and Andrew Brown for one or two roster spots.
Oh, and by the way, Scott Hairston´s platoon splits from 2010 through 2012 are .772 OPS vs. LHP and .707 OPS vs. RHP.
Unfortunately, the difference between Byrd & Hairston – besides Byrd being 4 years older – is that the best totals of Byrd came in 2010 while Hairston´s came in 2012. Using that 3-year sample, the numbers are very similar though with Byrd posting the higher OBP and Hairston the higher SLG.
But remember, Byrd was actually a starter. And while Hairston’s career year is more recent, we don’t know if it was Hairston busting out of his shell due to regular playing time or just an anomaly.
In a 9 year career, Hairston has 510 starts. Byrd has 976 in 11 years. Including years he was dinged up.
Oh, as stated in my initial post, I believe Byrd is pretty much done and highly unlikely to perform at his 2010-2012 levels.
Likewise, I don´t think Scott Hairston is likely to sustain his 2012 numbers. He has a much better shot than Byrd to be helpful, of course, Which is why Hairston got two years, 6 million guaranteed and Byrd got a minor league deal.
Regardless of Byrd / Hairston, what the Mets really need to add eventually is a legit fulltime outfielder or two eventually. Be it now or over the course of the next 12 months.
Another PED signing? And people are pointing to his 2010 season as to why this is a good signing? LOL Yes, PEDs had nothing to do with that. LOL I wonder where Met fans rank in terms of baseball smarts? Does Baseball America rank the 30 fan bases as far as gullibility?