A year ago Davis was coming off the valley fever scare and ankle injury. His .156/.212/.290 slash line could be intellectualized. Similar numbers (.149/.229/.248) this year are reason for concern. There are many players that are slow starters, but are the Mets’ doomed to Davis not showing up the first ten weeks of the season? Has reality set in that he might be a 4-A hitter with flawed mechanics at the plate?

Davis and Jacobs are not exactly apples to apples comparison. Ike was a highly touted first round pick in 2008. His struggles in Brooklyn during his rookie year in pro ball were well documented. Jacobs was a 38th round pick that nobody talked about when he had a breakout 2005 season in Binghamton. He was supposed to be an injury replacement at the big league level, but If not for Pedro Martinez‘s lobbying after a Sunday afternoon home run, we never would have been treated to Jacobs’ September to remember. It’s also possible that Carlos Delgado would never have been acquired that offseason.

As a full-time first baseman from 2006-2008, Mike Jacobs averaged 23 homers, 75 RBI and a .258 batting average. In his two full seasons of work (2010, 2012) Davis has produced 25 homers and 75 RBI with a similar average. Both produce about the same level of strikeouts, although Davis has the penchant to walk a bit more- although probably not enough for the organization’s liking. Both struggle against left handers. Defensively, there is no comparison. Even when he’s struggled Davis has gold glove potential. Jacobs was only plugged-in at first after failing behind the plate. Still, a first baseman needs to hit at an elite level to be considered valuable. If Jacobs is the best that Davis has to offer, then it’s probably time to question if the Mets have a cornerstone at first base for years to come. Should they package Davis if and when he heats up again? Will a trip to the minors help? Is Lucas Duda the answer? Can they afford to pay for a first baseman on the free agent market?

Many scouts have expressed concern over Davis’ mechanics at the plate. It’s complicated, awkward looking and appears difficult to replicate. The more “noise” a player has in the box the harder it will be to hit a baseball, an already difficult task. Can this be fixed? That is hard to predict, but Davis wouldn’t be the first hot-shot hitting prospect to fizzle at the big league level. At the very least a trip to Triple-A Las Vegas should be on the table.

The Mets got lucky when both Jose Reyes and David Wright developed best case scenarios upon their call-up a decade ago. Prospects are an inexact science and, to date, none of the current group of homegrown players has shown to be consistent everyday big leaguers, much less stars.

WFAN callers rarely provide for intelligent or even interesting commentary. Comedy is more how I would describe my experience. Ironically, a caller to the midday show just might have uncovered a hard reality: Ike Davis is no better than a former flash in the pan prospect. I doubt even a productive final four months of 2013 will net a player any close to Delgado’s capabilities. Remember, lightening doesn’t strike twice.

Travis d’Arnaud: Ready or Not?

Andy Martino of the Daily News, answers the question as to why Aaron Laffey will get the start on Sunday instead of some guy named Wheeler-something?

The strategy is this, according to team insiders: Bide their time and plug it up until Zack Wheeler arrives in town.

“That can be read as a good sign for Wheeler’s readiness”, says Martino. “The phenom needs to iron out minor command issues in Triple-A, and ideally wait out the mid-June Super Two cutoff, so he is less expensive during his prime years.”

He doesn’t get the sense that the Mets are absolutely married to keeping Wheeler from becoming a Super Two if an obvious need arises and he is ready.

Jonathan Mayo on MiLB.com had a great article on Super Two elgibility and spoke to a few GM’s about whether Super Two get in the way of bringing up a prospect who is obviously MLB ready and fills an immediate need for their teams.

He points out that prospects Aaron Hicks was in center field, batting leadoff for the Minnesota Twins on Opening Day. Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. was in the starting lineup against the Yankees. Jose Fernandez was a late addition to the Marlins’ Opening Day roster and the Mariners’ Brandon Maurer broke camp as the club’s No. 4 starter.

But on the flip side of the coin Rays outfielder Wil Myers, Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud and pitching phenoms who many believe are ready; Wheeler and the Pirates’ Gerrit Cole, will all be waiting for the Triple-A season to get underway later tonight.

Were these roster decisions based on Major League readiness and that they don’t currently serve a need on the active roster? Doubtful.

Regarding d’Arnaud, Sandy Alderson recently said, “I know people talk about control and ‘Super Two’ and all of that. If John Buck gets hurt tomorrow, Travis d’Arnaud is the front-line catcher.”

Let’s hope Buck stays healthy for the entire season, but I doubt d’Arnaud would be on a jet to Flushing tonight if the veteran catcher had injured himself and was facing a DL stint. Nevermind what Sandy says, Super Two and retention play a significant part, especially with the Mets and it always will.

In a similar circumstance, Omar Minaya wasted no time when it became clear that Mike Jacobs was finished, and he quickly turned to Ike davis who responded with 19 home runs and 71 RBI in a shortened rookie season. The result of that decision led to Davis’ hefty raise in arbitration this Winter – one year earlier than it could have been.

“Everybody is going to speculate why he is being sent out — and they’re wrong,” Pirates GM Neal Huntington said when Cole was assigned to Minor League camp. “He’s being sent out because in our minds, he’s not ready to compete, to be successful at the Major League level, to be one of those top-of-the-rotation starters, which is our goal for him.”

In that case, Huntington admits that Cole is “not ready” and in the past they had no problems calling up previous top prospects who became Super Two eligible.

Mayo points out that the teams who had top prospects make the Opening Day roster (Bradley, Hicks, Maurer), made those decisions because they believed those players were the best men for the job.

“The guy has earned it,” Twins GM Terry Ryan said last week. “I find it almost humorous that guys are talking service time and starting the clock. The guy has earned it.”

Ryan can be my GM anytime, but this quote from Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik says it all for me:

“We’ve always gone into Spring Training, philosophically, if a guy deserves to be on the club, I don’t see how you can look a player in the eye and tell him he can’t be. We stay true to that.”

“We went in with our eyes wide open and it was hard to deny Maurer. He had such a great spring, it was the right thing to do. We never discussed anything else other than if he deserved to be on the club.”

Retention and Super Two played no role in their decisions. It was based on fielding a competitive team and rewarding the player for a job well done – basically doing the right thing for the organization, the player and ultimately the fans who pay high ticket prices believing they are seeing the best team the front office could put together.

There are two schools of thought on this, as more and more fans are becoming financially-minded which fits in perfectly with what the Wilpons want.

However, I’m always of the mind that you should field the best 25 players you have and play ball. That philosophy has served me well since I fell in love with the game as a kid.

Play your best players and play hard.

It may sound old-fashioned and a bit outdated to most of you, but I’m glad there are still a great deal of current GM’s who share that same sentiment.

Thankfully there are only 6 more games left of this horrible season.  That also means only 6 more games left of some jerryball.  Last year after the season ended the Mets did a bit of a media blitz that concluded with Jeff Wilpon, Omar Minaya and Dave Howard going on WFAN with Mike Francesa.  They made a bunch of promises and some excuses that for some reason had Mets fans hopeful for 2010.  I posted a blog here on this site the day after, which you can read here.  I didn’t like what I heard on Francesa’s show and I got blasted in the comments section. Unfortunately I was right to be skeptical as they lied to us.

Jeff Wilpon said the Mets were committed to building a championship caliber team and that spending would not be limited.  Well, after signing the bust that is Jason Bay the Mets didn’t spend much.  Gary Matthews Jr., Mike Jacobs and Frank Catalanotto were in the starting lineup on opening day.  For some reason Fernando Tatis and Alex Cora were still on this team.  I’m sorry but those guys don’t belong on a championship caliber team.

Omar and little Jeff said that there would be no more mishandling of injuries. Unfortunately that was a big old lie as well.  Look at how Jose Reyes’ oblique injury was handled.  Reyes was put into the lineup while suffering with oblique injury, and only allowed to bat from one side of the plate.  I don’t see how that is improving on handling injuries.  Jason Bay after hitting his head off the outfield wall in Dodger Stadium not only stayed in that game, he played the next one and then flew on a plane to New York and hasn’t played since.  Johan Santana’s injury was misdiagnosed as a pectoral problem.  Now I’m no doctor but I think the training staff might have missed human anatomy 101.  Plus Santana before being diagnosed correctly was allowed to throw and not even given an MRI.  They also promised to communicate better with the fans and media about the injuries.  Once Santana was diagnosed correctly, the Mets had a press conference where they tried to play down the severity of this shoulder injury by citing position players who came back from the same surgery.  They of course didn’t mention that pitchers who have had the same surgery as Johan has have yet to come back and throw a pitch in the majors.

I’m sure once this season is over the Mets will do another media blitz.  They will say things that sound good but in reality it will only be more cheap talk and hollow promises.

Jacobs, 29, began the season with Mets, but after slow start was demoted to AAA-Buffalo, opening the door for Ike Davis who has thrived.

Jacobs was hitting .260/.313/.478 for Buffalo with 23 doubles and 15 homers.

Nick Evans has been promoted from AA to to replace Jacobs in AAA.

Jacobs hit .208 with one homer and two RBIs in 24 at-bats before being designated for assignment Sunday.

Jacobs has indicated he would be willing to go to Triple-A Buffalo if playing time exists.

It’s not surprising that 29 other MLB teams passed on Jacobs.

What was surprising, although not really, was that the Mets signed Jacobs in the first place and then even after a horrendous spring, made the team over a clearly more talented Chris Carter.

All that matters though is that a wrong has been righted.

Stoner (0-1, 4.32 ERA) had last pitched Tuesday for the Bisons, so he would be fully rested in case John Maine needs an early bailout.

The 25-year-old right-hander had allowed four earned runs, nine hits, three walks and had struck out five in 8 1/3 innings over two starts for Buffalo. 

He appeared in four games for the Mets in September, compiling a 4.00 ERA in nine innings. 

To make room for Tobi Stoner, the Mets have designated first baseman Mike Jacobs for assignment. So in a span of 11 games, Jacobs has gone from the Mets Opening Day cleanup hitter to baseball oblivion.

Jacobs had been a huge drag on the offense and never really seemed to fit in. He batted .208 in 28 at-bats with seven strikeouts. Defensively he showed terrible range and poor instincts.

Newsday’s David Lennon reported via Twitter, that Jacobs has an option left, and that he can be sent to Triple-A. Jacobs says he doesn’t want to go down to sit on the bench, however Lennon suggests, “if the Mets want Jacobs to stay, they should call up Davis”.

So to summarize, hopefully these moves signal a few things,

1. Jeff Francoeur will move up in the lineup.

2. Daniel Murphy is close to a return.

3. Ike Davis may be one step closer to the Major Leagues. Davis, 23, is off to a hot start in the minors, hitting .357/.514/.679 through his first nine games.

One thing is certain though, losing Jacobs is a perfect example of addition by subtraction.

I saw the Mets do a lot of good things yesterday afternoon:

• The Mets were patient enough at the plate and they played good defense out in the field.
• Jason Bay didn’t take for granted that his triple was only a double as he hustled his butt out of the batters box and got that triple.
• Marlins made 3 errors in the game’ but unlike past seasons the Mets took advantage of those mistakes and drove up the score to give the bullpen a bigger cushion.
• The Mets were also aggressive on the base paths, not allowing the pitchers to be comfortable on the mound which caused 2 Marlin errors.
• I liked the attempted squeeze play as Cora is a great bunter and Pagan has great speed.
• Nieve and K-Rod looked confident against the Marlins offense.  I also think K-Rod should keep those goggles for the rest of his Mets career.
• Barajas behind the plate I thought called a good game.  He saw what Santana was doing well and what wasn’t working for Santana, the Mets pitching staff did not have that last year with Omir Santos behind the plate.

If I had to complain it would be:

• Cora did go 0-4 with an RBI, Mike Jacobs went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts and Luis Castillo also went 0-4 in the game.

I don’t know what to think about Mike Jacobs batting cleanup.  I understand the logic because Jacobs will see better pitches with Bay behind him but Jacobs needs to be more patient and not swing at balls out of the strike zone.  Also pitchers are going to give Wright better pitches to hit with Jacobs behind him because Jacobs is a power threat.  I don’t expect Jacobs, Cora and Castillo to go 4-4 everyday but the team is going to need them to hit, that is 1/3 of your lineup and you need them to step up and help with the offense.

If I have to nitpick a little it’s the fact that Jerry Manuel didn’t use Jenrry Mejia today out of the bullpen in the 7^th or 8^th inning.  Now I know the plan is not to immediately use Mejia as the 8^th inning guy but I just think with a big lead it was the perfect time to use Mejia.  Mejia would have had his first major league appearance and it would have left a little room for error to work out the nerves that I’m sure he has.

Overall it was a good Opening Day but it’s a long season that has started out good, hopefully there will be more positives than negatives this year.

The Mets are in a unique situation this year. The team that “has no minor league system,” has guys opening the eyes of many to the true talent that lies within the farm system. It’s exciting of course, but I don’t get caught up in prospects until I see what they can do on a major league field. There’s just so much that can change, and a great minor leaguer or a great spring training performer sometimes can be only that. 

The debate of Daniel Murphy v. Mike Jacobs v. Ike Davis is interesting to me. I’m a guy who believes Murphy deserves a chance to start at 1B after the work he put into the off-season with Keith Hernandez and Howard Johnson. He’s only coming off of his 1^st full season in the big leagues, and I don’t think it’s fair to write him off. 

I’m not saying he’s a superstar, but I am saying if you compare his full rookie season to a lot of players, you’ll see he wasn’t as awful as you may think. The problem with him is there’s one side of Mets fans that now hate him, and another that still crown him with greatness. If we meet in the middle and realize not every player needs to be a 40 HR 1B for a team to be successful, maybe a guy like Murphy can grow. 

I bought a Murphy shirt in August of 2008. The reason I did was I loved his passion and his work ethic that was shown right off the bat. My view of Murphy is he needs to get back to being the patient hitter we saw at the end of 2008. A tough out. To compare him to another 1B, I’d like to see him be a Nick Johnson, without the injuries. He showed great plate discipline and if you look at his numbers, he saw fewer pitches per at bat last year, and he was trying to do too much. You also have to remember, this is a guy who was at times as sadly as this is, was expected to be the 1^st or 2^nd best hitter in the lineup due to other injuries. 

Ike Davis to me, he’s not going anywhere, so I see no reason to have him be with the big club in April. So assuming he won’t be, that brings us to Jacobs. 

I can’t stand Mike Jacobs supporters. I think a Mike Jacobs supporter is lacking an overall understanding of a hitter’s role in a lineup. If you want to tell me that Mike Jacobs in 2010 is going to be Mike Jacobs from 2008, fine, lets talk about it. 

If that is the best we can hope for, then I still prefer Murphy. I’m sorry but a hitters job #1 is to get on base. Whether that means rounding the bases with 1 swing, or getting on with a hit or a walk, his job is to get safely on base. 

When a hitter can only do that in his BEST season 29% of the time, that is awful. You want to know how awful? Well let’s just focus on the National League for statistical comparison. 

Of the 76 hitters who had a minimum of 500 plate appearances in the NL during the 2009 seasons, three of them had a worse OBP than Jacobs did in Jacobs’ so called “best season.” Those players were Jimmy Rollins (.296), Clint Barmes (.294), and Bengie Molina (.265.) 

Now you can try to tell me that OBP doesn’t matter, you’d be wrong but you could tell me that. A hitters job isn’t to just hit a HR 30 times, and strike out 150. It’s to have productive at bats across the board, not be 1 dimensional. 

If Mike Jacobs was to be in this lineup every day, where would he hit? He’s not a 1-2-3 hitter, he’s not an 8 hitter, and you can’t tell me it makes sense to bat him 6-7 because then he’s no different than Murphy. 

So the only way Jacobs makes sense is if he’s our #4 or #5 hitter. So you’re telling me you (a random supporter of Jacobs) value his 32 plate appearances in which he hits a home run (assuming he comes back to old form) over the fact he strikes out 100+ times, and doesn’t get on base more than KAZ MATSUI! So basically the Mike Jacobs supporters who want Wright-Jacobs-Bay to be our 3-4-5 right now, basically you want the Mets to have the least productive cleanup hitter in the sport. 

When a guy strikes out 22% of the time, and hits a homerun 6% of the time, what do you think that does to Wright or Bay hitting around him? You think Wright is going to get anything to swing at? You think Bay will get any RBI opportunities after Jacobs strikes out to end the inning over and over again? 

It’s a joke, it really is. Jacobs is almost 5 years older than Murphy, and the only thing he brings to the table is the possibility of hitting a homerun 6% of the time he steps to the plate? 

The folks who mention Jacobs’ 30 games in 2005 at age 24 need to get real. I’m sorry but that is just pure desperation coming through my computer monitor. 

I am not saying Murphy deserves something he doesn’t earn, but there’s nothing about Jacobs’ spring at the plate that tells me he is any more deserving than Murphy. In face, I’d rather a 25 year old struggle in the spring, than a 29 year old with everything to prove. 

If Jacobs was having an Ike Davis like spring, it’d be a different conversation. To me, 20 AB and 4 hits, with 2 of them being a HR doesn’t win you a job you were not the favorite for. Everybody has a bad spring here or there, but guys who are #2 in the race for the spot don’t win jobs by hitting like that.

If Mike Jacobs plays 1B and hits 4th in the Mets order, it will be a bigger mistake than the Baha Men version of ”Who let the Mets Out” in 2000.

One of our readers (Bayonne Met Fan) posted a link to a comment by Adam Rubin that read,

Look for Jacobs to even potentially chip away at Daniel Murphy’s playing time as the season progresses, assuming Jacobs makes the club. Manuel has been testing a 3-4-5 order of Wright-Jacobs-Jason Bay. Let’s say the manager goes to that lineup the first Saturday of the season and rests Murphy, and Jacobs goes 3-for-4 with a homer. Manuel would go back to that lineup again quickly.

When the Mets first signed Jacobs to that minor league deal back in February, I probably put his real chances of making the team as a bench player at less than 50%. Man, was I wrong…

If you were to consider the spring training battle for first base, and give the job to the clear winner based on their spring performance, than go ahead and pencil Mike Jacobs into the Mets Opening Day lineup.  In 27 plate appearances, Murphy has just four hits and is sporting a .194 on-base percentage. Jacobs, in only 20 at-bats has as many hits as Murphy, two homeruns, five walks and a .360 OBP to go with a .860 OPS.

I have no doubt that Jacobs’ .505 slugging percentage and .830 OPS against right-handed pitchers would make for a solid platoon with Fernando Tatis, and also add a solid middle of the order presence to our lineup, at least until Carlos Beltran returns from the disabled list.

If it was a true competition going in, and a true competition going out, than we may have ourselves a new face at first base on Monday, April 5th against the Marlins. Actually, it would be Jacobs’ second stint with the Mets. When we last saw him in a Mets uniform in 2005, he batted .310 with 11 home runs and 23 RBI’s in 100 at-bats, while posting a 1.085 OPS. Wow… I almost forgot just how fast he busted out of the gate that year.

According to a comment in a post by Marty Noble a few days ago, Mike Jacobs isn’t nearly as bad a defensive first baseman as some have suggested. Noble wrote,

“Mike Jacobs is handling his first base assignments more gracefully and reliably than the club anticipated”.

Additionally, Jacobs has agreed to don his old catching gear after being asked by the Mets if he would be willing to catch on a limited basis, according to a Adam Rubin of the Daily News who believes that Jacobs is now the leading candidate for the final bench spot with the Mets. It would certainly give Manuel more flexibility in managing his bench late in games knowing that he can pinch hit for Rod Barajas against a tough right-handed pitcher, and still keep Blanco on the bench.

If Jacobs does supplant Murphy at first base, would Murphy be a better utility player than Frank Catalanotto?

What exactly happens to Daniel Murphy should Jacobs wrestle the first base job away from him?

Well according to Joel Sherman of the NY Post, the Mets have an opportunity develop him into a Ty Wigginton type utility player. He believes that the Mets have miscast Daniel Murphy and have tried to make him something he’s not, basically asserting that Murph has neither the bat or the glove to justify a starting position anywhere. He writes,

To me the Mets are wasting development time when it comes to prepping Murphy for the job that will help the team the most: Which is to make him a jack-of-all-trades. I see Murphy as a lefty version of Ty Wigginton, someone who is not going to be a strong defensive player anywhere, but whose versatility and ability to hit to a fine degree make him a contributing player.

I can’t really argue with his logic, and when you consider that Murphy was just a place-holder for Ike Davis anyway, the Mets were going to have to confront this issue in 2011 regardless, so why not tackle it now?

The best case scenario from Murphy’s point of view would probably be a trade to an American League team who can better appreciate his offensive talents without waiting for him to learn and excel at any particular defensive position.

But as for Mike Jacobs, it’s now become abundantly clear that he has impacted the Mets plans going into the new season and only two weeks remain to see if that impact comes off the bench or as a regular first baseman.

I decided to do a quick 4-day poll to see what our readers thought about the Mets first base situation going into the 2010 season. Here are those results:

And the winner is…

Daniel Murphy is the overwhelming choice for our readers, more than doubling the support that Mike Jacobs received. As Danny pointed out in his post, Murphy had a higher batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage than Mike Jacobs.

Although I was hoping for a significant upgrade at first base this off season, I think the addition of Mike Jacobs was a good thing whether he wins the job or just a spot on the bench.

I am very curious to see how Murphy builds on last season and his 54 extra-base hits were still pretty impressive in his first full season.

By the way, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more updates in between posts. Help spread the word about MMO by re-tweeting our posts by clicking the Twitter or Facebook icon below.

Pagan had originally requested $1.8 million whereas the team filed for $1.275 million. Therefore, they are paying him a little bit under the arbitrary midpoint.

Last season, Angel had a fine season despite suffering an injury that sidelined him for a couple of weeks. In 88 games, the 28 year old hit .306 and six home runs along with eleven triples.

In other news ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick is reporting that the team is close to an agreement with Mike Jacobs. The deal would be a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.

Back in October I had suggested that the Mets pursue Jacobs this off-season to platoon with Daniel Murphy at first base. He may not be ideal, but he did hit 32 home runs in 2008 and 19 in 2009, which is more than any member of last year’s team hit.

Unfortunately, he is horrendous against left-handed pitching. Nonetheless I am intrigued to see how he will perform this spring and whether or not he will make the team.

“He’s got no range at first — none,” said one scout. “He actually limps out there. He can’t play first on a day-to-day basis. I think he can still DH, because he’s still got power. But to play first for a team like the Mets? Can’t see it.”

This report should probably put any thoughts of the Mets re-acquiring Delgado to bed, finally. If Delgado is limping, we know that his only motivation for being on the field is a new contract. We all know of Delgado’s propensity for being unwilling to play while hurt. As soon as he signs a contract, rather than limping, he’ll be spending time on the DL instead.

We had an interesting debate this weekend, between two possible options in Fernando Tatis and Ryan Garko who could platoon with incumbent first baseman, Daniel Murphy. The majority of our readers seemed to prefer Garko over Tatis, but one commenter, Metstem, threw another name into the mix.

I like Mike Jacobs for this role. He bats left handed but he can play first and the corner outfield positions and has more legitimate power than Garko or Tatis. Last year in an off-year, he hit 19 homers for a bad team. When he was on a contender, his numbers were much better. He would be perfect for this team. For 1 million or so, he may be the best guy available for that sort of price.

There would be some irony in the Mets re-acquiring Jacobs as he was the player we traded to the Marlins to get Carlos Delgado in the first place.

I like Jacobs, but I’m not really interested in coming full circle with him just yet. For me, Garko would still be the better option.

Flash back to August 21st, 2005. It was a hot late-summer afternoon at Shea Stadium where the Mets were hosting the Washington Nationals.

By the fifth inning, the Mets found themselves trailing 7-0. All appeared to be lost until a rookie came to the plate by the name of Mike Jacobs.

Jacobs, a highly ranked Mets prospect, made his major league debut and promptly hit a three-run home run on the first pitch he saw. The Mets went on to lose that game 7-4, but Jacobs continued his torrid hitting streak and homered in each of the next three games.

After only 100 at-bats in 2005, Jacobs finished with 11 home runs, which is a rather incredible feat. It appeared that the 24 year old would be anchoring the right side of the infield for many years to come.

However, that was not the case and in an effort to improve the team’s playoff chances for 2006, Jacobs was shipped to the Florida Marlins along with Yusmeiro Petit in exchange for Carlos Delgado.

Here we are nearly five years latter, and the Mets find themselves, again, searching for a first baseman to help them secure a playoff spot in 2010.

Now with the Kansas City Royals, Jacobs is coming off quite possibly his worst season in the big leagues. In 128 games last season, Jacobs hit only .228.

The bright side is he did hit 19 home runs and drove in 61 RBI’s. Nonetheless, numerous media outlets have reported that Jacobs is an almost guaranteed non-tender candidate given his lackluster performance combined with $3 million-plus salary for next season.

Assuming he hits the open market, the Mets would be crazy not to at least entertain the idea of bringing back the slugger. Keep in mind, this is not an unproven player. Jacobs is only one year removed from a season in which he hit 32 home runs to complement the 92 RBI’s.

I see a little bit of Jeff Francoeur in Jacobs, in the sense both are gritty, hard-nosed players.

These are exactly the kind of players the Mets want to fill the locker room with next year. Maybe their style of play will rub off on their teammates as well.

Jacobs has a passion for the game that rivals even the most dedicated players in the sport today. It is worth pointing out that despite what has only been a brief stay in Kansas City, the first baseman made quite the impression on Kansas City beat writer, Joe Posnanski.

Posnanski, citing Jacobs’s superb work ethic, went as far as calling Jacobs his favorite Royals player, even though he struggled greatly throughout the year.

This speaks volumes, especially when you consider that the probable AL Cy Young award winner, Zack Greinke, is also a member of the Royals.

Signing the slugger to a one year deal worth $4 million or so would be beneficial for both parties

For Jacobs it would be an opportunity to establish himself as a big time bat, and to help justify a club signing him for big bucks down the road.

For the Mets, Jacobs would be a good bat in the lineup, who could help them increase their home run totals and provide the trio of David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Jeff Francoeur with some added protection in the lineup.

His presence would also allow prospect, Ike Davis, to adequately develop in the minor leagues, instead of being rushed up to the major league level.

Obviously, Jacobs comes with his flaws. His defense needs improvement. Also, along with his powerful free-swing approach comes the tendency to strike out a bit.

Am I suggesting that Mike Jacobs is the solution to the Mets offensive woes? Of course not.

What I am suggesting is that signing Jacobs for a reasonable amount of money could allow the Mets to allocate more resources to pursue a slugger for the outfield or a number two pitcher. Both of which are areas where the Mets could use vast improvement.