Morning Briefing: Trading Nimmo, Ricco On Evaluating Prospects, Reyes Embracing 3B

Good Morning Mets Fans. Funny thing, yesterday I left a comment to explain why the Mets are choosing to play Amed Rosario, Gavin Cecchini, Dominic Smith and T.J. Rivera as often as they have.

“A lot of people – including beat writers – completely ignore the fact that the Mets (like any other organization) will play top prospects early to help determine their assignments. Does Rosario start at AA or has he shown enough to start at AAA? Should we start exposing Cecchini to other positions? Where would he have the best chance to succeed? These early spring lineups are done with thought and planning and serve an organizational purpose.”

Sure enough I came across an article by Joel Sherman of the NY Post, who caught up with Assistant GM John Ricco who talked exactly about the importance of this ongoing evaluation process.

“Part of this season is about evaluating what we have,” Ricco said. The assessments are ongoing he told Sherman and that’s why Michael Conforto, Wilmer Flores, Brandon Nimmo, Gavin Cecchini, Amed Rosario and T.J. Rivera were all in Wednesday’s lineup.

“I don’t think we will have to sign five free agents. Some of the answers will come from within, and I think between now and July we will get a better idea of what we have and what we need.”

LATEST METS NEWS

Tucked neatly inside that Joel Sherman article was another little tidbit that jumped out at me. “If I were a betting man, I would bet that Brandon Nimmo is on another team at the deadline,” one scout told Sherman. Meanwhile FanGraphs just named Nimmo the No. 44 Prospect in all of Major League Baseball. No, it wasn’t a 2012 Top Prospect list it rolled fresh off the press on Tuesday. Nimmo turns 24 this month and not only can he flash a larger-than-life smile, but he has a chance to be a good on-base guy. That said, the Mets have not been behaving like a team that’s ready to give their one-time first-rounder an everyday job this year or next.

Matt Ehalt of The Record says that Jose Reyes has come to embrace playing third base. “It went better than I expected to be honest with you,” Reyes told him. “The more games I played there the more comfortable I was feeling. That position, you don’t have to move too much. You basically have to react and it’s not like at shortstop where you have to move side to side a lot. At third base, it’s an easy job for me. I like it.” And I can assure all of you that the Mets like it too – especially for the MLB minimum salary. Read more from Ehalt including video here.

New York Mets reliever Fernando Salas has yet to appear in a Grapefruit League game despite being on the scheduled list to pitch a few times. Salas has yet to receive a visa to pitch in spring training games for the Mets according to a report by Newsday. Salas has been able to throw in simulated games and he will soon leave to pitch for Team Mexico in the WBC. Mexico’s first game is March 9 against Italy.

Anthony DiComo of MLB.com caught up with T.J. Rivera who is in the fight of his life to win a job on the Opening Day roster. He could let all the detractors and the stuff on social media eat him alive, but he’s tuning all of that out and leaving everything he has on the field. “It’s tough to not think about it, but it is something that I try to pop out of my head just because it will affect my game,” Rivera told DiComo. “My goal is to work on and worry about the things I can control. All my career, I’ve never really had control of what’s going to happen other than what I can do on the field.”

NL EAST RUMBLINGS

I had to laugh when I heard Dusty Baker weigh in on the Nationals signing Joe Blanton and hearing him lament not having a closer. “I ain’t have no choice,” he said. “You know what I mean? Would I have liked to have gotten a (Kenley) Jansen or a (Aroldis) Chapman or somebody like that, kept (Mark) Melancon? That would’ve been our first choice. As a manager, you have to figure out what you’ve got and try to make it work. I don’t like that (closer) by-the-committee, because it doesn’t work. So we’ve got this spring to determine what we have. Somebody’s got to emerge.” Good luck with that Dusty. Read more from Mark Zuckerman of MASN.

Looks like our old friend – and the last Met to win a Cy Young Award – R.A. Dickey may soon have himself a personal catcher according to MLB.com beat writer Mark Bowman. “Though Kurt Suzuki had never previously caught a knuckleballer during a game, he certainly didn’t show any inexperience as he skillfully handled the dancing and darting pitch…” Suzuki is totally up for it. “You know you’re going to mess up every once in a while, but we’ll see. I’m looking forward to the challenge,” he said.

FROM THE WORLDWIDE LEADER IN METS

Right-hander Zack Wheeler is set to make his Grapefruit League debut on March 10 and you can read all about it here. So far Wheeler has been making steady progress and that’s always good to hear.

All the rumors are true. Lucas Duda has been cleared to hit and is coming to a Grapefruit League game near you soon. Don’t believe me? Read it for yourself.

Here’s an idea. Instead of trading prospects (or non-prospects) for Kelly Johnson this year, why don’t we just sign him instead? Of course we’re being serious.

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