Kenny asks…
Let’s say the Mets don’t trade Ike Davis and he’s with the team come Spring Training, does it mean that Josh Satin is out of a job?
Joe D. replies…
There’s still plenty of time for the Mets to trade Davis, but let’s assume they end up keeping him. My hunch is that unless he hits the living daylights out of the ball this Spring, he’ll likely end up as part of a platoon with (Hail) Satin.
Given their lefty/righty splits, there’s some potential for tremendous production from first base for the Mets this season. Here are their career splits:
Satin vs LHP: .862 OPS – .152 ISO – .376 wOBA – .467 SLG – 145 wRC+
Davis vs RHP: .827 OPS – .215 ISO – .357 wOBA – .471 SLG – 127 wRC+
In my opinion, if Davis gets all the starts at first base against right-handed pitching, it will be Lucas Duda who stands to lose the most playing time.
It will make for a very unorthodox bench to carry two left-handed hitting first basemen in Davis and Duda, especially when you consider that neither can play any other infield positions.
Satin, on the other hand, can play third base to backup Wright and even play second base in a pinch. Additionally, he’s been putting in a lot of work in the outfield this offseason to increase his versatility and thus his value to the Mets.
I doubt the Mets will ever entertain the thought of Duda in the outfield again after a failed experiment that really shook his confidence and degraded his production at the plate. His role in 2014 is very cloudy to say the least.
But to answer your question, no matter how first base ultimately shakes out, rest assured that Satin is a lock for at least a bench spot if not a more significant role.
