Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Disclaimer: This article is not implying that Jeff McNeil will have the same career as Ichiro Suzuki. The purpose of this article is to highlight the similar characteristics that both McNeil and Ichiro share. A player’s approach is up to them and McNeil plays in a very different era than Ichiro, which will lead to different hitting philosophies. I was not trying to compare their career achievements, this was only meant to serve as an analysis of the qualities that make them very special and unique players. Also, all the information in this article was from before McNeil returned from the IL on 6/21/21. 

Here is the batting average leaderboard for all qualified MLB players in the 21st century (min. 1000 PAs):

1. Barry Bonds (.322)
2. Vladimir Guerrero (.318)
3. Todd Helton (.317)
4. Manny Ramirez (.315)
5. Larry Walker (.315)
6. Magglio Ordonez (.312)
7. JEFF MCNEIL (.312)
8. Miguel Cabrera (.311)
9. ICHIRO SUZUKI (.311)

Out of those first nine hitters, only two of them have a slugging percentage lower than .500, Jeff McNeil and Ichiro Suzuki. 

In fact, many of their traditional stats are pretty similar to each other. Here is a tweet by the great Jeremy Frank comparing the two:

Through 815 career plate appearances:

Ichiro:
264-for-758
40 doubles, 9 triples, 8 home runs
346 total bases
38 walks
.348/.384/.456

Jeff McNeil:
236-for-735
49 doubles, 7 triples, 26 home runs
377 total bases
49 walks
.321/.383/.513

— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) April 4, 2020

Through their first 815 career PAs, McNeil had a higher slugging percentage, more XBHs and more HRs, while Suzuki had more hits, a higher batting average, and a higher on-base percentage.

Beyond having similar stats, McNeil and Suzuki are both exceptional at a few key characteristics that play a large role in why their stats are similar. 

The biggest trait they share is their amazing ability to get down the line exceptionally quick. Unfortunately, HP to 1B times have only been tracked by Statcast since 2015, so while we do not have prime Ichiro times, we can still try to get a sense of how fast he truly was. 

In a Fangraphs article written by August Fagerstrom, he analyzed videos of Suzuki beating out infield hits to determine how long it takes him to get from HP to 1B. Based on his clocking times of Ichiro, the fastest time he found was 3.66 seconds, which would easily be the fastest of any player in the Statcast era. According to Statcast, the fastest average HP to 1B time in a season was Roman Quinn in 2018 at 3.88 seconds. His average sprint speed for that season was at 30.2 ft/sec.

While McNeil only has a career 27.4 ft/sec, which is considered to be almost exactly league average (27 ft/sec), he is still able to get down the line exceptionally quick, just like Ichiro. Here is a graph I made showing every player’s sprint speed compared to their HP to 1B time this season: 

So far in 2021, McNeil has the fastest time down the line to first base out of any player that has a sprint speed slower than 28 ft/sec. McNeil actually has a faster HP to 1B time than Jorge Mateo, who has an elite sprint speed of nearly 31 ft/sec.

Now, I have to mention that left-handed hitters are able to get to first quicker than their right-handed hitting counterparts because they have less distance to travel running out of the box, but McNeil and Suzuki still have one of the fastest times even in comparison to other lefties. 

Expanding that graph from just 2021 to all the years of Statcast tracking, from 2015-2021, here is a look at all players that have had at least 10 plate appearances during that time frame: 

Out of 1054 players, Nori Aoki is the only player since 2015 who has a slower sprint speed and a quicker HP to 1B time than McNeil and Suzuki. This is clearly a skill that they have developed.

In order to visualize their unique ability to get down the line, I wanted to create an overlay of their batting stances and swings to see if there were any similarities: 

In trying to create the most accurate comparison possible, I wanted to find a similar clip of them in order to show the similarities/differences between their swings. In both clips, it is a left-handed pitcher and the ball was in the bottom edge of the strike zone. 

I also tried my best to sync up the videos so that they make contact at the same exact time. Along with that, the result of both plays is the same, an infield single. The video from McNeil is unfortunately from the same play where he hurt his hamstring in early May 2021, while the video from Ichiro is from April 2002, the start of his second MLB season.

To my surprise, they are almost mirror images of each other up until they make contact with the ball. While they both basically start running towards first base after making contact with the ball, it looks like Suzuki is able to get a small head start because he peels off the ball a bit quicker. 

Here are a few still images from the pre-pitch setup, load, and launch showing how their stances are virtually identical to each other:

In these three images, it is hard to tell the two apart because of how similar their stances are. It’s only after contact is made with the ball that you begin to notice some of the differences between both of them.

The biggest thing that stuck out to me was how quickly Suzuki can get out of the box after he swings, as he gets nearly a full step of extra separation compared to McNeil. This definitely plays a huge role in how Suzuki was able to get down the line so quickly. Along with that, you’ll see the first real noticeable difference between their two swings is the point where the bat makes contact with the ball, as Ichiro’s right shoulder starts leaning towards first base more than McNeil’s. Here is a still image of that:

Even as Ichiro got older, his swing remained the same and his ability to get down the line was still elite. While he was not as fast, he clearly mastered the skill of being able to get down the line extremely quickly. 

One byproduct of this skill is their ability to convert grounders into infield hits. While Suzuki hits into more grounders/bunts than McNeil (largely due to the era they played in), Jeff still routinely finishes in the top half of the league in terms of infield hit percentage, which is measured by the number of infield hits divided by ground balls. As you could probably guess, Suzuki was always one of the league leaders in infield hit %, but McNeil is surprisingly good at getting infield hits considering his league average speed.

To give a visual representation of how their infield hit % compared in their own eras, I created a graph of both McNeil and Suzuki’s infield hit rates over the course of four seasons. Since the first year of batted ball data that is available on Fangraphs started in 2002, I used the time span from 2002-2005 for Ichiro, while I used 2018-2021 for McNeil, which spans his entire career:

The main thing you’ll probably notice is how much higher Ichiro ranks amongst his peers compared to McNeil. Since this was early in Ichiro’s career, this was when he easily had a 30+ ft/sec sprint speed. Considering that Suzuki had elite sprint speed and was also amazing at getting down the line, it makes sense how he was able to get so many infield hits in his career.

Even though McNeil’s rankings look relatively low when compared with Ichiro, he has always been in the top half of the league in infield hit rate, even with his average sprint speed. This is not an aspect of McNeil’s game that many people think of, yet it has helped him convert a lot of potential ground ball outs to infield hits.

Getting infield hits is not the only way that McNeil and Ichiro are similar, however. In fact, by looking at their strikeout and walk rates, it is clear these two on-base machines have even more in common with one another. 

As I’ve mentioned before, the eras they played in were quite different, and nowadays, K rate is skyrocketing compared to what it was in the early 2000s. Due to this influx of strikeouts, I wanted to look at each of their K%-BB% within their own eras, to see how they compare to their peers. Unlike K/BB or BB/K, I like using K%-BB% because it places an equal emphasis on both strikeout and walk rates. 

I must preface my next chart by mentioning that I removed Barry Bonds from the early 2000s data simply because of how much he skewed the data. I’m sure everyone knows how much of an outlier Bonds was in the early 2000s, so I thought it was fairer to Ichiro if I eliminated Bonds and his astronomical walk rates. Anyways, here are both Jeff McNeil’s and Ichiro Suzuki’s K%-BB% from their first four MLB seasons:

Since a player ideally wants to walk more and strikeout less, I flipped the y-axis because a lower K%-BB% is better. A negative K%-BB% means that the player has a higher walk rate than strikeout rate.

You’ll notice that on Ichiro’s chart from 2001-2004, there are more dots (players) that have a negative K%-BB% compared to 2018-2021. As I briefly touched on earlier, the reason for that is the increase in strikeouts, which have steadily been increasing across the MLB since 2009.

Even though McNeil plays in a very strikeout-heavy era, he is an old-school hitter, as his K% is routinely amongst one of the lowest in the leagues. If you compare both McNeil and Suzuki’s K%-BB% in their first four seasons, disregarding era, you’ll see that they are very similar to each other, as neither of them had a K%-BB% over 7%.

Looking at their K%-BB% within their eras, McNeil was in the upper 10th percentile in three out of his four career seasons while Suzuki only did that once in his first four seasons. While this is only looking at a four-year sample size, since that is all of McNeil’s career, Suzuki maintained a similar K%-BB% for almost 13 straight seasons.

That leads me to one of the main differences between the two, which is durability. 

Ichiro Suzuki played at least 140 games in 16 consecutive MLB seasons and had at least 600 ABs in 12 consecutive MLB seasons. McNeil hasn’t reached either of those milestones in any of his seasons so far. Now, some of it isn’t McNeil’s fault. In 2018, he got called up in late July and played virtually every day to end the season, while in 2020, he played in 52 games out of the 60 possible, which would translate to about 140 games if it was a full 162 games.

Even though Suzuki made his MLB debut at 27 years old, he took his final MLB at-bat at the age of 45, which is truly remarkable if you also consider the nine years he spent in Japan before going to Seattle.

If McNeil can remain relatively healthy throughout his career and can play for a long period of time, I am confident that McNeil’s overall career stats and accolades could start to look pretty similar to Ichiro Suzuki.

The post How Jeff McNeil Could Be This Decade’s Ichiro Suzuki appeared first on Metsmerized.

Mary Holt-USA TODAY Sports

At the end of the 2018 season, James McCann was non-tendered, which meant he was effectively released by the Detroit Tigers. At that point, McCann was making a little over $2 million dollars a year but the Tigers felt like he wasn’t worth retaining. Two years later, after a stop in the south side of Chicago, McCann officially signed a four-year, $40.5 million contract with the Mets. Making McCann their catcher until the 2025 season, hopefully right in time for Francisco Alvarez to become the full-time starter.

Sandy Alderson and Steve Cohen felt confident enough to forgo an aggressive pursuit of J.T. Realmuto and inked McCann to his four-year deal, which made him the first top 20 free agent based on MLB Trade Rumors rankings to sign a contract in the 2020 off-season. Steve Cohen has made it known that he is willing to spend money this off-season, but not to the point where they are acting like “drunken sailors”. Despite this, they settled on McCann and didn’t want to spend the majority of the off-season money on just Realmuto. Just two years after getting released, why did the Mets front office decide to sign McCann to a four-year deal, which was higher than projected by MLBTR?

Due to the nature of the catcher position, defense is arguably as important if not more important than offense, depending on the team. The Mets had the No. 1 offense last year in terms of wRC+, so getting a defensive upgrade to Wilson Ramos was the key.

Doing some initial digging, it’s a bit surprising to see that in McCann’s last full season, 2019, he was in the 12th percentile in Framing and the 23rd percentile in second base pop time according to Baseball Savant. Signing a catcher who was in the bottom 25% in two important catcher metrics in his last full year seems like a bad decision for the Mets if they are relying on McCann’s defense, but doing some further research yields some important insights.

Across 31 games played in the 2020 season, McCann jumped from the 12th percentile to the 88th percentile in framing. While many will quickly point to a small sample size, this doesn’t seem like a fluke, as McCann made notable and apparent changes in how he approaches framing the ball.

In an article written by James Fegan of The Athletic, it described the work McCann put in with Jerry Narron, a former MLB catcher that has worked with players like Jeff Mathis, Carson Kelly, Martin Maldonado, Jonathan Lucroy, David Ross, and more. Maldonado was so appreciative of Narron’s help that he sent his 2017 Gold Glove for him to keep.

In McCann’s work with Narron, they prioritized framing low pitches and “beat[ing] the ball to the spot”. Fegan further explained the work they put in the off-season explaining how “After growing up with the school of thought of being ‘quiet’ with all of his hand movements, and staying in a squat to allow more lateral movement and blocking, McCann and Narron went over how the 30-year-old, 6-foot-3 backstop had been losing calls on pitches below the zone throughout his career because he wasn’t set up low enough. Unless you’re watching the catch on every pitch the way McCann does whenever he’s watching baseball nowadays, it’s subtle, but he’s made a jarring switch to more actively pulling the ball up through the zone on every pitch, and setting up to do so on one knee far more frequently”.

The Statcast framing numbers back up the work McCann put in the offseason. Here is a look at McCann’s framing numbers in the bottom of the strike zone with 2020 on the top and 2019 on the bottom:

This chart shows the Strike Rate in each zone which is a percentage that represents how often a ball was called a strike in that part of the zone (highlighted in red). In 2020, McCann was 6th out of all qualified catchers in Zone 18 and he posted his first season with a positive Runs Extra Strikes (which calculates how many extra runs the catcher created from called strikes).

While McCann’s framing numbers low in the zone improved, they did take a hit in the top of the zone, which makes sense since he is now setting up lower in the zone than he had before. Despite this, more pitches end up below the zone than above the zone, so improving his framing on low pitches was the key to him becoming a good framing catcher.

Overall, here is a look at how McCann stacked up framing pitches in each zone highlighted by his overall numbers:

Here are some notable rankings:

• 1st in Strike Rate in Zone 16 (right middle of the zone)
• 6th in Strike Rate in Zone 18 (bottom middle of the zone)
• 8th in Strike Rate out of Qualified Catchers (% of strikes called a strike in the shadow zones)

In order for McCann’s contract to provide surplus value for the Mets, they need him to maintain, if not improve, his 2020 framing numbers. I am confident his new approach in framing low pitches will stick and that is why the Mets took the risk. Catchers are notoriously late bloomers and probably reach their peak at the latest age out of any position. Mets fans saw the development of Travis d’Arnaud this year with the Braves and he had a career year at the age of 31 (McCann is 30).

As always, numbers paint one picture but the video could tell a different story. Based on what I have seen, the differences between McCann’s positioning in 2019 and 2020 are stark and aligns with the work he put in with Narron. Here is a great side-by-side of McCann’s development:

Here’s how James McCann improved his pitch framing to go from dead last among qualified catchers in Runs From Extra Strikes — which converts strikes to runs saved based on the catcher’s ability to gain called strikes on pitches that border the strike zone — to 9th this past year pic.twitter.com/4szTcN1M5u

— JB (@JeffreyBellone) December 9, 2020

With pitchers on their staff like Marcus Stroman, Noah Syndergaard, and Carlos Carrasco who all rely on dominating in the bottom part of the zone, it is imperative that McCann is able to steal a lot of strikes for his pitching staff as they won’t be forced to throw extra pitches in an at-bat.

Beyond just framing pitches, a lot more goes into being a good defensive catcher. This includes controlling the running game, game planning for hitters, and understanding your pitchers.

When it comes to controlling the running game, there are a lot of external factors that the catcher can’t control like the speed of the runner and how effective the pitcher is at holding on runners. If the pitcher has a long delivery, it makes it tough for the catcher to consistently throw out runners. But based on what I have researched, it seems that McCann does a fairly good job at throwing out runners.

While Baseball Savant hasn’t publicly released catcher pop time to 2B for 2020, in the past, McCann has been below average, ranking in the 23rd and 27th percentile in 2019 and 2018 respectively. When he was on the Tigers, his rankings were slightly better as he was in the 50th and 59th percentile in 2017 and 2016 respectively. Even though his pop time steadily declined each year from 2016-2019, his caught stealing percentage remained pretty consistent, hovering around 30-36% with both the Tigers and White Sox, which ranked him in the top 5.

Instead of giving you my own take on how James McCann will fare in throwing out runners for the Mets, I will provide you with a good compilation of his arm and his overall throwing ability:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB8LNPGZJvg

Moving on from the things you can evaluate with numbers and statistics, we need to talk about McCann’s ability to impact a game from the mental standpoint. Catchers need to have a scouting report in their head for each hitter so they know how to attack the hitter and what pitches to call for along with the sequence in which to throw them.

To start off, I feel it is important to mention the fact that James McCann, not Yasmani Grandal, was the one who caught Lucas Giolito’s no-hitter in 2020, despite Grandal getting more playing time than McCann.

While some may think that it was luck of the draw that McCann caught Giolito’s no-hitter instead of Grandal, Giolito was vastly superior when McCann was behind the dish to the point where McCann basically became his personal catcher:

Giolito with McCann in 2020: 51.2 IP, 2.61 ERA, .494 OPS

Giolito with Grandal in 2020: 20.2 IP, 5.66 ERA, .767 OPS

Giolito is on record mentioning how much he “really loves throwing to [McCann]” (670 The Score). Beyond the high praise he verbally gave, it is evident Giolito feels more comfortable throwing to McCann. His numbers with and without McCann catching him are stark:

McCann/Giolito career numbers: 228 IP, 3.23 ERA, .613 OPS

All other catchers/Giolito career numbers: 260.2 IP, 5.50 ERA, .779 OPS

Across all catchers that have ever caught Giolito, his lowest ERA and OPS are with McCann.

Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

I mention all of this to show how McCann is a reliable catcher that pitchers trust. The pitcher/catcher relationship is one of the most important in baseball and it is critical that they trust each other and are working together.

In his introductory press conference with the Mets, James McCann explained how he builds a relationship with pitchers:

“It begins with trust. Knowing what makes someone tick is different than merely knowing them. There must be a deeper understanding there. In the baseball world, it’s easy to know somebody on the field. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer to get to know somebody off the field and you want to know what’s going on at home, what’s going on with their family off the field. But what makes somebody tick, honestly the easiest way to figure that out is going through game-like experiences. Finding out what happens when there’s runners on second and third with two outs in a one-run ball game. How does someone react to a certain situation?”

Getting that trust and sense of how pitchers will react in various scenarios gives McCann insight into figuring out how best to call the game. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses allows him to call certain pitches in favorable counts and lets him tailor the at-bat to hopefully favor the pitcher.

The Mets are betting on McCann to be their future catcher for years to come, a position that they’ve sought to reliably fill ever since Mike Piazza left. If McCann can combine his offensive production in 2019 and his defensive production in 2020, the Mets will be very happy with their signing, and that $10 million AAV gives them the financial flexibility that signing J.T. Realmuto wouldn’t have. If Realmuto had signed with the Mets, it would have been nearly impossible for the Mets to trade for Francisco Lindor and also sign him to a long-term extension. All the Mets hope for is that McCann provides surplus value to his contract, not that he necessarily performs better than Realmuto in the foreseeable future.

The post A Deep Dive Into the Defensive Improvements of James McCann appeared first on Metsmerized.

Good morning, Mets fans!

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On This Day in Mets History

Guillermo Heredia (30), Rafael Santana (63), Bob Apodaca (71), Nolan Ryan (74)

Let’s go Mets!

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Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Since the Mets missed out on All-Star center fielder George Springer to the Blue Jays, their free spending arch-nemesis this offseason, all the talk surrounding the team in recent days has been about another big free-agent, Trevor Bauer. While Bauer would fit in nicely behind Jacob deGrom as the number two starter, do they really need to meet his demands of being the highest paid pitcher ever by average annual value? (Gerrit Cole is current leader at $36 million AAV)

Not only does Bauer lack the track record for being worth that kind of contract, it would likely inhibit the Mets ability to keep Noah Syndergaard and/or Marcus Stroman past this season when you also factor in potential nine figure contracts for Francisco Lindor and Michael Conforto.

One name who could provide quality starter numbers while also not sinking the Mets chances at properly building out the rest of their roster? That would be Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks. Since the start of 2016, Hendricks has been one of the most reliable starters in all of baseball: 129 GS, 787.0 IP, 3.00 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 3.60 FIP, 143 ERA+, 17.9 bWAR, 16.0 fWAR. He has never finished a season with an ERA or FIP above 3.95 in his entire seven year career, and wound up finishing ninth in NL Cy Young voting during the shortened 2020 season.

In his five full seasons as a big-leaguer, Hendricks has made 30 or more starts every season except 2017, where he missed seven weeks because of inflammation in his pitching hand. A big reason for that sustained health likely has to do with the fact that in a league full of pitchers that are pumping 95+ MPH, Hendricks is one of the few who focuses less on radar guns and more on location.

The 31-year-old has his fastball hovering around 86-88 MPH during the last three seasons, which would be in the bottom 5 percentile among all MLB pitchers. But in that same timeframe his 4.5 BB% ranks second among all pitchers with at least 400.0 IP, behind only six-time All Star and former Cy Young winner Zack Greinke (4.3%).

The elite control has also led to Hendricks giving up an extremely low amount of hard-hit balls. The California native has the third lowest Hard Hit Percentage (30.8%) among all pitchers with at least 400.0 IP since 2018, with former Mets starter Zack Wheeler (27.5%) first, and deGrom (28.8%) second on that list.

Hendricks has 3 years/$42 million left on his current deal, with a $16 million club option in 2024. To most people, that may not seem like a lot for a pitcher of Hendricks’ caliber. But for Cubs ownership, it probably is based on how they’ve operated this offseason.

The Ricketts family has shown an interest in significantly slashing their payroll with moves like signing only one major-league deal thus far (catcher Austin Romine on 1 year/$1.5 million contract), trading Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini to San Diego, non-tendering Kyle Schwarber, not making an effort to re-sign free agents like Jose Quintana, Tyler Chatwood, and/or Jon Lester, while also heavily floating former NL MVP Kris Bryant in trade talks most of the offseason.

TSN Sports’ Scott Mitchell mentioned last week that the Blue Jays had discussed both Bryant and Hendricks with the Cubs. Chicago likely was interested since they know they’d be able to boost their prospect return for one year of Bryant ($19.5 million) by adding a controllable arm like Hendricks to the deal, similar to what the Indians did with packaging Lindor and Carlos Carrasco together.

However, Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro said during a recent presser that the “bulk of our heavy lifting is done” after signing Springer and former Athletics infielder Marcus Semien, hinting they no longer have legitimate interest in making a trade for names like Bryant and/or Hendricks, leaving the Mets as the only known team with interest in taking on large salaries like that.

The Mets have shown an interest in Bryant throughout the offseason (MMO’s Dilip Sridhar wrote an excellent trade profile on him), but what if they added Hendricks to the deal too? How much more would it cost?

If we’re using the Lindor/Carrasco trade as a base for this proposal, it would probably require two major league players (JD Davis and Jeurys Familia?), along with two low-level prospects full of potential (JT Ginn and Alexander Ramirez?) to get the Cubs to budge, and maybe more to complete the deal. Bryant does not have the same trade value that Lindor did when the Mets acquired him, but Hendricks is not only three years younger than Carrasco, but he has an extra year on his deal and is arguably a better pitcher as well.

Adding that $33.5 million in payroll while shedding ~$12 million from Davis and Familia would leave the Mets with ~$10M before hitting the luxury tax line, giving them their best third baseman since David Wright for at least a year, another legit number three starter who is under team control for three seasons at a very fair dollar value, and some extra money left over to address other needs like center field and a bullpen arm. A perfect recipe for challenging top NL teams like the Braves, Dodgers and Padres this upcoming season.

The post Opinion: Mets Should Trade for Kris Bryant and Kyle Hendricks appeared first on Metsmerized.

Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Kolten Wong, 2B

Position: 2B
Bats/Throws: L/R
Age: 30 (10/10/1990)

Traditional Stats: .265/.350/.326, 53 games, 4 doubles, 1 HR, 16 RBI
Advanced Stats: 1.3 bWAR, 1.3 fWAR, 87 OPS+, 92 wRC+
Defensive Stats: 6 DRS, 3.8 UZR, 2 OAA

RUNDOWN

After the Mets got their big bat in Francisco Lindor, a lot of the talk around the team has been about how they can improve their 26th ranked defense by DRS (-22). And when you talk about defense on the open market, Kolten Wong has to be one of the first names that comes to mind for most people.

Since the start of 2018, the Hawaii native has posted the most DRS (41), UZR (22.4), and defensive fWAR (26.7) among all second baseman in baseball, while being tied for first with Pirates’ Adam Frazier in OAA (21). Wong took home the NL Gold Glove at the position in each of the last two seasons, making it seem like there is no slowing down for the 30-year-old.

Something Wong also excels in is baserunning, and the Mets could use some help in that area as well, as they were ranked dead last in baseball over the last two seasons with an abysmal -28.1 BsR. Since the start of 2018, Wong has the ninth best baserunning numbers in the National League with a 9.7 BsR.

While Wong’s defense and baserunning are exceptional, something he lacks in his arsenal is a well-rounded bat. The former 2011 first round pick has shown an ability to hit for average and get on base (.273 AVG & .356 OBP since 2017), but his power is almost nonexistent. Over his last three full seasons (’17-’19), Wong has averaged just 8 home runs per year, and has a .398 slugging percentage if you include the shortened 2020 season as well.

Wong also has a tough time against lefties, as the Cardinals tried keeping him away from southpaws during most of his time in St. Louis. He has a career 2,368 plate appearances against righties (101 wRC+), and just 676 plate appearances against lefties (79 wRC+).

Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

CONTRACT

After having his $12.5 million club option declined by the Cardinals this offseason, MLB Trade Rumors has Wong landing a 2 year/$16 million deal this winter, while Fangraphs has him a bit higher at 3 years/$29 million.

MLBTR seems to have the most likely outcome here, as they note in their prediction for Wong that defense first infielders with a lack of pop don’t have a great history of getting paid big money.

Wong is represented by PSI Sports Management, who have other clients such as Aaron Judge, Logan Forsythe, Kole Calhoun, and Scott Kingery.

RECOMMENDATION

This one is tough. While Wong would help the Mets a lot in two areas of need with his defense and baserunning, the fit is a bit odd since there would be a bit of a redundancy with Wong and Luis Guillorme on the roster together. Guillorme is someone who profiles very similarly to Wong in a lot of ways on both sides of the ball, although Guillorme is younger, cheaper, and more versatile defensively as he can play some shortstop and third base in addition to second.

Despite the redundancy, Wong would still be an excellent addition to this Mets team. The chance to watch Lindor and Wong work as a double-play combo on a nightly basis is just too mouthwatering to pass up. If the Mets had Wong they could shift Jeff McNeil to third base, where he has a career 5 DRS. Having a good infield defense is extremely important when you have two groundball heavy starters like Marcus Stroman and David Peterson, and adding Wong would give the Orange & Blue one of the best defensive infields in baseball. Especially if the Universal DH returns in 2021 and Dominic Smith gets to play lots of first base.

The chatter surrounding the Mets being too left-handed in their lineup is a bit overblown. Yes, they have a surplus of lefties, but Jeff McNeil has never shown an inability to handle LHP, while Michael Conforto and Smith both improved a good amount against southpaws this past season. This group had the second best offense in baseball last season in terms of wRC+ (121).

In conclusion, Wong wouldn’t be my first choice for infielders, but if the price is right I’d love to throw him in the 8-9 hole and hope for quality contact ability while knowing he’s going to be an absolute stud in the field and on the base-paths.

The post MMO Free Agent Profile: Kolten Wong, 2B appeared first on Metsmerized.

Good Morning, Mets fans!

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The details of George Springer‘s new 6 year, $150M contract have been revealed.

The Yankees are one of multiple teams interested in trading for Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon.

Pitcher Derek Holland has signed a minor league contract with an invitation to MLB spring training with the Tigers.

The Reds acquired pitcher Cionel Perez in a trade with the Astros.

Latest NL East News

The Nationals emerged as a potential team to sign free agent reliever Brad Hand. 

The Marlins are one of three teams outfielder Yasiel Puig is considering signing with this offseason.

The Braves claimed both pitcher Victor Arano and outfielder Kyle Garlick off waivers from the Phillies.

Latest on MMO

Marshall Field looks back at the career of Hank Aaron.

Thomas Hall believes infielder Kolten Wong would bolster the current Mets roster.

Mojo Hill debates on whether Jeff McNeil should play second or third base for the Mets this upcoming season.

On This Day in Mets History

Birthdays: Mike Glavine (48), Neil Allen (63)

Let’s go Mets!

The post Morning Briefing: Yankees In Talks With Pirates For Jameson Taillon appeared first on Metsmerized.

After missing out on their top free-agent target George Springer, it seems the New York Mets are still talking with another big fish that remains on the open market.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports that based on conversations with industry sources, the Mets and Los Angeles Angels are “the two teams believed to have the best chance” at landing Trevor Bauer. The Dodgers and Blue Jays remain possibilities as well according to Feinsand, but the Dodgers are seen as a long-shot.

Bauer, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, has remained one of the larger mysteries this offseason, as he has spent a large portion of his winter releasing YouTube videos and social media posts talking about all the different teams he could potentially join next season, but no one has been able to really pin down the teams with a legitimate shot thus far.

The Mets and Bauer have flirted with each other in the last few months. Mets team president Sandy Alderson was asked about Bauer during an interview on WFAN in November and gave an open-ended answer.

“This is an entertainment business. We’ve got to be open-minded about how players express themselves. The thing that’s interesting about Bauer is he brings along with him a lot of ideas, a lot of routines, a sort of technical orientation that I bet we can learn from. If a guy can perform. It doesn’t really matter to me as long as it’s not disruptive in the clubhouse and basically, if guys see someone performing, they’ll live with whatever the baggage is.”

Bauer touched on those remarks in an interview with Anthony DiComo of MLB.com shortly thereafter.

“I heard Sandy’s comments, and it was refreshing to hear him speak that way about me. In the past, a lot of the narrative surrounding me is I couldn’t handle a big market, a big media market, I was a head case, or whatever the case is, that’s kind of been the narrative. So to hear that someone as high-ranking as Sandy feels the way he feels about that is refreshing and good to hear him speak like that. I’m certainly very appreciative of that.”

Bauer has talked in the past about wanting to take only one-year deals, but he may have changed that stance after such an impressive 2020 campaign. Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported in late-December that Bauer is seeking a five-to-six-year deal worth close to $200 million.

We’ll just have to see how things play out over the next few weeks with pitchers & catchers expected to report to Port St. Lucie on February 17.

The post Feinsand: Mets and Angels Have Best Chance at Trevor Bauer appeared first on Metsmerized.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

When you think about freedom, you think about being able to walk down the street and enjoy the sights and the sounds; take a drive to anywhere across this great nation of ours and enjoy every aspect of it; go to a ball game with friends and family and join thousands of others that might be from different walks of life but have the same interest in common; to root for the home team, or maybe even the visiting team, depending on their preference.

But if you really look at the opportunity we all share to live in harmony, one of the greatest men who helped to make this a reality and someone that I am forever grateful to is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, for paving the way for all of us to equally enjoy such freedoms.

Now, we can not take away the many sacrifices that our armed forces and veterans have made to protect us all from the people that want to destroy the way we live, but for the purpose of this post I wanted to honor a man that stood up to adversity and fought for civil rights between whites, blacks and people from all races, ethnicities, and walks of life. That they may be equal, and grow and live together without discrimination in the greatest democracy the world has ever known.

Dr. King knew that this great nation of ours was missing something, and when he made that march to Washington, he changed not only a Nation, but a World.

We see that evidence in our own backyard, in other nations, and especially in our National Pastime.  In Baseball, you see that right away, with players coming from all over the world, to join and compete with fellow athletes for a common goal.

No longer are teams segregated like they were prior to the late 1940′s when Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to break the color barrier in the major leagues.  Robinson’s courage also paved the way for players like Roberto Clemente, who was the first Latin American superstar in Major League Baseball and lived his life giving back to others and becoming a symbol of Latin American pride. Masanori Murakami, who made his debut in 1964 with the San Francisco Giants, was the first ever Japanese baseball player to make his mark on the game.

The sacrifices that these and many men and women have made, and the willingness of one man to push back the norm, changed the way most if not all of us look at each other.

We have come a long way as a nation and as a sport, and as we continue to move forward, the greatest gift that we can share with the next generation is the life and courage of all the brave men and women that have fought for our freedoms especially Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy Birthday to a Great American and a man that forever changed the landscape of our great nation: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The post MMO Honors the Spirit of Martin Luther King Jr appeared first on Metsmerized.

Good Morning, Mets fans!

Latest Mets News

The Mets posted a heartfelt tribute video for former Met Amed Rosario, who was traded to the Indians for Francisco Lindor. 

Sean Dean, a former security worker for the Mets, has passed away due to COVID-19.

With both the Mets and Yankees making big splashes this offseason, their rivalry is bigger than it ever has been, writes Mike Lupica of MLB.com.

The Mets are one of three teams that have shown heavy interest in reliever Brad Hand.

Latest MLB News

LHP Martin Perez is close to signing a one year, $6.85M deal with the Red Sox.

Ken Davidoff of the New York Post proposes a way for MLB to avoid disagreement with its players over the 2021 season.

Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com shares an updated list of all the top international prospects and their respective teams they have signed with.

Latest NL East News

The Nationals posted a touching tribute video for catcher Kurt Suzuki, who has signed a one-year deal with the Angels.

Latest on MMO

Thomas Hall believes the Mets should take a look at outfielder Albert Almora as an inexpensive center fielder if they do not land George Springer.

Christopher Soto writes about the Mets’ current payroll and the potential luxury tax issue they could face in the future.

Rich Sparago states that the Francisco Lindor trade is one of the team’s biggest deals in franchise history.

On This Day in Mets History

Birthdays: Luis Alvarado (72), Mike Marshall (78)

Let’s go Mets!

The post Morning Briefing: Farewell, Amed Rosario appeared first on Metsmerized.

Sep 17, 2020; Denver, Colorado, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Enrique Hernandez (14) leans away from a pitch in the fourth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Position: 1B/2B/SS/3B/LF/CF/RF
Bats/Throws: R/R
Age: 29 (8/24/1991)

Traditional Stats: .230/.270/.410, 48 games, 8 doubles, 5 HR, 20 RBI
Advanced Stats: 1.0 bWAR, -0.1 fWAR, 83 OPS+, 83 wRC+
Defensive Stats: 9 DRS, -1.9 UZR

Rundown

During an interview with Jon Heyman on the Big Time Baseball podcast earlier this week, Mets President Sandy Alderson mentioned that the team’s plan for the remainder of the offseason would be to “work from the bench up and we’ll see where it takes us.” They kicked that idea off by signing 1B/OF José Martínez to a split-contract worth up to $1.5 million. Now another name Alderson & Jared Porter could potentially look at is Enrique “Kiké” Hernández.

Hernández, 29, is the ultimate utility man in baseball. He can play anywhere on the field besides pitcher and catcher, and he plays almost all of them really well. Besides first base (-2) and third base (-1), Hernández has 0 or more defensive runs saved at every position he’s played in his career. His best spot is second base, where he has accrued 24 DRS over the last three years (1,022 innings).

While the Puerto Rico native has an excellent glove, he has never been viewed as having a great bat during his seven MLB seasons.  After an exceptional start to his big-league career where Hernández hit .307/.346/.490 from 2014-2015 as a bench bat, his offensive statistics have taken a pretty big hit. Over the last five seasons, the former sixth round draft pick has an average slash-line of .230/.308/.416 with a 93 OPS+.

Although those numbers are a bit tough to look at, one silver lining is that Hernández could provide something the Mets still need even after the addition of Martinez, a right-handed bat who can hit lefties well. Hernández has a slash-line of .263/.345/.474 in 893 career plate appearances against southpaws, good for an .820 OPS and 120 wRC+. It’s also hard to ignore his sneaky pop, with an average of 16 home runs from 2017-2019.

Contract

According to baseball insider Peter Gammons, Hernández is looking for a 1-year deal where he can get close to 500 plate appearances. Combining his subpar overall offensive numbers and the current state of baseball’s free-agent market, it would be a surprise to see Hernández land anything more than $5-$6 million.

Recommendation

Hernández should be on almost every contending team’s wish-list this offseason. Who wouldn’t want a guy that can play virtually everywhere on the field, give you quality at-bats against lefties and also provide a bit of power?

If the Mets committed to making Jeff McNeil their third baseman, they could platoon Hernández and Luis Guillorme at second base and provide Francisco Lindor with an exceptional double play partner every single night. Guillorme had a .938 OPS against right-handed pitching this past season, and we know that Hernández can handle lefties.

What if the Mets go the Jackie Bradley Jr. route in center field? Bradley Jr. would likely need to sit most nights against tough lefties, but guess who can play center field on those nights? Oh that’s right, Kiké Hernández.

This would be an excellent signing by the Mets. Not only is Hernández a fun player to watch on the field,  but he’s a blast in the clubhouse as well. This roster is already filled with lots of awesome people, what’s the harm in adding one more?

The post MMO Free Agent Profile: Kiké Hernández, UTL appeared first on Metsmerized.