According to Larry Stone of the Seattle Times, former Mets outfielder Endy Chavez is willing to sign a minor league contract as he continues his rehab from surgery for a torn MCL and ACL in his knee.
In March he will hold a showcase for interested teams, and apparently many are interested.
Chavez is trying to return from a June 19th outfield collision with Yuniesky Betancourt while playing for the Mariners. Hew was expected to miss 9-12 months after surgery the following month.
Chavez appeared in 54 games last season with the Mariners and batted .273 with two home runs and nine stolen bases in 161 at-bats.
As much as I love Endy, I don’t see how he would fit in with the Mets as presently constructed.
The outfield is completely set with starters Jason Bay, Carlos Beltran and Jeff Francoeur. Our fourth outfield is Angel Pagan who is a better hitter than Chavez and deserves any additional playing time they could eke out for him.
While reading some comments over at our friends Amazin Avenue, one of their readers are suggesting that we get rid of Jeff Francoeur and replace him with Chavez.
Firejerrynow writes, even with his somewhat underwhelming bat, his career UZR/150 of 15.7 (19.8 in RF) is enough to make me bite. I’d rather have him for $400,000 than Francoeur.
He even had several who agreed with him… Now I know when you mention the word Francoeur over there, it just sends everyone into a tizzy, but come on… it sounds to me like a few of them are a few cans short of a six-pack, and of course I’m just teasing. I think what is at play is just how much Endy Chavez is loved by Mets fans who will always remember him for “The Catch”.
We already committed $2 million dollars to Alex Cora coming off two thumb surgeries for our bench. We already added 38 year old Henry Blanco to our bench. We traded closer Billy Wagner in return for long time minor leaguer Chris Carter who is supposed to get the fifth outfielder spot. And we have one more bench spot left that is being reserved for either a corner utility infielder, or Daniel Murphy should the Mets sign Carlos Delgado.
So where exactly does Endy Chavez fit?
Are we simply going to ignore the fact that we sacrificed a first round pick and first round supplemental pick when we traded Wagner for Carter? Are we not going to at least see what we got? Do we just make the decision to stunt Carter’s progress just because our heart longs for someone who once gave us a cherished Mets memory?
We should never make player personnel moves based on emotion rather than intellect.
Endy isn’t even ready to run for another two months, so let’s keep our feelings for Endy Chavez in check, at least until we figure out what the rest of this roster is going to look like.
If all he wants is a minor league deal, and he is willing to stay there, then fine. However, I’m not interested in bumping Angel Pagan or Chris Carter off the pecking order just because we are drunk with sentimentality.
