It’s been a productive offseason for New York Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen thus far. After a month and a half — give or take — of getting his ducks in a row, the organization’s new head of baseball operations scored a few new toys this holiday season.
Some have been higher profile — Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, Jeurys Familia, Wilson Ramos — but there have been a couple of modest, roster-lengthening moves that should give this team an added dynamic that they’ve sorely missed in recent years.
Last Thursday the Mets selected former Marlins outfielder Braxton Lee in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft, then on Monday, they signed journeyman grass-roamer Rajai Davis, most recently of the Cleveland Indians. Both additions give the Mets something they haven’t had in some time; bonafide major-league outfield depth.
And no, neither of these players is A.J. Pollock, Adam Jones, or Bryce Harper. But if Nori Aoki, Travis Taijeron, Justin Ruggiano, Eric Campbell (we love ya, Soup), Alejandro De Aza, Darrell Ceciliani, and John Mayberry have taught us anything, it’s that a team can never have too many capable outfielders ready at a moments notice.
Davis, 38, put together solid seasons at the plate in 2014 and 2015 with Detroit (.272/.314/.418, 43 doubles, 16 homers, 81 runs batted in over 246 games) but hasn’t seen his OPS rise above .700 since that stretch (.239/.296/.353, 73 OPS+ rating since 2016; 1,077 plate appearances).
Davis played 63 games (470.2 innings) in the outfield last season, racking up one defensive run saved and a 3.1 ultimate zone rating, as per FanGraphs. Most of his time was spent in centerfield (301 innings, zero DRS, 3.1 UZR) and in left (160.2 innings, one DRS, -0.1 UZR).
In 216 plate appearances for the Indians in 2018, the Norwich, Connecticut native hit .224/.278/.281. While that’s not exactly encouraging, he did go 3-for-11 in pinch-hitting spots and stole 21 bases.
Over the course of Davis’ 13-year career, the right-handed batter has shown the ability to hit left-handers well, carrying a .280/.335/.419 line compared to .253/.298/.357 versus righties.
With Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto, and Juan Lagares currently penciled into the Mets’ outfield and Van Wagenen still reportedly hot on A.J. Pollock’s trail, as well as other “mystery options”, there’s a good chance Davis is simply here as Triple-A depth and as insurance against injury.
As pointed out by Jacob Resnick of MMO on Monday afternoon, “as a post-2018 Article XXB free agent, [the] Mets will have until March 23 to add Davis to the 40-man roster, release him, or pay him [a] $100,000 retention bonus”, meaning that there’s a very good possibility Rajai Davis doesn’t make it through — or to — spring training in February.
While Davis, as well as Lee, brings an MLB-ready reinforcement if need be, with the momentum that Brodie Van Wagenen has been moving with so far this offseason, it seems more likely that if he does remain with the Mets, he may be residing in Syracuse this summer.
For more on Braxton Lee, check out Rob Piersall‘s brief introduction to the 25-year-old Mississippi native from over the weekend.
Van Wagenen has added much-needed outfield depth, now let’s see if he can get a starter like Pollock or one of the “mystery options” Jon Heyman of FanCred about.
