According to Jon Heyman, the Mets have made it clear to second baseman David Eckstein that they are not interested in his services. This is not surprising given the fact that the Mets are itching to dump Castillo, one of the few players with almost the exact same type of play as Eckstein.
Both of them have absolutely no power, are past their prime and hold little offensive value anymore. Their only major offensive upside is that both of them are arguably the two toughest players in baseball to strikeout. Both being on the down side of their careers and are barely clinging to the hopes of a starting job, they do not seem to be the type of player Alderson wants on his roster.
Although Eckstein and Castillo both have nearly identical types of play, Eckstein has two things that separate him from Castillo. Eckstein hits at least 20 doubles per year and also influences the younger players by running out every play. Castillo hit four doubles last season and is one of the biggest cancers in the Mets clubhouse.
Given Alderson’s sabermetrics approach to the game, a guy that only strikes out eight percent of the time he comes up to bat would seem appealing to him. But given the fact that the Amazins have already seen first hand that Eckstein’s type of play, through their less than pleasant ordeal with Castillo, his services were seen as useless for the 2011 Mets.
