General manager Sandy Alderson told Mike Puma of the New York Post that the Mets will soon scout 28-year-old Cuban shortstop Roberto Carlos.
The Mets are paying attention to the market for Cuban defectors, Puma says, but it remains unlikely a star of Yasiel Puig’s magnitude will be arriving at Citi Field anytime soon.
“We scout them now, so it’s not as if we’re not aware of what is going on,” Sandy Alderson said. “It’s not like we’re not aware of who is out there.”
Carlos, a switch-hitting shortstop who has not played organized baseball in two years, defected from Cuba to Mexico in November 2012.
He slipped through the baseball cracks because he lacked any representation, a person familiar with the situation told Puma.
“We are not looking at that market necessarily to solve our problems. But you need to be active in all the player-acquisition markets — participate and be aware that you have those as options,” Alderson also said.
It seems we always end up with one of these obligatory, “Mets are interested in such and such a player” posts whenever a new name emerges in the baseball ether.
That said, if Carlos was half as good as a Rusney Castillo, Jose Abreu or Yasiel Puig, he wouldn’t have been without representation for over two years. The agents for these International Latin Market players are like vultures.
Additionally, Carlos does not possess any impact tools like his contemporaries who were all 3-5 tool players. It’s believed that he won’t fetch more than $25 million for a four year deal, or less than half what some of the more recent Cuban defectors have signed for.
There are also questions about his real age.
