An MMO Fan Shot by Larry Smith

Most true baseball fans see themselves as amateur GMs and when their team makes a move (trade, promotion, demotion, free agent signing) they give it some thought and decide whether they like what the front office has done or not.  Some of us take this to the extreme like myself who has been in Strat-O-Matic Baseball leagues for over 40 years.  That’s a whole lot of drafts and trades.  Some picks and trades work out great while many are total duds.  But whichever way it goes you have to own it and move on.

When the Mets made the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz swap with the Mariners I had a feeling it was not going to work out for pretty much all the reasons that it hasn’t.  When they swapped some prospects for J.D. Davis I liked the
idea.  I also was pleased when GM Brodie brought in Aaron Altherr (truth be told – one of my former Strat players) because of his athleticism and because he had had some past success at the major league level.

I think we can all agree right now that he’s been a disaster at the plate this season.  When one would rather see Juan Lagares or Tomas Nido at the dish than a particular player then that particular ballplayer is downright awful.  And so it is with Altherr.

The question is when and with whom shall Altherr be replaced with. Let’s look at the options and try to guess what might happen.

When Jeff McNeil was put on the shelf with his hamstring, I thought the best guy to call up would have been Arismendy Alcantara.   In 341 at-bats at Triple-A Syracuse, he has hit 12 home runs, batted .284, put up an 824 OPS, while playing a pretty equal amount of time between second base, shortstop, left field, and center field. He’s a switch hitter.  I think he’s more versatile than Ruben Tejada even though admittedly Ruben has raked in Syracuse this season.

If the Altherr upgrade is to come from Syracuse then I’d like it to be Alcantara.  But if for some reason the front office doesn’t want to go with him, then Dilson Herrera would be a reasonable alternative.  In Dilson you get more power (24 home runs) and a higher OPS (.882).  He’s more of an infielder however even though he has put in four games in left field and three in right field.  While it seems that Dilson Herrera has been around forever he actually is still just 25 years old.

Another guy, an actual outfielder no less, who is putting up numbers in Syracuse is Travis Taijeron.  On the plus side is his .898 OPS with 20+ home run power.  But on the negative side of the ledger is the fact that he’s rather a butcher in the outfield and he’s K’d 147 times in just 328 Triple-A at-bats.  I think major league pitching would just spit him out with impunity.

There is always the chance that some major league team will release an outfielder. Players seem to be getting released daily these days so it’s not out of the question that a team could release an outfielder who would be better than Altherr.  After all, if Altherr is the bottom of the barrel then the only way to go is up.

Lastly and I’m sure the way we all hope this will go down is that Brandon Nimmo  – remember him? – is apparently close to doing a rehab assignment.  Now betting on any Mets player to come off the IL in a timely manner free of setbacks is a fool’s errand.  But, if Nimmo can come back in some semblance of health, then that would be by far the most ideal way to replace Altherr.

If the Mets really have a playoff run in them they absolutely must cut away the deadwood.  In this case, it means upgrading from Aaron Altherr.

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This Fan Shot was contributed by MMO contributor Larry Smith. Have something you want to say about the Mets? Share your opinions with over 20,000 Met fans who read this site daily.

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