Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

After receiving very little production off the bench last season, the New York Mets made sure to add some reliable reserve players to their roster over the offseason, although one of those newcomers might miss a large portion of the 2021 campaign.

Appearing in his third game of the spring, infielder Jose Martinez attempted to field a hard-hit ground ball at first base when he felt something pop in his knee, which later revealed to be a torn meniscus. As a result of this injury, the 32-year-old is expected to be sidelined for approximately four months and his recovery process may require an even longer stint on the injured list.

With Martinez unavailable for an extended period of time, the Mets will be without a power-hitting right-hander on their bench when the regular season opens and that could expose their lineup when they face off against a challenging left-handed pitcher. In an effort to fill this void, the front office has checked in on veteran Maikel Franco, as they may attempt to bring him to Queens, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network.

While signing Franco may seem like a good idea, it wouldn’t make a ton of sense for this team, especially with the way their bench is currently constructed. As of right now, the club’s position player depth currently features Jonathan Villar, Luis Guillorme, Tomas Nido, Kevin Pillar and Albert Almora Jr.

Unless the Mets decide to roll with a six-man bench, which would be extremely unlikely, they’d be forced to remove one of these players from the 26-man roster in order to add Franco. Since there’s a strong chance Nido, Pillar and Villar would be safe from subtraction, that means both Almora Jr. or Guillorme would likely be on the chopping block if Franco were to make the team, as they still have minor league options.

If the Mets chose to go with the veteran infielder over Guillorme, it would force him to begin this season at Triple-A Syracuse. But considering the 26-year-old owns 559 career plate appearances at that level, there probably isn’t much more he can learn down there and will need to continue his development at the highest level of competition.

Along with providing him an opportunity to continue growing, removing the former 10th-round pick from New York’s roster and replacing him with Franco would likely weaken the position player group in several different ways, making this move less than ideal.

Starting with versatility, Guillorme is capable of being positioned all around the infield, including second base, shortstop and third base. As for the former Philadelphia Phillie, he’s largely been limited to the hot corner throughout his career and has occasionally moved over to first base, although he only owns 67 2/3 career innings at that spot.

Taking this a step further, not only would Franco provide less versatility to his new team but they also wouldn’t be able to rely on his defense either, as he’s struggled mightily as a defender throughout his seven seasons in the majors.

Though the veteran third baseman made some improvements with his defense in 2020, resulting in a career-best -1 OAA, those minimal gains definitely don’t make up for his shortcomings on the left side of the infield over the last several seasons.

Since 2016, which is when MLB introduced OAA, the 28-year-old has recorded the third-worst OAA (-19) among all qualified third basemen, according to BaseballSavant.com.

Digging deeper into his defensive struggles, the 6′ 1″ corner infielder has generated the fewest DRS (-37), the third-lowest RngR (-5.2), the fourth-lowest UZR (-9.5) along with the fifth-lowest UZR/150 (-2.3) and defensive fWAR rating (0.0) since the 2015 campaign, according to FanGraphs.com.

While Guillorme probably isn’t going to win a Gold Glove award in 2021, he’s made significant strides with his defense since making his major league debut in 2018, as the youngster produced a 3 OAA last season – including a 2 OAA at second base and a 1 OAA at third base. In comparison, he created a -2 OAA at third base and a 1 OAA at second base during his rookie campaign,

In addition to being the superior defender, the left-handed batter also flourished during his limited plate appearances over the summer, allowing him to outperform Franco at the plate in 2020. Despite losing the battle in the slugging department, the versatile infielder still performed far beyond his expectations and made a strong offensive contribution in numerous ways.

Over his 68 plate appearances, Guillorme recorded six doubles, nine RBIs, a .105 ISO, a .463 BABIP, a .381 wOBA, a .355 xwOBAcon, a 14.7% walk rate, a 25.0% strikeout rate, a 31.7% LD rate, a 48.8% GB rate, a 19.5% FB rate, a 31.7% hard-hit rate, a 3.9 speed score, a 144 wRC+ score, a 0.6 fWAR rating and a slashing line of .333/.426/.439/.865.

As for Franco, in his 243 plate appearances he produced 16 doubles, eight home runs, 38 RBIs, a .179 ISO, a .298 BABIP, a .329 wOBA, a .334 xwOBAcon, a 6.6% walk rate, a 15.6% strikeout rate, an 18.0% LD rate, a 46.0% GB rate, a 36.0% FB rate, a 38.6% hard-hit rate, a 2.1 speed score, a 106 wRC+ score, a 1.3 fWAR rating and a slashing line of .278/.321/.457/.778.

While Franco could certainly provide some power off the bench, that’s about all he can offer at this point in his career, meaning the Mets are probably better off sticking with a more well-rounded player like Guillorme. Adding to this, chances are Franco probably won’t provide much support against lefties this season, which is one of the main reasons for the club’s interest in him.

Here are Franco’s career results against left-handed pitchers:

Considering Franco hasn’t always excelled against lefties in the past, he is not the best fit to replace what the Mets lost with Martinez’s injury. Instead, it’d make much more sense to provide Guillorme a chance to prove he deserves to stay in the majors, especially since he’s competing for starting reps at third base this spring.

Combing all these crucial factors together, it’d be in the Mets’ best interest to avoid acquiring the aging third baseman and let him sign elsewhere, allowing management to focus on the infielders who are already on their roster.

Having said that, if the Mets need to address third base, there is certain to be some options available on the trade market midseason, as they could make a run at someone like Kris Bryant, who’s slated to become a free agent after this season.

With three weeks until Opening Day, there’s still plenty of time to determine who’ll receive the starting job at third base when this season begins, however, Guillorme may end up serving a much larger role if he’s able to showcase his impressive results once again in 2021.