Daily News columnist John Harper believes the Mets should do something “eye-popping” and sign free-agent closer David Robertson.
Harper is skeptical of the Mets closer situation and asks, “Do you really trust Jenrry Mejia?” He refers to Mejia and Jeurys Familia as a tightrope act and adds that even before Bobby Parnell got hurt he was far from a sure thing as a closer.
“Robertson showed remarkable consistency as a late-inning reliever the last five years, and perhaps most impressively, he handled the pressure of following Mariano Rivera as the Yankees’ closer in 2014 without flinching.”
“In addition, perhaps because his fastball cuts a bit like Rivera’s, Robertson was actually tougher on lefthanded hitters than righthanders, holding them to a .157 batting average and a .213 slugging percentage.”
It’s tough to argue with the logic, Robertson would give the Mets a shutdown bullpen to go with a formidable starting rotation.
But when viewed through the prism of the Mets’ financial limitations I can’t see the Wilpons authorizing Sandy Alderson to fork over $40-45 million dollars on a four year deal for Robertson. Especially when they can turn to several internal candidates at no additional cost to the team.
Technically, if the Mets were to move Bartolo Colon and Daniel Murphy it would make more sense. But just last week the buzz is that the Mets prefer to keep Murphy and there has been no inquiries on Colon.
Getting Robertson would also eliminate the need for a second lefty reliever given his incredible success against lefthanded hitters.
Robertson has been lights-out the last four seasons, while averaging 65 appearances per season. Here are some of his other peripherals…
One more thing to note before I hit the “publish” button… Yankees GM Brian Cashman said he has not ruled out bringing Robertson back despite adding Andrew Miller before the weekend.
So what do you think? Assuming we can swing it financially, good or bad idea?
