The Mets have reached out to Adrian Gonzalez who was released today from the Atlanta Braves according to Buster Olney of ESPN.
Gonzalez was traded on Saturday to the Braves from the Los Angeles Dodgers along with Brandon McCarthy, Scott Kazmir, and Charlie Culberson for Matt Kemp.
The 35-year-old first baseman is a five-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove Award winner.
He was offensively productive as recently as 2016 when he hit .285/.349/.435/.784 with 69 runs, 18 home runs, and 90 RBI.
However, 2016 is when his defense started to decline. Instead of having 10 or more defensive runs saved like he did from 2011-2015, he only had three. Instead of having a positive UZR/150 like he did from 2011-2015, he had a -0.6.
In 2017 his health, offense, and defense all took a big hit.
He only played in 71 games due to a back injury that plagued him all season. In those 71 games he only hit .242/.287/.355/.642 with 14 runs, three home runs, and 30 RBI. In 501 innings at first base he had -2 DRS and -5.9 UZR/150.
Overall Gonzalez was a liability for the team which is why he was traded and now released in the span of a few days.
If the Mets do sign him however, he won’t cost much at all. If he performs anywhere near even his 2016 self, he’d be worth taking a flyer on.
He would provide the team with first base insurance in case Dominic Smith isn’t ready for the challenge of playing everyday. At the same time, since the Mets won’t have to invest much in him, he wouldn’t block Smith from starting out the season at first.
