One of our readers emailed me this post on MetsBlog a few minutes ago and asked me what my thoughts were on potentially adding Jeurys Familia, Zack Wheeler, Jenrry Mejia or Matt Harvey to the Mets 40-man roster.
Michael Baron wrote:
On Tuesday, Sandy Alderson said he might have to add some players from the lower levels of the minor leagues to the 40-man roster, and some might be in a position to contribute at the big league level sooner rather than later…I just hope that doesn’t mean they are going to rush any of these guys (Familia, Mejia, Harvey, Wheeler) to the big leagues.
For the most part I agree with Mike, I too do not want to see any of our best prospects rushed to the majors. We’ve seen that far too often as Mets fans and rarely does it ever work out for the team or the player.
That said, I believe Alderson was referring to the fact he might have to add some players to the 40-man roster who might otherwise be exposed to the Rule 5 Draft.
I could almost guarantee you that Alderson was not thinking about adding Wheeler or Harvey to the 40-man roster, but he was definitely referring to Jeurys Familia – who will be exposed to the Rule 5 Draft unless he is added to the 40-man roster.
As for Jenrry Mejia, he is already on the 40-man roster so there’s nothing to be concerned about there.
However, getting back to Matt Harvey, Alderson himself said that while it’s a long-shot, if Harvey continues to progress at the current rate there’s a chance that we could see him in 2012.
Would that be considered rushing him?
No, not at all, if a prospect is so good that he dominates at every level and pushes the envelope as Harvey has done so far, then I see no problem with promoting a prospect who is obviously ready to compete at this level.
Lets see how Harvey does in Triple-A next season, and yes I do hope he dominates and pushes that envelope… That should be all of our hopes…
