The Mets 2015 Opening Day Roster

By Steven Inman

The 2015 season is finally here. Barring some sort of bizarre injury, here is your 2015 Mets Opening Day roster.

Starting pitchers: 

Matt Harvey will start Game 3 on the road as well as the Mets second Citi Field Game next week

1. Bartolo Colon

 2. Jacob deGrom

 3. Matt Harvey

 4. Jonathon Niese 

5. Dillon Gee

This is the order the Mets will go the first couple times through the rotation. The team will start arguably their worst starter on Opening Day in Colon. There are probably many reasons for this but the most public one at the moment is that way Harvey doesn’t start the home opener and will start the second Citi Field game which the Mets believe will maximize ticket sales. This is a clueless, idiotic way to run a franchise IF true, but hey its Opening Day so we won’t harp on the negatives today.

Relievers: 

Jenrry Mejia had a rough spring but will it carry over into the season?

6. Jenrry Mejia

7. Jeurys Familia 

8. Carlos Torres

9. Jerry Blevins

10. Alex Torres

11. Rafael Montero

12. Sean Gilmartin

13. Buddy Carlyle

Sean Gilmartin pitched well as Spring Training came to a close and will not be offered back to the Twins just yet, If he can make it all season on the Mets roster or DL he will become Mets property. The Mets didn’t want to lose Buddy Carlyle either who had an opt-out date coming up so the club elected to keep him and go with 8 relievers, Bobby Parnell and Vic Black will start the year on the DL but both should be ready to contribute at some point in the first half with Black likely ready soon. 

Starting Position Players: 

One thing to watch early on is if the Daniel Murphy-Wilmer Flores combo are able to sucessfully turn double plays

14. Travis d’Arnaud

15. Lucas Duda

16. Daniel Murphy

17.  David Wright

18.  Wilmer Flores

19.  Michael Cuddyer

20.  Juan Lagares 

21. Curtis Granderson

After much debate Daniel Murphy will in fact be ready for Opening Day and will meet his teammates in Washington for Monday’s opener. Terry Collins is planning on moving Murphy down in the order to get him more RBI opportunities but he is probably better off in his usual #2 spot in my opinion. 

Bench: 

22. Anthony Recker

23.  Ruben Tejada

24.  John Mayberry Jr. 

25. Kirk Nieuwenhuis

With the Mets carrying 8 relievers, they will go with a 4-man bench to start the season. Eric Campbell would have been the 5th man on the bench but was optioned to Vegas instead. Campbell even worked on catching this spring to make himself even more versatile. A four man bench isn’t the Mets brightest idea but it likely won’t stay like this for more than a few weeks. Collins would use Jacob deGrom as a pinch hitter should he use the rest of his bench first. 

 

Should be a fun season and Lets Go Mets!

Injuries, lack of depth could bring Mets bullpen major problems

By Steven Inman

The Mets don’t have the depth to replace a pitcher like Vic Black, should he miss any extended time (Photo by NY Post)

While the New York Mets have an impressive group of young arms in their bullpen that includes hard throwing right-handers like Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia, injuries have hurt this once promising group.

The team is already without Josh Edgin, who was the lone left-hander projected to make the Opening Day bullpen. Vic Black is also banged up and doesn’t look like he’ll be ready for Opening Day according to Terry Collins. The team has looked at internal options to replace Edgin but none have pitched well to date. The team will look to waivers to find a left-handed reliever so the lack of depth is obvious with just two weeks to go before Opening Day.

A pitcher like Buddy Carlyle who pitched well in 27 appearances for the Mets last season now looks like a lock to make the Opening Day bullpen. While Carlyle looked solid with the Mets last season, he is 37 years old and has pitched in just 31.0 big league innings since 2011.

While the team has plenty of starting pitching depth, they don’t have a ton of guys ready and able to pitch in key bullpen innings for the Mets down on the farm. Bobby Parnell is expected to pitch early on in the season but having pitched in just one major league game since July 2013, it is unfair to count on him for a significant role just yet. Stay tuned Met fans this issue could be something to watch…

Mets Projected 25-Man Roster Version 1.0

By Steven Inman

With Spring Training officially underway lets take a look at who is expected to make the Mets Opening Day Roster. With grapefruit league games not even starting yet, this group will change slightly. Injuries could also change who makes the cut to join the Mets against the defending N.L. East champs, the Washington Nationals on April 6th.

The Infield

The Mets infield appears set. Three of the four players have played key roles in previous seasons while Wilmer Flores looks to break out as the teams starting shortstop. This may not be the best defensive infield the Mets have ever had by any stretch of the imagination but they should be able to drive in some runs.

1. 3B David Wright

Daniel Murphy enters 2015 in a contract year and is highly unlikely to be resigned by the Mets

2. 2B Daniel Murphy

3. 1B Lucas Duda

4. SS Wilmer Flores

5. C Travis d’Arnaud

The Outfield

The Mets only made two major league signings this winter and they both happen to be outfielders. The Mets outfield was horrendous in 2014 and must improve, especially offensively if the club wants to be contenders.

6. LF Curtis Granderson

7. CF Juan Lagares

8. Michael Cuddyer

The Mets don’t have many quality options to replace Curtis Granderson if struggles again like he did in ’14

The Starting Rotation

The strength of this 2015 Mets club will be their starting staff. With a key member back from injury and plenty of starting pitching depth in the minors, expect this to be one of the better rotations in the National League.

9. RHP Matt Harvey

10. RHP Zack Wheeler

11. RHP Jacob deGrom

12. LHP Jon Niese

13. RHP Bartolo Colon

The Bullpen

This is where things get a little cloudy. The Mets bullpen is very much undecided thanks to Dillon Gee being the odd man out of the rotation. Gee is not pleased with going to the bullpen and has stated he would prefer to start somewhere. While we aren’t going to rule out a trade it is very unlikely at this point as most teams have their budgets set going into the season and don’t want to spend an additional $5 million on a back end starter like Gee in Spring Training.

While the Mets would love to see a second left-hander emerge into the bullpen out of camp, expect six right-handers to be in the Mets bullpen in Washington for Opening Day. The Mets will give Rafael Montero a shot to be a reliever in camp and that may be his only shot to pitch in the big leagues for the foreseeable future. Expect Bobby Parnell to help this group out in a couple months as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

14. RHP (CL) Jenrry Mejia

15. RHP Jeruys Familia

16. LHP Josh Edgin

17. RHP Vic Black

18.  RHP Carlos Torres

19. RHP Dillon Gee

20. RHP Rafael Montero

The Bench

After hitting well in his rookie season, Eric Campbell will likely see time in both infield and outfield corners this season

The Mets have had very weak benches over the past few seasons and expect 2015 to be no different. The team did a nice job in bringing in Jon Mayberry Jr. and as long as Terry Collins only plays him against lefties he should perform well. Expect Kirk Nieuwenhuis to make the club over a player like Matt Den Dekker as he is out of options. If Kirk does not make the club the Mets will most likely lose him to another team.

21. OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis

22. OF John Mayberry Jr.

23. SS-2B Ruben Tejada

24. IF-OF Eric Campbell

25. C Anthony Recker

Do you think we got the list right?

Mets Most Memorable Moments of 2014

By Steven Inman

With less than a week left in 2014, lets go back and look over the most important moments of the 2014 Mets year, on and off the field.

We did this the previous two years. The 2013 post can be found here and the 2012 article can be found here. In case you were living in a cave over the last year here is everything you need to know about the Mets in 2014. There were a lot of positives for the Mets but the team also had a lot of negatives. Here’s the list.

6. Bobby Parnell undergoes Tommy John surgery: Parnell didn’t look right all spring as his velocity was way down in Florida but the Mets elected to put him on the Opening Day roster anyway. Parnell blew the save on Opening Day against the eventual division champion Nationals and was sent for an MRI shortly after that revealed the need for season-ending surgery. The bullpen was a major liability for the Mets for much of the first half after Parnell went down as place holders such as Jose Valverde and Kyle Farnsworth were ineffective as late inning options. Both players were let go midway through the season. The Parnell injury was a major reason the Mets fell in such a large early season hole that they were never able to climb out of. Bobby Parnell will not be ready for Opening Day but for some reason, the Mets elected to pay his arbitration price again.

5. Jacob deGrom win NL Rookie Of the Year: The most pleasant surprise of the 2014 Mets was their

Jacob deGrom was magnificent as a rookie in 2014

ninth round pick of the 2010 draft, Jacob deGrom. The right-hander was dominant all season and was easily the Mets best pitcher in 2014. If deGrom can perform as well as a second year player, the Mets rotation should be a force in 2015. DeGrom’s special year was capped off when he was awarded NL Rookie of the Year. Jacob is the first Met to win Rookie of the Year since Doc Gooden in 1984.

4. Mets will bring in the Citi Field Fences once again: In what has become a common discussion in recent years, the Mets have elected to bring in the Citi Field fences yet again. The new dimensions are very similar to Shea Stadium but if the Mets had the money to bring in better hitters, this probably wouldn’t be #4 on our list. The Mets needed to get creative to solve their need for power bats. Regardless David Wright and Curtis Granderson should benefit in 2015 from the more hitter friendly dimensions at Citi Field.

3. Mets sign Michael Cuddyer: The Mets made the first move of the MLB offseason by signing outfielder Michael Cuddyer to a two year contract worth $21 million. Cuddyer will cost the Mets the 15th overall pick in the 2015 draft but will provide a much needed bat to the middle of the New York lineup ,should he stay healthy. When the Mets struck unusually quickly to sign the former All-Star most expected this to be a busy offseason for Sandy Alderson and company. That has not been the case as the Mets have been quiet since that move in November.

2. Mets trade Ike Davis to Pittsburgh: The debate over who should be the Mets first basemen mercifully came to an end when the Mets traded shipped the former first round draft pick to Pittsburgh. While the Mets didn’t get much back in exchange for Ike Davis, the move freed up such much needed money and more importantly allowed Lucas Duda to play first everyday.  The left-handed slugger blossomed after being handed the job and hit 30 homers to go with 92 RBI’s for the Mets. Duda will be critical for the 2015 Mets.

Davis did not play well in Pittsburgh and has since been moved to Oakland as a salary dump where he will serve as depth in the A’s first base puzzle.

1. Sandy Alderson’s 2013 offseason signings don’t pan out: Unfortunately the Mets most significant moment of 2014 is a negative one. Last offseason Alderson and company signed OF Curtis Granderson and Chris Young along with P Bartolo Colon to lucrative deals, none of which have worked out. When you are operating at such a small payroll like the Mets, you must hit on all of your free agent acquisitions and the Mets hit on none from last winter. Granderson had a dismal year and received the boo birds often at Citi Field. The former Yankee is still owed $47 million over three years by the Mets. The Grandy Man has now not hit over .232 since the 2011 season. Granderson should benefit from the fences coming in power-wise but must improve on his .227/.326/.388 triple slash in his first season in Queens.

Chris Young was a disaster for the Mets and was released midway through the season. Young was the worst signing in Sandy Alderson’s tenure as Mets General Manager. Young badly struggled even just putting the ball in play as a member of the Mets.

While Bartolo Colon was a reliable veteran presence for the Mets in 2014, but the team simply over payed him. Colon,41, is still owed $11 million in 2015 which is far too much money for a 5th starter on a team that doesn’t want payroll to exceed $90-95 million. The Mets attempted to trade Colon but couldn’t find a team willing to take on his entire salary. Signing Colon last winter is preventing the Mets from finding a shortstop now.

The 2014 Mets year was mostly uneventful but expect 2015 to be a much more interesting year in Queens. With Matt Harvey back along with a rejuvenated David Wright this Met team should improve on 2014’s 79 wins.

Opening Night is now only 100 days away….

What are you looking forward to most from the 2015 Mets?

Mets cut Eric Young, tender contracts to six more

By Steven Inman

With the non-tender deadline Tuesday night, the Mets made decisions on their seven arbitration eligible players. The team elected to keep all except Eric Young Jr. Young, 29, hit .229 with a .299 OBP and 30 SB in 100 games for the Mets in 2014. The Mets originally got Young in the summer of 2013 in exchange for Collin McHugh, who had a breakout ’14 season for the Houston Astros. With Young getting a raise in arbitration, his speed was a luxury that the Mets couldn’t afford.

In a surprising move the Mets elected to keep Ruben Tejada who is coming off another tough season. Tejada should get close to $2 million in arbitration so it is surprising that the Mets who are trying to save every dollar they can to find a shortstop elected to keep Tejada at that price range.

MLB Trade Rumors Projected 2015 Mets salaries

• Bobby Parnell (5.132) – $3.7MM
• Daniel Murphy (5.109) – $8.3MM
• Eric Young Jr. (4.123) – $2.3MM
• Dillon Gee (4.028) – $5.1MM
• Ruben Tejada (3.171) – $1.7MM
• Lucas Duda (3.137) – $4.3MM
• Jenrry Mejia (2.140) – $3.1MM

*Young Jr: Non-tendered on Tuesday

The Mets also made a mistake in tendering a contract to Bobby Parnell. Parnell is coming off Tommy John surgery and will not be ready for Opening Day. He is also a luxury  the Mets can’t afford right now. If they had non-tendered him they could have brought him back at a cheaper salary.

Did the Mets make the right decisions at the non-tender deadline?

The Mets should cut Bobby Parnell

By Steven Inman

With the Mets already over their 2014 payroll with many notable arbitration raises expected, the Mets can save some coin by non-tendering former closer Bobby Parnell. The Mets shouldn’t even wait until the tender deadline and should cut the right-hander now to save a 40-man roster spot.

The Mets current plan is to tender Parnell a contract and then ease him back into the bullpen mix early in the regular season. MLB Trade Rumors projects Parnell to make around $3.7 million in his final year of arbitration. I think to give him that would be a mistake as a team without any financial flexibility shouldn’t be taking gambles on injured relievers.

Parnell is not expected to start the year on the 25-man roster as he continues his rehab from April Tommy John surgery. The Mets can’t afford to pay a reliever who won’t be the closer and won’t even be available to start the year $3.7 million.

Don’t forget Parnell also lost a good chunk of 2012 with a very serious neck injury.

Here is the full list of arbitration eligible Mets, courtesy of MLB Trade Rumors who do a fantastic job 365 days a year.

Bobby Parnell RP (5.132): $3.7MM projected salary

Daniel Murphy, 2B (5.109): $8.3MM

Eric Young Jr., OF (4.123): $2.3MM

Dana Eveland, RP (4.029): $1.0MM

Dillon Gee, SP (4.028): $5.1MM

Ruben Tejada, SS (3.171): $1.7MM

Lucas Duda, 1B (3.137): $4.3MM

Buddy Carlyle, RP (3.096): $1.0MM

Jenrry Mejia, RP (2.140, Super Two): $3.1MM

After he had his surgery in April I wrote about how Parnell likely played his last game as a Met. You can check out that article here. As of now the Mets plan on keeping Parnell. It is pretty crazy that 18 months ago we were talking about the Mets trading Parnell for a big time prospect and now I’m saying they should cut him.

Remember the Mets could always non-tender Parnell and bring him back on a minor league deal or even a guaranteed deal at a smaller base salary.

Can the Mets afford to keep Bobby Parnell?

Mets eliminated from Postseason contention

By Steven Inman

The title of this article is a sentence Mets fans have become too familiar with over the past eight seasons… The Mets have been eliminated from playoff contention. The Mets are 74-80 this season after winning 74 games the previous two seasons. While the record isn’t much bfametter, the team has made a number of improvements with key players while learning that other won’t be part of the solutions.

2015 Pieces

Lucas Duda: The Mets best (and only) real power threat in the lineup in 2014 was the emergence of Lucas Duda. It has always been a confidence issue for the 28-year old but he has begun to fix that. The move to first base, his natural position certainly helped his offense and Duda should be a big part of the Mets offense in 2015.Duda’s power hasn’t really increased he is just getting his first real opportunity to play every day all season. The team may need to find a backup first basemen in the winter who crushes lefties. A player like Danny Valencia could fit in very well at first base. Valencia hit .324 this season against left-handers with an.813 OPS.

Jeurys Familia: Familia was flat out dominant in 2014. He neutralized even the greatest of right-handed batters and went from not being able to throw strikes in 2013 to being “effectively wild” in 2014. Whether he becomes the closer or stays as the set-up man Familia should be effective in the Mets bullpen in 2015 while making the league minimum, should he stay healthy.

Travis d’Arnaud: The 2014 season started as a disaster for the 25-year old d’Arnaud. Travis was batting .180 on June 4^th when the Mets made the wise decision to send him down. They called him back up around three weeks later. Since his recall the rookie backstop is hitting .273/.320/.482 with ten homers and 32 RBI. He has become one of the Mets better hitters and is now batting third. D’Arnaud has looked very comfortable in the #3 spot. The Mets have a very good problem with d’Arnaud’s offensive growth at the major league level and Kevin Plawecki’s impressive minor league season. The one issue with d’Arnaud is he has a hitch in his throws to second and has become very easy to run on. Keith Hernandez on the SNY broadcasts noted that it will be very difficult to get that hitch out over the winter and in Spring Training.

Other notable players are Juan Lagares and Jacob deGrom who should be a part of the Mets future for years to come. I’m going to have a separate post on both of these future award winners once the season ends.

Players that took a step back in 2015

Ruben Tejada: Tejada came to major league camp with something to prove. He instead proved that the Mets wasted another year hoping he could be the answer at shortstop for some reason. Tejada will likely be a non-tender guy and will join another team as a backup middle infielder, a role that he should be much better in.

Dillon Gee: Gee looked like he was on his way to another strong season before a lat injury took out a few months for the right-hander. Since Gee has returned he has struggled to the point that he could be on his way out of town. Gee will surely get a hefty raise on his $3.6 million 2014 salary through arbitration. With all the Mets pitching now up or near the major league level the Mets might find Gee’s increasing salary to be better used elsewhere. The Mets will shop around Gee along with Jonathan Niese this winter.

Bobby Parnell: To no fault of his own, Bobby Parnell threw in one game for the Mets before undergoing Tommy John surgery. Parnell’s velocity was down a lot in spring training but the Mets publicly said they were not concerned. Parnell will make at least $3.7 million next season in his final year of salary arbitration. Again with the Mets hamstrung for cash, it makes little sense to pay a reliever that kind of money coming off Tommy John. The Mets also have Jenrry Mejia and Familia to be the back end of the bullpen. It is far from a guarantee that Parnell will be ready to pitch in a big league game by April. The Mets would be much better off non-tendering their former closer and try to bring him back on an incentive laden contract.

Curtis Granderson: The Mets are hamstrung on Granderson’s huge back loaded contract. He hit even worse than he did when he broke his hand twice last season with the Yankees while the Mets thought he would hit much better. While the Mets would surely like a redo on this deal to get that money back to put into a corner outfielder on the upswing, no team will take on this 33-year olds deal when he has 3-years and 47 million left on his deal after this season with a slash line of .221/.322/.376. The Grandy Man’s 19 homers this season should go up a little when the Mets likely move the right-field fence in.

Why are so many pitchers having Tommy John surgery?

By Steven Inman

Matt Harvey has had to sit out the season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery

It’s very disappointing to say that 2014 has been a devastating year for pitching injuries. More pitchers have undergone Tommy John surgery this season than any other year in major league history, and we are only in May.

While Mets fans have been worried about the surgeries of Matt Harvey and Bobby Parnell, torn UCL’s have plagued the entire league all spring. The latest major injury has been to the Marlins young ace, Jose Fernandez, who will undergo the surgery Friday. Fernandez was my pick to win the Cy Young.

So why are all these pitchers having Tommy John?

Well there probably is no exact reason but there are a few likely causes for all of these injuries. For starters pitchers in college are consistently overworked. College coaches have no regard for their players anymore. In his last season at UNC, Harvey was rarely throwing under 120 pitches a start and would occasionally throw in the mid 150’s. It had gotten so bad for Harvey at UNC that the player considered leaving the school. Instead he didn’t but was considered to have “attitude issues” with the coaching staff. You would too if a coaching staff would consistently try to blow out your arm months before the draft.

Expected #1 pick NC State’s Carlos Rodon was also throwing way too many pitches in all of his starts. Now he is having arm and velocity issues and his status as the #1 pick in next month’s draft is certainly in doubt. The list of college coaches abusing their starters goes on and on. This likely has a lot to do with Tommy John surgeries but not every player who got the injury even went to college.

Another reason why pitchers keep getting hurt could be the fact that all baseball players are working out way too much these days. A lot of them are simply just hurting themselves.

The bottom line is there are many reasons why pitchers keep breaking now more than ever but there is no exact formula.

Mets will try to fix bullpen from within

By Steven Inman

Despite various reports that the Mets will watch Joel Hanrahan throw next week the team is far more likely to attempt to fix their bullpen from within. With Bobby Parnell done for the season the bullpen is in flux. Obviously Jose Valverde has taken over as the closer but he isn’t throwing his fastball with the same velocity that made him a successful closer a few years back. It is tough to imagine him resurrecting his career at this point but hypothetically if he did, how do the Mets even get the ball to him with a lead?

The Mets have a very nice starting rotation but they don’t often go deep into games which means a lot of outs for the middle relievers like Carlos Torres, Kyle Farnsworth and Scott Rice to get.

The Mets were hoping Vic Black would be the 8^th inning guy but he had control problems this spring, was sent down to Triple-A Las Vegas and winded up going on the disabled list Monday with a pinched nerve in his neck. The team doesn’t believe the injury caused him to struggle this spring.

Obviously looking back on it the Mets should have addressed their bullpen in free agency. They didn’t sign any relievers to major league deals although they were very interested in Grant Balfour. Balfour elected to go back to Tampa where he had gotten to a World Series. The Rays also guaranteed Balfour would be the closer while the Mets still had Bobby Parnell at the time.

Can the Mets fix their bullpen???

Bobby Parnell to have Tommy John Surgery, likely done as a Met

By Steven Inman

Parnell will now have to work hard to get back to where he was, likely for another team in 2015 (Photo by NY Daily News)

Bobby Parnell has elected to undergo Tommy John Surgery and will miss the remainder of the season. His Met career is clearly in doubt as Parnell was arbitration eligible after the season for the final time. The Mets won’t give Parnell a raise coming off Tommy John and missing the season. Parnell is making $3.7 million this season and it is extremely rare for a player to be given less the next year in arbitration even if he only pitched in a single game.

 

The closer was expected to attempt to rehab the injury after originally being diagnosed first to be shut down for two weeks. This is a complete disaster. It was obvious that Parnell wasn’t healthy watching him throw all spring and a bad bullpen gets worse without their closer, possibly for the year. Rehabbing a torn elbow ligament rarely ever works if ever and there is a legitimate chance that Parnell has thrown his last pitch for the Mets.

Parnell had his value at an all time high last summer when the Mets fielded trade offers for their closer. I speculated that the Mets could move Parnell to the Tigers for a top prospect, perhaps even outfielder now 3B Nick Castellanos. You can check out that article here.

Parnell had nothing on his fastball on Opening Day and it was smart of the Mets to give him an MRI, even if it was a few weeks later than it should have been. Parnell needs surgery and it was probably smart of him to not attempt to rehab the injury first. Remember Matt Harvey tried to rehab a similar injury as well and winded up undergoing Tommy John surgery, prolonging the time he will be out.

Jose Valverde was already named the closer temporarily with Kyle Farnsworth being used late in games. It is unknown if either pitcher has anything left in the tank, let alone can close out games but both were solid in the season’s first week. Best of luck Bobby….