The news came down last night after the Mets lost to the Nationals, not long after Gary Matthews Jr. whiffed in his pinch-“hitting” appearance in the seventh and Frank Catalanotto grounded out in his in the ninth: Chris Carter is joining the Mets today, replacing Smithtown’s Finest on the roster and, presumably, as the team’s primary left-handed bench bat. The Animal is out of his cage.
You set yourself up for criticism and snark when you fret about the margins of a team’s roster. In comments sections sometimes, the great Val Pascucci campaign from 2008 is derided with all sorts of snark, even if the Mets fell short of the playoffs by a single game that season while entrusting most of their pinch-hit at-bats to a bunch of dudes who couldn’t hit even a little.
And in truth, no one ever seriously deemed Pascucci a savior, just like no one is now saying Chris Carter will come up and teach Ollie Perez how to throw strikes or Luis Castillo how to cover more ground in the infield.
Carter’s promotion merely represents better roster optimization. Not a cure-all, just an upgrade. Since Catalanotto and Carter both bat left-handed and play the same set of positions and Carter appears to be the better hitter, there was no good reason to keep Catalanotto around any longer.
It seems pretty simple, but it’s something the Mets have struggled with under Omar Minaya.
So maybe Carter’s promotion represents a new mindset or indicates that someone with access to Omar’s ear is paying closer attention than whoever was in that role a couple years ago, in the days of the Abraham Nunez Axiom. Maybe Minaya himself is learning from past mistakes, or maybe Minaya and Jerry Manuel recognize they don’t have time to be patient with struggling veterans with the much-rumored specter of unemployment looming.
Whatever the case, this is a good thing. Carter likely will not soon get an adequate sample of at-bats to show whether he’s Major League worthy, but he will probably inspire a heck of a lot more confidence in late-game pinch-hitting situations than Catalanotto did.
And Carter has traditionally mashed right-handers, so the Mets would be wise to try him out spelling Jeff Francoeur against tougher righties. Whether Francoeur is currently just struggling or simply returning to being Jeff Francoeur, he has a lifetime .710 OPS against right-handed pitching. Carter will not provide what Frenchy does defensively, but it’s a good bet his bat will be an upgrade in certain spots.
This is a good thing. Now we sit back and hope Carter makes good.
Tedquarters 
Next, we start our campaign to have Chris Carter host Saturday Night Live.
Seriously though, one down, two to go. GMJ, enjoy your final days as a major leaguer. Ollie, I hope you like Buffalo wings because they serve a lot of them where you’re going.
I would say 2 down, counting miKe jaKobs
I had managed to block the Jacobs era from my memory.
Did anyone see Andy Martino’s article about Carter and pinch-hitting today? I hate to pick on Martino (no I dont, he’s an idiot who shouldnt have a job), but it might be the craziest thing I’ve read in a while.
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/mets/2010/05/carter-can-hit-but-can-he-pinc.html
Here’s a “highlight”:
Pinch-hitting is a highly specialized role, and one in which most talented players simply cannot perform. The mental, physical and intellectual preparation required to remain focused and prepared for a few minutes of work every so often–not many big leaguers are able to do it.
The 37-year-old outfielder was just 3 for 22 as a pinch hitter this season. But in a larger, more meaningful sample, he as a career .268 (61 for 268) pinch hitter. Those are strong pinch-hit numbers; the man obviously knows how to fulfill a particular role.
****
Several things:
1. What would Catalanotto’s pinch-hitting numbers from 10 years ago have to do with now? It’s like saying David Ortiz has averaged 35 home runs a year over the last 5. Well, yeah, but that’s kind of skewed by the 55 he was hitting 4 and 5 years ago.
2. Catalanotto was a career .291 hitter in 3200 ABs and a .268 hitter in his 270 pinch-hit ABs. So maybe he’s not a pinch-hitting savant and just a decent hitter who hit around 270, 280 regardless of situation?
Chris Carter looks alot like Matt Holiday in this picture.
Also, remeber how much heat Omar took last year when he traded for Chris Carter? For getting ‘nothing’ in return for Billy Wagner, when we could have gotten a draft pick.
Now all the same people who killed Omar for that move last year are prob the same ones who have man crushes on Chris Carter.
Just like those who killed Omar in 2008 for taking Ike Davis, instead of going above slot and drafting some HS prep pitcher. Same guys who are prob the first to buy an Ike Jersey.
I don’t think one negates the other. Unless Carter turns into an above average every day player, which even people with man crushes don’t expect anything close too, it’s still a poor trade, though I doubt Omar was the one who wanted to do it since it wasn’t his 3 million he was saving.
And I don’t think people hated the Ike Davis pick exclusively, it was having 3 first round picks and using all of them on college players rather than using at least on one a high upside prep bat or arm. Though I don’t remember many people complaining about not picking a HS prep arm over him the pitcher I remember people complaining about not taking over him the most was christian friedrich who’s now a top 20-30 prospect.
Bottom line is….
Yeah, Chris Carter represents a severe upgrade over everyone on the Mets bench, but that doesnt mean he’s more valuable than two Top 50 picks. But as Gina says, that was a salary dump, so that’s on the Wilpons.
And the fact that Mets got him in that deal makes it even stranger that they buried him for 2 months. The team lucked into a decent ML-ready piece and they stashed him in Buffalo while Jacobs, Catalanotto and Matthews got key ABs.
You also, like Gina, are completely ignoring the fact that ‘2 top 50 picks’ were far far from guaranteed by keeping Wagner. If you guys are just going to go on completely ignoring a huge dynamic of this trade, then its useless to even argue with you.
How were they not guaranteed? The only risk was injury, and for 3 million that’s not really that big of a risk when the reward is two draft picks. At worst we wouldn’t have 3 million to pay the likes of Cora and Gmjr, a high cost to pay indeed… Plus it was pretty much a given he wasn’t going to accept arbitration.
Not to mention the fact they chose a guy who is borderlined retired in Catts over Carter at the beginning of the season seems to make it pretty clear that they didn’t think all that much of him when they acquired him. Since it’s not like he did anything but set spring training on fire in between the trade and not making the team. How highly can you think of a guy if you’re willing to cause 40 man roster madness, since Jacobs and Catts weren’t on the 40 and Carter was, in order to keep two guys, one of whom has been below average every year of his career and at age 30 can’t get a better off than a minor league deal and one of whom probably should have retired two years ago, on your bench over him?]
Bottom line is Ike Davis is the Mets starting first baseman, already making a big impact in the major leagues, that guy you mention is still in A-ball.
And your problem in analyzing the Wagner deal is that you have completely ignored the risks involved with keeping Wagner, such as he could have gotten hurt again, or he could have retired, leaving the Mets with nothing.
If they save $4M and get a serviceable major leaguer in Carter, I dont think anyone who actually looks at all the circumstances surrounding that trade would call it “poor”
But isn’t the job of a GM to accurately assess risk/reward? And a lot of people at the time, thought Omar/the Wilpons made the wrong call. So it wasn’t as if it was only through some crazy, unforeseen chain of events that led to the Sox getting two great draft picks.
I also can’t give Minaya that much credit for getting Carter, because if he really knew he was a decent player, he wouldn’t have gone with Jacobs/Catalanotto over him.
And thank God we saved that $3 million, so we could afford Cora and Matthews.
I gotta disagree with you here Chris. Holding on to Wagner and offering him arbitration in the hope you would get two first round picks was the right play for a big-market team. The Mets stood to gain two prospects with much higher ceilings than Carter by holding onto Wagner. Both DWright and Ike were compensation picks after all. As was Phil Hughes for the Yankees’ “losing” Pettitte.
Very short-sighed for a large-market team to dump salary when it could have procured two high picks instead, especially when you consider how much money a team saves by developing its own players. How many millions will the Mets save on salary if Ike can competently man first over the next 7 years before he’s FA eligible?