I got so excited by the news of Alex Cora’s departure on Saturday that I didn’t spend a whole lot of time assessing the other roster moves involved. Eric Simon did a nice job of it here and I agree with mostly everything he wrote there: Fernando Martinez and Ruben Tejada likely aren’t ready to hit in the Majors, but if the Mets aren’t going to contend anyway I’d rather watch them than Luis Castillo and Jeff Francoeur.
.jpg/250px-Ruben_Tejada_on_April_9,_2010_(cropped).jpg "Here's what Ruben Tejada looks like.")
One additional note: I’ve seen some bristling about Cora’s departure because Castillo is still with the Mets. And while I don’t doubt that the money the Mets owe their hobbled second baseman is keeping him on the team as much as any other factor, Castillo still has one baseball skill. He can’t play great defense or hit for any power, but he can get on base a bit.
If the Mets are committed to putting Tejada in their lineup, Castillo’s on-base ability makes him more valuable to the current club than Cora. Tejada offers the team defensive flexibility, so if the Mets are going to have one backup middle infielder they might as well choose the one that might actually avoid making an out if called upon to pinch-hit.
Yes, the Mets are probably only keeping Castillo around because of the $6 million left on his contract for 2011. And yes, they should have signed Felipe Lopez or Orlando Hudson on the cheap this offseason and cut bait on sunk costs. And yes, based on everything we’ve seen for the past year or so, it’s fair to guess that the Mets cut Cora more because of his looming vesting option than his inability to contribute anything tangible to a baseball team.
But all that said, if they were choosing between Castillo and Cora to back up Tejada and Reyes for the remainder of the season, the Mets made the right call.
Tedquarters 
Only thing I think is that they should have cut Fancoeur instead of sending Feliciano down when the brought up Fmart.
I just think it puts Jerry in a tough spot of having a disgunteled veteran (sort of) in Francoeur on the bench. Fmart should just play every day, and I’m sure he will play most days as there are more RH than Lefty pitchers, and Beltran will need days off.
But it just seem like an awkward situation where Francoeur is going to think he deserves PT. And really I cant blame Frenchy, hes only 25 years old, and I’m sure in his mnd he thinks he can get back to his old high level, and just wants to be able to play and try to do so.
And being that hes been a good soldier for the team, and hes a good dude, its probably hard for Jerry to just kick him to the curb and completely bury him on the bench. Its easy for us as fans to just dump on Frenchy, and say thats the thing to do, but I’m sure its much harder for a manager to actuallymake that choice.
IMO the onus here is on Omar, he just needs to thank Frenchy for all the hard work and just send him packing. Hes the GM, he needs to make thetough choice and just take the burden of a potentially displeased or sulking Frenchy off Jerrys hands, and free Jerry to just play Fmart every day without ant distraction.
While you make a lot of good points Chris, Frenchy isn’t likely to go anywhere unless someone is willing to trade for him. The Mets are keeping deadweight like Ollie and Luis on the roster because of their salaries, Frenchy and what’s left of his $5M salary aren’t going anywhere either.
Free Justin Turner!
Well comparing Frenchy to Ollie and Castillo isnt correct. Frenchy is prob owed somthing in teh range of 1-1.5M left for this year. Ollie has this year and 12M for next year, and Castillo has a few million this year and 6 for next year. Its a big difference, but I doubt money is really the driving factor.
I’m not sure your point here Chris. Aren’t you advocating Frenchy cutting him outright?
I wasn’t saying that Frenchy was equivalent to Ollie or Luis. I’m saying that whatever money is owed to Frenchy, be it $1M or $5, is money that is already alocated, and the front office has shown that they will not eat salary, regardles of the ratio of production/salary is.
So your call to outright cut him is just not happening.
While I agree with going young, there were better options out there. Lucas Duda has been absolutely mashing the ball, and unlike Martinez, he has shown plate discipline. Whatever defensive problems he has, the power and walks would outweigh that. He could platoon with Frenchy (playing left while Pagan plays right). And since Tejada isn’t ready, Josh Satin (another guy who has plate discipline and better doubles power), could have been promoted to play 2b. In a way, I think Satin could be more useful than Hessman, since he can play 1b, 2b and some 3b. And if you need to give Jose a rest for 1 day or 2, call up Tejada then, or suck it up and let Castillo play there for a day. They went young with the wrong guys.
I disgree…. Tejada and Martinez are the better prospects. Josh Satin and Lucas Dud are playing well where they are, but they are clearly not the type of prospects Tejada and Fmart are. You cant just look at minor league numbers to say who has the most talent. There are plenty of guys who can rake minor league pitching and not hit a lick in the majors.
But you can’t really say anything definitive on Duda and Satin, that’s the point. And there’s nothing to lose by giving them a chance over 2 guys that are clearly not ready – one guy is under .200 in over a 100 abs and the other was hitting .250 with a crappy OBP in AAA. And Duda is only 24, it’s not like he’s a journeyman. When you’re slugging over .600 at AAA that is a legit prospect.
There’s no point in starting Duda or Satin’s service time clock, or adding them to the 40 man roster.
Neither FMart nor Tejada deserved call-ups, but the players who should have been given a shot are Jesus Feliciano (sometimes you gotta reward org soldiers), and Justin Turner, who is undoubtably better than Tejeda offensively, and has earned it with good play in AAA. Both guys are already on the 40-man.
if duda and satin can’t make this mess of a team, then they will probably never get a call up, and that is a failure to assess your talent.
Those black uni’s are a disgrace and a slap in the face to all Mets fans.
Ted, I think they should bring Cora back as assistant manager or put him somewhere in the front office to get his feet wet. He’s pretty much done, and it’s unfortunate because despite what you might of thought of him, he was a gamer. They still need to cut their losses with Perez, Castillo, and I’m almost certain Maine is done as a Met.
I want to see all the Minor league players when the roster expands and the Mets organization owes that to the fans for not doing anything for the last few years, but lie to the fan base. Since from this point on the Mets will be going through the motions, they should make it like a early spring training at least that will give hope to us fans that deep down know this team will not improve until Omar is gone.