The Mets have announced the signing of free agent shortstop Ronny Cedeno. The one-year deal is worth $1.2MM and includes several incentives. Peter E. Greenberg & Associates represents Cedeno, who figures to provide depth behind Ruben Tejada in New York.
The Pirates declined Cedeno's option earlier this offseason, after he posted a .249/.297/.339 line in 454 plate appearances. The 28-year-old posted a strong 6.8 UZR/150 at shortstop this past season, though his career mark of -1.6 UZR/150 is slightly below average. The Red Sox and Pirates were linked to Cedeno earlier this offseason, while the Mets had interest in free agents such as Jack Wilson and Ryan Theriot.
ESPN New York's Adam Rubin reported last week that the two sides were close to a deal, with Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com adding the contract details (both Twitter links).
Career bWAR of zero
Shouldn’t he start over Tejada?
tejada batted .284 last year…he has no power but he has way more upside at 22 than cedeno at 28
It’s the walk rate. .360 OBP is very nice for such a young kid.
yeah is OBP is impressively high for a 22-year old plus he has excellent defense. the only problem is his power, but everything else is fine
yeaa leave the kid in hopefully he develops nicely…22 is so young he has plenty of time to get MUCH better
His lack of power is a non-factor. He plays half his games in Citi Field. Power hitters have no power there.
Another backup shortstop. I guess it will be like last year when we went into spring training with four mediocre second basemen competing.
What are you talking about…Murphy was key. .320 hitter at 2B? That’s very very valuable
He ended up being good, but he wasn’t exactly the favorite to start the season. Remember, they started Emaus ahead of him for a month.
yea and i love how everyone picked Emaus to be the rookie of the year lol he ended up where…nowhere
To a major league deal?
Ouch Mets.
Ronny Cedeno for Jose Reyes. Yum!
the best player in MLB to over slide 2B on a walk
The perfect match: a clueless player for a clueless organization.
its so sad im a die hard met fan and honestly i really dont see this team being above 500 for the next few seasons
I think the Mets will do much better next year than most people expect. They have Santana-Dickey-Niese at the top; they have Wright Duda Davis; their defense and bullpen is much improved and they’ve gotten younger. Sandy has done an excellent job. Not as good as Theo perhaps but still an excellent job
^hilarious
Can you tell if he’s being sarcastic? I can’t. But I hope so.
I’m pretty sure he isn’t, and that’s pretty freakin’ sad.
Almost every other team in the NL East improved enough, or was so much better than the Mets to begin with, that the Mets’ chances of competing with them are an absolute joke…just like their ownership.
I hope he enjoys watching this “younger” team lose. I know I won’t.
I agree with McGee. On paper, the Mets look under matched by the Nationals, Phillies, and Marlins. But remember, they don’t give out WS trophies in April. A team as star-studded as the Marlins may take awhile to mesh (note when Alex Rodriguez joined the Yankees in 2008, and they missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993). The best days for the Phillies are behind them (Oswalt is gone, and they brought in team-anchor Papelbon to close games… and I don’t mean “anchor” in a good way.) . And then there’s the Nationals; a team younger than the Mets which one day will become a power house (will that be this year? next year? are Lombardozzi and Harper ready? Is Strausburg healed? That’s alot of questions…).
Then we have the Mets. A solid rotation (Santana-Dickey-Neise-Gee-Pelfrey) made up of PROVEN starters. A diverse line-up (Thole-Davis-Murphy-Tejada-Wright-Bay-Torres-Duda) of EXPERIENCED major leaguers with the luxury of a smaller stadium now. An IMPROVED bullpen (+Rauch, Francisco, Ramirez), and a veteran bench (Johnson, Cedeno, Turner, Hairston, Wimberly (my sleeper pick)). Will we cruise to 100 wins? doubtful. Will be compete?
Absolutely.
Because that’s baseball. Give Alderson a paperclip and a stick of gum, and he can make one hell of a team. He’s the MacGyver of GMs.
You’re giving a whole new meaning to “fantasy baseball.” Your entire post is delusional. BTW, the term is “overmatched,” and the Mets are so badly overmatched by their opponents it’s a shame they won’t be able to invoke the “mercy rule” they use in Little League. This pathetic Mets team is going to get reamed all year long. It’s an absolute disgrace that a New York franchise has been reduced to this by its owners.
Put the turtle head back in the hole, bud. look at the numbers. The Mets LED THEIR DIVISION LAST YEAR in Stolen Bases (130), Runs (718), hits (1477) and Batting Average (.264). And this year, expect bigger things from young stars such as Duda, Murphy, Tejada, Davis, Turner and Thole.
And the pitching? How can you gauge a redone (and IMPROVED) bullpen? Or a rotation that pitched the season without it’s ace (Santana back by spring training).
You don’t want to watch the games? fine. SNY will miss you viewership, Citi will miss your attendance. But i’m telling you, this team will be BETTER than last year I’d put money on it.
And who was responsible for most of the Mets’ offense last year? Oh, yeah…Jose Reyes. Reyes not only led the team in WAR, but his 6.2 WAR put the rest of the team in the shade. Gone to Miami. Next was Beltran’s 3.4 WAR…whoops! He’s gone too. Next, Daniel Murphy’s 3.2 WAR. After that, not a single Met had a WAR as high as 2.0, and most were under 1.0. Reyes scored 101 runs; next was Pagan, with 68 — gone — next was Beltran’s 61 — gone — and Carlos led the team in RBI with 66. Bye-bye.
We don’t even need to discuss the superiority of the Phillies, so let’s talk about the rest of the division. It might’ve escaped your attention, but the fish did some very significant retooling this offseason, and so did the Nats. The Mets replaced Reyes with Ronny Cedeno.
Hey, I hope I’m wrong. I’d love to see Danny come back strong, Bay finally relearn to hit, and all the young guys have banner years. But the rotation still sucks, and Capuano, who was third in WAR on the staff, is gone. And if you think you’re ever going to see an ace in Santana again, you’re dreaming. Feel lucky if he manages to be a number three.
The Turtle’s head stays where it is, in the real world. You can keep yours in the clouds or buried in the sand, but I’ll keep looking at reality.
A nice pick up for the Mets at this price. This will be an upgrade over Willie Harris.
Reminds me of “The Odd Couple”:
Oscar Madison: I got, uh, brown sandwiches and, uh, green sandwiches. Which one do you want?
Murray: What’s the green?
Oscar Madison: It’s either very new cheese or very old meat.
This coming from a buccos fan Cedeno is HORRID!!!
i don’t even know what was worse about him: his lack of talent (although he’s not the worst middle infielder the Pirates have had in a while) or his lack of effort
What is so offensive about bringing in a cheap, durable SS who offers positive WAR?
The Mets make so many bad moves… this isn’t one of them. So… what? They pick up the best back-up SS on the market and take flak for it… but if they had not picked up a SS, Mets fans would be complaining of no depth and the team’s cheapness.
Lose, lose situation… welcome to New York.
Correction: Welcome to Queens. There’s another team in New York that hasn’t been reduced to a national laughingstock by its owners. Mets fans deserve much, much better than they’ve gotten from the owners of their team.
cellar dwellers this year. Can’t hate on sandy though, he steering this ship in the right direction. There just happens to be a huge iceberg in front of him. The National League east is becoming a beast.
It appears the Mets spring shopping is nearing an end, with it’s lineup set, bench set, and bullpen/rotation one Swingman (Long Reliever) away from completion. Alderson said a trade is out of the picture, so that final piece will most likely come from AAA (Carrasco? Schwinden? Hefner?) or a free agent. The remaining name that jumps out at me is Micah Owings. Owings, known as a pitcher with a great bat, had a great season last year in Cincinnati, as both a starter and reliever. The Mets said they were only going to sign a MI and a LR for about 1.5 each, so I’m sure they can get Owings for 1.5-1.8 if you include the money not spent on Cedeno (he signed for 1.2).
Owings played in Arizona last year. He had a good first year on the mound in 2007 and was lucky last year (his FIP was considerably higher than his ERA). In between, he pitched poorly. He might be worth a shot for the right money, but you don’t know what you’ll get from him. His bat seems to hold more promise than his arm, and one wonders if he’ll end up at first base at some point.
There is never an upside to signing Ronny Cedeno. He is so frustrating to watch it’s beyond words: he will have these stretches where he looks like he is the answer at SS, and then for the next month he will take 1 pitch per game and field like he is wearing snowshoes. The Mets should be asking him to pay them $1.2 million, not the other way around
yeah. with ya there.
World Series here they come.
This is a nightmare team that’s snake bit, they need a new owner. I can see Santana not able to return to form, Davis has a weird career injury, and Bay still out to lunch.