The Mets designated Omar Quintanilla for assignment, Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger tweets. The Mets have confirmed the move, which creates roster space for Jason Bay (Twitter link).
Quintanilla, 30, has appeared in 29 games for the Mets this year, playing both middle infield positions. He has a .257/.250/.371 batting line in 80 plate appearances so far this year. The seven-year MLB veteran has a career batting line of .218 /.278 /.294.
LifelongMets
Jason was already on the 40 man– Harvey call up seems likely.
AKA_brotherfox
Before I read this news, I was thinking the Mets might have been hanging onto Quintanilla with the idea of trading him. Instead, they DFA him and he’ll almost certainly be claimed by a team needing a backup shortstop. I guess it’s Mets policy not to get something back for a player. They got back nothing for that other Mets shortstop down in Miami when they could’ve traded him earlier.
Tom K
You actually think they’d get something back for Q other than a bucket of balls? Puh-leeze. Guys like him are a dime a dozen at AAA.
AKA_brotherfox
Yeah, I do think they’d have gotten something for him. The guy who posted his stats above got them wrong. He had a .350 OBP, not a .250 OBP. He had a 0.7 WAR, same as J. J. Hardy and Marco Scutaro, in just 80 AB. Fangraphs rated his WAR dollar value at $3M. If they couldn’t get something for a guy like that, who performed well in the bigs at a premium position like shortstop, they’re brain-dead.
Tom K
You’re looking at a 29 game sample size whereas his career MLB OBP is .278. The guy has played 256 games at the major league in 10 years. If he was that great, he would have been a fixture on a major league roster a long time ago.
AKA_brotherfox
His UZR/150 at short ranks him 6th among all shortstops with at least 180 innings. I’ll be shocked if no team picks him up as a backup shortstop. Once again, Fangraphs put his value at $3.0M.
CaseyBlakeDeWitt
You know you’re good when your OBP is lower than your AVG. Buntbuntbunt
7up17togo
I’d rather the Mets DFA Bay. Its sad but Quintanilla is more valuable to the Mets than Bay.
Blue387
I wish I could stand and home plate and strike out like Jason Bay.
I can do it for $500.
Moebarguy
Perhaps the Mets thought Q-man’s OBP was .250 too when they DFA’d him…