Mets GM Sandy Alderson and the Wilpon family (the team’s owners), who have drawn plenty of fan and media ire for payroll constraints and a lack of spending in recent years, deserve credit for acting like a big-market team at the trade deadline this year, opines Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Wilpons didn’t merely pocket the extra money they could’ve saved from the insurance on David Wright’s contract and the unexpected salary they recouped from Jenrry Mejia’s suspension but authorized Alderson to spend $8.5MM to bring in Yoenis Cespedes, Juan Uribe, Kelly Johnson and Tyler Clippard. Alderson, too, deserves credit for his willingness to part with a very good prospect (Michael Fulmer) in an effort to win immediately, as well as his persistence in trade talks after the Carlos Gomez deal fell through, he continues. Sherman adds that Mets fans reminded ownership and the front office just how important those decisions were with a raucous crowd as the team swept the Nationals this weekend and created a dead heat in the NL East.
More on the Mets and their division…
- Speaking to Newsday’s Marc Carig, Zack Wheeler elaborated on his reported phone call to Alderson in which he expressed a strong desire to remain with the Mets as opposed to going elsewhere via trade. “I told him I know it’s a business and he has a job to do, but I’d really like to be here because of what’s about to happen,” said Wheeler. “I’ve been here a couple of years and want to see it through.” Wheeler told Carig that while he knew such a tactic was uncommon, he felt it was the best way to communicate a desire to “stay and be part of this team’s winning future.” Alderson told Carig that in all of his years as an executive, he’d never seen a player make a call of this nature, and the move had “quite an impact.”
- With Mike Morse now traded, the Marlins will give Justin Bour every opportunity to stick at first base, writes Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Hitting .254/.333/.445 with 10 homers in 234 plate appearances, the 27-year-old Bour is a rare example of a player selected in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft that will have a chance to make a significant impact on his new team’s organization. Miami picked up Bour in the minor league phase of the 2013 Rule 5 Draft.
- Jackson adds that despite a number of rumors pertaining to fireballing setup man Carter Capps on Friday, the Marlins never came particularly close to trading him. President of baseball operations Michael Hill called Capps a “a championship-caliber piece under team control” when speaking to Jackson.
- Braves veterans Jonny Gomes and A.J. Pierzynski find themselves in an unusual position, writes MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. Each is a veteran on a cheap one-year deal that remained with his rebuilding team as opposed to being moved at the trade deadline. Gomes recognizes that he could still change teams in August but praised the work that president of baseball operations John Hart has done in restocking the farm and rebuilding the big league roster. Bowman writes that for now, the Braves’ hope is that both Pierzynski and Gomes spend another few weeks mentoring some of the team’s young talent. He also notes that at some point in the next couple of months, the Braves may simply have to cut bait on Chris Johnson and release him, but they’ll take the month of August to continue their longstanding effort to shed a portion of the remaining $20MM or so on his contract.
Maybe don’t throw in the towel on Chris Johnson just yet? He’s never been a stud, but a serviceable 3B for many years. See if he’ll accept an assignment to AAA, and have him spend some time with the hitting coaches there. I refuse to believe he just completely lost it.
He never had “it”. He simply got lucky in Atlanta in 2013. Not too mention, he has a huge attitude problem and has publicy stated he wants out of town. Sooner the better
Lucky? Lucky is a good week or two. Second in the league in batting for entire season takes a lot more than luck. I’m not trying to argue that he is a great player or that Atlanta shouldn’t part company with him by any means, but it’s ridiculous to say he was just lucky.
His BABIP for 2013 was .394. For his career it’s at .356 (likely a bit lower if you take out the absurdity of 2013). The problem with Johnson is that if his BABIP does take a hit (.327 this season so far), he pretty much loses all of his offensive value.
He strikes out a lot (29.3% K% this season ranks up with Joc Pederson and JD Martinez), he doesn’t walk (4% BB% this season), he’s not fast, he’s a poor baserunner, he doesn’t hit for power to make up for his other deficiencies at the plate (.070 ISO this season), and he’s below average defensively.
Given all of his deficiencies, I think it’s hard to say that he wasn’t lucky in 2013 given that the only reason he had any success was because of an unusually high result in one of the most luck-driven statistics in baseball.
CJ had a career year. Frank Wren locked him up based on that one season. CJ is the new Ken Oberkfell
That’s not exactly true about wanting to leave Atlanta. He only wants to leave if he’s not getting a starter’s share of the games. To my knowledge, he wasn’t unhappy in Atlanta until this year and that was all due to lack of playing time.
I don’t know about that. He’s 31 and has posted a negative UZR/150 and defensive WAR every season of his career. Both his ISO and walk rate have declined for three straight years, and his strikeout rate this season is the highest of his career. It really doesn’t seem like his future as a hitter or as a defensive 3B is very promising.
I hate to be a cynic about the Sandy and Zack piece, but I think it would have little effect if there were a decent trade… I mean, what else could he say in the interview, that yeah, he called but we still would consider putting him on waivers or deal off season? Did he mean If a decent (not spectacular) deal came along, that he really say “oh, that kid’s call had such an impact, we can’t really make that trade.”
Agreed.
Wheeler is still on this team because the Mets likely weren’t willing to give him up for a two month rental, not because of the phone call. It’s nice to see that sort of loyalty, but it probably had little practical impact on his status on the team.
Gomez is signed through 2016 (FA in 2017).
but they traded for cespedes in the end.,..
Think of it a different way. The Mets have a bunch of young, cheap pitchers but they won’t always be cheap. The guy telling you he “wants to see things through” is the same guy who’d be more ready to accept a “hometown discount” extension.
that’s reasonable… my cynicism has to do with Sandy’s statement. i think Zach calling is pretty cool and could lead to what you said… i think Alderson couldn’t have said anything else without looking bad or making the locker room toxic.
I hate to be that guy here, but the expression “cut bait” as used in the Chris Johnson piece isn’t used correctly. I think you mean to say “cut ties” or “cut and run.” “Cut bait” would be part of the expression “fish or cut bait,” meaning something like “do the thing or sit there and talk about doing the thing.” I apologize for being the annoying English police. It’s a sickness and I can’t help it. Huge fan of your website. Please don’t ban me.
Also, I definitely think the Bravos should keep Johnson around. They gain nothing by dumping him and eating his salary. If they keep him and use him as they do now, at least they get *something* out of him. Not that I’m dying for him to stay on the team…
They gain a roster spot and not having a hothead in the clubhouse who has stated he wants to be gone. The most you might get out of him is a .220 AVG with sparse power, untimely hitting.
Its adding by subtracting. The Braves will automatically be a better team the day he finally leaves that clubhouse for good. The only thing hes good for is a lazy fly ball to right or a softly hit grounder to SS
Chris Johnson can only consistently hit lefites, so unless the NL gets dominated by a huge surge of lefty pitchers he is really at the point of being a waste of a roster spot. Especially when you have a manager that really doesn’t utilize players with heavy splits correctly. But that’s a whole other problem that Atlanta has.
Like others have said he has already said he wants out of Atlanta, but he has no real trade value. And it’s not easy to package someone like him without severely hurting the return. So in this case it makes more sense to just “cut and run”.
Actually that’s not entirely true. The use of the term “cut bait” is proper in this instance as it has several different meanings. The original full term was “fish, cut bait or go ashore” meaning, fish and do it productively. If you can’t do that then do something productive like cut bait fish and if that is too difficult then go ashore and find another job. Like many of today’s idioms (i.e. “under the weather” meaning to go below decks under the bad weather so that you do not get seasick and hamper others trying to do their job) it was originally a nautical term. The term was later shortened to fish or cut bait and one of the many meanings is either continue to try the spot you are fishing in or cut your bait line and move on. The term “cut bait” when used by itself means to move on.
So Carter Capps is a “a championship-caliber piece under team control?” It’s a shame that team is not anywhere close to championship-caliber.
I don’t know if you guys updated your post from yesterday (or whenever it was), but Michael Conforto never got sent to AAA. They were going to, but then they placed Kirk Nieuwenhuis on the DL and Conforto stayed with the team.
As a Braves fan, I wish they could get something in return for C.Johnson instead of just cutting ties with him. But feel he may end up dumped like Uggla since they didn’t force him on the Dodgers when they gave up Wood, Peraza, J.Johnson and Avilan like they did with the Kimbrel trade and B.Upton dump off. But I also don’t blame C.J for now saying he wants out when he has been told personally and publicly that they do not want him. Nobody wants to stay where they are not wanted. But it does also make me wonder why veterans like that, if they care like they say they do, don’t ask to be demoted for more playing time to work on their issues, instead of complaining about riding the bench. You have been on the trade block over a year and there are no takers.. Go to the minors and get some playing time.
I still don’t really understand the Olivera move, Ruiz and Riley have higher upside at 3B and as a corner OF Olivera really has very little value, don’t question trading Wood and Peraza but the return made no sense. I’m sure Rodriguez and Bird could have been had for just 1 of either Peraza or Wood, paying double for the inclusion of Olivera is just weird. I personally think Riley is our 3B for a 10 year period in the near future. Basically I think we would have been fine just letting Johnson deal play out and being the stop gap between the young kids at 3B, Olivera throws a wrench into that.
Ruiz has struggled mightily, and is far from being a prospect they can remotely count on to even crack a major league roster within his career. Austin Riley is only 18. He has only played in the rookie league at this point. Chances are he’s not going to be major league ready before Chris Johnson’s contract expires (since there is no chance they’d pick up the 2018 option). And it’s far too early to count on him being a Braves mainstay for a decade. The Braves don’t have any realistic solid internal options for third base for likely at least 4 years unless Ruiz makes a remarkable turnaround.
I just think we should have let it play out more before exploring external options and we way overpaid for Olivera. If neither prospect showed progress between now and 2018 then we could explore adding someone. Moustakas is a Boras agent slated to hit the market in 2018 which would be the first season with Johnson off the books.
They’ve let it play out with Johnson for longer than it should have already. He simply doesn’t seem to have the ability to consistently hit right handers, which negates his ability to be a consistent third baseman. Not to mention the lack of power for the position mixed with his defensive ineptitude.
Even if Riley progresses well he still is very unlikely to be major league ready prior to Johnson’s contract expiring. So you’re really counting on Ruiz making that major turnaround, which at this point is not looking good.
It’s asking a lot for the Braves to let that bleak a situation play out. The Olivera situation may have been an overpay, but targeting a third baseman was not a bad idea for the Braves current situation.
Olivera is ready now. Ruiz and Riley wont be for a while. If we let Riley develop for 5 years he’ll still just be 23. Wood is gonna be a TJ victim in a few years while Peraza will be another Elvis Andrus. This was a good trade.
elvis andrus would be like the top 5% of peraza’s outcomes. andrus has been worth 18.9 bwar and 17.3 fwar. thats well over 100 million dollars worth of value. wood is a high risk arm, the one thing is they might have found more value from another team for the two of them. however oliveria fills an immediate hole and his contract is really cheap if he is what the braves think he is.
You say that they could have gotten more value, but I highly doubt that. 3B is really shallow and it’s a tough position to fill internally for most teams, and especially ATL. Olivera has a great bat with a good glove that can man the position until his defensive liabilities force a move to the OF, which we are in need of. They obviously believe in his bat far more than they do Peraza’s, which is why he’s on the team. Premium bats are impossible to obtain without an overpay right now and there are few Nolan Arenados mulling around the minors.
his glove isn’t good, he is mainly bat.
You know that Chris Johnson is not only having a bad year in baseball with the Braves but he is and also having a bad year when it come to football not even one team has invited Chris Johnson into NFL training camp for a tryout.
dont forget if the braves hadnt extended johnson they would be in this mess.just dont blame chris.you gotta get the money when you can