The Rays have non-tendered outfielder Guillermo Heredia, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). He’ll head onto a market that’s hurting for center field capable players.
Heredia had projected to earn a relatively modest $1.1MM salary. But the Rays decided against paying it and obviously weren’t able to find another team that was interested in doing so instead.
Heredia lasts just one season in Tampa after coming over alongside Mike Zunino in a trade with the Mariners. In 231 plate appearances as a Ray, Heredia slashed just .225/.306/.363 (82 wRC+), right in line with his career body of work.
While defensive metrics have never loved Heredia in center field, he’s typically rated quite well in the corners and continues to garner some time up the middle. Prior to last season, he’d shown strong bat-to-ball skills, and he’s always been a patient hitter. Teams presumably won’t view Heredia as an everyday option, but it’s not hard to imagine him generating interest from teams in search of outfield depth. If Heredia gets on track elsewhere, he’ll be arbitration-eligible twice more.
Giants? Wasn’t it predicted that Pillar would be non-tendered as well? Heredia would play nicely into Oracle Park.
Not a bad player, and in his defense, I would say given a platoon role and not being able to play full time hurts him. You cant expect to get better with less AB’s somehow, so platoon roles are really short term, or mabye they just didnt have space for him or give him enough time. Mabye add him on the bench somewhere for now and eventually might get another chance to prove himself fulltime.
Mets might take a flier on this guy. Need CF help badly
Now that the rosters will be at 26, maybe there’s room for Heredia, the definition of a 5th outfielder. But ya, he’s somebody the Mets could use. They don’t need offense out of the position, and his defense is really sound.
Funny how every time an OF becomes available someone mentions the Giants.
Mets CF of the future lol