So in writing about the Mets and their catcher/shortstop situation, I lumped the two results of the injuries to Josh Thole and Ruben Tejada- the premature promotion of Jordany Valdespin and the ineffective catching tandem of Mike Nickeas and Rob Johnson- to a lack of organizational depth.
Somehow, I completely forgot about Omar Quintanilla, a player a href=”http://mets.lohudblogs.com/2012/01/03/a-pair-of-acquisitions/”whose acquisition I praised this winter./a My bad. The Mets did well on shortstop protection.
Now assuming Tejada is out for a while, the worry here is that Valdespin, a highly unfinished hitter who has not excelled defensively at shortstop, will have his development stunted by trying to master the position, and the strike zone, on the fly at the major league level. After the game, a pumped-up Terry Collins said that Valdespin had “paid his dues” in the minor leagues, but he hasn’t, not really, and especially not at shortstop.
If the Mets turn to Quintanilla instead, they could employ a plus defensive shortstop who is hitting quite well at Triple-A. (He had two hits last night, and is at .300/.382/.522 for the season).
Perhaps this is mooted by the return of Ronny Cedeno, which would be a shame, since Cedeno’s bat doesn’t belong anywhere near a major league roster, let alone a starting role. In fact, when the Mets signed Quintanilla, I assumed they did so to get a better Cedeno alternative for less.
Anyhow, I thought it was worth clarifying. The catcher problem is an inventory one. The rushing of Valdespin? My guess is the Mets are simply looking for impact bats at this point. Valdespin profiles as a marginal prospect if he doesn’t figure out how to take a pitch or catch the ball consistently, so I’d sure prefer to see him doing that at Triple-A. And let the veteran depth they do have- Quintanilla really stands out relative to Triple-A alternatives at other positions, let alone the pitching staff- man shortstop for a few weeks.
3 Comments
At this point, the issue with Quintanilla is that there’s no space on the 40-man. Space could be cleared, but at the price of having to DFA someone. The 2 candidates right now who stand out as candidates are Batista and Satin. There’s really no one else to cut. Both would probably clear waivers, although there’s a chance a team looking for IF help could take a chance on Satin. However, they will already need to DFA someone already to make room for another catcher, and Batista is (at least currently) the 5th starter – although that could change if he performs poorly tonight, in which case my guess is that he’d get the ax. So that limits the options even further. At some point it becomes a numbers game and right now there’s really no room to clear a spot on the 40, so Valdespin – who is on the 40 – is here, at least temporarily.
Finally, I think that when you’re talking about the short term (which we’re hoping the injury to Tejada will be), starting an impact (although still undisciplined) bat isn’t awful as a high-risk high-reward strategy, since the initial scouting reports on him will probably be very limited and so he might be able to take advantage of mistakes before pitchers learn how to exploit his weaknesses.
The stunted development angle is hard to demonstrate. Tejada was up getting at-bats while still wearing diapers, but seems to be developing nicely. Valdespin is here to bring versatility and athleticism, as well as shortstop reps, for the next week or so. He’ll be sharing time with Justin Turner, and then Ronny Cedeno will take over, and then Ruben Tejada will take over, and barely a blip in his developmental calendar will have passed.
Calling up Quintanilla is certainly an attractive option, but it would take a painful 40-man roster transaction, and it hardly seems to be worth it for the presumed difference between calling him up for a week vs. calling up Valdespin.
Meantime, Valdy won the game for you last night. For you! GET ON YOUR KNEES AND THANK HIM, YOU UNGRATEFUL WRETCH!
Doesn’t matter how the chairs are arranged on the Titanic’s deck.