Yesterday, Terry Collins talked about putting Ronny Cedeno and Ruben Tejada into a platoon. This comes on the heels of looking to get Kelly Shoppach more playing time against righties at catcher, at the expense of Josh Thole, and Justin Turner more regular time at second base, at the expense of Daniel Murphy.
Interestingly, Collins’ suggestion that Turner could play at Murphy’s expense hasn’t come to pass: Murphy has played the last four games at second base. I’d be surprised if that didn’t come from an edict at higher levels. And hopefully, the same will be true of things like a Tejada/Cedeno platoon and playing Shoppach regularly.
To understand why, please move beyond the recent struggles of Murphy, Tejada and Thole. 2012 is not the issue. 2012 is gone. No team with a bit of common sense in the Mets’ position is worried about 2012. These games exist to plan for 2013 and beyond.
With that in mind, what do Tejada, Thole and Murphy have in common? All three are under team control for 2013. Turner is, too, but he’s pretty clearly established that his limited defense and mediocre-at-best offense suits him to a utility role. And both Shoppach and Cedeno are free agents at season’s end, with long veteran track records identifying them: Shoppach is a catcher who should face lefties only, Cedeno is a defensive replacement whose 2012 offense is unlikely to ever be repeated again.
So with the idea that 2012 is to collect data for 2013, Tejada, Thole and Murphy ought to play as often as possible. Incidentally, that doesn’t change if they struggle- it is more important to see if they can weather those struggles.
After all, the 2013 Mets don’t make a ton of sense unless Tejada can play shortstop every day, Murphy can do the same at second base, and Thole can at least hold onto the left side of a catching platoon. And it is an open question as to whether any of them can last a full season. Murphy last played a full year in 2009; he’s at 126 games this season, after 109 last year. Tejada slowed down considerably in September last season, a year in which he played a combined 150 games between New York and Buffalo.
And Thole, simply put, hasn’t looked remotely like a major league hitter since returning from his latest concussion. If he’s healthy, he needs to get the chance to hit his way out of it. If he isn’t, he should not be playing, period.
Again, if these three players get rested here and there, that’s fine. I’m not suggesting they should be run into the ground. But the default really ought to be utilizing all three of them for next season. Nothing else makes any sense, given what the Mets know and what they need to find out.
4 Comments
I think you’re right. But couldn’t one also say that, because Tejada-Thole-Murphy are under team control for 2013, September 2013 should be used partly to see whether people like Cedeno and Shoppach are worth re-signing? I.e. use September to look harder at players who aren’t a lock to be Mets in 2013?
How I see it is, nothing Shoppach/Cedeno can do in September will tell us anything remotely as useful/definitive as their careers to date. But seeing how Tejada/Thole/Murphy hold up over a full season is new information. A good point to raise, though.
It’s been said that you should pay limited attention to anything a marginal player does in April or September.
The same SHOULD have been said for Duda, and Niewenhuis, neither of whom should have been sent down. On their worst days, they’re better than Torres and a combination of Baxter/Hairston/Bay.
It’s no coincidence that the losing started when they were sent down, and the recent winning streak started with Duda’s return. Take it from a veteran baseball guy. It’s more than what you are doing, it’s the PERCEPTION of what you are capable of. Not to mention Kirk being a vast improvement in the outfield over the constantly mystified Torres.
Alderson has shown himself this year. How foolish does he look with the above, and of course, the “Harvey is not ready today, but tomorrow he is” fiasco of the a few weeks ago.
Add in the more important fact that he has not improved the team at a single position, and there you go.
Finally TC is the most l-r switch obsessed manager I’ve ever seen. He will remove one of his awful relievers who is throwing well, for another awful one. How many games have been lost just on that move? Simple statistics tell you that if you have 7 relievers, at least one or two will be awful on any given day, so if you continually use them all, you will hit a disaster ever day.
Worse, how many times during the season, did his desire to play Cedeno/Turner/Baxter, etc come during a hot streak for a Tejada, Murphy, or even worse, Ike in the first half. Several times when he appeared to be coming out of it, he would have a “day off”.