The New York Mets have run away with the NL East since acquiring Yoenis Cespedes, and if their pitching holds up for the postseason they could be a sneaky team in the NL pennant chase. While New York will have a little extra financial flexibility this offseason, a wise investment for the team would be inking Cespedes to a large contract over many, many years. While La Potencia has his flaws both at the plate and in the field he makes some extraordinary defensive plays and can carry a team with his bat. Also, he’s apparently magical. The teams that have traded Cespedes–the A’s, Red Sox and Tigers–have the three worst records in the American League. Coincidence, or the Curse of the Cubano?
With a large sum of money potentially being shipped to Cespedes’ routing number, the Mets will have some gaps to fill internally to lower their payroll cost. Bartolo Colon is a free agent after this season, but luckily the Mets have plenty of pitching at the moment (enough for a six-man rotation) and even if Colon departs, Zack Wheeler should be healthy relatively early next season to create some extra depth.
Second baseman Daniel Murphy is also set to become a free agent, and while Murphy has been impressive at the dish, batting .278 with 13 homers and 68 RBI, his defense is below average. Baseball Reference has him as a -0.4 dWAR player this season and a -2.6 player over his seven year career. While this isn’t an atrocious stat, it could be improved.
For the Mets the answer could be Matt Reynolds, who spent the 2015 season in Triple-A with the Las Vegas 51’s manning shortstop. Selected in the second round of the 2012 draft, Reynolds has been making the slow and steady climb up the Minor League ladder, and has been described by one Mets official as “boring good” according to MLB Pipeline. Before I had finished reading their little blurb about Reynolds, the first player that came to mind with that glowing endorsement was Mark Ellis, one of the best boring players of the last decade. Sure enough, that’s one of the comparisons Pipeline makes.
With the 51’s, Reynolds played 115 games and hit .267 with six homers and 65 RBI. He also showed off some speed, swiping 13 bags in 17 chances. Ellis displayed a little extra power in his Triple-A season in 2001, belting 10 dingers, yet he played in 17 more games. Ellis also hit a few points higher at .273, but the numbers are certainly close enough for the comparison to stick. If Reynolds debuts at any point next season, it will be at the age of 25, the same age that Ellis was when he first donned Oakland’s green and gold.
Would Reynolds be the answer at second base? That’s the thing. He doesn’t have to be. If Cespedes gets re-signed, or Sandy Alderson makes another comparable (albeit less magical) free agent addition, then the offense should be just fine as long as the arms that the New York Mets have been acquiring for years hold up. The arms are the bread and butter of this team, which will give the younger guys like Michael Conforto, and potentially Reynolds and Brandon Nimmo, some time to grow at the Major League level before having to be “the man.” Whether Reynolds would take over shortstop, moving Wilmer Flores second, or take the duties of the keystone position himself remains another question entirely.
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