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Triple-A New Orleans RHP Claudio Vargas was scratched from his start today, suggesting the Mets may opt to purchase his contract and have him start tomorrow at Shea for the Mets against the Nationals.
…at this point, it may just make sense to sit back and see how the Mets shuffle this roster around…
…if vargas is promoted, and Matt Wise is added, and if Luis Castillo is headed to the disabled list, which is more and more likely by the minute, there’s going to be all sorts of transactions coming down the pike, and all sorts of speculation to go along with it – ranging from whether Joe Smith will be demoted, to Jorge Sosa and Nelson Figueroa being dfa’d…
…Update…1:41 pm…
According to Adam Rubin at his blog for the Daily News, Figueroa and Sosa could be in ‘trouble,’ while Smith could be staying.
Rubin also reports on the future of Castillo, Fernando Tatis and Angel Pagan, who could be heading to the disabled list.
Wish Joe Smith wasn’t going down…
I think his performance should supercede the fact that the others need to get DFA’d. One way or the other, a decision has to be made on those other guys. So, are they saying if Jorge Sosa pitches lights out for 2 days in a row, we may keep him?
It makes no sense to me. If the season ended today, Joe Smith would be on the playoff roster and Sosa wouldn’t. Simple as that.
ditto. we will quickly miss Smith.
All this swapping will definitely involve a middle-infielder. Ideally someone with some pop for pinch hitting.
I’m a huge fan of Castillo, but we knew he wasn’t going to play 150 games this year. Easley can’t be our every day guy for very long. Him and Anderson are our primary pinch hitters in RBI situations.
Randolf talked about resting Reyes occasionally this year to prevent a burnout like last year. If he or Wright has a rough slide or diving catch, we have no one around to let them sit out the last couple of innings. nobody!
The Mets could me making this a creative one day demotion of Smith. They can do it by DLing Castillo on Thurs, here’s how it goes.
Wed: recall Vargas, option Smith
Thurs: DL Castillo, recall Smith
Fri: DFA Vargas, activate Wise
voila! (not frank)
SIGH
how does this make sense? if he performs well doesn’t he still have to be DFAed because we can’t carry all these pitchers?
unless figueroa is going down.
Per Rubin’s blog:
Why did the plan change? It would look like Nelson Figueroa’s poor performance Monday night is the major factor. I’d be seriously worried arriving at the ballpark today if I were Figueroa, since a Vargas call-up would mean he’s in the rotation for more than one turn.
I don’t get it. We (speaking as metsblog commenters) are all over willie all the time (not me, I love willie). Then, we are 36 games into the season and the following players don’t know if they will be on the roster in 5 hours: Castillo, Figgy, Tatis, Wise, Vargas, Atkins, Sosa, Smith, Pagan… Am I missing anyone? That is a lot of uncertainty for a team that we all think should win around 95 games. I think it is almost time to view this team for what it is, an 85-88 win team that will fight to make the playoffs. It’s not the worst thing in the world.
“That is a lot of uncertainty for a team that we all think should win around 95 games.”
Who is this all you speak of?
I’m just messing with ya, but seriously, 95 games is going to be VERY tough for this team.
I’ll sign up for 86-76. I’m not saying that from a ledge either. I just think the injuries are going to bite us in the @$$ as the year goes on.
It’s hard to say that 85-88 will happen. I’m getting the sense that this team is an 82-83 win team.
you arent missing anyone, in fact you are creating people who dont exist or have reason to worry…
Atkins?
I think Vegas had us pegged at 93.5 this year? Not positive about that though, i know it was close to that. They are normally pretty close and were within half a game last year.
I am also basing it on all the negitive reactions around here when the team loses a game. We are above .500 and if we play at the same winning % for the rest of the year it works out to 85.5 wins.
I like where we are right now. We are on pace for 85 wins and still waiting for our sparkplug to start contributing.
Ha, I meant Bostik… Atkins or Adkins was the piece of junk we got in the Heath Bell trade, right?
This is from Rubin’s blog:
Additional major news: Fernando Tatis looks like he’s coming up, too. Perhaps Luis Castillo’s injury requires the DL.
UPDATE: Sounds like the Mets may have come to their senses and will spare Joe Smith, too. That could mean Jorge Sosa is in trouble….It might not be Castillo going on the DL. Sounds like Angel Pagan was in discomfort with his shoulder last night.
I think Figgy’s days are done and that he will be waived and Vargas will take his spot. I believe Vargas had in his contract that if he is not promoted by a certain time he can be released. Ultimately the Mets believe him to be a better pitcher then Nelson.
I hope Figgy clears waivers and tunes up in AAA. He has some value for this team as a spot-starter/long man if he can find the zone.
Agreed. I’d love for him to stick around in the organization, not just because he’s a “good story,” but because I think he’s of some value as a pitcher.
I disagree about Figgy. He is topping out at 85mph 5 starts into the season. He is trending downward quickly.
Exactly, I think hes done with the mets as a productive pitcher. He was crafty and could get guys who had never seen him out before. Now that hes made a number of starts, theres video on him and hes not gonna fool Major League hitters with his 85 MPH fastball and quick pitches anymore.
It was a great story while it lasted, and I think we should be grateful for the 2, maybe 3 quality Starts he gave us. The guy just can’t pitch past 5 innings.
Which is why he may be a better option than Sosa, in Sosa’s role. I’d much rather trot him out there than send out Jorge “One hanging slider hit for a home run every outing” Sosa.
It would help if he threw strikes. His command has been flat out awful the past few starts.
Minaya needs to be held accountable for this horrid bullpen and his putrid talent evaluation. His lack of foresight always has the Mets scrambling for has been spot starters like Lime, Figuera, that guy Gonzalez a few years ago, now Vargas and his 5+ career ERA, etc. His assembling of the bullpen has been nothing less than atrocious.
A team with this many resources needs to have a competent GM with a vision at the top. Wake up Wilpon!
Is there a GM in baseball that can field a great bullpen from year to year? Relief pitchers are too volative to predict from one year to the next.
I think Minaya has done a decent job of acquiring enough depth to move around and see what sticks for this season.
Relief pitchers are too volatile*
And what team has great #6 or #7 starters to go to in case of injury?
A team with a semi-respectable scouting department that has AAA or AA guys ready to be called up for spot start duty while gaining some valuable experience. Or do you prefer Minaya’s method of bringing crap Japan and Mexican League talent, throwing it at the wall and seeing if it sticks?
Um, Humber, Mulvey, and Guerra were traded for Johan. Pelfrey is doing a fine job filling in for Duque.
Speaking of Pelfry- he and Joe Smith are the only two players developed in Omar’s 3+ years who are 1) from the Mets’ system and 2) on the big club. The scouting department looks great with those Orange and Blue glasses on, doesn’t it?
Considering it generally takes longer than 3 years to develop a player in the minors, having 2 on the big league level is a good thing….Wright for instance, who was barely at AAA had 4 yrs. Reyes at 5 years was hurried as well.
Yeah, the scouting department does look great when we have two guys contributing the the big club (Pelfrey and Smith) and spun 4 guys for the best pitcher on the planet.
Plus, we have FMart in AA, who many consider one of the top hitting prospects in the game to go along with some other solid (not great, solid) prospects in AA and below.
Considering the lack of 1st round picks we’ve had due to free agent signings, I think this is pretty good.
So don’t complain about lack of depth when you’re enjoying the services of Wagner, Pedro, Johan, Beltran, and Alou.
Not really being able to enjoy the services of Pedro. He’s never healthy!!!
Have to agree with ghost, generally. Omar’s use of the farm system to stock it with already failed or faded major or minor leaguers like Tatis, Gerald Williams, Dave Williams, Park and Lawrence … and his failure to develop top level pitching prospects by now who are at least at the AA level has been detrimental.
Omar’s had three years already presiding over the draft and international signings. You would think by this time he would have produced more than F-Mart, Mulvey, Guerra, Smith and Pelfrey.
Relief pitchers are too volative to predict from one year to the next.
This is simply not true. There are quite a few relief pitchers who are generally consistent from year to year. Bradford is one of them. Too bad Omar wouldn’t pay him what he ended up paying Show.
Bradford who wasn’t that happy playing in NY?
Sometimes money doesn’t buy someone happiness and the desire to sign somewhere he doesn’t want to.
That’s not true. Who said he wasn’t happy playing in NY?
When you find a reliever who can pitch well and succeed in NY, who’s been consistent in his career, and has reasonable contract demands, you sign him.
This was obviously one of Omar’s biggest mistakes.
Relievers are generally volatile. Of course there are exceptions. No team is stocked full of dependable relievers. There simply aren’t enough of them to go around.
After he left there was reports that he wasn’t happy in NY and was a loner in the clubhouse. And that Joe Smith was the only guy he bonded with in camp.
May have been spin but who knows.
I never heard that and I don’t believe that for a second Can you find a link with a trusted source saying this?
What was reported was that he wanted 3 years and Omar wouldn’t give it to him. The Orioles would.