Jon Heyman of SI.com says the Mets will look to sign a free-agent first baseman.
“The Mets are shying away from injury-prone players,” writes Heyman, which is likely to eliminate Nick Johnson from their search.
…i have no reason to believe this, but, i can’t help and think the Mets will look long and hard at Adam LaRoche… oddly enough, i was initially under the impression the team did not like laroche, but then it became quite clear they did have interest around the trade deadline…
LaRoche, 29, hit .277 with a .355 OBP, 25 home runs, 83 RBI and 38 doubles for the Pirates and Braves this season.
In each of the last four seasons, LaRoche has hit below .250 in the first-half of the season, and above .300 in the second half.
…which, come to think of it, considering the way the Mets have played the last few Septembers, may not be the worst thing in the world…
In addition to LaRoche and Johnson, Hank Blalock, Russell Branyan and Chad Tracy are also expected to be free-agent first basemen this off season.
{ 59 comments }
Ugh that’s disheartening.
I don’t think Murphy is anything special, but i do think he’d be better then Johnson, Blalock Russell and Tracy…
And for what it’s worth not be much worse if any at all then LaRoche, and he’ll cost all of less thena million when LaRoche will likely cost in the neighborhood of 8 million per.
Im fine with LaRoche at 1B if we sign holliday or bay.
If we sign Holliday (no Bay, please), LaRoche becomes unnecessary. His defense stinks. We would be better off with Murphy at 1st… IF we signed Holliday.
I though he was a good defensive 1B..
He’s ok at 1st.
But he’s nothing great. Keith Hernandez ripped him apart one game this year when he was still on the pirates about his defense.
how about this?
trade for cantu and sign LaRoche and holliday and your lineup is set.
cantu played 2b when he was with the rays, I think he came up as 2B.
reyes ss
cantu 2b
wright 3b
holliday lf
beltran cf
LaRoche 1b
francouer rf
santos c
the first 7 guys could hit 20+ HRs, thats a potent lineup without trading our top prospects. then we can trade murphy and castillo for a starter or a bullpen arm.
I mentioned that in a different post, the only thing with Cantu is if he was any good at 2B i would think the marlins wouldve swapped him and uggla since uggla isnt exactly roberto alomar. However if he can play 2B it makes him even more attractive.
Cantu is a better 2B than Uggla, but Uggla can’t play anywhere else because he has no range and no arm. I’d like to see Cantu, and you could get him for some combination of Murphy/Evans/Low Level Prospect. Of course, knowing our luck, Murphy would turn out to be the next Tino Martinez…
I have nothing against LaRoche, either, as I think he is a well-rounded ball player with some power in his stick. However, power may be the only thing he brings to the table that Murphy doesn’t, and he’s going to cost more. If we can get Holliday (please, let there be a god), I don’t think there is an utter need for LaRoche at 1B. I’d much rather spend that money on Hudson and try to trade Castillo (while eating some contract, of course).
Reyes, ss (.300, 10 HR)
Hudson, 2b (.290, 10 HR)
Beltran, cf (.285, 30 HR)
Holliday, lf (.300, 30 HR)
Wright, 3b (.315, 20 HR)
Francoeur, rf (.290, 20 HR)
Cantu, 1b (.280, 20 HR)
Thole, c (.280, 5 HR)
I can live with that lineup…
I like Thole a lot, but I don’t know why people consist on projecting any HR for him. You’ve seen his swing, right? He hit 1 HR in a full season at AA this year. He’s much more likely to hit .300, 0 HR than .280, 5 HR. Heck, he’s more likely to hit .350, 0 HR than .280, 5 HR. He hits for no HR power whatsoever… by design.
Unless you’re assuming that HoJo can help him with his power stroke… (depressed laughter followed by long sigh)
It’s not that he can’t hit HR, it’s that he chooses to hit line drives instead. However, as he progresses and becomes a better hitter, he could yank a few inside the foul pole. Do I think he WILL hit 5 HR? No, but I think he CAN. Thole hit 5 HR in St. Lucie in 2008…and Omir Santos hit 1 HR in 2008 with AAA Norfolk, yet he somehow managed to hit 7 HR in under 100 games played this year. Many guys have power, it’s just dependent on how they use it.
By the way, what does it matter if he’s hitting 8th? LOL
There is a reason why Cantu is playing 1B – he stunk at 2B and 3B. His defense was absolutely terrible at those positions and he’ll never play those positions on a regular basis.
Wouldn’t it be better to sign a (hopefully) healthy Delgado to one more year… than signing any of these bad retreads? The only option that is the least bit palateable is LaRoche… and I would still rather have Delgado than him.
I don’t know, that’s a tough call to take Delgado over LaRoche. LaRoche almost never gets hurt, and considering the injuries we had this year, I’d take him before Delgado.
However, in terms of production, I think they’d come out about even.
That would be pretty sad if they considered LaRoche a big upgrade for first. At best, he’s a marginal upgrade over Murphy.
One, his defense is poor and he’s been a below league average defender at first base most of his career. Second, he’s barely am improvement over Murphy on offense and LaRoche had just a .706 OPS vs lefties this year.
I hope this is just one of Heyman’s baseless rumors. Though I’m glad if it’s true the Mets recognize Nick Johnson is not a good option.
My apologies to Heyman. I just read his piece and he didn’t actually mention LaRoche in relation to the Mets. It was just Matt’s speculating.
I think you would want to limit LaRoche to mostly a platoon against righties. His numbers against righties are really good — much better than what Murphy could be expected to put up.
But I would expect there’s a team out there willing to make him the full-time 1B and if that’s the case, I’m not sure he’s worth it. I still think (and again, Im stealing this from Sam Page, i believe) a LaRoche-Evans tandem at first would be pretty nice.
Why am I replacing Murphy and then giving half the job to Evans? Which is the one that actually proved something this year again?
I’m not Murphy’s biggest fan, but I think he could easily put up comparable numbers to LaRoche, and he may not plateau there as LaRoche has.
Isn’t Nady a free agent? He can play some 1B (esp with a bum arm) – why not look into him to be a righty counterpart to Murphy and get some work in the OF as well.
Playing against lefties constitutes far less than “half the job”
And Evans at every level has hit lefties. I’d much rather him than Murph against lefties. I don’t know what Murphy did or didn’t prove this year. And I do know that Evans wasn’t given a chance to prove anything.
You know LaRoche hit 25 homers (19 against RHP) with a .383 OBP last year right? You think Murphy is going to do that this year?
Those stats on LaRoche are much more impressive than I would’ve thought. No idea if he’s a good defensive 1b or not but I kinda like the idea…
Those stats on LaRoche is what Delgado does at his worst. Remember in 2007 when he was a black hole in the lineup and everybody wanted him off the team? Yeah, he hit .258 with 24 home runs and 87 RBI.
Yet somehow there is still a contingent of people who want to bring Delgado back. The same delgado that had missed all of this year.
I don’t get it.
Not only bring him back, but spend $5 – 6M on him in the process.
I’d rather that money go to bringing in a quality reliever or two.
While I do not like LaRoche much, can’t we apply Murphy logic to him (except he already has proven he can hit 25 HRs)? In a better lineup, with everybody healthy, he can easily drive in 110… I mean I don’t think so, but if we upped Murphy’s RBI total to account for talent around him it is only courteous to do so for LaRoche…
Yes good point. But once again Murphy’s salary is going to be Below 1m. LaRoche is going to cost at least 8 million for 2 years.
Silly, if you spend 8 mil on this guy, and have to pinch pennies to get a mid-level starter at 10 million, its a NO BRAINER to put murph at first and allocate the full 18 million for Halladay…
First of all, Halladay isn’t a free agent, so it’s not nearly as simple as paying him $18 million.
Second, Halladay will cost you your 3 best prospects (at least) plus a $100 million-plus contract.
You can get LaRoche without giving up any draft picks (he’s Type B) for less that $8 million, then sign Lackey if you want (I’m torn on him) or go with more low-cost, high-reward guys like Sheets/Harden etc
yeah, your right, my bad.
LaRoche’s #’s are marginally better than Murph’s if you project Murph’s over a full season…and neither can hit lefties (although we dont really know if Murph can) it makes no sense for the Mets to give up on developing Murphy for 7 more HRs worse defense and an extra 6+ million…this would be a TERRIBLE MOVE
agree
I really agree that why I am not totally comfortable handing this job to Murphy, I am probably comfortable with Murphy as an understudy to Delgado on a 1-year deal. At least you know you are covered – which we weren’t this year. Kinda can’t believe I’m saying this, but given the options…
I don’t see how you can even fain any type of interest in Delgado. We all had high hopes for him in ‘07 he stunk, we all had high hopes for him in ‘08 and he had half a good year, we all had high hopes for him this year and he’s played 26 games.
He’s like Frank Thomas was on the White Sox. He would play and keep you interested. What if next year is his healthy year, what if, what if. Eventually you have to let him go. 2006 was great, 2007 was bad, 2008 was so so, and 2009 was terrible.
Let him go. Stick with Murphy, unless a better option comes around through trade!
unless they can sign delgado to a 1 yr deal worth less than $2 mil, no thanks…it would make no sense to carry him and murph, both are lefties, and signing Delgado for antyhing more than that will hamstring us as to the #2 pticher they need to get and filling out the rest of our holes (8th inning guy, platoon catcher, right handed bat off the bench)
I also don’t necessarily think it solves the problem at 1st. If you think Murphy is good enough to be his backup for WHEN he gets hurt, then why not give him the every day job.
It’s not a IF with injuries any longer, it’s a WHEN.
Can we all stop already with the Orlando Hudson talk. Joe Torre is starting Belliard over him in the playoffs which is all you need to know. Aging player who’s skills are declining and is an injury concern. Exactly what we don’t need on the Mets.
Agreed.
You’re not giving Belliard enough credit, here…he was hitting .351 with 5 HR in 24 games since joining the Dodgers. Hudson was ice cold in June and September, so it was a no-brainer.
Other than June and September, Hudson was pretty solid this year. And he still hit .283 with 9 HR and 62 RBI. Also, he is no more injury prone than Beltran or Reyes, so I don’t get how people think he is a liability. He broke his wrist…it was a freak injury, but certainly not a nagging one.
Hudson is an instant upgrade, both at 2B and in the clubhouse.
Please remember to factor in that Murphy played half of his season in Citi Field and that LaRoche played in generally friendlier parks. A 5 HR swing in either direction changes quite a bit when you compare their numbers (and especially their upside, age and salary).
Murphy over LaRoche is sort of a no-brainer IMO.
Also agreed.
Does the ballpark account for Murphy walking less than Omir Santos and Jeff Francouer in the second half?
Okay, for the billionth time, nobody is saying Murphy’s an All-Star. Most fans in favor of Murph at 1B in 2010 say so because at his cost he’s a better option than the available free-agent 1B. If you tell me that the Mets can get A-Gone or Fielder but only if they include Murphy to San Diego or Miluawaukee, I’ll drive Murph there myself. Murphy is cost effective, not prone to injury, and is likely to put up similar production to all the other FA 1B available. LaRoche might end the year with slightly better numbers than Murphy would in 2010, sure… but he’ll cost about 7-10 million, at least. Murph is, I assume, still making the major league minimum of under 6 figures.
The thing to me is, the Mets first need to go out and get a sure-thing on offense. No “he might be a nice fit” Adam LaRoche’s. Again, if you haven’t looked at the FA 1B, they are all marginal at best. Murphy would be almost as good as all of them for a fraction of the price. The Mets need to go full-out for Holliday, or Bay, or try and trade for a legit stud at 1B, like A-Gone or Fielder (both speculated to possibly be available; we’ll see).
Ask yourself this… if the Mets sign Adam LaRoche to play 1B, will you be completely satisfied with the offense? Because signing LaRoche means Holliday and Bay probably aren’t coming here. Probably.
Get a no-brainer bat first. Then get creative. There is no FA 1B that is a no-brainer bat.
Yes true. How about a guy like Konerko? Can still put up 20/90 at 1st base and is a good clubhouse guy and we probably wouldn’t have to give up a ton to get him in a trade.
If he was our 2nd move after getting a big LF’er that wouldn’t be terrible.
Konerko isn’t a bad option actually, but he isn’t a free agent either and has a limited NTC. He’s due 12MM for 2010, and probably posts numbers similar to those you would get from Delgado in a one year deal.
Again, however, he’d be bitten a bit by Citi Field, and probably is a .270/20 guy there. If Murphy can continue to improve and post numbers close to that, is it worth 11MM for the big name?
I’d resign Delgado to a one year incentive laden deal. If the team is planning on keeping Ike Davis, it doesn’t make sense to sign another first baseman to a long-term contract.
I agree w/Seaver re not signing a FA if you want Ike @ 1B.
But I wonder: when Ike played RF in the World Cup, was it at the Mets’ request?
Ike has a great arm – maybe they thought he’d be better in RF…
If that is the case then what are they gonna do with all the OF’s they have. If Francoeur produces he might get an extension and if you sign Holliday the OF is set. Then you have F-Mart, Davis, Pagan looking for playing time. I’d rather he stay at first bc we have a hole there. Sign Holliday, keep Murphy, Davis comes in mid-season, maybe you trade Murphy at the deadline (also depends on how he is doing), if Francoeur is producing sign him to an extension and this give F-Mart more time to grow in AAA. Then myabe F-Mart or Niewenhius can replace Beltran when his contract is up or you can trade Francoeur. A lot of options if things work out, which is a good thing.
Exile, you may be right about the Mets moving Ike in right. Especially with the acquisition of Carter. I still don’t think that there are any game breakers out there at first base.
No one should read too much into Davis playing the OF in the World Cup. The reason he did so was because they had Justin Smoak at first base for the U.S. team, so they looked to get Davis’ bat in another way.
Everyone’s talking about offense but one of the areas the Mets need to address this offseason is middle relief. Stokes and Parnell are mediocre at best, Green is awful. They really need at least one more reliable bullpen arm to supplement Pedro and K-Rod.
OT: Todd Helton is a dog. I don’t like to speculate about PEDs and rarely do, but has there been a player as young as him whose numbers dropped as much since the start of PEDs testing?
I have to disagree. We need starters to get us into the 7th, minimizing the role of middle relief. Too many games, too many innings pitched.
If I could sign two players, they would be Lackey and Harden. three guys (including Santana) to go into the 7th every start makes your bullpen a lot better
If our injured players return as expected, we’d have enough offense if we had these two in the rotation. And pitching wins in a short series
I’m all for Lackey but I don’t know where you get the idea that Harden will solidify the rotation. He’s pitched over 150 innings just once in his career as he’s always on the DL. And last year he averaged just 5.4 IP per start. So who’s going to finish out those games that Harden starts? I would stay away from Harden.
IMO, they need a starter, a reliever and a power bat. I think there’s money in the budget to get at least one of each.
i think we just signed holliday tonight
What, you mean the most hated man in St. Louis? Certainly looks a little less certain he’ll be back there. We’ll see.
You want to put that butcher in LF?
JK. Series isn’t over.
At this point, I’m so starved for offense I don’t care if the LF even carries a glove.
he can move to first after we accept that our cadre of first base options are failures
Murphy’s stats, if he played every day, would be the same as LaRoche’s. The Roche’s numbers would go down at ChitiField, too. Let’s not bring in mediocrity for change’s sake.
I think you are right about murphy’s stats. I’m also not a fan or platooning firstbaseman. I think infielders need a consistent target.
Infielders just need to know the target can catch… By the way, after watching Zamboni Holliday, we’re lobbying for Jason Bay.
I don’t know… last night Holliday looked like the perfect fit for the Mets, don’t you think?
Comments on this entry are closed.