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Joe Janish of Mets Today takes a closer look at infielder Alex Cora, who signed a one-year, $2 million deal with the Mets last off season.
Cora had season-ending surgery in August on the torn ligaments in both of his thumbs.
Last month, Adam Rubin of the Daily News said the Mets will likely re-sign Cora to be their back-up middle infielder.
He hit .251 with a .320 OBP in 82 games for the Mets this season.
… he didn’t have a sensational season… but, i believe he is the type of player who fans are unable to accurately judge, because his true value may be in the clubhouse, and on the bench, not on the field… so, i can handle him being re-signed… so long as a) he’s the only player like this on the roster, because i believe every team needs at least one ‘Uncle Cliff,’ like Cliff Floyd, who is like a player-coach, and b) the team doesn’t pull a Marlon Anderson, or a Julio Franco, and give him an unnecessary, two-year deal…
Cora hit .417 in 16 plate appearances as a pinch hitter this season, while batting .243 in the 67 games that he started.
Cora’s a perfectly serviceable backup infielder and a wily veteran presence. i have no problem with keeping him on.
$2 million is too much money for him though. He is replaceable for less.
But it would not be the end of the world. If his $2M vs a $1M player is what makes or breaks a $140M+ salary budget there are other issues. In other words if you can’t sign Holliday because you overpaid a sub by $1M you probably weren’t going to sign him in the first place.
That’s not the issue. The issue is flexibility. The issue is having sane rational contracts that you can use in trade. The issue is not setting a precedent so that anyone with Cora’s skill sets ends up being a $2 million player.
exactly, just because you have money doesnt mean you have to spend it everywhere. Cora is not worth 2 million dollars. sign him for less, I doubt hed get 2 million anywhere else anyway.
The problem is are the intangibles worth 1.5$ million? Because a guy like Anderson Hernandez who is as good on defense and at the plate as Cora… costs about 400$ grand. I am not sure Cora’s intangibles are worth that much. If the deal is for a year at somewhere between 750 – 900 grand, I am on bored… more than that and I say go with Hernandez.
For $1.2 million I would bring Cora back for one more year. Otherwise I would just go with Anderson Hernandez as the back up middle IF’er.
I’d just rather see that money spent on the bullpen. I like Cora, but I think there are cheaper alternatives out there that are just as good.
….if not better
Ditto. He is not a starter and played injured when he did start. He was on a 1 year contract and basically took one for the team. I could be wrong, but I remember he was said to have manager potential.
If Tatis came back it would not be the end of the world. Again, he is not a starter and much of his damage was due to playing semi-full time. His one basic plus is that he can play 7 positions.
I just think they’re going to the Tatis well one too many times. I’d rather they get some fresh blood on the bench.
Agreed,
You have to know when to cut bait with your Subs. Look at the really good teams, they make trades for depth or sign guys for depth, but they are gone after 1 year. Remember in St. Louis the Red beard of Scott Spezio… you think the yanks resign Hinskie or Hairston… Look at boston with their Hero Roberts.
The Mets tend to hang onto these guys way to long (see chavez, Anderson, mcewing etc).
yeah, as long as they don’t pull an Omar and sign him to a 2 year deal. I liked him but y’know, A-Hern wasn’t bad as a backup infielder and he’d probably cost 20% of what Cora would.
The Mets were right to let A-Hearn go once, and should send him to BUF. He’s a slick fielder – but not a steady, reliable one. He’s like Pagan, in that he’ll go along ok for a while and then make boneheaded plays that really hurt.
A-Hearn needs to develop skills more to be a ML player, but he has shown that he doesn’t have the ability to do that.
This is classic Minaya.
Overpay someone based on a small sample size and the impossible-to-define chemistry, then explain to your fans that they’re too dumb to understand why this is a good move. And incredible, some people go along with this.
Signing Cora clearly isn’t the end of the world, but when you could get someone for the league minimum to outperform him, why not do it?
I agree. This is classic Minaya. Hello Alou, hello Orlando Hernandez, hello Luis Castillo, hello Joey Cora.
I agree..
I also think he lives on one season too much. If he had marco scutaro or russell branyon, they’d both be getting 3-4 year deals at like 8-10 million. Because they had solid seasons this year.
Never mind their track record of barely being MLB bench players, they were good this year, they’ll replicate it.
I say scrap Cora, Tatis, Reed. Keep Pagan as a 4th outfielder, he has the tools you like in a 4th outfielder. Can start and play every outfield spot, can be a pinch runner, can pinch hit, has some pop and extra base hit potential.
My ideal bench would be Evans, Pagan, Santos, Middle infielder who’s cheap.
“I also think he lives on one season too much. If he had marco scutaro or russell branyon, they’d both be getting 3-4 year deals at like 8-10 million. Because they had solid seasons this year. ”
Thank god the Angels beat him to Gary Matthews Jr.
Minaya simply has no creativity when it comes to the bench. Tatis, and Cora need to be gone. Theyre too old and injury prone. Its bad enough that our starters got hurt but as Steve Sommers would say we had replacements replacing the replacements. Thats pretty bad. Get some younger cheaper bench guys in here. And give me a break with this Cora is a clubhouse guy nonsense, that isnt worth 2 million dollars. Reed should be gone too, he couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat.
It’s ok for him to be on the team, it’s completely unacceptable if he steals anything more then a few at bats. He is 25th man material, nothing more.
But…he’s the exact kind of guy our dolt manager will run out there too much.
Thats the best point of all. Can’t trust a fool like Manuel with Cora.
I could have sworn Manuel inhabited Jeter’s body last night with those ridiculous bunt attempts
Cora is terrible. He’s below average with the bat and is TERRIBLE in the field.
Cora is a must for this team, assuming he’s healthy. He is a character guy and a good complementary player, and he was overextended this year because of Reyes’ injury.
The more I think about it (and reading about Boston offering Bay $15m per) the more I think we will be in on Holliday in a major way– my guess is that we will be offering $17-18per for 5-6 years. Is it too much for him? Yeah, but we need to do it.
Then, we trade for or sign a cheap tandem with Murphy, and we look at Marquis or Wolf. I’d love to sign another reliever– will Putz be healthy enough to decline his option but resign at a lower price?
I agree on all points except I think that first base has to be at the bottom of the list priority-wise. Murph champions and detractors alike agree that 2009 was a highly abnormal “rookie” year for anyone for a long list of reasons. Let’s put the kid to the test. Give him the security of an everyday start at a position he’s now familiar with and see how he does. If by June its still a struggle, we can look at a platoon for him (maybe even Ike if he’s ready). But give the kid a chance. And there’s just too much else that needs fixin.
Jorge Cantu. Send Murphy down to AAA to refine his hitting and learn 2nd base since 1st isnt long term anyway with davis in the wings.
The second base experiment ended last year in the AFL. Didn’t last very long either.
Murphy is a 1b or DH and that’s all he can be..
you may be right, im just saying if we got cantu murphy would be between a rock in a hard place, either learn 2nd or get traded since davis is definitely ahead of him in as far as future plans for 1st base and there is no point in having murphy just sit on the bench doing nothing.
not only can cora not hit or field, his presence on the team didn’t seem to stop them from making one stupid mistake after another early last season. $2M down the drain. pass.
What did Cora do that everyone hates him so much?
Hernandez and Valdez are not answers.
Cora is a fine player, and we’re talking about 2-3 starts at SS and maybe 10 at 2B. he’s not a liability, is a smart player, and while he doesn’t hit a ton injured, he’s not exactly an auto-out either.
I _would_ probably prefer someone that has a little pop, so we can use them as a real threat off the bench as a pinch hitter. It also might not be a horrible idea to have a bench guy that can play 1B/3B as well.
The Mets don’t have the answer, and that probably means signing someone. Signing someone means usually signing above league minimum, so we’re not even talking about a 1.6mill difference anymore, but less than that. It’s not worth worrying about.
How is Cora a fine player? What one thing can he even do other then physically standing at a few different positions?
He is useful, and there is a place for him in the NL when late game switches call for someone that can field different spots, but he isn’t a productive hitter and tying up too much money or at bats into this guy is a mistake.
Spend the couple million or so a year and try to get a DeRosa or someone that can play multi-positions and is actually productive.
Why would DeRosa come play somewhere he’d get 10-15 starts, maybe a couple more if he’ll play first.
It’s not like we need a guy to hit .340 off the bench. and what he did this year he did injured, and exposed. I’m not saying he’s the perfect option, but he’s certainly serviceable, and he’s coming for very little money. Yes, it’s almost 1.6 million more than a crappy minor leaguer that isn’t a free agent..but you’re not going to find a stud that’s willing to sign for nothing and be a backup. Those guys are generally diamond in the rough guys. Cora’s probably the ’safe’ option, but as a backup MI, that really doesn’t bother me.
Cora can’t hit or field. Thats why people don’t like him. Add in that some people want to give him 6-8x the major league minimum and well yeah…
The bottom line is in a couple months if we’re all still arguing about Cora on the roster one of 2 things happened…
We had a very good offseason, OR…
Nothing but coal for the Mets this offseason.
I really hope we’re arguing about the 25th man :)
I don’t know what Cora did except manage to hold a bat with BOTH his hands sustaining torn ligaments, for most of the season and please i don’t want a ton of responses about how he may be a gritty nice guy but he’s not worth 2 million because really in the grand scheme of “one of the highest payrolls in the NL i don’t think 2 million dollars matters