Joel Sherman of the New York Post says, ‘The Mets are absolutely in on Chone Figgins,’ according to the words of an involved party.
…like sherman says, having Jose Reyes, figgins and Carlos Beltran at the top of the order would allow for a lot of creative baseball in Citi Field…
In the poll at the end of this post, 53 percent of people who voted said Figgins is not worth $10 million per season.
Original Post, 12:57 pm:
Jon Heyman of SI.com believes the Mets and Phillies will be competing for free-agent 3B Chone Figgins.
Heyman says the Mets feel Figgins can play left field and second base.
Last month, Angels reporter Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times said Figgins will likely land a five-year, $50 million deal on the open market.
In 158 games this season for the Angels, Figgins hit .298 with a .395 OBP, 42 extra base hits and 42 stolen bases.
…he’d be a wonderful No.2 hitter behind Jose Reyes, no doubt about it… he was treated a super-sub during the first few years of his career, but, he’s turned in to quite the impressive defensive third baseman… and so, i have to think some team will gladly sign him to a long-term deal to start at third… the Mets, on the other hand, would need to first move Luis Castillo, and then convince figgins to switch back to second base, where he has not played regularly since 2005, all while Philadelphia could keep him at third…
The Orioles and White Sox, in addition to the Mets, Phillies and Angels, have all been linked in rumor this off season to Figgins.
Loading ...
{ 34 comments }
I would love it if the Mets got Figgins. He is a very good hitter, base runner, and he will score a lot of runs as well as playing really good defense. If the Mets can sign Figgins, trade for Gonzo and get rid of Castillo so they can sign Hudson I might be the happiest guy on earth.
Reyes
Figgins
Wright
Gonzo
Beltran
Hudson
Frenchy
Catcher(hopefully Molina)
SP
A lineup like that is filled with a lot of guys that can hit for avg, power, speed and produce a lot of runs. With the way that Citi Field is they have the guys like Gonzo, Wright and Beltran to provide the power and guys like Reyes, Hudson and Figgins that will provide a lot of speed and good gap hitters to produce runs.
Please Omar make this happen!!
I voted no not because I dont think hes worth 10 million dollars but because I know the Mets have a completely ridiculous budget and therefore only have so much money to spend and it all needs to be spent on power bats and power arms.
Yeah. I voted No because he is not worth 10 mil for the Mets specifically. Someone else? Maybe. If it’s between the Mets and Phillies (which it probably isn’t anyway), I gotta say the Phillies will probably get him.
If the Mets moved Castillo and could put Figgins there, fine. But please let’s get some HR power for LF.
is he worth it? yes. is he a good fit for the Mets? no.
If you haven’t done so already, LISTEN TO THE BELTRAN INTERVIEW LINKED TO THE POST BELOW.
Beltran is the man.
I voted yes but it’s a stipulation yes! I would love to see the Mets move Castillo and sign Figgy to play 2B, not OF. If they were to sign Figgy for LF I would be extremely disappointed b/c we would not have the power bat we’re looking for. I know people might speculate: Figgy LF and Gonzo 1B but there is no way Gonzo is coming to NY, that’s a pipe dream.
Figgens hits for average, has speed and plays solid D. He’d be a great bat behind Reyes.
Reyes
Figgens
Beltran
Holliday
Wright
Molina
FCore
Murphy
Not bad…of course, if they can’t, O-Dawg would look good replacing Figgens in that line up.
I dont think there is a Mets fan out there that doesnt love that lineup and of course add some SPs too. Unfortunately the Wilpons will not do that. Some people defend them for this, frankly I think its pretty pathetic. So don’t get your hopes up bc our 2010 lineup will probably look nothing like that and probably feature an aging injury prone Jermaine Dye.
The sad thing is that you’re probably right. And that line up isn’t even that far fetched. We could easily nabb Holliday, Figgens, Molina and Wolf this year.
But, b/c the Wilpons won’t pony up the $, we won’t. Holliday to a 6 yr contract. Molina two yrs. Wolf/Figs get 3 yrs.
Then put together a package deal for Halladay. Include Pelf and FMart if you have to but get it done.
What about signing Figgins to play 3B and moving Wright to first base where his throwing troubles would be negated.
This will obviously never happen but many considered Wright to be the worst defensive 3B this year.
Yeah and those people are not very smart.
Wright is above average defensively. Sure he makes some errant throws, but I think the stats have been exaggerated due to a poor receiver at 1B for his entire Met career.
Yeah, David Wright’s UZR was -10. He actually posted positive figures for the two years prior. David Wright had a bad year. Figgins to third is solid out of the box thinking, but do you really need to clutter Wright’s game with a move to 1B. Its not like you are moving him for Ryan Zimmerman. Wright could also bounce back next year rather easily.
Well I could argue that once he is comfortable at 1B, the switch will actually allow him to focus more on hitting, since 1B is a much less demanding position mentally and physically.
I’m not saying I would do the move, but it’s just an idea. Figgins’ D is good at 3B, but I’d be more worried about the fact that he’s 32. If he was 27 I would definitely consider it.
I would love to have Figgins but you gotta move Castillo, and sign Holliday or Bay, we need POP
If a Figgins deal helps the Mets spread the money around..then it would work. They still would need a power bat and a No. 2 starter.
Figgans is worth $10M as a 3B, but not a LF.
He’s not really a good fit, and I don’t think he replaces the power we need in LF to replace Delgado.
However, he _is_ worth it, when you factor in the double value of him on the Mets and him not on the Phillies, because that’s a bit upgrade over Feliz (although if the Phillies don’t sign a ton of pitchers, they’re sunk anyway)
Ceetar I agree with you and disagree with you.
I disagree when you say he isn’t a good fit. I think he would be a PERFECT fit for us if we brought him in to play 2nd base…He is a better option than O’Dawg and he would be a great number 2 hitter behind Jose Reyes as he takes a lot of pitches and has a high on base percentage. Please note we will still need to sign a big bat like Holliday and a pitcher obviously.
I agree with you on the fact that if the Phillies get him we would be in trouble. If the Phillies got him, to be honest with you, I dont think they would need to add another pitcher to still be considered the class of the National League.
not sure we need to invest 10M into a 2B … that’s the only problem i have with it ….
we don’t need him in the OF ….
Does anyone realize that Figgins is not that far removed from being Luis Castillo?
I like Figgins as a leadoff guy, but going on 32, he’s pretty much a one-notch upgrade over Luis Castillo. Neither guy can slug .400, neither guy can hit more than 1-5 homeruns per season, neither guy can really hit 30 doubles (Figgins hit 30 last year, but that was a first, usually he was in the 20 range). With the exception of 2008, Figgins has been a .700 OPS guy, like Castillo, based mostly on OBP and no slugging.
I don’t see Figgins doing all that much for us.
Orlando Hudson, at least, would be a step in the right direction simply because he’ll give you an OPS closer to .800 because he can slug .410-.450, hit 10 homeruns and hit 30 doubles. Even then Hudson is only a small upgrade over Castillo. Figgins is a lateral move.
Good points but you fail to consider Figgins speed on the base paths which is much of an upgrade over Castillo. Figgins would be a 30 to 40 double guy at Citi Field…Something Castillo will never be.
Also, Castillo has bad knees. Figgins I dont believe has any injury problems.
The only similarities that the two have are age. Other than that Figgins is a much better overall ball player. Not to mention Figgins could play the outfield should we need to give a guy like Beltran a rest. OR Figgins could play left field when we have a DH and than Holliday would move to DH.
I fail to see how Citi Field would increase Figgins number of doubles (unless you mean in that it will reduce his number of HR).
If anything, I see him losing a few HR and doubles that end up being triples, which is essentially a wash.
Yes, he has better speed that Castillo, but we already know that the worth of a stolen base isn’t all that great, and it’s not as if Castillo is a horrible base-runner.
Castillo’s also probably a similar defensive 2B since he’s a gold glover at the position and Chone historically has struggled when playing SS and 2B.
It’s a lateral move. Maybe a marginal improvement, but certainly not worth what it would cost for Chone + what we would have to eat of Castillo’s contract. If Chone was 9 million and we had to eat 3 mill per of Castillo’s contract to make room for Chone, is Chone really worth 12MM per year because he hits 10 more doubles and steals 10 more bases? Of course not.
Figgins extra base hit production would increase signficantly considering the outfield gaps at Citifield. He would hit both more doubles and triples – Something Luis Castillo doesn’t do nearly enough of! Not to mention Castillo is soooo shot he cant even steal bases anymore and isn’t a good number 2 hitter either.
Figgins would be a perfect addition to this lineup and would play perfectly to the Citifield dimensions. NOT even close to a lateral move. Have you even looked at their numbers?????
And who said we would have to eat any of Castillo’s contract? If the deal for Overbay went down we wouldnt have had to eat any of Castillo’s contract. Its not automatic that we would have to eat some of his contract.
And 10 million dollars a year for Figgins to keep him out of Philli is worth it to me. Good luck beating them next season if they get him. Their lineup would be soooo solid.
How long are Mets fans going to fall for Wilpon’s teasing? Come on, people, you know what will happen. The Mets will “express interest” in the top guys out there like Halladay, Figgins, Lackey, Gonzalez, et al, to get our blood going, but but then will never step up to the plate and make any real offers to their agents or to the Padres to get these guys over here.
Lets be real. The Mets will maybe add one or two second-tier players and then try to sell us on players coming back from injuries, Perez regaining his ‘07 form, et al. You all know the drill.
“You know the drill” implies that this is a recurring theme…which is a flat out fabrication.
Be objective and analyze the facts.
Mets fans will always behave this way, and ignore the truth because so many of them want to be the Yankees and spend $200 million which isn’t going to happen, THATS the drill.
Omar is just exploring all of his options. What happens if Holliday goes to the Cards? Then you could afford Dye, Figgins, along with pitching.
figgins for LF? pagan will put up better numbers in a full season..no thanks!
I think the Cubs are going to get Figgins
I ‘d rather Brandon Phillips. I want more power all around.
Pouring money into Figgins takes away the budget elsewhere. Plus, as previously mentioned, he is not much better than Castillo, just another weak slap hitter and we already have Reyes for speed. On another note, to those who keep saying (whether it is regarding Holliday, Figgins, or others) that Citi Field will produce more doubles for a player, I ask-why???? As another poster mentioned, it ALEEGEDLY (and only in the minds of small ball fans who are allergic to power) takes away HRs… But unless I am crazy, does the field magically get wider between the foul lines in big ballparks? Do they increase the distance between 1b and 2b? Or, is “more doubles” really a translation for fewer HRs and more fly outs? Substitute “doubles hitter” for “warning track power” and I think the point is made. Doubles ballparks are a myth, geometry does not change with location.
Agreed (as mentioned above). But I do think Citi Field may increase the chances of a triple over a double, while also reducing the homerun to either a double, triple or flyout.
In the end though, the park is the same for both the Mets and their opponents, so it doesn’t really matter all that much.
Good hitters – PERIOD – on the Mets will have far more impact than hitters designed to excel in Citi Field, because very few guys would really benefit more from Citi Field than anywhere else as such that it would make a substantive difference. Meanwhile, good hitters will be good hitters, and especially on the road in neutral parks. Logic tells you that if a guy is suited to hit in Citi Field, then he’s going to diminish outside of it.
Chone’s line from last year:
.291, 30 2B, 7 3B, 5 HR, 42 SB
Translated for Citi Field:
.290, 25 2B, 10 3B, 3 HR, 42 SB
Any real difference? :)
I will absolutely give you the more triples (especially to the 415 rcf spot) side of things. But in the end, we all need to realize that it is not of consequence. We need to go for good hitters period, namely power hitters, and stop trying to mold certain players into our Citi Field player ideal, because too much has been made of the stadium. Conversely, we should not be afraid to go for sluggers based upon “their numbers will decline in Citi Field.” Roger Cedeno’s speed certainly did not help him at Shea. The big plue building of symetry did not seem to affect Ventura or Piazza’s power numbers, nor did it kill the numbers of Bobby Bonilla or Eddie Murray in 92. Obviously, their are Mo Vaughn and Lance Johnson stories too, but if you like speed and defense (even though modern history suggests against it) over power, just say it rather than cloaking it with it suits Citi Field better, because I doubt it does.
No thankyou. I’ll take Phillips any time
like sherman says, having Jose Reyes, figgins and Carlos Beltran at the top of the order would allow for a lot of creative baseball in Citi Field…
…and with a mind like jerry manuals’ (talk about creative NOT)…
Comments on this entry are closed.