Buzz: Mets making Hard Push for Rod Barajas
Jon Heyman of SI.com believes the Mets offered free-agent C Rod Barajas a minor-league contract.
Heyman quotes an American League scout who says, right now, the Mets only have four back-up catchers in camp, no starter.
In early February, Ben Yoel said on Twitter, according to his source, the Mets and Barajas’s agent might have been talking about a one-year deal.
Original Post at 5:04 am:
According to Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com, “The Mets are making a hard push for free-agent C Rod Barajas,” while negotiating with him on a one-year deal, according to major-league sources.
…he’s not a very good hitter… but, he’s got decent power, probably enough to hit .270 and 20 home runs if everything goes well… more realistically, he’ll hit around 15 home runs, drive in 50 runs and bat .230 or so… he is most known for his defense… between him and Henry Blanco, the team will have a terrific, defensive catching duo, maybe the best in baseball… and significantly better than last season… Johan Santana will be very happy… and, hopefully, their knowledge and command of what they do will end up steering the rest of the pitching staff in a better direction as well…
In a poll to MetsBlog.com earlier this month, 45 percent of voters said they would prefer to see a combination of Blanco and Barajas, while 36 percent chose a Blanco-Omir Santos platoon, and just 19 percent preferring Blanco be teamed up with Josh Thole.
…the by-product of acquiring barajas, which i had been suggesting as far back as October, is that santos is likely to not be the team’s starting catcher… which, to me, is a good thing… the man can hit, sometimes, but he’s a mess behind the plate… i am sure the Mets would have gone with him, but i never believes they wanted to… also, thole will most likely end up being mentored by Chris Coste in Buffalo, which is probably the best thing for him at this point in his career… he’s close… he needs a bit more direction, in terms of managing a game and the finer points of being a receiver… i love his bat, and his control… he’ll be back, and i look forward to it, because he’s a fun player to watch and root for, and i think he will be a useful and popular player sooner than later…
By the way, last week, Rosenthal said, “The Mets are out of money,” according to major-league sources, which had been keeping them from Barajas.
In a post to his blog for ESPN.com last week, Buster Olney quoted an American League talent evaluator who said Santos is a ‘capable back-up,’ not a starter, who has average arm strength and average receiving ability, and who can hit around .250 with just under 10 home runs.
The second AL Talent evaluator told Olney:
“I think Santos is more like an up/down guy for a good club… Santos is decent emergency protection at AAA for a good club and a backup catcher for a club that isn’t going to contend. He can run into a fastball, but the more action he sees, the more that his aggressive approach at the plate is likely to be exposed at the big league level.”
In the end, the second talent evaluator wonders, “You’d think they’d be more than willing to give Josh Thole a shot to see regular at-bats, as at least he has some upside.”
