While he’s done plenty of good things for this franchise, Sandy Alderson seems to go out of his way to make one or two bizarre moves each offseason. These moves are usually for a player that in theory could be useful but they ultimately turn out to be a huge waste of time and end up getting designated for assignment (DFA!) and then released. Now in his sixth year let us go through the worst of the worst.
2011: Chin-Lung Hu
This guy might have been the worst baseball player in the history of the sport. I was confused by this guys entire existence. He did absolutely nothing well, although he may have laid down a sick sacrifice bunt once. They even had a press conference for him!! He lasted all of twenty at-bats and rocked a -59 OPS. Not even sure how that’s possible. Pretty sure bringing Hu in only happened because Sandy lost a bet to Paul Depodesta.
Honorable Mention: Brad Emaus
Rule 5 guy. Paved the way for Justin Turner, runs a hot dog stand now. He was supposed to be the next somebody but I forget who that somebody was.
2012: D.J. Carrasco
Ok, this was actually a 2011 signing but he was signed for two years and he was finished after 2011. All the fans despised him but then they were like “Hey, let’s try him again in 2012.” Not a good idea, he was pretty much either giving up home runs or hitting batters in his four outings and was never heard from again. Nice guy though.
2013: Brandon Lyon and Shaun Marcum
Since 2012 didn’t technically have one I picked two for this year. Both of these signings looked good on paper and in theory should have helped the Mets be slightly better than awful but it wasn’t to be. I still feel like Lyon could have been good but Terry Collins had no idea how to use him and ended up burying him in the bullpen to the point where he would only pitch if a game got to the 14th inning. Shockingly that happened like seven times in 2013. He didn’t make it past July.
Marcum seemed like a great deal and should have added a nice veteran presence but he instead went on to lose virtually every game he pitched. He ended up with a 1-10 record, although he only really deserved to be 3-8. That still means he was pretty bad though. He also just never seemed to fit in. He was cut and later talked trash about the SNY booth on Twitter and OMG you just don’t do that!
2014: Chris Young
Holy shit this guy’s Met career was an abortion. From the moment he was signed he was instantly the most hated player on the team. Even a Sandy supporter such as myself could not really understand this move. He had a crazy good spring training and then got hurt after playing only one inning in the field. He missed a few weeks, came back and had a decent start but then spent most of the rest of the season alternating between pop outs and strike outs. I remember him hitting a ton of foul home runs and perhaps if some of those had ended up fair he might have survived the season but alas they did not and he was gone in August. He ended up with the Yankees and was actually productive for them. Shockingly he’s still in the majors and rocking a .968 OPS for the Red Sox. Maybe the Mets can acquire him via trade.
2015: John Mayberry Jr.
This one falls under the “Seemed like a good idea at the time” category. Mayberry was brought into the be the Mets “Lefty Masher” because that’s an actual position on the roster that no one speaks about. He had like three good games, didn’t really hit lefties and somehow ended up being the cleanup hitter in a game against Clayton Kershaw. Pretty sure that was his last game as a Met. This move hurt even more because next to Michael Cuddyer, he was the only other major league player signed to a contract by the Mets. So that was a solid 1-2 punch. Mayberry has not returned to the major since then so I hope he has spent the $4 million the Mets gave him wisely.
2016: Alejandro De Aza
He hasn’t been cut yet, but realistically how many more weeks does he have left? 2? 3? A month tops? The reasoning for signing this guy was that he was going to platoon with Lagares since Cespedes wasn’t coming back. But wait….Cespedes did come back and good thing because imagine a world where this guy was getting regular at bats? Collins has attempted to play him more recently in an effort to his bat going but it’s had the negative effect as De Aza has become an automatic out. Meanwhile he’s been getting at bats over Michael Conforto so Collins is basically sabotaging his young player in the process. Good times! All the more reason to get De Aza off the team and let someone like Brandon Nimmo be the fifth outfielder or go make a trade for someone with a pulse (Chris Young!?) .
Honorable Mention: Antonio Bastardo
He’s signed for two years so he isn’t going anywhere and this was actually a good move but so far he has gotten the Brandon Lyon treatment from Terry Collins. I feel like it’s sometimes weeks between Bastardo appearances and when does pitch it has been borderline mop up duty and he ends up getting hit hard because he hasn’t pitched in so long. Someone send Collins a message that Bastardo should have a legitimate role in the bullpen before he ends up a DFA all-star.
Ok we’re down five. Bring in Bastardo!
Any names to add to this list? at me at @JoePontillo
