Neil Walker to the MFY's

[Centerfield]

Pending physical.

That's going to be one crazy lineup.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

This is a secret but Walker, meh.

[bmfc1]

$5M for one year. For that money, I'd rather have him at 2B than Cabrera.

[Centerfield]

.800+ OPS in 3 of the last 4 seasons. For a second baseman. Bit by injury the past few seasons, but only 32 years old. Can play 2B, 3B and 1B. He'll make $5 million. Backup money.

He's better than Cabrera, Reyes, Frazier and any option we currently have for 1B.

Logan Morrison, Lucas Duda, Lance Lynn, Neil Walker, Mike Moustakas. So many guys signed for bargain deals this winter.

[nymr83]

The Mets really should have been in on this one too. Fucking Yankees not only plugged a hole but did it dirt cheap

[Centerfield]

The Mets are spending $10.5 million on Reyes and Cabrera. If you assume Cabrera's buyout was guaranteed, that' still $8.5 million.

For that same $8.5 million, the Mets could have had Walker and Lucas Duda. Two guys who are good bets to have an .800+ OPS and hit 50HR's between the two of them.

[Ceetar]

Nymr83 wrote: The Mets really should have been in on this one too. Fucking Yankees not only plugged a hole but did it dirt cheap

well they couldn't afford it otherwise.

[Lefty Specialist]

Centerfield wrote: Pending physical. That's going to be one crazy lineup.

Wow.

[Guest 41Forever]

Centerfield wrote: The Mets are spending $10.5 million on Reyes and Cabrera. If you assume Cabrera's buyout was guaranteed, that' still $8.5 million. For that same $8.5 million, the Mets could have had Walker and Lucas Duda. Two guys who are good bets to have an .800+ OPS and hit 50HR's between the two of them.

Did we need Duda? Seems like we have an abundance of guys to play first, even if Gonzalez is a bust. I also thought I read that Walker was upset about the way he departed last year and was unwilling to return. (I don't remember the source for that, and it could be nonsense.)

[Ceetar]

Also could you imagine if the Mets hadn't filled a hole until March 12th? Walker wasn't available 3 weeks ago at that price.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Sandy frequently says that one of the challenges is to know when to wait and when to act. Perhaps, in retrospect, he might have been better off waiting a bit longer, but during the period that he was waiting fans were impatient that he hadn't done anything.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Frazier turned out to be better than Walker this year.

[nymr83]

Ceetar wrote: Also could you imagine if the Mets hadn't filled a hole until March 12th? Walker wasn't available 3 weeks ago at that price.

The hostile fans would have been equally hostile and the reasonable fans would still have been saying "show me the roster on opening day" - I SERIOUSLY doubt that Alderson feels any pressure to time transactions in such a way so as to appease fans unhappy with spending.

[Frayed Knot]

One of the Yanx' infielders rolled his wrist during the NYM/MFY game at Tampa the other day so this might partially be in reaction to that.
This kind of reminds me of when Todd Zeile signed a late-career contract w/the Yanx. That one ended up with him being released in August after just 66 games played and after he complained about being
promised him a lot more playing time at signing time than they wound up giving him. This one smells like it might turn out similarly.

[Ceetar]

Nymr83 wrote: Ceetar wrote: Also could you imagine if the Mets hadn't filled a hole until March 12th? Walker wasn't available 3 weeks ago at that price. The hostile fans would have been equally hostile and the reasonable fans would still have been saying "show me the roster on opening day" - I SERIOUSLY doubt that Alderson feels any pressure to time transactions in such a way so as to appease fans unhappy with spending.

those were unrelated thoughts anyway.

no one knew if/when Walker would be available at this price at this time. And it's highly likely that he's only available at this price BECAUSE the Mets took Frazier. If the Mets were still looking for an infielder, Walker and/or Frazier would have more bargaining power. Instead Alderson waited until a guy he thought was worthwhile was available at a price he felt appropriate. Cashman's price/value mark took a few more weeks to turn up, and it might never have.

[seawolf17]

Nymr83 wrote: Ceetar wrote: Also could you imagine if the Mets hadn't filled a hole until March 12th? Walker wasn't available 3 weeks ago at that price. The hostile fans would have been equally hostile and the reasonable fans would still have been saying "show me the roster on opening day" - I SERIOUSLY doubt that Alderson feels any pressure to time transactions in such a way so as to appease fans unhappy with spending.

Well, I do wonder if selling tickets is a part of it. If you go into Spring Training with holes and your sales team is trying to pitch season ticket packages, they're going to have a hard time.

[MFS62]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I wouldn't be at all surprised if Frazier turned out to be better than Walker this year.

Neither would I.
But I think Walker will be better than Cabrera.
And for less money.
Of course, as someone said, he wouldn't have signed for that money at the time we signed Cabrera.
But if Walker has a decent year, the YLDBs will be braying like the jackasses they are.

Later

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm ahead of the curve of Neil Walker's uselessness.

[Edgy MD]

Neil in the Archives:

• Talking about Neil Walker with you guys in here
  
  
  
• Q.O. for Walker
  
  
  
• Memories of Neil Walker

[Centerfield]

Frayed Knot wrote: One of the Yanx' infielders rolled his wrist during the NYM/MFY game at Tampa the other day so this might partially be in reaction to that. This kind of reminds me of when Todd Zeile signed a late-career contract w/the Yanx. That one ended up with him being released in August after just 66 games played and after he complained about being promised him a lot more playing time at signing time than they wound up giving him. This one smells like it might turn out similarly.

You may wind up being right about that. Who knows. But Zeile was 38 years old when he signed with the Yankees. Walker is 32 years old. If you're making the comparison, that would be the equivalent of Zeile's 1998 season. (.271, 19 HR's, 94 RBI, .787 OPS). Two years before he signed with the Mets.

[Zvon]

The Yankees!?!?!?



GAHx2!

bmfc1 wrote: $5M for one year. For that money, I'd rather have him at 2B than Cabrera.

That^

[smg58]

Walker (.823 and .801 OPS the last two seasons) and Cabrera (.810 and .785) aren't radically different with the bat. Cabrera's defensive value at second is a bit of an unknown commodity -- he might improve with a full-time commitment there -- so Walker (no gold glover) is not guaranteed to be better with the glove. Paying $6.5M more to pick up Cabrera's option (factoring in the $2M the Mets were already committed to spend) seemed perfectly reasonable in November. If we're stuck paying slightly more for a slightly less productive player, it's disappointing but hardly backbreaking.

[Frayed Knot]

Centerfield wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: One of the Yanx' infielders rolled his wrist during the NYM/MFY game at Tampa the other day so this might partially be in reaction to that. This kind of reminds me of when Todd Zeile signed a late-career contract w/the Yanx. That one ended up with him being released in August after just 66 games played and after he complained about being promised him a lot more playing time at signing time than they wound up giving him. This one smells like it might turn out similarly. You may wind up being right about that. Who knows. But Zeile was 38 years old when he signed with the Yankees. Walker is 32 years old. If you're making the comparison, that would be the equivalent of Zeile's 1998 season. (.271, 19 HR's, 94 RBI, .787 OPS). Two years before he signed with the Mets.

It's not so much that I think Walker's going to fail, but I always get the impression that there's an aspect to the MFY's sales pitch on these things that "you'll be playing for the pinstripes" so that if/when the promised playing time doesn't come through because they've started making googly-eyes at someone else, the team thinks Walker should still be happy since shirley he can see that playing twice a week for them, even if promised five/week when he signed the deal, is superior to playing full-time elsewhere.

[Edgy MD]

I'm not going to be disappointed we missed out on Walker. Yeah, he'll probably knock some out in that Little League stadium, but nobody (except maybe the Brewers) has a better idea of his fitness than the Mets. They made their choices with their eyes open and all options on the table. Here's hoping the Yankees regret letting Todd Frazier walk a lot more than the Mets regret letting Neil Walker go.

[Centerfield]

smg58 wrote: Walker (.823 and .801 OPS the last two seasons) and Cabrera (.810 and .785) aren't radically different with the bat. Cabrera's defensive value at second is a bit of an unknown commodity -- he might improve with a full-time commitment there -- so Walker (no gold glover) is not guaranteed to be better with the glove. Paying $6.5M more to pick up Cabrera's option (factoring in the $2M the Mets were already committed to spend) seemed perfectly reasonable in November. If we're stuck paying slightly more for a slightly less productive player, it's disappointing but hardly backbreaking.

I think Walker is better. 26 points higher in career OPS. Walker has been .800+ in 3 of the last four seasons. Cabrera has been over .800 once in his career (2016).

Lucas Duda has also put up low .800's OPS in 3 of the last 4 seasons. To get to Lucas Duda level production, Gonzalez has to go back to, not 2016, but 2015.

Look I get that Sandy had no way of knowing prices would drop as much as they have, but none of the other GM's knew this either. And yet they were able to take advantage of these bargains. If Sandy is considered one of the smarter ones, he should be one of the ones taking advantage of this drop in price.

If Sandy doesn't give us an advantage, then we are really screwed.

That means we will have an average GM, signing players to average contracts, with a league average budget.

No wonder we are projected to finish 81-81.